PQ leader says immigration comments were distorted by opponents during campaign week

PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said Friday that comments he made linking immigration to overcrowded schools have been "distorted" by opponents during the second week of Quebec's provincial election campaign.

At a press conference Saturday outside a Quebec City high school using modular classrooms, St-Pierre Plamondon said "schools were overflowing everywhere in Quebec" and cited data about an increase he attributed to immigrants. The statistics he shared combined immigrants and Quebec-born children of immigrants.

The comments drew swift criticism. Ruba Ghazal, Québec solidaire co-spokesperson, accused St-Pierre Plamondon of scapegoating immigrant children, asking Wednesday: "Who does the PQ consider a Quebecer? Isn't being born here enough?" She added: "My nieces and nephews were born here. They've never known anything but Quebec. How can we blame them for overcrowded schools? It's hurtful."

Addressing the backlash Friday, St-Pierre Plamondon said: "To us, all Quebecers are 100 per cent Quebecers, but we just have a bad public policy that needs to be fixed" and said the PQ was "not targeting Quebecers of immigrant background."

Frantz André, head of a Montreal-based migrant advocacy group, said the PQ is using electoral talking points similar to those former Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault deployed in 2018 and 2022. "The reality is we need immigrants," André said. "Immigration is challenging, but it's also a solution to our population decline and labour shortage."

The PQ's policy proposes reducing temporary immigrants in Quebec per year from more than 500,000 to between 200,000 and 250,000. St-Pierre Plamondon claimed Legault's government "lost control" over immigration despite those earlier promises. The Quebec election is scheduled for October 5.