{"id":42949,"date":"2026-05-13T03:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T03:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/42949\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T03:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T03:31:09","slug":"parti-quebecois-leader-alleges-ottawa-is-spying-on-separatist-movement-without-offering-proof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/42949\/","title":{"rendered":"Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader alleges Ottawa is spying on separatist movement without offering proof"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon questions the government at the legislature in Quebec City, on Tuesday.Jacques Boissinot\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The leader of the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois said without evidence on Tuesday that he believes the federal government is spying on his party, reviving an old grievance of the province\u2019s independence movement that once had a basis in fact. <\/p>\n

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and his colleagues leave their phones outside the room in signal-blocking pouches during sensitive meetings and otherwise conduct themselves as though they are under surveillance by Ottawa, he told a Quebec City press conference. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have a duty to be cautious,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not paranoia, it\u2019s simply knowing your history.\u201d <\/p>\n

The allegation comes at a delicate time for national unity, with separatist movements in Alberta and Quebec<\/a> gaining momentum. The PQ is leading or tied in most polls and promising an independence referendum if they win October\u2019s provincial election. <\/p>\n

The leader\u2019s comments also come with historic federal spying fresh in the province\u2019s political consciousness, just over a week since the death of Claude Morin, a former PQ cabinet minister later revealed to be a paid RCMP informant. Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon mentioned the \u201cshadows\u201d around Mr. Morin\u2019s legacy in paying homage to the prominent sovereigntist. <\/p>\n

Obituary: Claude Morin, adviser to Quebec premiers and paid RCMP informant<\/a><\/p>\n

However, Canadian intelligence and national security experts say it\u2019s highly unlikely the federal government is currently engaged in surveillance of a provincial political party \u2013 even one promoting independence. Wesley Wark, a senior fellow at the non-partisan think tank Centre for International Governance Innovation, said it\u2019s \u201cpreposterous to assume that the PQ would be spied on nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RCMP did not immediately provide comment. The Prime Minister\u2019s Quebec lieutenant Jo\u00ebl Lightbound declined to comment. <\/p>\n

Recent research has highlighted how foreign actors are using the Alberta separatist movement<\/a> to spread disinformation in Canada, while the Public Safety Ministry told The Globe last week that such threats are a priority for the federal government. <\/p>\n

There are no credible allegations of foreign interference benefiting the Quebec independence movement today, although such fears have prompted surveillance of the PQ in the past. <\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon claimed to have \u201cinformation\u201d related to alleged federal spying on his party, but acknowledged that he had no proof and was unable to investigate. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is, we don\u2019t have the means to verify that \u2013 we\u2019re a little organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois stays course on referendum despite Carney\u2019s call for unity<\/a><\/p>\n

Although Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon\u2019s allegations are vague, the history of federal spying on the PQ is well-documented. In 1973, the Mounties broke into a computer company\u2019s offices to steal an electronic party membership list, as detailed by a later public inquiry. <\/p>\n

In the same period, Mr. Morin was meeting occasionally with RCMP officers who hoped to gather intelligence about French interference in Quebec politics. The contacts continued through the time that Mr. Morin was a PQ cabinet minister in the Ren\u00e9 L\u00e9vesque government, although he later claimed he was outwitting the agents by gathering information about their operations. <\/p>\n

The federal Communications Security Establishment had a division to monitor separatist politicians in the 1980s, according to revelations by former employee Mike Frost, while as recently as 1994 Radio-Canada reported that the CSE maintained files on leading PQ members. <\/p>\n

Public evidence of federal surveillance in more recent decades is scant, however, and the PQ did not immediately respond to a request for such evidence. <\/p>\n

Mr. Wark said the 1984 creation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which replaced the RCMP\u2019s intelligence operations, tightened the rules around such surveillance. Federal legislation sets out the national security threats CSIS is allowed to investigate, including espionage, sabotage, foreign interference, terrorism and subversion. <\/p>\n

\u201cNone of those categories would apply to the PQ,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Konrad Yakabuski: Christine Fr\u00e9chette has scrambled Quebec politics<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Wark pointed out that the \u201csecurity environment\u201d in Quebec has changed dramatically since the 1960s, when the Front de lib\u00e9ration du Qu\u00e9bec, a violent separatist group, launched a series of attacks. <\/p>\n

The lack of more recent spying disclosure hasn\u2019t reassured Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon, however. Past instances have coincided with the lead-up to referendums in the late 1970s and mid-1990s, which could be grounds for concern today, with the possibility of another independence vote on the horizon, he said. <\/p>\n

For now, the leader said, he will continue to exercise caution.<\/p>\n

Bill Robinson, an expert on Canadian signals intelligence and a research fellow at the University of Toronto\u2019s Citizen Lab, said it\u2019s \u201cperfectly sensible\u201d for political parties to take the threat of surveillance seriously. It\u2019s not a bad idea to leave phones out of meetings, he said \u2013 but Ottawa is unlikely to be the culprit. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere could be all kinds of foreign governments listening in on what you\u2019re talking about,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then leaking that information back for whatever ends they have.\u201d<\/p>\n

With reports from Bill Curry and Tu Thanh Ha<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon questions the government at the legislature in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,61,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,237,228,221,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-42949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-ottawa","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}