The Quebec government is demanding an apology from a legislator who compared the Royal Family to parasites and circus performers.
Alastair Grant/AFP/Getty Images file photo ANDREW CHUNG QUEBEC BUREAU
MONTREAL—With the feel-good factor for William and Kate soaring since their fairy-tale wedding, their royal highnesses’ sojourn to Quebec next month risks dulling the afterglow.
Always the province with the least interest in the Royal Family, one might have thought the couple’s youthful energy would lead to more enthusiasm here.
Not if Quebec’s most colourful politician is any indication. On Tuesday Amir Khadir, an ultra-left parliamentarian, likened the royals to parasites and circus freaks.
And at least one extremist separatist group has promised to protest their presence.
Criticizing the fact that Quebec will be paying for part of their visit, Khadir said he’s against the monarchy. “It’s a parasitic system that we inherited from ancient times,” he declared.
He was equally unimpressed by the tourist dollars the visit could bring in.
“If (they’re) a tourist attraction, I would like (them) to know that we’re bringing them here a bit like we do the travelling circus,” said Khadir, the sole representative of the pro-independence Québec solidaire party.
Khadir, who has in the past thrown shoes at an effigy of George W. Bush and protested a small boutique for selling Israeli-made shoes, also drew parallels between the visit and carnival sideshows from the past that paraded characters with “miniature heads” and the like.
Politicians from the governing Liberals and the right-wing Action démocratique du Québec condemned Khadir. Deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau said such a “base attack” demonstrates a “lack of manners and a lack of respect for citizens of Quebec.”
Robert Finch, dominion chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada said the remarks reflect “badly on Mr. Khadir and his party and frankly on the province.”
He said the attack will soon be picked up by international media, and “it comes across as, ‘Are all Quebecers this rude and unwelcoming?’ We know that’s not the case but perception is reality. It does the province a disservice.”
The couple will begin their Canadian visit in Ottawa for Canada Day, with Montreal following on July 2 and Quebec City on July 3. There will also be stops in Charlottetown, Summerside, P.E.I., Yellowknife, N.W.T., and Calgary.
Finch expects that, like elsewhere, the young and attractive Duke and Duchess of Cornwall have reignited interest in the royals in Quebec. “There’s a novelty factor that Prince William and Kate have that other members of the Royal Family don’t have,” he said.
A visit by Queen Elizabeth in 1964 led to raucous protests and hundreds of arrests. In 2009, separatist protesters delayed a visit by Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, to a Montreal armoury.
The Réseau de Résistance du Québecois, a hardline separatist group, says it’s planning a peaceful protest in Quebec City in order to make the couple’s visit as “disagreeable as possible.”
The Réseau was the most vocal group criticizing a planned 2009 reenactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Organizers cancelled the reenactment amid fears of violence after threats from militant separatists.
With files from Canadian Press.
