hazardous, if not dangerous, for the National Assembly to hand out blame like that," he
said. "It is one thing to ask a member of the National Assembly to apologize or withdraw
what he said, like we do in Ottawa. But when it's not a member of that assembly, I think
there are tribunals that can judge whether it was correct or not."
In a full-page letter in Le Devoir Tuesday, 30 prominent sovereigntists, including Mr.
Parizeau, accused the National Assembly of attempting to gag Mr. Michaud and denying
him his right to freedom of speech.
"We the undersigned, consider there is a real misuse of the role of the National Assembly,
a serious attack on the rights and freedoms of citizens and a violation of the Charter," they
wrote in French. It is "a flagrant act of injustice and a stunning show of arbitrary authority of
which every citizen can from now on fear of becoming the victim."
In interviews Monday, Mr. Parizeau compared Mr. Bouchard's defence of the National
Assembly's position to the type of authoritarian actions taken in the era of premier Maurice
Duplessis. "When I was young the Duplessis regime was in place. And a system that
demands that you either believe or die with pressures to adopt this or that, you can be sure
that I can see a throwback to that era. And that is why I protest," he said. "What Mr. Michaud
said was clumsy, especially from someone who wants to be a candidate. But there is
nothing in what he said to make a fuss about."
At least two PQ caucus members, Diane Barbeau and Jean-Claude St-Andrй, have
expressed regret about supporting the motion in the National Assembly.
However, cabinet ministers and most caucus members refused to comment. Mr. Bouchard
staunchly defended the National Assembly's reprimand Tuesday.
"My view is that he [Mr. Michaud] should not be a candidate for the Parti Quйbйcois," Mr.
Bouchard said after a caucus meeting. "If he withdraws [his remarks], it will clear the air
and we could take a second look at it."
He condemned Mr. Michaud's comparison of the suffering of Jews and the plight of
Quebec sovereigntists. "When we know how an entire people was treated, how they were
treated worse than cattle, people who were separated from their families, their children
taken from them, jammed into trains and transported like garbage to concentration camps
where after incredible suffering they were thrown into gas chambers and the ovens, we
cannot speak lightly of these matters," he said.
Although Mr. Michaud said he did not mean to make light of the Holocaust, Mr. Bouchard
said perception was created.
He also criticized Mr. Michaud for "resurrecting the spectre of the ethnic vote", in effect
denouncing remarks made by Mr. Parizeau on the night of the 1995 referendum. Mr.
Parizeau blamed "money and the ethnic vote" for that loss.
"I am convinced this is an attack against people who don't deserve to be treated this way,"
Mr. Bouchard said.
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"Someone who has provoked the Jewish community for years
should expect this sort of thing [a vicious, near-fatal beating]."
- Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld on the savage attack against Professor Faurisson
Questioned Holocaust, historian badly beaten Toronto Globe and Mail | Monday,
Sept. 18, 1989, p. A5
Reuter
CLERMONT-FERRAND, France
A leading French revisionist historian who denies that millions of Jews were killed in the Holocaust was recovering from surgery