Montreal- Darine Houmani

The Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec (PMLQ) is contesting the provincial election with a platform that is critical of the current political and economic system and calls for what it describes as democratic renewal and greater public participation in decision-making. The party also advocates for workers’ rights and the rights of immigrants and Indigenous peoples, while taking a critical position on Canadian foreign policy and NATO. It calls for a modern, sovereign Quebec that, in the party’s words, “defends the rights of all.”

In this interview, Fernand Deschamps, who has been involved with the Marxist-Leninist movement since 1977 and serves as an executive official (dirigeant) of the party, discusses the party’s positions on the election, the economy, healthcare and immigration, as well as Quebec’s Bill 21, Quebec independence and the province’s economic relationship with the United States. He also addresses the party’s views on NATO, Canadian foreign policy and the war in Gaza, and responds to concerns about the historical association of Marxism-Leninism with authoritarian governments and one-party states.

Deschamps, who worked as a geological engineer and later as a science teacher, also explains his views on the role citizens should play in the political system and why he believes the central issue goes beyond government policies to the question of who has the power to make decisions.

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Could you briefly introduce yourself and explain why you are involved with the Marxist-Leninist Party?

I'm involved with the Marxist-Leninist Party since 1977. The issue is it's a party that, contrary to all "Cartel parties", tries to present the following issue, that it says we live in a modern society and we're stuck with a process, electoral process, that basically keeps the people, what we call the polity, marginalized.

That is, it keeps people from becoming decision makers in society. So this is something that I started as a student myself, being involved in fighting against increasing tuition fees, not just for myself but for foreign students, or what we call these days international students.

That's where my first fight came in, and I joined at that time the party because one of the persons who was involved with me in the fight was part of that party, and it brought me slowly and gradually to become a member of the party.

I joined the struggle of the people that is, they're fighting for their rights and for the rights of all.

Could you give us an overview of the Marxist-Leninist Party’s participation in this election? How many candidates do you expect to field across Quebec? Specifically, in which Montreal electoral districts will you have candidates, and who are they?

The issue is that in this general election, the Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec has chosen to put forward a group of candidates who fight every day to defend the interests of society. And this is important at a time when the people are becoming increasingly marginalized, as governments restructure the state to serve the interests of the oligarchs.

PMLQ is fielding 12 candidates who will champion the people's demands on key issues. They're putting forward the demands that workers and the people are entitled to make. Their views, their stand, know and defend it. And these, these are being denied today even with force, as we can see with all those in the position of power and privileges are using presently the different parliaments, National Assembly, for the purpose of putting in place laws that generally more and more are criminalizing the people.

So this is a very important issue.

One of the points we're trying to raise, we've raised before, before the election and what we're raising now is that we have to reject this fraudulent system of political representation, what they call democratic representative democracy, by first rejecting the current electoral act, what we call the Quebec Election Law, which marginalizes the people.

And we need also to put forward the demand that we need a modern constitution for this country that will vest sovereignty with the people rather than vest sovereignty with a state whose only sole purpose is to line the pockets of the rich.

So in that view, we have definite candidates, and I will name you a few along with their spokesperson in their fields of which they've been fighting all the time in their life.

Christine Dandenault

The first one is Christine Dandenault. He will be the candidate here in the riding of Montreal called Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. He is our spokesperson on the sole issue of the electoral act and the urgent need to reject the current electoral act and reform the political process, put an end to the marginalization of the people, for a modern process that empowers the people as opposed to putting parties in power over which we don't have any control.

And this is a very important matter, which we found when we're doing ourselves the door-to-door work just to nominate ourselves as candidates. That came out and rang out very loud and clear amongst people we met in the door-to-door work.

Claude Moreau

The second candidate is Claude Moreau, is in the riding of Jean-Lesage, which is in the Quebec City area. He is a spokesperson for demand for a modern Quebec constitution based on a project for democratic renewal. What he says is we must replace the system of cartel party government model on the British system and the notion of statement, which serves to keep the people at arm's length from decision-making power. It is the people who must define the state and not the state that defines the people. Only the people can decide on the system for which they will be represented, and that is a very important point.

