r/CanadaPolitics • u/MTL_Dude666 Liberal • 11h ago
U.S. consul's text reveals scheduled meeting with PQ leader was cancelled
https://montrealgazette.com/quebec-elections/pq-leader-parti-quebecois-u-s-meeting-consul-text/•
u/fetupneighbour 9h ago
The only text they want you to see, and it was probably made up, what about all the other text, oh they were redacted
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u/Reasonable-Sweet9320 Independent 10h ago
“U.S. consul’s leaked text message reveals scheduled meeting with PQ leader was cancelled.
"No word on our part if/when it may be rescheduled,” Robert Sanders, then U.S. consul general in Montreal, texted a Quebec public official on March 3.”
Even though the United States has little regard for French culture and language they do have an interest in destabilizing and dividing Canada and Canadians and in that sense they have a shared interest in promoting the Quebec separatist movement.
The United States is using political warfare to divide Canada and lower the morale of Canadians. NATO refers to this as cognitive warfare, something that European are familiar with from Putins Russia.
https://www.act.nato.int/activities/cognitive-warfare/
https://www.understandingwar.org/analysis/cognitive-warfare/
https://www.irregularwarfare.org/assessing-cognitive-warfare/
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u/quickymgee 8h ago
If anything, the French language request from the states were probably meant to be a poison pill to foment the separatist cause. If Canada had accepted that trade deal as the US had expected, because they thought we were so desperate, this was designed to set up the next stage of take over.
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u/Separate_Football914 Bloc Québécois 6h ago
We do not know to what extent it was push tho. American said that they did not, Carney said that they did: we can have more faith in Carney, but he isn’t foreign to twist reality for his own good (look at Gordie Howe)
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u/TheWaySheHoes Independent 11h ago
It’s a really bad look for the PQ. They are behaving the same way the Alberta (traitors) seperatists are behaving and colluding with a foreign power that is hostile to Canada to harm the country.
Will it move the dial? Maybe marginally in some key ridings and drag them to a minority, which would be nice, but it may be too late with advance voting.
The PQ will need to address this though. The PQ colluding with the US looks bad, especially in Quebec where Trump is absolutely loathed. For the self-proclaimed party of the quebecois people, this is a pretty gross betrayal of their interests and integrity.
Greasy stuff. PSPP will be a trojan horse to watch out for on the federal stage.
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u/gravtix Independent 11h ago
PQ and Alberta separatists communicate regularly.
They’re working together
Two groups that hate Canada more than the USA is one thing they have in common I suppose.
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u/TheWaySheHoes Independent 11h ago
In and of itself, thats less of a big deal to me. They are both domestic actors uniting for a common front against the federal government. The SNP, Plaid Cymru, and Sinn Fein recently did the same.
Colluding with foreign adversaries crosses a big line though. That’s when it tips from “annoying but understandable” to “CSIS and the RCMP should be investigating these lot”.
I’m sure the Quebec and Alberta seperatists are massively infiltrated and spied upon by CSIS, they would be incompetent not to, so this can’t surprise them, but it cannot be tolerated.
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u/MTL_Dude666 Liberal 10h ago
Sinn Fein is a completely different thing though. It is about reuniting with Ireland, which everyone knows is simply a matter of time now (as in decades) before it happens.
Support in Northern Ireland to reunite with Ireland is about 35-40% and support from Ireland for that to happen is also in a similar range. With time, this will rise as most of the opponents are older people.
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u/TheWaySheHoes Independent 10h ago
For sure, but Northern Ireland is a part of the UK. For the time being, they are a seperatist party, though there’s obviously some historical idiosyncrasies to that. The SNP and Plaid are just straight up sovereignist parties, though Plaid are pretty chill on that question for now and seem to be biding their time.
In any event, point being them cooperating with each other, versus cooperating with say, the US or Russia, are two very different things.
