Interim Leader Marc Tanguay reads the riot act, saying what is discussed in caucus should remain in caucus.
QUEBEC — The interim Liberal leader has read the riot act to his caucus about speaking in public about their views on financing religious schools.
After a weekend of two MNAs going public with their views on the party’s decision last week to back a Parti Québécois motion calling for the defunding of religious schools and two leadership candidates saying party members should have been consulted first, Marc Tanguay said enough is enough.
“I am re-establishing the rule,” Tanguay told reporters. “The caucus must stay confidential. What’s discussed in there must remain confidential.
“Going public should not happen. The internal discussion must stay within the caucus.
“The rule is crystal clear. Nobody, not me, not our leader, nobody is allowed to reveal any element falling under the confidentiality of the caucus. The rules applies to me and each and every one.”
As for the consequences of MNAs breaking ranks, Tanguay was vague.
“Following these events there will be internal discussions,” he said.
Both Prass and McGraw have private religious schools in their ridings and have been flooded with calls from worried school directors.
He said the membership should have been consulted before the caucus in haste dumped a policy of supporting such funding, which has been on the books for 60 years.
In an interview Friday with The Gazette, André Pratte, who chairs the Liberal party’s policy committee, sided with those who felt the policy switch was too hasty.
He said the membership should be allowed to speak before a position that the party has had since the Parent Commission of 1961 is dropped.
“Caucus took a decision,” Pratte said. “That’s OK, but the the Liberal Party of Quebec is not only the caucus, it is also the membership of the party. The membership must be consulted and we should have this discussion in an orderly, reflective, rational way with all the available information.”
On Tuesday it was clear the party wanted to put a lid on the friction. Prass and McGraw were not speaking to reporters.
She sits today as an independent.
Moments later, at his morning news conference, Tanguay tried again to quash the debate before the party faces a full-blown crisis.
The party will consult experts in the field of education, and of the communities affected, with plans to report back by March 2025.