Quebec English election debate nixed after two leaders, including Legault, decline to attend

The only English-language debate planned for Quebec's fall election has been called off after two party leaders, including Premier François Legault, said they wouldn't take part.

All the party leaders were invited this week to participate in a single English-language debate on Sept. 20, hosted by a media consortium made up of several English-language outlets in the Montreal area, including CTV News.

The ruling CAQ party and the Parti Québécois both said almost immediately that their leaders wouldn't attend, with the first saying it would add too much to Premier François Legault's campaign workload and the PQ refusing on principle.

The coalition said that in the end, no English-language debate will take place in 2022.

"The goal was to allow all Quebecers to hear the party leaders discuss, debate and question their vision and priorities for Quebec and help all voters make an informed choice," the coalition said in a statement.

"Without the participation of all the main party leaders, the English-language media consortium representatives agree it would not be a fair and informative exercise. As a result there will be no English-language party leaders debate in this election campaign."

Legault's spokesperson, Ewan Sauves, said in a statement Friday that the English debate isn't the only one the premier turned down.

"We declined the invitations for two debates, one of which was in English," he said.

"The premier will already take part in the debates organized by the TVA and Radio-Canada networks. It must be understood that each debate requires significant and non-negligible preparation time."

While Legault's spokesman cited the effort involved, the leader of the Parti Quebecois had a different reason that he communicated bluntly on Twitter.

"The Parti Québécois will not participate in the leaders' debate in English. The official and common language in Quebec is French," wrote PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.

"We will of course be available to answer questions from English-speaking journalists."

Legault's CAQ party is predicted to sweep the fall provincial election, according to the latest polls.

The premier's spokesperson didn't respond to a question about whether Legault or his party are concerned about the message the debate refusal could convey to Quebec's English speakers.

Liberal leader Dominique Anglade took aim at Legault in a statement Friday. She and Quebec Conservative party leader Eric Duhaime had already confirmed their attendance at the debate, while Quebec Solidaire didn't provide an answer on Friday.

"Today, François Legault is turning his back on English-speaking Quebecers," Anglade said.

"We, Liberals, will always seek to form a government that represents all Quebecers regardless of the language you speak or where you come from."

Duhaime wrote on Twitter, "After dividing Quebecers into essentials and non-essentials, vaccinated and unvaccinated, believers and secularists, François Legault is now trying to divide us into Anglophones and Francophones."

The two leaders' refusals come in the midst of final debates over Bill 96, the massive new provincial language law that will have far-reaching impacts into every aspect of life in Quebec, including schools, the justice system and health care.

The bill, which further bans the use of English in certain settings and permanently caps the size of English-language colleges, is very likely to pass into law in early June under the CAQ's majority.

ENGLISH DEBATES HAVE BEEN STANDARD PRACTICE

Former MNA David Heurtel, also a Liberal, said in an interview that he's "surprised" by the two leaders' decision to decline, given very recent Quebec history.

"If you go all the way back to 2018, François Legault participated in the English debate," along with then-PQ leader Jean-Francois Lisée, Heurtel said.

In Montreal's municipal election last fall, as well, there was an English debate and "it was not shocking, it was not scandalous -- it was normal," he said.

"If you go back last year, during the federal campaign, [Bloc Québécois leader] Yves-Francois Blanchet participated in the infamous English debate -- which actually, because of The Question, helped the Bloc Québêcois in Quebec."

Heurtel was referring to a moderator's question in that debate about Bill 21, Quebec's secularism law, in which she suggested Quebec has "problems with racism." Blanchet's response won him a big bump in support in Quebec.

But more than that, it's troubling to Heurtel, he said, that Legault is helping to change the norm now that he's in power.

"François Legault, when he was in the opposition, felt absolutely normal that he would participate in an English debate in 2018," said Heurtel, who himself stepped down from politics in 2018.

"Now that he's premier of Quebec, sitting premier of Quebec... if you add up the anglophone community and the allophone community, you're just over 20 per cent of Quebec's entire population," he said. "One-fifth of Quebecers, do not deserve a debate that includes the premier?"

Legault could have used the debate as a chance to explain his position on his government's flashpoint issues, including Bill 21 and Bill 96, Heurtel said.

"It is an opportunity for dialogue. When you're premier of Quebec, you're not the premier of only the people that agree with you," he said.

The head of one of Quebec's biggest groups representing English speakers, the QCGN, told CTV News she feels the refusal is "bordering on contept of our community."

It comes after many refusals to meet with English-speaking leaders to discuss their concerns around some of the government's moves, said QCGN director Sylvia Martin-Laforge.

The majority of that 20 per cent of the population that speaks English also speaks French at least competently, but everyone "should have an opportunity to hear a debate well, to participate in a debate," said Martin-Laforge.

"We speak French, but it's not the same... as being recognized as an important demographic constituency in a debate."

--With files from CTV's Max Harrold