{"id":234109,"date":"2019-10-10T05:10:46","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T09:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=234109"},"modified":"2019-10-10T05:10:46","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T09:10:46","slug":"legault-condemns-quebec-solidaires-position-on-illegal-climate-protest-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/10\/legault-condemns-quebec-solidaires-position-on-illegal-climate-protest-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Legault condemns Quebec solidaire’s position on ‘illegal’ climate protest action"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Legault called on his Quebec solidaire counterpart Wednesday to strongly condemn the efforts of climate activists who paralyzed traffic for hours in the Montreal area. (File Photo:<\/a> Fran\u00e7ois Legault\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

QUEBEC — The government of Quebec Premier Francois Legault has condemned an opposition party for refusing to denounce the actions of climate activists who scaled a Montreal bridge and overtook a downtown street on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Legault called on his Quebec solidaire counterpart Wednesday to strongly condemn the efforts of climate activists who paralyzed traffic for hours in the Montreal area.<\/p>\n

But the left-leaning party doubled down on its support for the environmental activists behind the disruptive action, while accusing Legault’s Coalition Avenir Quebec government of skirting the issue.<\/p>\n

Quebec solidaire’s co-spokesperson, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, said Wednesday the Legault government is using outrage over the protests to shield from its own \u201cclimate-passivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe planet is burning, but the priority of (Environment Minister) Benoit Charette and (Premier) Francois Legault, is the attitude of Quebec solidaire,\u201d said Nadeau-Dubois, whose party does not have a formal leader.<\/p>\n

The comments came after Legault and several ministers, including Charette and Transport Minister Francois Bonnardel, denounced the opposition party’s lack of criticism.<\/p>\n

Quebec solidaire was the only provincial party that did not denounce the tactics employed by the group known as Extinction Rebellion during Tuesday’s demonstration.<\/p>\n

Nadeau-Dubois said there was no chance the party would do so, noting its position is that if a method of action is peaceful, it is acceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a different kind of political party,\u201d Nadeau-Dubois said. \u201cBecause we think that citizens that fight for their rights, that fight for the recognition of climate change as a crisis, should not be condemned when they use pacific, non-violent ways of pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two women, ages 32 and 40, and a 47-year-old man were arrested after climbing up the Jacques Cartier Bridge. One of the three was identified as a Quebec solidaire party member and school teacher.<\/p>\n

Legault questioned the type of lesson the teacher’s alleged actions offer to children, repeating a call to Quebec solidaire’s other co-spokesperson Manon Masse to denounce what he called \u201can illegal gesture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProtesting in the street and voicing your approval or disapproval with a position is one thing,\u201d Legault said. \u201cClimbing on the structure of a bridge in a dangerous way, obliging police to close a bridge, that’s not a way to protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

After three people were arrested for the bridge action, another 41 were detained for blocking a downtown Montreal street late Tuesday.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Extinction Rebellion members blocked bridges in Halifax, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver as part of a global effort to lobby for more urgent action against climate change going on this week.<\/p>\n

Founded in Britain last year, the group also known as XR, now has chapters in some 50 countries. It said the protests Monday were taking place in 60 cities worldwide.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

QUEBEC — The government of Quebec Premier Francois Legault has condemned an opposition party for refusing to denounce the actions …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":223773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234110,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234109\/revisions\/234110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}