Quebec Parliament approves declassifying information from the 1995 independence referendum to clarify campaign funds

The Quebec National Assembly officially asked this Thursday to make public documents and testimonies related to the 1995 independence referendum. Specifically, regarding information kept after an investigation into the financing of the campaign of opponents of separation from Canada. The motion, approved unanimously and presented by the leader of the Quebecois Party, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, requests the director general of the provincial electoral body to disclose these contents “as soon as possible.” St-Pierre Plamondon described the parliamentary vote as “a great victory for Quebecois democracy.”

On May 20, 1980, Quebec voted in a first independence referendum. That day, the option for him did not win with 59.56% of the votes. On October 30, 1995, in a second attempt, the defenders of the federalist cause won again with 50.58%; an advantage of just 54,288 votes. The Quebec electoral authorities asked former judge Bernard Grenier in 2006 to carry out an investigation into the campaign of the winners of that last referendum. A year later, and after summoning 90 witnesses and reviewing some 4,500 evidence documents, Grenier submitted a report in which he noted that the promoters of the had not illegally spent $539,000; a much lower figure than that quoted in journalistic works. Following the publication of the report, the documents and testimony were classified indefinitely at Grenier’s request.

In a press conference this Tuesday, when announcing his intention to present the motion, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said that “whether you are a federalist or an independentist, or you are somewhere in between, there is a fundamental principle of transparency towards the population and out of respect for our democracy.” The leader of the Quebecois Party (the main pro-independence group) added: “Not even the assassination of John F. Kennedy justified keeping the documents confidential forever.” On the same Tuesday, François Legault, Quebec Prime Minister and leader of the Coalition Future of Quebec (CAQ for its acronym in French), said he agreed with the proposal. “We have nothing to hide,” he stated, though he said he needed more information about the procedure.

Not a few supporters of independence continue to point out that the defeat in the 1995 referendum was due, in large part, to the funds allocated to the campaign to remain in Canada. On the night of October 30, 1995, Jacques Parizeau, Quebec’s prime minister and one of the main champions of the separation, referred to this matter in the speech he gave after learning of the results at the polls. He also mentioned a point that, according to various analysts, considerably affected the independence movement in later years. Parizeau declared: “We lost. Because? Basically because of the money and the ethnic votes.” A day later, he submitted his resignation as prime minister and leader of the Quebecois Party.

Polls in recent years place support for Quebec’s independence at just over 30%. However, polls have also shown that it is an issue that receives less and less attention among voters. The results of the Quebecois Party (main promoter of independence) in the last two elections show this: in the 2018 elections it won 10 constituencies, while in 2021 it obtained only three deputies.

François Legault’s CAQ achieved resounding victories in these two appointments at the polls. Legault, a former promoter of independence who served in Quebecois Party governments, defends the idea of ​​a strong Quebec, but within the Canadian federation. Considered a conservative nationalist politician, he ended the alternation between the Quebec Liberal Party and the Quebecois Party; groups that structured a large part of his electoral discourse around the independence issue. Following the second secession attempt in 1995, Canadian parliamentarians approved in June 2000 the so-called “Law of Clarity”: a series of conditions for future secessionist consultations that takes into account aspects such as the formulation of the question in a referendum and the interpretation of the result thereof.

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