Another candidate is myself. I'm basically fighting for an agenda that will humanize society and the environment. And when I say the environment, I have in mind not just the natural environment, but also the social environment. And we're faced with a situation.

I’ve been an engineer in geology all my life, and I became afterward a science teacher. So, I know very much, and I've been writing in our newspaper about all this issue of the sellout of natural, human, and financial resources here in Quebec and the rest of Canada to serve the private interests of the wealthy and also the U.S. war machine.

I don't think I need to remind you that our party was one that submitted a brief. I was the one who did it on the name of our party, the PMOQ, on this issue of saying “No” to the expansional General Dynamics plan in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield.

We're also talking about all these other projects that are presented as so-called green projects, greening the environment, while in fact they're just basically schemes. They're made to pay the rich, and there's a lot of examples of that.

One of the ones that comes to my mind right now are all these mega wind farms that are being implanted here in Quebec, and it's all done under private mega, under private interests. And a lot of people are organizing across Quebec, if you're aware of that, against this project. There will be a big demonstration in Quebec City in front of the National Assembly next Monday, September 7.

The other part is this whole issue of this, I don't know if you heard about that, this Alto high-speed train project. I also sent myself a brief, and I've been working with a lot of the people who are opposed to this in farming communities around the Mirabel area here, north of Montreal.

The interesting thing is this Alto project, apart from being one that is really not needed, because our existing passenger rail infrastructure right now, as we're speaking, is completely in need of reparation, and people have been saying that across Quebec and in Ontario. They will be again demonstrating these people on September 19, right there at the border between Rigaud and Ontario border.

Many Quebecers own businesses, work in the private sector, or have savings invested in private companies. What would a Marxist-Leninist economic program mean for them in practical terms?  And would you support higher taxes on corporations and wealthy Quebecers?

It is true that people are working in different fields. Sometimes they're working for the public service; they're working in private firms. We make a distinction between what I would call small business enterprises and what you call these huge monopolies. They are basically supranational interests.

Often, a lot of these small businesses depend on their subcontractors to these big monopolies. So, they're at their mercy.

And the best way I can show it, explain it to you, is just look right now with all this so-called war on trade tariffs that the U.S. administration has imposed on Canada.

If you look at just Quebec, Quebec produces 80% of all the aluminum that is produced in Canada. But who are these producers of aluminum? It's these huge monopolies that are getting high rates, very good rates for electricity, because electricity is very much needed to create primary aluminum.

Once that aluminum is produced, it's then sent to smaller enterprises who like to transform it. They're the ones who are basically being targeted by the U.S. administration.

These little producers are really at a point where many of them will basically just have to shut down because of these high tariffs that are imposed on them. As for the big aluminum smelters, they don't have any problem.

I even written recently about the biggest aluminum plant that exists in North America. It's right here in Quebec. They got a sweet deal with Hydro-Québec and the Quebec government, so they will have to pay for almost no problems when it comes to electricity fare.

If there's any other increase in tariffs and so on and so forth, they're the ones who are basically getting the free ride. While the rest of the people are paying for all of this, because you, as a hydro customer, you're paying huge rates for electricity, while they're paying less than five times that rate. And they have all kinds of other schemes.

Getting back to your question, workers, in those small or private or big enterprises, should see that their interest lies in themselves saying: We have to become the decision makers.

To put an end to this situation where everything is imposed on us, the people. It's one of the ways being imposed is that you have these taxes that are imposed on the people, while these huge enterprises have almost nothing to pay.

They're getting away with all of that because the state is helping them in that way. And if you look at who is in those states, it's often these people who are even—they were before in the private sector, and now they come, they're part now of the public sector. And once they finish their mandate as MPs or members of the National Assembly, they return in these private sectors.

This is not the kind of government we want.

We want a government where the majority, like a real democracy, the majority would be made of workers, because they're the ones who produce the wealth every day in this country.

They're the ones who provide all our services. Why are they not the ones who are deciding how wealth is being redistributed for the well-being of everyone?

So, it's important that when we address this issue, we don't fall in this trap of less or many taxes or this or that.

The issue is more who should be deciding on all these issues, and we're saying it's the working class and people who should be deciding on that. And for that, they need political power.

