"Oh, not again!" exclaimed Christos Sirros, Liberal electoral-reform and intercommunity-relations critic, who was astonished to hear of Landry's latest comments. As a guest of a CKAC radio talk show yesterday morning, Landry was explaining to host Paul Arcand why he believes a 50-per-cent-plus-one vote should be enough to win separation in another referendum. Landry also recalled that 90 per cent of members from cultural communities voted No in the referendum. "Taking that into account, everyone knows that if we put the bar too high, it's like giving a veto right to our compatriots, brothers and sisters from cultural communities, on our national project," the deputy premier said. "We can't do that." Landry went on to say, "not in Jacques Parizeau's tone, but in the most fraternal way possible, that our compatriots from other cultures - Quebecers like you and me - have not yet been sufficiently convinced of the soundness of our cause." Landry was referring to former premier Parizeau's referendum-night concession speech in which he blamed "money and the ethnic votes" for the narrow Yes-side loss. An irate Sirros asked: "Why is he singling out the cultural communities? Is he fixated on this? Will this man never learn?" Although he also supports the concept that 50 per cent plus one constitutes a majority, Sirros said Landry's comments were outrageous. He accused Landry of showing xenophobic tendencies by singling out cultural communities. "To use the argument that this would give the cultural communities a veto indicates to me that Bernard Landry and the Parti Quebecois see the cultural communities and everyone who doesn't share their ideology as enemies, as people who don't deserve the same consideration that everyone else has." Liberal justice critic Tom Mulcair said Landry's comments violate Quebec's charter of rights, which states that all Quebecers have the right to vote and that all have an equal right to exercise their rights. "What Bernard Landry is unfortunately showing is the same tendency he showed during his very sad and infamous incident at Montreal's Inter-Continental Hotel on the night of the referendum, is that he still thinks that there is a race, a colour, a creed attached to a vote," he said. In 1995, hotel clerk Anita Martinez said that only a few hours after Parizeau's inflammatory address, Landry "harangued" her and made remarks to her blaming ethnics for the defeat. Landry also rebuked another hotel employee that night for using the English words "check in" as she offered to register him. "Bernard Landry does not understand that in a democratic society, based on the rule of law and freedom and liberty, everyone is the same and their votes all count the same," Mulcair said. Some leaders of cultural communities expressed their shock and disapproval with Landry yesterday. "I'm quite disappointed that he would resurrect the old and tired distinction of Quebecers, that there are two classes of voters in Quebec," said Dorothy Zalcman Howard, provincial chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress. "His remarks certainly show an egregious disrespect for the democratic process, and they clearly represent a form of shameless demagoguery," she added. Allan Adel, Quebec head of the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada, said: "It's not the first time it's said and it won't be the last." He wondered aloud why the PQ would single out cultural communities. "It's insulting to the 40 per cent of francophones who voted against (sovereignty)," Adel said. John Asfour, Quebec president of the Canadian Arab Federation, said of Landry: "He keeps harping on it and driving a wedge between the French and cultural communities. "He doesn't make any bones about his dislike of immigrants and ethnics." Asked if he believes a vote about the 50-per-cent mark would give a veto to Quebec minorities, Premier Lucien Bouchard said: "I'm not trying to say things like that. I just said what I said." Bouchard, on a pre-election swing through Laval, said he has said what he had to say about the 50-per-cent-plus-one debate, repeating that for him the 50-per-cent-plus-one vote is a sufficient majority. Bouchard said he understands why Quebecers say in polls that they'd like a much higher majority, and added that there is a difference between a result that is necessary, one that is desirable, and one that is more comfortable. "It tells a lot about the scientific meaning of those polls," Bouchard told reporters. "It's one thing to think that it would be a good thing to have 50 per cent plus one. It would probably be easier, politically, to act. "But the threshold to act, the threshold on which you have to trigger the whole process, the legal threshold, the democratic, the internationally accepted threshold, is 50 per cent plus one. "I do wish the same thing. I do wish it would be possible to have a couple of points above 50 per cent plus one, of course. During the last campaign, during the last weekend of the referendum, we had polls showing a majority of 52, 53 per cent. I was very happy, because it was more comfortable. "But the reality in international law, in natural law, in democracy, in precedents, the threshold is exactly 50 plus one per cent." Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe said he sees nothing wrong with Landry's statement if it was a simple observation, but said he disagreed if Landry actually blamed members of cultural communities for their "monolithic" way of voting en masse against the PQ and sovereignty. "I consider that all citizens of Quebec, men and women, regardless of their origin, are Quebecers," Duceppe said. Last night, Bill Johnson, president of the anglophone-rights lobby group Alliance Quebec, said he was not surprised by Landry's comments. "His singling out of the votes of non-francophones, to my mind, shows the same mentality that Jacques Parizeau showed in singling out the ethnic vote," Johnson said. "I'm not surprised to see this from Landry and the PQ. It shows that secession is an ethnocentric project that has no place for non-francophones. ''There is no reason to separate from Canada except to create an ethnic state.'' |
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