Green Party deputy leader Jonathan Pedneault to run in Montreal federal byelection

Green Party deputy leader Jonathan Pedneault is expected to announce that he will run in a federal byelection in the Montreal riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount.

The riding, considered a Liberal stronghold, had been held since 2008 by former cabinet minister Marc Garneau, who stepped down in March. 

"I always said I would be running in a Quebec riding," Pedneault told CBC when asked about his decision to run in the riding.

Pedneault spoke Sunday while taking a break from preparing his campaign, which will focus on economic inequality and climate change, the effects of which were seen clearly in April with ice storms that left thousands in the province without electricity.  

Pedneault and his supporters will hold a launch event at 11 a.m. at the Monkland Tavern.

Pedneault, who grew up on Montreal's south shore, said the riding's diverse profile resonates with him because he identifies as bi-racial and queer. 

But the first-time candidate said he expects the debate over minority rights will feature prominently in the lead-up to voting day on June 19. 

As a francophone, Pedneault said the needs of French speakers need to be advanced, but "that cannot be done on the back of minorities" like English speakers, a language minority in Quebec.

"I strongly believe most people in the anglophone community want to learn French. They want to have the opportunity to engage in this beautiful language," Pedneault said. "That cannot be done by referring to a bill that was so divisive."

That divisive bill is the Quebec government's Bill 96, now Law 14. 

The controversial law aims to protect the French language in the province, but some argue it goes too far, overriding the rights of the province's English-speaking minority. It was also passed with the Quebec government preemptively invoking the notwithstanding clause, which allows provinces and territories to override certain provisions of the Constitution. 

Pedneault criticized the federal Liberals for introducing amendments to the Official Languages Act, Bill C-13, which refers to Quebec's Charter of the French Language. The charter was modified last year when Quebec adopted the controversial Bill 96. 

Several Montreal Liberal MPs, including Garneau, who previously held the riding, criticized his party for referencing the controversial Quebec legislation in a federal bill. 

"Minorities need to be protected. Individual rights need to be protected. And that's something I will stand up for if elected MP," Pedneault said. "It is very much at the core of what I stand for as a human rights activist throughout my life."

Pedneault has spent his career defending individual and human rights and educating others about the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. As a journalist, he worked in Somalia, Yemen, Ethiopia, and other conflict zones. 

The Green Party has two MPs in the House of Commons, and Pedneault hopes to become the third, joining Mike Morrice and party leader Elizabeth May. 

Both he and May will ask the Green Party membership in November to amend the party's constitution to make the two of them the official leaders of the Greens.