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u/MTL_Dude666 Liberal 3h ago
It's not really "separatist" since this is originally a piece of Ireland and would reunite with it. It's not about being alone and independent like Alberta or Quebec.
I don't think anyone in international relations is seeing Sinn Fein as a "separatist movement". If ever Northern Ireland decide to leave the UK to rejoin Ireland (and Ireland accept), the UK would not really be in "bad terms" with them. They would simply continue to have a foreign relationship with Ireland.
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u/no_malis2 10h ago
This isn't news though - the meeting in question was announced publicly by the pq leader before it was cancelled.
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u/MTL_Dude666 Liberal 10h ago
And yet, PSPP said that he never intended to meet with the US which is false.
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u/no_malis2 10h ago
“The Parti Québécois considered and publicly announced the possibility of a trip to the United States, but the trip ultimately did not take place,” PQ spokesperson Emmanuel Renaud said in a statement to The Gazette. “The possibility of the trip was mentioned to the consul’s team, but no steps were taken — nor was any contact made with the U.S. administration — to bring the project to fruition. There was no attempt to schedule a meeting, nor was there any contact with the U.S. administration to that end.”
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u/awildstoryteller 9h ago
Don't these texts show this to be a lie?
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u/no_malis2 8h ago
Unless we see the actual content of the texts it is impossible to say. I tend to believe that if the Gazette chose no to publish them it is because the content is a whole pile of nothing.
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u/awildstoryteller 8h ago
The fact that it talks about "rescheduling" suggests otherwise.
Also this:
"We understand that the Parti Québécois requested this meeting, but it did not take place because the trip was cancelled."
How can something never planned be cancelled?
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u/no_malis2 6h ago
Hey, I'm thinking of going to Cuba
oh cool when are you leaving?
Ah nevermind, my vacation's been denied. Cancelling any plans for Cuba.
^ just an example of how you can cancel something even though you haven't even yet fully planned it.
I'm not saying this is the case here. Just saying that given the Gazette's track record with dubious journalism I need more than their word on something, especially during election time. They're worse than fox news. Daily mail levels of "news".
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u/awildstoryteller 5h ago
Really tying yourself into knots to explain this away huh.
Even thinking about coordinating with the US is bad btw.
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u/TheWaySheHoes Independent 10h ago
If I lived in Quebec, and I obviously don’t so take this for what its worth, that would piss me off.
The US specifically targeted Quebec’s language and culture in the trade negotiations, and that’s like the PQ’s raison-d’etre. Hard to not see how this isn’t selling out the people of Quebec and shortsightedly making them weaker and putting them in harm’s way.
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u/no_malis2 10h ago
I think you're forgetting the timeline : the attempt to meet was early in 2026 at the time when the premier of quebec stepped down - when there was a power vacuum in the province. Trump was threatening all of canada with tariffs, and qc was going to be hit pretty hard. Everyone wanted to be the "hero" of the story at the time.
The whole "Trump wants to get rid of french" only came out at the end of the summer.
There's a reason the Gazette is the only newspaper reporting on this - it isn't much of a story but it plays well to their biases
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u/TheWaySheHoes Independent 10h ago
Be the timelines as they may, it’s the “colluding with Washington” thing that bugs me. The turkeys voting for christmas aspect of the threat to the french language is just the icing on the cake.
I don’t like it when Alberta does it and I don’t like it when Quebec does it. It’s one thing to have a family feud. Bringing in foreign powers and undermining the country in the process at a moment of national vulnerability regardless of province or language is another matter entirely.
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u/no_malis2 8h ago
What I am saying is that trying to get a meeting with US officials is not in of itself "collusion". Especially when any such meeting would have been announced publicly.
If the sms were damning the Gazette would have published them
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u/MTL_Dude666 Liberal 3h ago
I think the other media are waiting for after the elections so as not to be seen as taking a side in the elections. We already know that the Montreal Gazette is not pro-PQ considering it's an English media.
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