Ex-Bloc MP Mourani questions views on sovereignty
Two months after being expelled from the Bloc caucus, Mourani says she's unsure of political future
Maria Mourani, a Former Bloc Québécois MP for the Montreal riding of Ahuntsic, is again speaking out against the provincial government’s proposed secular charter.
Mourani got expelled from the Bloc caucus in September for her anti-charter stance, then quit the party entirely.
"Firing women from daycare centres because they're wearing a cross or a scarf, or a man from a hospital because he's wearing a kippa or a turban — I can't adhere to such a policy," Mourani said in September.
Speaking on Radio-Canada Monday morning, she said she’s reconsidering her sovereigntist views these days.
“Do I, Maria Mourani, have a place in the independence movement? Do I still believe in it?” she asked herself on the air.
She said earlier that she would remain in Parliament as an independent MP until the next federal election in 2015. This morning, she said that she wasn’t sure what her political future holds beyond that.
Quebec Liberal Party Leader Philippe Couillard mentioned Mourani while speaking to CBC Montreal Daybreak this morning.
He responded to recent comments coming from the PQ that he was preventing pro-charter members of his party from speaking out, by pointing to Mourani’s exit from the federal Bloc party.
“I think they have much more urgent matters of unity to deal with on their own side,” he told Daybreak host Mike Finnerty, referring to the sovereignty goals of both the Bloc and the PQ.
Couillard reaffirmed his party’s and his own personal stance on the secular charter.
“The PQ is dreaming of a society where we're all like little robots. Everybody is the same, nobody is able or allowed to express their individuality, their spirituality, their religious feelings,” he said.
“It’s one of our freedoms that we have paid so much for in blood and in our history, so to see this is very sad,” Couillard said.