New rights party looking for support

BY ALBERT KRAMBERGER

editor@transcontinental.ca

What if someone organized a new Quebec political party promoting minority rights, but not enough anglophones cared to support it?

That's a scenario now facing Allen Nutik, leader of Affiliation Quebec (AQ), a fledgling party given official status by Quebec's director of elections recently. The 63-year-old Westmount resident, who once ran for mayor in his city, said he is looking at filling a void at the political level for English-speaking Quebecers and allophones. Nutik said he is considering running in Jacques Cartier. The riding is currently held by Liberal MNA Geoff Kelley, but an Equality Party (EP) MNA was elected in 1989 in response to the Robert Bourassa-led Liberal government's new language restrictions on commercial signs. The restrictions utilized the notwithstanding clause, offered in the 1982 repatriated Canadian Constitution, to override certain rights.

Some West Islanders, either former members or supporters of the now-defunct Alliance Quebec or EP, are squarely behind Nutik's party.

“It's important anglophones get behind this, to get some kind of stability,” said Pointe Claire resident Jean Morrison. “Affiliation Quebec is trying to introduce an even playing field.”

She said Quebec's reasonable accommodation hearings, held last fall, were in general “a sign of intolerance.” She said AQ is for people who respect the constitution and “who don't want to be part of the Québécois ideology” which says the state comes first.

Morrison said she will help the party and any potential candidates, but she has no plans to run herself.

Al Cowan, a Beaconsfield resident, said he is ready “to go out and push for what the party stands for” but doesn't see himself as a candidate, either. He added he is concerned anglo votes will once again be gobbled up by the Liberals. He added English-speaking Quebecers need a strong voice to defend themselves, citing the recent hoopla over the use of English in Montreal retail stores. “The PQ and ADQ are ready to conduct a vendetta against the English population, complaining there's too much English in the city. We need to stop it.”

Nutik launched Affiliation Quebec last May to promote minority rights and the interests of staunch Canadians in Quebec.

“There's nothing anti-French or Quebec in what we say,” he said. “They have the right to use every tool available to them to protect their culture and language, except for separation from Canada and the subordination of minority language rights.”

He said AQ will only run candidates in ridings “we think we can win.”

“But we need to get grassroots support,” he added. “If not, we will have to stop.”

Meanwhile, Kelley said the Quebec Liberals are the only provincial party working to build bridges and form links.

“For all of its shortcomings, the Liberal party's plans and platform can be defended in all 125 ridings. I can say the same things in all regions,” he said, adding issues like health care and public transit are better dealt with as part of a larger group. “That's how you get things done.”

Affiliation Quebec is organizing a rally, with rights crusader Howard Galganov expected to be a guest speaker, at 2 p.m. on March 2 at Hotel Ruby Foos, 7655 Decarie Blvd., Montreal. For more information, check www.affiliationquebec.ca.