The appointment of former controversial host and columnist Jacinthe-Ève Arel as chief of staff to the Delegate Minister for Government Efficiency and State Regulatory Streamlining is raising a wave of protest.
Québec solidaire (QS) called on the Parti Québécois (PQ) government on Friday to immediately cancel the appointment.
For his part, the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ), Éric Duhaime, believes that Arel is making a mistake by allowing the PQ to instrumentalize a voice from the right.
In a message sent to The Canadian Press, the Liberal Party (PLQ) is asking the PQ to explain how Arel’s positions correspond to its own.
When asked to justify this appointment, the Parti Québécois government refused to comment, through one of its spokespeople.
On social media, Arel’s X account could still be viewed on Friday, but there were no longer any posts.
Just recently, Arel vehemently opposed a summit on homelessness, one of the PQ’s flagship commitments, and she defended herself for having shared a video of Robert Kennedy Junior.
Appointments of chiefs of staff usually go rather unnoticed in Quebec, but the announcement made by the PQ government on Thursday evening immediately provoked reactions.
Arel becomes, in a way, the principal political advisor to the junior minister Sébastien D’Astous, who therefore reports first and foremost to the President of the Treasury Board, Alain Therrien.
“Ms. Arel is an admirer of Trump and the American right,” denounced QS co-spokesperson Sol Zanetti.
“I cannot fathom that Mr. (Premier) St-Pierre Plamondon considers her a close advisor to govern Quebec. Her statements comparing public health measures to totalitarianism, others denying the existence of transgender people, and her defense of President Trump are all reasons to disqualify her from a government position. There is only one thing to do: she must leave.”
Ruba Ghazal, for her part, asserted that Arel’s appointment “goes too far”.
Arel has notably already expressed her support for the American right and President Donald Trump, as well as for Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime in its war against Ukraine.
Duhaime, for his part, described Arel as a “brilliant and eloquent woman” – he had recruited her as a PCQ candidate in 2022.
But he regretted that a figure from the right was being co-opted by the PQ in this way.
The new chief of staff thus possesses a political background that would not have led her to land in a Parti Québécois cabinet.
In 2018, she was a candidate for the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) and she has also previously worked for Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette.
“She’s making the same mistake as in 2018, when she ran for a ‘coalition,’ where ultimately the right wing is used to demonstrate a diversity of opinions while all the decisions are made on the left,” wrote Duhaime. “Beware of the token right wing within the PQ.”
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
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