So, this is what we're working year-round, our party, because we're organizing roundtables all the time on these very important issues.

As a Marxist-Leninist party, you are highly critical of the current economic system. What exactly is wrong with capitalism in Quebec today?

No, I can simply say that it's the experience of the people themselves, as we went and did our work door to door, and we're talking with different organizations fighting, that they can see it's huge private interests who are always the ones who are deciding on our behalf, and they have the state on their side. And this is what is happening right now. The state is being restructured in a way that serves even more these big private interests. And a lot of them are foreign owned.

Quebec continues to struggle with access to family doctors, emergency rooms overcrowding, and long waiting times. What would you change in the healthcare system, and how would you fund those changes?

The first thing to understand is that a health system must be one that gives access to everyone.

Right now, as we're speaking, you're aware, like me, that a lot of people who are not considered citizens are considered second categories of people in this country. And there are all these migrant workers who are working day in, day out in this country, and there are temporary foreign workers. There are people who have status of being refugees, and they can't even be able to access such simple things as basic health care and education.

And the governments are putting even more limitations on that. So, the first thing to understand is it must be recognized as a right to all, because we're all human beings and we deserve to be recognized as that. So that is the first point.

I think if you talk and you look at what other parties are saying, they never want to address it in that way. That is to understand first and foremost that you don't start putting exceptions to people.

We're all one people, and this is how this country was built. It was built on waves of immigrants, from the 10th, 11th, 12th generation, like my case, to the one where the most recent generations of immigrants.

We are the one that constitute the Quebec people, and as part of that, we have to recognize that we're on a territory that belongs to the Indigenous peoples first and foremost.

This land was stolen by them, first by these French colonialists and then by these British colonialists. And when I say colonialists, I don't mean settlers. I mean basically the state, the Crown. They're the ones who did it.

You follow the history of Canada and Quebec; you can see exactly what they're doing. It's always been a— A policy of governments that have racist policies all the way through that has never changed, and even today they're carrying on the same way.

You can just look at, just for the Indigenous people, all the things that they said in that Truth and Reconciliation, all these recommendations, how many of them have been put into action? Almost none.

They're the ones that are still fighting to have reparation for a lot of things that were done. They're fighting these days against all these mega projects that the Mark Carney government, along with the Freeland government, are hand in hand to plunder even more natural resources, energy, and so on, and they don't have a say.

These governments say: “We're consulting you”, and the Indigenous people answer back: “Where? Where is the consultation? We're supposed to have a decision-making in this, and you're just putting it. You're already deciding.”

The Indigenous people don't agree with that kind of doing things, and they're fully right in saying this is not the way it should be done, and they have all the right to say: “We will oppose this, and this is what's happening right now”. And I see it with the younger generations among the Indigenous people.

What is your position on Quebec's Bill 21, particularly its impact on Muslim women who wear the hijab and may be prevented from working in certain public-sector jobs? Do you believe the law protects secularism or restricts fundamental rights?

It's always been the policy of Quebec governments, past and present, to always try to find ways to divide the people, and they have all kinds of things they use to try to do that.

One of the things that Bill 21 tries to do is to split the people, split the people into this issue of what they're saying, secularism versus religious, your own faith, and this is not a correct way of looking at things.

You have the right to be able to exercise your personal beliefs. And if that, the way you show it is through the way you dress, that should not be criminalized.

This is what these governments are doing. Mostly their argument is so silly when you look at the fact that they're stopping people who are workers in daycare centers saying you can't wear, for example, the hijab because you may influence the kids.

Well, I'm sorry, but that's the other way of putting it. It's completely reversing the narrative. The narrative is more it's these governments, the way they're presenting.

They're the ones that are trying to brainwash the people with all their silliness about that.

So yes, Bill 21 should definitely be repealed.

And the whole issue of personal belief should be looked at properly. And if it's something that is a fundamental right, right now it's your freedom of conscience that's being basically violated when they stop you from being able to wear a hijab or any kind of other ways of other apparel on yourself.

Like some African people, they wear some apparels on their head and so on and so forth. It's a cultural thing. So why should we stop other people from wearing these things?

