QS ready to table a motion in favor of the PQ

Québec solidaire could file a motion on Thursday to support the Parti Québécois in its desire to sit in the Blue Room without taking an oath to King Charles III.

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“If the three PQ members want us to table a motion to facilitate their entry into the National Assembly, we are ready to do so. We are open to working on the wording with them if necessary. We are in collaboration mode, ”assured the parliamentary leader of QS, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, shortly before the start of the new parliamentary session on Tuesday.

The three elected PQ members will come up against the doors of the Blue Room today because of their gesture of protest against the British crown.

Several constitutional experts claim that a simple motion adopted in the chamber would make it possible to circumvent this obligation enshrined in the constitution.

However, the outgoing president of the National Assembly, François Paradis, declared in a decision handed down at the beginning of November that the modification must absolutely go through a bill. He gave instructions to the Sergeant-at-Arms to expel elected officials who tried to sit without complying with the oath.

The elected officials had first announced their intention to shun the oath to the king, but they finally rallied before the decision of François Paradis. The 11 deputies made their pledge of allegiance in private last week, in the company of the secretary general of the National Assembly.

Debate on the motion

In disagreement with François Paradis, eight jurists signed an open letter in Le Devoir on Tuesday, in which they affirmed that a simple motion could allow elected PQ members to sit in the Blue Room, under the principle that « Parliament enjoys the privilege absolute right to be in control of its internal procedure ».

Moreover, the authors note that François Paradis made this decision at a time when he was no longer elected as a deputy. He should be replaced today by a new president, Nathalie Roy.

Regardless of the outcome of the debate on the motion, QS promises to introduce a bill on Thursday to make the oath to the king optional. However, nothing says that the legislative piece will be called by the Legault government.

The latter, for his part, undertook to « quickly » table a bill along the same lines, without however specifying the timetable for its adoption.