{"id":266748,"date":"2026-06-05T09:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paju.org\/?p=266748"},"modified":"2026-06-05T09:34:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:34:27","slug":"the-bloc-quebecois-comfortable-companions-of-israeli-apartheid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paju.org\/fr\/the-bloc-quebecois-comfortable-companions-of-israeli-apartheid\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois: Comfortable Companions of Israeli Apartheid?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In May of 2017, the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, led at that moment by Martine Ouellet<\/a> (a former member of the National Assembly of Quebec, 2010-2018) announced its decision<\/a> to introduce a motion in Parliament in support of the recognition of a Palestinian state. The  Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois announcement was supported by both Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) and Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU). The motion was being put forward on behalf of the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois by Martine Ouellet and Bloc MP Mario Beaulieu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bloc scheduled a press conference for 10:00 a.m. Monday, May 29, 2017 on Parliament Hill, at the Charles-Lynch 130-S, Centre Block. The press conference was attended by members of CJPME and PAJU including CJPME President Thomas Woodley and PAJU Co-President Bruce Katz, both of whom spoke in support of the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois motion. The motion itself was tabled on May 29 by BQ MP Mario Beaulieu on behalf of the party\u2019s leader Martine Ouellet. (I met with Martine Ouellet prior to the press conference. She was forthright in her support for Palestinian rights and Palestinian self-determination and I thanked her for that forthrightness.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A section of the motion read, \u201cIn order to assure the peaceful co-existence between Palestinians and Israelis, we ask that the government officially recognize Palestine as an independent state, in the name of the inalienable right of people\u2019s self-determination<\/em>.\u201d Martine Ouellet stated<\/a> that \u201c136 of the 193 United Nations members now recognize Palestinian statehood, among the most recent being Portugal, Iceland and Sweden.<\/em>\u201d Mario Beaulieu criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for continuing the same policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as former prime minister Stephen Harper.\u201d The Quebec National Assembly\u2019s Qu\u00e9bec Solidaire endorsed the BQ motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The  motion in favour of Palestine sows discord among Bloc MPs<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What ensued in the weeks following the tabling of the Bloc motion was a rebellion against Martine Ouellet with seven of the ten Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois MPs deciding to leave the party<\/a>. \u201cThe seven members of Parliament who split from the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois have released the name of their new federal party \u2014 Quebec Debout \u2014 and say they no longer believe it’s their job to promote Quebec separatism at the federal level<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bloc MP Rh\u00e9al Fortin (Rivi\u00e8re-du-Nord) stated the following :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00ab\u00a0We don’t believe that our job in Parliament is to promote independence,\u00a0\u00bb he said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00ab\u00a0That’s not our mission and that’s not what we want to do. We want to work for the Quebec interest. We want to stand up for Quebec.\u00a0\u00bb<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois interim leader said that, while the members of the new party caucus still believe in an independent Quebec, he would leave the question of holding another referendum on the matter to the provincial National Assembly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The party will register the new name with the chief electoral officer next week before launching consultations across Quebec to learn how their constituents want to be represented in Ottawa \u2014 and how people will choose between them and their former party.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seven MPs who decided to split from the Bloc claimed that Martine Ouellet was \u201cconstantly zeroing in on independence instead of defending Quebec’s interests on the federal scene.\u201d They added that they objected to \u201cMartine Ouellet’s leadership and her political priorities<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That should be tempered, however, by the fact that certain Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois MPs were (and still are) ardent supporters of Israel and sat<\/a> (and still sit) on the Canada-Israel Inter-Parliamentary Committee<\/a> (CAIL), committed to promoting Israel\u2019s interests in Canada, notwithstanding the fact that the apartheid regime in Tel Aviv is responsible for a genocide<\/a> in Gaza, pogroms<\/a> across the occupied Palestinian West Bank, bombing in Syria, in Lebanon<\/a> and bombing in Iran in full transgression of international law<\/a>. It is to be noted that Rh\u00e9al \u00c9loi Fortin remains a member of the Canada-Israel Inter-Parliamentary Executive Committee. That appears to point to one of the principal reasons for Fortin\u2019s denunciation of Martine Ouellet: her support for Palestine collided with his support for Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois leader Yves-Fran\u00e7ois  Blanchet was the only federal party leader to sit on that same pro-Israel committee, but has since left (subsequent to a damning email which I sent to him earlier in 2026 and to the other 20 Bloc MPs who were also sitting there along with him, most of who have since also left; more on that later in my article). So much for his \u2018selective\u2019 declaration on the principle of the \u2018self-determination of peoples.