It's criminalizing the people, trying to divide them, while the real issues are never discussed.

Do you believe that Quebec should become an independent country? And if so, what would independence concretely mean for ordinary Quebecois economically, socially and politically?

Well, I'm very happy you're asking that question because as one of our slogans. If you ever visit National Assembly border on Ontario, you will see a big banner that says: “For a modern and sovereign Quebec that defends the rights of all”. So, what do we mean by that? If you want to have a sovereign Quebec, first and foremost, the people must be sovereign in decision-making.

They never raise all these other parties who pretend they're for independence of Quebec. They never raise the issue of where they stand on the issue of people being sovereign.

I'll give you a simple example. The CAQ came up with this, they say: “We're going to have a constitution”. Now, who was going to write it? It was going to be the National Assembly.

I don't know of any country that has a modern constitution unless it's written by the people.

And we have so many examples in the past of people in the struggle for their own independence, liberation, they wrote their own constitution.

I'll give you an example: Haiti. Anyone who would set their foot on 1804 said: “You're a free person”. Well, it enraged so much the U.S. and France and Britain, they tried to organize a blockade against that country for years to stop it from being able to exercise its own sovereignty.

Here in Quebec, we must recognize Quebec for what it is: a nation. But it must be a modern nation, with a modern understanding of what that means.

People today in the 21st century, it can't just be these old stock Québécois like myself. It's people that have come from all over the world to be here, raise their family, work, contribute to society.

They should have a say like anyone else, and we should not try to divide the polity based on your background, your national background, your faith, or any form like that. That would be a modern constitution.

Getting back to your question, the issue of independence of Quebec is intimately linked to the issue of having a sovereign person, sovereign people being able to exercise their power of decision-making.

Our stand is, we say Quebec nation, it has the right to self-determination like any other nation. And if it's the will, and again, I insist, if it is the will of the people to separate from the rest of Canada.

But we don't agree with that and say we should be part of a “free union” with the rest of Canada. Why do I say free union? Because the kind of constitution we have in this country, the 1867 British North American Act, has been imposed on this country.

The point here is that we need a modern constitution, not just for Quebec, but for the rest of Canada, where the people have a say in this.

Fernand Deschamps during an event at the Islamic Center of Montreal

Immigration is a major political issue in Quebec, with debates about housing, public services, French and integration. What should Quebec's immigration policy look like, and what do you believe newcomers should be expected to do to integrate into Quebec society?

No, I don't. And it's a nice, very interesting way that liberals, federal liberals, along with the CAQ and other parties, try to frame the issue. Well, the issue is, why is there first immigration?

A lot of people must leave their country because of the situation in their own country. People don't take that decision very likely when they have to leave their country.

Many people must leave their country these days. We're talking about millions across the world because of regime change that are being imposed by the U.S. and all the other European powers, because they don't accept that people should be able to live independent and free.

You can see these days what they're doing on Venezuela and Cuba. I could find other countries like that. I mean, this is the history of these imperialist powers.

They are creating the anarchy and violence in other countries because they like to exploit them. They like to exploit the riches of those countries and the people. And then, they're all surprised that people have to flee their country.

Well, I'm sorry, but that is the reason why many people have to leave.

If we are going to look at that, we should look at what are the foreign policies of Quebec and Canada, for one.

First, the politics of Quebec and Canada when it comes to foreign issues, they're appeasing all the time the U.S. whenever they're organizing regime change, either be it was the case in Iraq.

In 2003, there was a huge demonstration of 250,000 people here in Montreal to oppose the invasion that the U.S. wanted to do of Iraq. And we have a lot of those. We've always been side by side with the Palestinian people because we recognize ourselves in that their resistance, their resistance is their right to exist.

That is important, and we recognize ourselves in that. And these parties in power, they're trying to put us, tell us that, no, this is not the reality that we are. I'm sorry, but that is the reality we are, despite all the publicity, the slanders they make against the people and the people who are fighting for their right to exist.

A vote was recently held in Montreal City Council on severing ties with Israel. What is your opinion on the decision that was made?

It was interesting that before that motion was put, they brought in a motion. They were the motion coming out from the mayor herself and her party, saying that we should condemn antisemitism and so on and so forth.

