azzurri.chris
May 19th, 2005, 08:33 PM
http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1116518847317_111928047?hub=topstories#
PQ conspired to stem "no" vote in 95: Le Hir
CTV.ca News Staff
A former cabinet minister with the Parti Quebecois has made damning allegations about the party's plans to stem the flow of "No" ballots during the 1995 sovereignty referendum.
Richard Le Hir, now a Montreal consultant, says the PQ conspired to intimidate federalist voters during the referendum by sending "scrutineer shock troops" to polling stations in anglophone and allophone ridings.
He said the party targetted those ridings because residents there, including immigrants who were fast-tracked through citizenship court, were more likely to vote against sovereignty.
In a 15-page document made public this week, Le Hir details a secret PQ caucus meeting held in the spring of 1995, where the plan was hatched to "neutralize the adversary."
The caucus was reacting to news reports that "the federal citizenship machine was grinding out new citizens by the hundreds every day," said Le Hir during an interview with CTV's Montreal affiliate, CFCF News.
"And clearly the members were concerned that it would be very difficult to block that tide."
The plan
Le Hir said one caucus member spoke of the need to "get tough," and block the votes of the federalist No side.
The plan, he detailed, was to draw members from Quebec unions to show up at polls and make it difficult for people who might vote No to cast their ballots.
He named former PQ vice-president Monique Simard and Guy Chevrette, a cabinet minister and PQ House leader in 1994, as being responsible for talking to union members.
The PQ strongly denies the allegations.
In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Simard called Le Hir "out to lunch."
Chevrette called Le Hir's allegations "completely crazy."
"I never called the unions in the referendum," he told the Gazette. "He doesn't know what to do to keep his name in the newspaper. He's making a fool of himself."
"Well what do you expect?" said Le Hir in reaction. "Anybody who had been involved in that kind of thing isn't going to admit readily, or willfully, to having participated."
Asked why he's waited 10 years to come out with his allegations, Le Hir said he was "sworn to secrecy."
"I'm breaking that oath, and the only way I could have been relieved by that oath was by a judge in a court saying, 'Mr. Lehir, I understand that you have made an oath of secrecy; and you're hereby relieved of that oath.'"
The PQ has said that if there were any incidents of obstruction, they involved just a few overzealous PQ members.
No hard proof
Le Hir concedes he has no real evidence that the PQ's alleged plan was actually put into action. "But I followed the events," he told CFCF, "and a few weeks after the referendum there were all these allegations that were surfacing."
Alliance Quebec -- an English-rights lobby group -- has long argued that the Parti Quebecois conspired months before the Oct. 30 vote to thwart federalist voters.
Lawyers for the group have claimed that some of the 86,000 spoiled ballots should have been counted, and would have resulted in "No" votes.
Sovereignty poised for 'breakthrough'
The federalist "No" side won the referendum with 50.6 per cent of the vote, but the group estimates it would have won by as much as 55 per cent -- significantly altering the political debate over separation in the province in the last eight years.
Earlier this week, Parizeau told CTV News that the sovereigntist cause he played a role in rallying to near-victory in '95 is poised to make a breakthrough.
With polls showing support for the separatist movement at its highest point in a decade, Parizeau said he expects to see that momentum keep building.
"If things go on the way they have, the Parti Quebecois would take power and would organize a referendum and I think this time it will go through," he said.
"Let's face it, it's not a flash in the pan, it's not something that vanishes and is rekindled by corruption at a government level."
I suggest you guys watch the video. This is crazy!!!
PQ conspired to stem "no" vote in 95: Le Hir
CTV.ca News Staff
A former cabinet minister with the Parti Quebecois has made damning allegations about the party's plans to stem the flow of "No" ballots during the 1995 sovereignty referendum.
Richard Le Hir, now a Montreal consultant, says the PQ conspired to intimidate federalist voters during the referendum by sending "scrutineer shock troops" to polling stations in anglophone and allophone ridings.
He said the party targetted those ridings because residents there, including immigrants who were fast-tracked through citizenship court, were more likely to vote against sovereignty.
In a 15-page document made public this week, Le Hir details a secret PQ caucus meeting held in the spring of 1995, where the plan was hatched to "neutralize the adversary."
The caucus was reacting to news reports that "the federal citizenship machine was grinding out new citizens by the hundreds every day," said Le Hir during an interview with CTV's Montreal affiliate, CFCF News.
"And clearly the members were concerned that it would be very difficult to block that tide."
The plan
Le Hir said one caucus member spoke of the need to "get tough," and block the votes of the federalist No side.
The plan, he detailed, was to draw members from Quebec unions to show up at polls and make it difficult for people who might vote No to cast their ballots.
He named former PQ vice-president Monique Simard and Guy Chevrette, a cabinet minister and PQ House leader in 1994, as being responsible for talking to union members.
The PQ strongly denies the allegations.
In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Simard called Le Hir "out to lunch."
Chevrette called Le Hir's allegations "completely crazy."
"I never called the unions in the referendum," he told the Gazette. "He doesn't know what to do to keep his name in the newspaper. He's making a fool of himself."
"Well what do you expect?" said Le Hir in reaction. "Anybody who had been involved in that kind of thing isn't going to admit readily, or willfully, to having participated."
Asked why he's waited 10 years to come out with his allegations, Le Hir said he was "sworn to secrecy."
"I'm breaking that oath, and the only way I could have been relieved by that oath was by a judge in a court saying, 'Mr. Lehir, I understand that you have made an oath of secrecy; and you're hereby relieved of that oath.'"
The PQ has said that if there were any incidents of obstruction, they involved just a few overzealous PQ members.
No hard proof
Le Hir concedes he has no real evidence that the PQ's alleged plan was actually put into action. "But I followed the events," he told CFCF, "and a few weeks after the referendum there were all these allegations that were surfacing."
Alliance Quebec -- an English-rights lobby group -- has long argued that the Parti Quebecois conspired months before the Oct. 30 vote to thwart federalist voters.
Lawyers for the group have claimed that some of the 86,000 spoiled ballots should have been counted, and would have resulted in "No" votes.
Sovereignty poised for 'breakthrough'
The federalist "No" side won the referendum with 50.6 per cent of the vote, but the group estimates it would have won by as much as 55 per cent -- significantly altering the political debate over separation in the province in the last eight years.
Earlier this week, Parizeau told CTV News that the sovereigntist cause he played a role in rallying to near-victory in '95 is poised to make a breakthrough.
With polls showing support for the separatist movement at its highest point in a decade, Parizeau said he expects to see that momentum keep building.
"If things go on the way they have, the Parti Quebecois would take power and would organize a referendum and I think this time it will go through," he said.
"Let's face it, it's not a flash in the pan, it's not something that vanishes and is rekindled by corruption at a government level."
I suggest you guys watch the video. This is crazy!!!