No wonder it's ambitious...

Thank you very much to the coordinator Diane Matte and to the mobiliser, Manon Massé. Although I wasn't aware of the idea, I had a hard time imagining the organization. At the time there was no worldwide relationship in feminist groups! Convinced by the members of the Women’s Federation of Quebec, we voted in favour of the idea at the general assembly in 1996. At that time he was the president of the Federation. They convinced me, too, and I started to convince myself of the execution, thinking it was necessary for it to happen.

The bases were agreed quite easily.

In 1998, we met for the first time in Montreal, some 150 women from a hundred villages. We wanted it to be a march against poverty, but it was not everybody's pleasure. We prefer to be a march against all poverty and violence. The twenty demands we brought to the United Nations (UN) were agreed quite easily.

Year 2000, year of implementation.

It was a great job. At first we employed a coordinator, little by little, two others, and gradually 30 people were working. The matter became monstrous. Of course, it was a weight, in addition to the organization at Quebec level, in Canada and also in the international. It almost failed in December 1999. The coordinator informed me that we did not have more than $300,000. We had six weeks left to flush the soda.

How did you do that?

By chance, I was able to meet a minister from Canada. The Federal Government has not yet rectified us with the money, while the Quebec Government has already distributed us a million dollars. It was the time of Canada. We took the money by miracle and ran out of holes.

The final steps were taken in New York.

We were at that final rally 10,000 women, most of them from North America, but also from all continents. We met with the replacement of the UN Secretary-General, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

What messages did you send them?

We talk to them about women and also about liberalism. Besides being a feminist, our movement is alterglobalist. Neoliberalism and patriarchy are intimately united, feeding each other.

Neoliberalism needs a strong austerity.

Women are also the most affected by austerity. In Quebec, for example, 75 per cent of people working in public services and functions are women. They bring invaluable services that make society still stand. The government mocks these women with the cuts. The State abandons its obligations but, inevitably, who executes those services? To a large extent, women, be it family, neighborhood, in associations...

The World Women's March is strong.

In the early EMMs, women from the North and the South were conflicting, they said that we treated them consciously. I think we hear more now. Some lesbians who were immersed in the organization regretted not having talked enough about their reality. They were right. We're also working with the autochthonos. The capacity to represent diversity has been growing and it is clear that this is the result of the EMM.

You are a member of the sovereign Quebec Solidaire party.

We propose an independent process based on a social project. It's a feminist, environmentalist and progressive project. We cheer two referendums, we win almost the second. Twenty years later, however, we have everything to do. Between 35 and 38 per cent are in favour of sovereignty, it is not enough. Young people need to be told not only about the flag, the seat of the UN or the bad federal government, but also about a great social project.

What would the independence process look like?

If we were to reach the government, we would form a constituent congress, which would be preferred by the public and which would represent the diversity of the population. At the same time, we in Quebec would organise a vote on the political future. We therefore have a double trait: to reflect on the political and, at the same time, to draft the constitution. Our values, including feminism, would be consolidated in that text.

How do you ensure that feminism won't come to the background?

The fact that the party that proposes the independence project is feminist is the only guarantee that the hypothetical independence is based on feminism. We say clearly that we are feminists, we have the parity set out in our statutes. If you knew how many times I talk about women in my speeches! But I'm not there forever... Do I have a guarantee that Quebec Solidaire will continue to spread the feminist message?

I ask you ...

We have no guarantee at all. But the party will continue to be a feminist until all the feminists I know continue in Quebec Solidai. On the other hand, I believe that the women’s movement must take care of Quebec Solidaire. Although we have allies, it is not true that they are men.