Everyone knows clearly now that we have federal Bill C-12, that basically it's all this issue of hate speech, that they're trying to basically to target those who are opposing these Israeli crimes that are being committed against the Palestinian people.

It's not surprising that they brought this motion. And then after, they did their utmost to try to take out everything that was basically the reality. They didn't want to recognize that what was happening in Palestine is a genocide committed against the Palestinian people.

They, most importantly, didn't want the Canadian government to take a principled stand to denounce and get and oppose it.

They're saying, no, we should go and ask the Canadian government: “can you please recognize that Palestinian people?”

Everyone who follows federal politics knows the stand that the Carney government has taken over the years over this.

I remember since 2023 going to so many demonstrations where we were going after Mélanie Joly when she was a foreign minister. Every event she was having here in Montreal, we were there to oppose her, along with all Palestinian youth movement, all the other organizations that are saying this is not acceptable.

This mayor wants to go against the movement of the people. We'll see if that's going to stay there. She, herself, was a former Liberal MP. She has all that liberal thinking, like the Carnies of this world.

I'm not surprised that she made sure that this motion was basically so deluded that it didn't make any more sense.

But I have very much confidence that the movement here in Montreal will carry on organizing and denouncing all this, what is being committed against the Palestinian people. Because we know that the just cause is on the side of the people. We're the ones who are making history, not these big powers.

How do you view Canada's current relationship with the United States, particularly Quebec's economic dependence on the U.S. market?

Well, as you know, this whole issue came up forwards since Trump has been in position there, have been imposing all these tariffs, these trade tariffs.

And the point that it seems to escape all these analysts is, how come we've come to that point?

We go back, go back to the time of the 1988 year. There was a federal election here in Canada. Brian Mulroney wanted to come to power, and he says: “I am for free trade. Let's have a free trade agreement with the U.S. While all the other parties said: “No, we don't want the free trade.”

That is the Liberal, the NDP, and so on. And the issue is that our own party, which we have our party, the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada, we said this is not the real issue that they're really debating. They are trying to get us to line up with either those who are for or against free trade, while the issue is how do we build an independent economy that will be self-reliant first and foremost, that will have trade with other countries on the basis of mutual benefit.

These free trade agreements are not for mutual agreements and mutual benefits. They're for these big monopolies, so they're able to move things around in an easy way.

Since that free trade, when people voted in 1988, the majority of people voted against it. But because the way of the system we have of first-past-the-post system, it was the Conservatives who got in with more seats than the other, and they said, now we have the mandate to go ahead with free trade.

Well, they never had the majority of people voting for them. On the contrary, people were voting for other parties saying, No, we're against free trade.

Since then, we've been having problems with this free trade all the time because the U.S. keeps violating it, and it wants to keep changing it to its own, for the purpose of the interests of these big monopolies that are on the side of the U.S.

They're trying to line up with people to say, Oh, be with me, Carney. I'm for an independent Canada! What kind of independent Canada when he just announced that he's going to increase to 5% of the national gross product for military spending? While all the rest of the -what people need- social housing, education, that's being put aside, “that's not important?!”

We must defend. What kind of defense is he talking about? It's part of the NATO, that aggressive alliance that should have been dismantled after the fall of Soviet Union. They kept on doing it. They kept increasing it, and now they're saying: “This is the way future, because seems now that there's another enemy. Now it's called Russia and it's called China…” I'm sorry, but that's not the way.

That's not the way these discussions should be held in a proper way, but that is the framing they're trying to give us when they're talking about that.

We're telling people, don't submit to that. Let's open a space for discussion on all these issues, and this is what we're doing all the time, year-round.

Your political movement has traditionally been strongly critical of NATO and Canadian foreign policy. What role do you believe Canada and Quebec should play internationally?

Canada should be, like Quebec, should be a factor for peace across the world. And the way to first start is, first and foremost, get Canada out of NATO. Which is a military aggressive pact. It is not a defense pact. It was set up in 1949. People should go and see the history of it.

It's interesting that it was Lester B. Pearson was given a Nobel laureate for peace, who was the one who was behind this to promote that for Canada, interestingly.

