UPDATE: Tuesday, Amir Khadi, the lone MP for Quebec Solidaire, introduced a motion in the Quebec National Assembly calling on the provincial government to take the necessary measures to ensure that Quebec gain its own criminal code and to ask ask the federal government for a constitutional change to make it happen.The motion received the support of the Parti Quebecois, Option Nationale affiliated MP Lisette Lapointe and three other independent MPs.
Maria Mourani, the BQ MP running for the leadership of the party, told the Huffington Post Tuesday evening she was tremendously pleased.
"For me, it's a victory, I've been repeating since the beginning of this race, that we must repatriate this code because now we have a government in Ottawa that no longer listens and wants to impose its values on us and pass us the bill," Mourani said after the BQ's third and final leadership debate in Montreal.
"Mr. Fournier (Quebec's Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier) came to Ottawa twice for nothing and I hope that he will realize that there is nothing he can do with this government and I really hope, he will understand that for the interest of all Quebecers he needs to listen to these MPs," Mourani added.
UPDATE: Quebec's justice minister is leaving Ottawa upset, empty-handed, and accusing the Harper government of acting more like right-wing ideologues than the Government of Canada.
Jean-Marc Fournier says he can't understand why his federal counterpart wouldn't consider three suggestions for modest amendments to the omnibus crime legislation C-10.
The sweeping bill would toughen a multitude of penalties for juvenile and adult offenders. But Quebec's position is that the changes are ill-researched and based more on ideology than sound logic.
Fournier, who criticized the feds during a recent parliamentary committee appearance, positively unloaded on them Tuesday.
"I don't recognize the Canada that I know in this kind of decision," Fournier told reporters before leaving town.
"This is not the Government of Canada. This is the government of the Reform party."
Quebec and some other provinces are saying they don't want to pay the extra prison costs that will be caused by C-10.
Fournier says that Quebec — with its lower-than-average crime rates — has a position based on studies conducted over several decades, and on close consultation with numerous people involved in the justice system.
Meanwhile, he says the federal position is supported by nothing other than a Justice Department study that backs the Quebec approach.
He says that when Rob Nicholson agreed to meet him in Ottawa on Tuesday, he had hoped there might be some openness to amendments. But Fournier says that what he got instead was a diversionary tactic.
"What I got was a manoeuvre," said Fournier, who once worked for ex-Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.
"A diversionary manoeuvre where they tell me, 'Yes, come and see me — I agree with rehabilitation.'
"Then they tell me in the end, 'No, no, I absolutely have to pass this law here.'"
Quebec had asked for three amendments to the bill that would have granted provinces more flexibility in its application.
For example, Fournier had been hoping the province could opt out of one provision that could allow the identity of young offenders to be divulged.
Quebec's position is that protecting young offenders' anonymity is key to their rehabilitation, and to providing them with a fresh start once they've been punished for a crime.
Faced with a federal government that refuses to bend on imposing tough criminal justice measures that Quebec views as unduly punitive, what should the province do?
Tuesday could be the stage for another showdown between Ottawa and the province as federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson meets with Quebec’s Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier in an effort to bang out an eleventh-hour compromise.
Both are expected to address the media after their morning meeting just as a parliamentary committee begins two days of marathon clause-by-clause voting on the Conservatives’ omnibus bill C-10.
Fournier has already asked Ottawa to soften its bill, especially in areas dealing with young offenders.
He told reporters last week the Conservatives were ignoring 40 years of experience and know-how and instead pushing ahead with a bill that would encourage more repeat offenders and create more victims.
“This isn't a tough-on-crime measure we're seeing today — it's a tough-on-democracy measure," he said.
Bloc Quebecois MP and leadership candidate Maria Mourani told The Huffington Post Monday the time has come for Quebec to demand the “repatriation” of its criminal code.
“A criminal code, as we see it now imposed by the Conservative government, will be harmful for Quebec. We had two ministers come to Ottawa to tell us. Harper wants to hear nothing of it, which is his right, but we are not obligated to be subjected to his ideology. We need to have our own criminal code,” Mourani said. “We need to ask Ottawa for a constitutional amendment, and they are obligated to negotiate if we ask,” she said adding that she had written to Quebec Premier Jean Charest, Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois, the ADQ and Quebec Solidaire, and all the independent MNAs at the Assembly.
“I think it’s time to stop believing that Mr. Harper will go in the direction of what’s in Quebec’s interest, he wants to govern without Quebec. So we do not need to endure his politics, we will need to take more decisive actions.”
Mourani said she hadn’t heard from Charest nor Marois and she hopes the PQ will recognize that her request for the National Assembly to endorse a resolution requesting constitutional negotiations fits the sovereightist party’s ideology and that they act on it.
“We are not in agreement so we want our own criminal code. You don’t want to listen to us, and you also expect us to pick up the check? Well, it’s not going to going work like that, I’m sorry.”
With files from CP
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