From decriminalizing drugs and prostitution to lowering the voting age to 16, Bloc Québécois delegates passed resolutions to take back Labrador and tackle the “appropriation of Quebec culture by Canada”.
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The Bloc convention, which began Friday and ended Sunday, saw the party pass more than 100 resolutions with near total unanimity, all after a 97.25% vote of confidence for Leader Yves- Francois Blanchet.
Among the proposals in vogue in progressive circles is an initiative for the “complete decriminalization of the profession of sex worker and the purchase of these services”.
Adopted by a majority, the Bloc Québécois Youth Forum’s resolution on “sex work” was defended at the microphone by a young activist as “a legitimate job that allows sex workers to earn money and support to their needs”.
In the same vein, the delegates supported the idea of decriminalizing the possession and use of “all drugs”, an idea of the delegates from the riding of Hochelaga, in Montreal.
Another proposal submitted by the Youth Forum that the Bloc Québécois “position itself firmly as a defender of the drag and LGBTQ+ community” was adopted without difficulty, as was another aimed at lowering the right to vote from 18 to 16 years old and another to defend her from the right to abortion.
Among the 120 proposals widely adopted with ease, it was those relating to secularism that sparked somewhat more heated debates.
The only motion rejected, moreover, was one seeking to offer international students, seasonal and temporary workers in the regions “incentives” to obtain permanent resident status “by a fast track”.
Let us mention the resolution calling on the party to fight against the “appropriation of Quebec culture by Canada”. The poutine served as an example for one of the defenders of the motion, who had some against Canada, which presents the dish as a “great Canadian dish” outside our borders.
The Bloc voted on an even more daring motion to defend “the historic land claims of the Government of Quebec, particularly with respect to Labrador”.
Although it was met with some laughter in the plenary hall, and although one delegate warned that the policy could backfire on Quebec, the proposal passed with a large majority to loud applause.
At the end of the congress, Yves-François Blanchet took stock and praised the activists for their work.
“They led us, willingly or by force, to ask questions that sometimes disturb, shock or surprise, but which are questions of today’s society, which we will have to dispose of in the coming years,” he said. he says.
