Liberal leader wants to tighten screws on dissenting MNAs on religious schools debate [Video]

Visibly irritated by the dissent within his caucus on the issue of funding for religious schools, interim Quebec Liberal leader Marc Tanguay has given assurances that he will hold discussions with the elected representatives who have broken ranks, without giving any further details.

“Under no circumstances should caucus discussions end up in the public arena,” he said at a news briefing on Tuesday at the National Assembly.

Last week, during a debate on a Parti Québécois (PQ) motion calling for an end to funding for religious schools, Liberal MNA Marwah Rizqy said that her party’s position had just changed: “We now believe that we must stop funding religious schools in Quebec,” she said.

Since this about-face on a historic position of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), three caucus members — Frédéric Beauchemin (Marguerite-Bourgeoys), Désirée McGraw (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce) and Elisabeth Prass (D’Arcy-McGee) — have publicly broken the party line, stating that they …