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a speech<\/a> in early May of 2018, Martine Ouellette \u201caccused Fortin and the other MPs of spreading \u00ab\u00a0fake news\u00a0\u00bb against her and compromising the party’s \u00ab\u00a0internal democracy.\u00a0\u00bb After a resounding vote of non-confidence<\/a> in her leadership, Ouellet announced that she would be stepping down as leader of the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois on June 11, 2018. \u201cDuring a 30-minute speech leading up to her resignation announcement, a\u00a0passionate Ouellet blamed the vote on party president\u00a0Mario Beaulieu, accusing the former leader of\u00a0running a\u00a0negative and aggressive campaign against her<\/em>.\u201d Shortly after Martine Ouellet stepped down as leader, Yves-Fran\u00e7ois Blanchet took over as leader of the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois. The seven \u2018rebels\u2019 made \u2018peace\u2019 with the newly \u2018reinvigorated\u2019 pro-Israel Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, when PAJU held a press conference in Montreal in 2014 to denounce Israel\u2019s murderous attack on Gaza, the only federal MP to appear at our press conference to express his support for our position was Mario Beaulieu. Today, Beaulieu has been pushed into a corner by Blanchet, presumably for his support for the principle of Palestinian self-determination. It would appear that Beaulieu was given an alternative: leave with Ouellet or tow the pro-Israel Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois line. Of course, there is no \u2018proof\u2019 of my claim, but there is a certain capacity to \u2018put two-and-two together,\u2019 so to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal MPs sitting on the Canada-Israel Inter-Parliamentary Committee<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I published\u00a0 my article<\/a>, entitled \u201cHow Canadian MPs in the Canada-Israel Inter-Parliamentary group are at the table of apartheid<\/em>\u201d on June 11, 2020 in The Canada Files<\/a>, I noted that \u201ca group of Canadian Members of Parliament representing four of the five federal parties sitting in the House of Commons, implicitly, if not explicitly, supporting Israel\u2019s brutal apartheid regime by participating in the Canada Israel Inter-parliamentary Groupwhich functions as little more than an internal pressure group the function of which is to normalize and consequently whitewash Israel\u2019s apartheid regime. Within this group sit 19 members of the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois (of 32 Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois MPs sitting in the House of Commons), 18 Conservative MPs, 16 Liberal MPs, 2 New Democrats and 9 Senators.\u201d<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Subsequent to my sharing the article on lists including some card-carrying members of the Bloc and Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, a number of the Bloquistes <\/em>discreetly removed themselves from CAIL. Yves-Fran\u00e7ois Blanchet was not one of those who left,nor was Rh\u00e9al Fortin, thereby confirming once again exactly where they stood on the question of Israel-Palestine. Not only did they not step away from CAIL; they added eighteen more Bloc MPs for a total of twenty-one Bloc MPs sitting comfortably at the table of pro-Israeli hasbara<\/em> (propaganda) subsequent to the election of a Liberal minority government in 2025. Following the results of that election, I went to the CAIL website to check the presence of federal MPs there. Though not at all surprised to see the presence of Bloc MPs there, I was surprised to see that 21 of 22 Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois MPs including their leader were on CAIL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On December 12, 2025 I sent the following email to PAJU service lists with a copy of the email to the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois MPs sitting on CAIL. I listed them in the email as can be seen below in the copy of my December 12 email. It was also sent to other lists by way of \u2018blind copy\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Objet:<\/strong><\/td>Bloque qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, demi solidaire!<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
De:<\/strong><\/td>\u00ab\u00a0kab1@videotron.ca\u00a0\u00bb <kab1@videotron.ca><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Date:<\/strong><\/td>Fri, 12 Dec 2025 17:38:56 -0500<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
\u00c0:<\/strong><\/td>PAJU Administration <pajuadmin@googlegroups.com>, PAJU1 <paju1@googlegroups.com>,PAJU2 <paju2@googlegroups.com><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00ab Comme tous ses coll\u00e8gues du Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, y compris son chef, Yves-Fran\u00e7ois Blanchet, Rh\u00e9al Fortin est membre en r\u00e8gle du Comit\u00e9 interparlementaire Canada-Isra\u00ebl (CAIL). Cette appartenance conf\u00e8re \u00e9galement aux d\u00e9put\u00e9s du Bloc leur statut  aupr\u00e8s de la CIJA et d’autres organisations sionistes. M. Fortin si\u00e8ge d’ailleurs au conseil d’administration du CAIL. Sur les 22 d\u00e9put\u00e9s du Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois si\u00e9geant au Parlement, 21 sont membres du Comit\u00e9 interparlementaire Canada-Isra\u00ebl. . . comfortablement assis tous \u00e0 la table de l’apartheid! Veut-on parler de l’autod\u00e9termination des peuples? Quelle mascarade path\u00e9tique! \u00bb (1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruce Katz<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAJU<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada-Israel Inter-Parliamentary Committee<\/a> (CAIL)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n