Quebec politician offers mea culpa for comments on racism in provincial legislature

Québec solidaire finance critic Haroun Bouazzi speaks after the tabling of the provincial budget, at the legislature in Quebec City, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. A Quebec MNA says he doesn’t believe members of the provincial legislature are racist, even as his party prepares to face criticism from all sides for controversial comments he made earlier this month. (Jacques Boissinot /The Canadian Press)

A Quebec legislature member tried to make amends on Tuesday for his controversial comments earlier this month about racism at the national assembly, but it wasn't enough to satisfy political opponents who demanded a full apology in the provincial legislature.

After an emergency caucus meeting Tuesday morning, Haroun Bouazzi published a statement on social media saying he will continue to represent the left-leaning Québec solidaire.

"In this sense, I join them in saying that I do not consider that the national assembly and its members are racist and that this is not the party's position," he wrote on the social media platform X. Bouazzi also apologized to two cabinet ministers he singled out in an interview last week.

The other three parties in Quebec's national assembly, including the governing Coalition Avenir Québec, formed a united front on Tuesday afternoon by tabling motions at the legislature denouncing remarks Bouazzi made during a speech to the Fondation Club Avenir, a community group that works with immigrants.

“God knows I see this in the national assembly every day, the construction of this other, this other who is North African, who is Muslim, who is Black, who is Indigenous, and whose culture, by definition, would be dangerous or inferior,” Bouazzi told the audience in early November.

He was called to order by the party's two co-spokespeople, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and Ruba Ghazal, who claimed that his statements were “clumsy, exaggerated and polarizing." But Bouazzi didn't back down, and during a radio interview on Radio-Canada Friday, he accused ministers Christian Dubé and Lionel Carmant of blaming immigrants for putting strain on health care and social services.

In his statement on Tuesday, Bouazzi apologized to Dubé and Carmant and said his comments were "certainly clumsy."

Speaking to reporters in Quebec City, Premier François Legault said Bouazzi was "beating around the bush." He said there are 600,000 non-permanent residents currently in Quebec, and the province has exceeded its capacity to take in newcomers.

"We have the right to say that currently there are too many immigrants, without (Bouazzi) calling us racist," Legault said.

The Coalition Avenir Québec tabled a motion Tuesday afternoon demanding that Bouazzi withdraw his remarks and apologize to all members of the legislature “who were targeted by his accusations of racism."

Québec solidaire refused to give consent to debate that motion, but the entire legislature, including Bouazzi, voted in favour of two other motions from the opposition Liberals and Parti Québécois affirming that members of the national assembly are not racist. The legislature also passed a Québec solidaire motion condemning "the threats and hateful messages" sent to Bouazzi following his remarks.

Still, some legislators said Bouazzi's social media statement was not enough. Liberal member Jennifer Maccarone said he should "have the moral strength to offer his sincere and full apologies to all parliamentarians hurt by his comments."

Ahead of the meeting Tuesday morning, Québec solidaire member Christine Labrie was asked if Bouazzi should stay in caucus. “Haroun will make his own decisions,” she said. "What I can tell you is that his comments make me extremely uncomfortable. I do not share them."

“We do not subscribe to the notion that the members of the national assembly are racist at Québec solidaire,” she added. No caucus members would answer questions from reporters following the emergency meeting.

Party members gathered at a convention on Sunday appeared to be divided on the issue. Eleven Québec solidaire constituency associations publicly supported Bouazzi and called on the party to adopt a resolution denouncing what they described as a smear campaign against him.

The party eventually adopted an emergency resolution stating that Québec solidaire does not believe the national assembly and its members are racist, but also condemning the hate directed at Bouazzi following his comments.

After the vote, Nadeau-Dubois said he considered the matter to be closed. Following Bouazzi's statement on Tuesday, he said that, "fundamentally, the unity of the caucus is strong."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.