And the issue is that we should get out of NATO. We should get out of NORAD, because that is the North American Air Defense Treaty, and it basically puts all Canadian forces under direct command of the U.S. forces.

There's a joke in 1967 when Israel attacked the West Bank and all the countries around, Syria and Egypt. The prime minister of that time, Lester B. Pearson, he never heard. He learned the next morning that the Canadian armed forces were put on alert by the U.S. command.

He's the prime minister and he learned about it afterwards! It's a joke! But it just proves one point, that really people here, they can't exercise power, and those who say they are in power; they're basically aligned with the U.S. when it all comes to this whole issue of foreign policy. Let's get out of NATO. Let's get out of NORAD.

Let's push for the whole issue that we should have relations, as it says in the United Nations funding document. That we should have relations with other countries based on respect for other countries, respecting the fact that they are nations, they have the right to self-determination.

They should be able to exercise their own decisions in their own country without any foreign intervention. This is the worst thing that this Canada government does. It just looks at what the U.S. are doing and they just appease them.

I have in mind what happened last July at the United Nations General Assembly. Cuba brought forward a motion saying that we need to discuss this whole issue of what U.S. are doing. They're imposing this oil embargo on us. It is criminal. It's like a genocide, the same thing as they were doing to Palestine. In that sense, that we need to have a whole discussion on that, and let's have a motion that we will basically condemn what the U.S. are doing.

Everyone, all the members of the General Assembly, went to that meeting in time to decide on the vote and we should have a motion to vote. Guess what stand Canada took? It is basically when you're not against, and you're not for, you're abstaining. Canada, who's had so long relations with Cuba for so many decades, they abstained.

Now, I don't know what Carney is up to, but if he thinks that that's the way he's going to get his deals with the U.S. by appeasing the U.S., well, I'm sorry, it's never going to work. It's never going to work.

When people hear the term "Marxist-Leninist" some associate it with authoritarian governments and one-party states. What would you say to a voter who likes your ideas but worries that Marxism-Leninism is incompatible with liberal democracy?

People should look first at what is liberal democracy. They have it in their face every day. It's speaking in one way and doing the opposite. They see it every day in their life.

They themselves, they're looking for an alternative. Some will say, well, we don't think you're the alternative.

Well, I'll simply say: “we're not, as a party, we don't want to come to power. We want to create the conditions, so the people come to power. Tell me if there's another party that does that.

Because all these parties right now that are in the National Assembly or the House of Commons, that's their only goal in life: to get to power. But where's the role of the people themselves?

One of the comments I kept hearing from people as I was doing the door-to-door, they said: “you know, it's true what you're saying, that is every time there's an election, you and I as voters never have a say who's running, what's their platform. It's the parties that decide. And once elected, they should be accountable to us”.

They're accountable to their parties. That doesn't make sense in the 21st century. We're no longer in the 19th century where people were not even able to be able to read and write. We're in the 21st century. People can make up their mind.

They should be able to have a modern electoral law that gives them mechanism whereby they're able to have themselves a say in the selection of candidates, what they will stand for.

That should be a process that's not just happening at the time of the election, but it's an ongoing process that should be happening year-round.

The way the electoral law is organized here in Quebec, it's only to give money to finance these big parties.

We had, just two days ago, a very interesting roundtable on this whole issue of what these parties are receiving. It's millions of dollars of your money and my money, even though we never voted for them. But it's there. It's in their hands.

You would think that when you look at other countries, they have much more modern electoral process than here. They often like to talk sometimes about South America as “Banana Republics”. Well, I'm sorry. They have sometimes more modern electoral process than us.

They have an electoral college, which basically ensures that whenever there’s an election, people are informed about all the parties that are running and have access to information about their platforms. They also organize public meetings where people can hear about the different parties’ platforms.

Do you see that happening here? They say: “Oh, look, this is the best democracy in the world!”

Well, there's a serious problem there, because it just shows that they're only interested in these parties to maintain power and privileges. I think this is what we're going to keep hammering at.

We must put an end to these privileges and the fact that they're using those privileges to exercise power against the people.

*List of candidates of the Marxist-Leninist Party:

https://pmlq.qc.ca/candidats/