Without much fanfare, Mayor Valérie Plante’s political party held a rare congress late last week.
Published yesterday at 3:15 p.m.
The media was not invited to the event or to Ms. Plante’s closing speech. The speech should have been announced to journalists, but “an error resulted in the announcement not being sent as planned,” the party’s communications manager, Arianne Beaupré, said by email.
The entire weekend “was open to observers and media,” assured Ms. Beaupré. However, there is no mention of this event on the homepage of Projet Montréal’s website. Further down on the website, the congress is actually announced, with the note: “Only members in good standing of Projet Montréal can attend this event.”
The mayor’s public calendar, an online tool, indicated she would be present at the conventions.
Last weekend’s meeting focused primarily on a review of the political party’s constitution. “In the past, we did not provide media consulting for conferences dealing with statutes and regulations, as it was more of a technical and niche task,” explained Arianne Beaupré.
Projet Montréal’s last congress of 2021 was a headache for Ms. Plante’s team: activists passed a resolution questioning the police’s funding method and the need for all police officers in Montreal to be armed with a firearm. The mayor had to qualify immediately and assure that these were long-term wishes.
These debates took place behind closed doors at the suggestion of Alia Hassan-Cournol, now a member of the Executive Committee of the City of Montreal.
Projet Montréal recently found itself in trouble when its former head of Élections Québec was fined. Marie Depelteau-Paquette is said to have failed to report the overtime of Projet Montréal employees in the organization’s election expense report, thereby committing an “election fraudulent maneuver,” according to the DGEQ.