A Quebec journalist and essayist, Mathieu Bock-Côte, has warned that the Canadian refusal to allow exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to visit the country is not only "unacceptable in itself," but also "contrary to the Canadian political tradition."
In an article published in the daily Le Journal de Montréal, Bock-Côte makes the point that the travel ban on the former Catalan leader is occurring at a time when Spain is putting independence process leaders on trial in order to "judicially decapitate Catalan nationalism." Puigdemont had planned to visit Quebec, invited by the president of the Société Saint-Jean-Batiste de Montreal (SSJB), Maxime Laporte, but the Canadian authorities revoked his right to travel just one day before his scheduled departure. Given the "arbitrary" appearance of the decision, the exiled president's legal team presented an appeal in a federal Canadian court on Monday. The Canadian authorities, in turn, gave no explanation, with prime minister Trudeau saying only that his government had no involvement in an immigration department decision.
The French-language article, which is entitled 'Homage to Catalonia', echoing George Orwell's well-known autobiographical work, recalls that, in Canada, two referendums on the independence of Quebec took place, one in 1980 and the second in 1995.
Even though the Quebec referendums were criticized in some sectors, the journalist explains, "they were held legally." Quebecers were able to vote "without being beaten" and "separatist leaders were not jailed," he says. In this context, Bock-Côte considers that the federal government should have welcomed the Catalan president.
The journalist compares the positioning of the Canadian and Spanish governments with regard to the right to self-determination. The Ottawa government did not respect the rules of the game and did everything possible to "demonize Quebec nationalism," he explains. However, it did not "repress" the movement nor try to prohibit the consultation by sending in the police, says Bock-Côte.
A year and a half later, Puigdemont is paying the price for this. "Carles Puigdemont tried to lead his people democratically to independence," says the writer, which "from what it seems, was unacceptable."