QUEBEC - The Parti Qu茅b茅cois has turned down an invitation to address the crowd at a major concert marking the province's national holiday in protest over the choice of host.
In a letter published online Monday, party spokeswoman M茅ganne Perry M茅lan莽on accused the organizers of lacking judgment when they named singer-songwriter 脡mile Bilodeau as host of the Quebec City concert on the Plains of Abraham the evening before the June 24 holiday.
"When you want to bring people together, the first thing to do is to show respect for others," she wrote. 鈥淚n recent years and particularly in recent months, 脡mile Bilodeau has, on many occasions, showed disrespect toward the Parti Qu茅b茅cois, its staff, its leader, its members, its supporters. He has also shown very little respect for anyone who advocates for state secularism," she wrote.
The 26-year-old Bilodeau, an award-winning artist whose fifth album is due out in September, has been a vocal critic of the province's secularism law, known as Bill 21, which he described in 2020 as "misogynistic, Islamophobic and degrading.鈥 The law prevents civil servants deemed to be in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols 鈥 including hijabs and turbans 鈥 on the job.
Bilodeau has also mocked the Parti Qu茅b茅cois and its leader as "whiners" and suggested the party should die out to make way for a better sovereigntist option.
Perry Melan莽on wrote that while Bilodeau has a right to his opinions and that she wasn't calling for his removal, she said she didn't feel comfortable attending the pre-concert ceremony. She also accused the group organizing the show of violating its principles of non-partisanship when it selected Bilodeau as host, noting he has campaigned for rival sovereigntist party Qu茅bec solidaire.
The concert on the Plains of Abraham is among the signature events marking the F锚te nationale, which is also known as St-Jean-Baptiste Day and is associated with the Quebec sovereignty movement.
Bilodeau suggested in a social media message that the PQ was trying to "cancel" him, and promised to put on a great show with a variety of diverse performances celebrating Quebec. "If you want to 'cancel' me, I suggest you go see what the Republicans are doing in the USA," he wrote on Facebook. "They have experience in the field."
The debate stirred strong reaction in Quebec City, where Qu茅bec solidaire jumped to the artist's defence. Party's co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois described Bilodeau as a "sovereigntist who connects with young people," and criticized the Parti Qu茅b茅cois for sitting out the concert.
"(Bilodeau) criticized the PQ, so the PQ is boycotting the St-Jean show," he wrote on social media.
"Putting partisan pride above national pride, what a shame."
The concert organizer, the Mouvement national des Qu茅b茅cois, has described Bilodeau's appointment as unifying and non-partisan, and recently minimized the controversy as a "tempest in a teapot," in an internal note obtained by The 好色tv Press.
The group added that Bilodeau wasn't planning on using the June 23 concert as a platform for his views on Bill 21, which it described as a "depoliticized" event.
This report by 好色tvwas first published June 19, 2023.
