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movement must show the world it will not tolerate
Michaud's opinions. He has the backing of his
caucus, but in some cases, it sounds almost
reluctant.
Now, an emerging question: Can a split become
an irrevocable rupture costing Bouchard the
leadership?
He asked his party to think about it over the
holidays. But there's no apparent solution.
In February, the party must choose its byelection
candidate and right now, both sides seem locked
into their positions facing a deadline they cannot
avoid.
POSTED AT 4:04 AM EST Wednesday, December 20
Bouchard courts confrontation
By RHЙAL SЙGUIN
Globe and Mail Update
Quebec - Premier Lucien Bouchard is prepared to
put his leadership on the line if the Parti Quйbйcois fails to support him on several
contentious issues, including his intention to ban a prominent PQ member from running in
a by-election next spring.
"He is prepared to take on the party," said a senior party member. "We get the sense that if
the party executive goes against him on the Yves Michaud affair, on language or on his
strategy for achieving sovereignty, the party will shatter. The mood is such that we may be
looking at a confrontation between the leader and the party. He warned us it could be
fatal."
The source said this means that Mr. Bouchard could resign.
Shareholder-rights activist and party member Yves Michaud, who had hoped to stand for
the PQ in a by-election next spring, caused a furor earlier this month with his comments
about Jews and ethnic voters.
The party executive will meet in the new year to hear Mr. Michaud defend himself and
decide whether to bar his candidacy. It will be the first in a number of showdowns within
the party.
In February, it must take a position on toughening the province's language laws and define
a strategy to achieve sovereignty. Mr. Bouchard has made it known that he will not tolerate
any radical position on language, and has warned members to be patient about another
referendum.
He has also said he favours blocking Mr. Michaud's candidacy.
The Premier will have to deal with the mounting frustrations or face a confrontation.
The split within sovereigntist ranks blew up in public this week as prominent separatist
leaders, including former premier Jacques Parizeau and Bloc Quйbйcois Leader Gilles
Duceppe, said Mr. Bouchard's PQ caucus had no right to support a motion in the National
Assembly reprimanding Mr. Michaud.
"The Parti Quйbйcois is divided in the same way Quebec society is divided," party
vice-president Marie Malavoy said Tuesday. "The party didn't close the door on his
candidacy ... but we have to discuss it as soon as possible."
Mr. Michaud outraged the Jewish community for stating that Jews were not the only ones
in the history of humanity to suffer. He also said there is an anti-sovereignty ethnic vote,
pointing to 12 polls in the Montreal suburb of Cфte-Saint-Luc, which has a high
concentration of Jewish residents, where everyone voted against sovereignty in the 1995
referendum. He also called the B'nai Brith, an influential Jewish-rights organization,
extremist and anti-sovereigntist.
Mr. Duceppe said Tuesday that he disagreed with Mr. Michaud's comments, but that the
National Assembly had no business condemning him for them. "It could be very
hazardous, if not dangerous, for the National Assembly to hand out blame like that," he
said. "It is one thing to ask a member of the National Assembly to apologize or withdraw
what he said, like we do in Ottawa. But when it's not a member of that assembly, I think
there are tribunals that can judge whether it was correct or not."
In a full-page letter in Le Devoir Tuesday, 30 prominent sovereigntists, including Mr.
Parizeau, accused the National Assembly of attempting to gag Mr. Michaud and denying
him his right to freedom of speech.
"We the undersigned, consider there is a real misuse of the role of the National Assembly,
a serious attack on the rights and freedoms of citizens and a violation of the Charter," they
wrote in French. It is "a flagrant act of injustice and a stunning show of arbitrary authority of
which every citizen can from now on fear of becoming the victim."
In interviews Monday, Mr. Parizeau compared Mr. Bouchard's defence of the National
Assembly's position to the type of authoritarian actions taken in the era of premier Maurice
Duplessis. "When I was young the Duplessis regime was in place. And a system that
demands that you either believe or die with pressures to adopt this or that, you can be sure
that I can see a throwback to that era. And that is why I protest," he said. "What Mr. Michaud
said was clumsy, especially from someone who wants to be a candidate. But there is
nothing in what he said to make a fuss about."
At least two PQ caucus members, Diane Barbeau and Jean-Claude St-Andrй, have