Newsmaker of the year: Île Bizard's Pauline Marois

After André Boisclair resigned as Parti Québécois leader following the party’s third-place finish in the March 26 provincial election, Marois claimed the PQ crown on June 26, when no other candidates stepped forward. Marois had lost the PQ leadership race twice before: once in 1985, where she lost to Pierre-Marc Johnson, and again in 2005, coming in second to Boisclair. At the time, Marois retired from the National Assembly, stating that after 25 years, it was time to move on. However, she returned less than one year later to take over as leader and promised to rebuild the separatist party.

Three days before Marois was to run in a Charlevoix riding byelection, a Montreal daily reported on her Île Bizard home and raised questions about how she and her husband, Claude Blanchet, obtained permission to build the house on land zoned for agricultural use. The article reported Blanchet gave Marcel Turcotte, a previous resident of the property, $1,600 to sign an affidavit confirming the land was inhabited as of Nov. 8, 1978. On this date the Commission de protection du territoire agricole du Québec (CPTAQ) laws protecting agricultural land came into force. Marois insisted her husband only gave Turcotte $500, not as a bribe, but as a gift for all the trouble he went through to get the couple all the papers they needed.

“Think about it. Why would Claude pay for such a declaration?” Marois questioned during a news conference held near the front gate of the 41-acre estate in Île Bizard. Marois told reporters she believed the article was published shortly before the byelection to purposely discredit her. “Leaders of the Parti Québécois have always had problems with that newspaper.”

Blanchet and Marois filed a $2 million defamation suit against The Gazette, which is ongoing.

Despite the article, Marois won a byelection in the Charlevoix riding near Quebec City on Sept. 25, with 52.9 per cent of the vote, giving the sovreigntist party a major boost. Conrad Harvey of the Action democratique du Quebec garnered 37 per cent of the vote, while the Liberal party did not run a candidate.

“This win feels good,” Marois said, addressing supporters and the media on the night of the win. “Tonight's victory won't stop there. We will have to keep on listening and understanding and, especially, we will have to show we are capable of meeting people's expectations.”

Marois was in the media again during the recent Bouchard-Taylor hearings on reasonable accommodation. Marois presented her vision for Quebec to commissioners Gerard Bouchard and Charles Taylor and suggested, among other things, that all immigrants to Quebec should learn more French.

“I'll never be satisfied as (a potential) head of the Quebec state if all immigrants can't learn French — all they're asking is to integrate, but unfortunately the support of Quebec society and its government is not always exemplary," Marois said in her presentation. Her proposed Quebec Identity act would require immigrants to Quebec to have an “appropriate” knowledge of French to be sworn in as citizens. Immigrants who do not speak French would not be allowed to hold public office, raise funds for a political party, or submit petitions to the National Assembly. Marois said the proposed bill would send a message to immigrants, many who choose English.

The PQ leader said she would also like to see the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms amended to include the right to learn French. Such symbols as crucifixes in the public should be allowed as well, in order for Quebec to display its Christian tradition.

In her presentation, Marois said the French language requirements of Bill 101 should be applied to small business, while larger companies with no francization program should be reprimanded.

Repeated phone calls to Marois’ office regarding this article went unreturned.