For Québec solidaire, the Bouazzi “affair” is a cluster bomb. The provocative remarks of MP Haroun Bouazzi on racism in the National Assembly – I will come back to this later – have not finished hurting him.
First, his words overshadowed everything. The national council. The appointment of co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal alongside Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. The “pragmatic” turn of QS.
Secondly, they expose in broad daylight the lack of authority of the two co-spokespersons since at QS, it is impossible to expel a deputy without the subsequent approval of the members at a congress or the national council.
Third, for a party looking for fuel in the face of a PQ nestled at the top of the polls, the last thing it needs is an MP capable of embarrassing it so harshly on such a delicate subject.
Even Haroun Bouazzi’s credibility is tainted. This weakens the caucus and undermines the leadership of the co-spokespeople and makes QS more vulnerable to other parties.
A great waste all round. Contrary to what Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois says, no, the page is not turned. Because words have meaning, let’s now return to Haroun Bouazzi’s words.
This fall, he spoke before the Club Avenir Foundation, an organization dedicated to “the integration of North African communities into the host society.”
Talk about racism
Mr. Bouazzi begins his speech unequivocally: “I am going to talk to you about racism”, which he defines as a construction of society, creating “a category to which we assign a culture which, by definition, is dangerous, which is inferior “.
Racism being based “on the belief that there is a hierarchy between human groups, formerly called races” (Larousse), difficult to contradict him.
He immediately continues with the famous passage: “We see, unfortunately, and God knows that I see this in the National Assembly every day, the construction of this Other. Of this Other who is North African, who is Muslim, who is black, who is indigenous, and of his culture which, by definition, would be dangerous or inferior.
If we follow his own definition, Mr. Bouazzi, contrary to what he has since sworn, has indeed accused the members of the National Assembly, of which he is a member, of racism.
It’s clear, crisp and precise. This is why, at the end of the week, the members of QS erred seriously.
Apologize or leave the caucus
Their resolution states that “Québec solidaire does not support and has never supported that the National Assembly and its members are racist.” However, their MP said quite the opposite in front of the Club Avenir Foundation.
So much so that the latter dissociated herself from her comments in a press release. This says everything about the astounding denial into which Mr. Bouazzi is sinking. This shows that this resolution is not a “way of passage”, but a political dead end.
However, he could have limited himself to denouncing the CAQ government which, for partisan purposes, often blames immigration for all the crises over which it itself has lost control.
Most political analysts, including this one, have noted this for a long time. Mr. Bouazzi, however, chose much more minefields.
That of the “r” word, with which he lubricated the entire National Assembly while denying having done so from the height of his incessant moralizing chatter.
For this reason, he must apologize or leave the caucus. Otherwise, instead of regaining its lost momentum, QS condemns itself to dragging this very heavy ball and chain.
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