Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet delivered a blistering French-only press conference in Ottawa, accusing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government of abandoning Quebec’s independent media and cultural sector while bending to global tech giants, foreign regimes, and fossil fuel interests. He argued the government’s policies threaten not just jobs, but Quebec’s identity and democratic infrastructure.Blanchet said the Liberals could have generated roughly $5 billion a year by taxing multinational digital corporations operating in Canada. Instead, he said Prime Minister Carney chose to “gift” those corporations a free ride and replace the lost revenue with taxpayer money, while claiming the government was supporting the cultural sector..“That money should have come from multinational corporations that pay nothing here, not from ordinary taxpayers,” Blanchet said.He argued those funds should have gone directly into the media, arts, and cultural ecosystem that now faces collapse under foreign competition.A major point of Blanchet’s attack was the concentration of federal support into the state broadcaster.He argued CBC/Radio-Canada received the bulk of new cultural funding while Quebec’s private broadcasters such as Québecor, Cogeco, and Bell Media face layoffs, shrinking operational budgets, and disappearing advertising markets.He warned that dependence on a single government-funded broadcaster threatens media plurality, especially in rural and francophone regions..“Remove TVA and Cogeco from a region like Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and the diversity of information disappears,” he said.Although Blanchet said he respects Radio-Canada and once worked there himself, he accused the government of acting as though the national broadcaster could or should replace the entire media landscape.Blanchet also targeted Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, accusing him of abandoning his former activism.Blanchet contrasted the past Guilbeault known for civil disobedience and environmental protest with the cabinet minister defending what Blanchet described as an oil-friendly agenda and a centralist cultural vision.According to Blanchet, the Carney government has become “petro-focused” and prioritizes the interests of global oil markets and the major banks that finance them.He pointed to warming relations with the United Arab Emirates and what he called a refusal to confront forced labour in Chinese supply chains as further signs of misplaced priorities.Blanchet mocked recent Liberal rhetoric suggesting Quebec independence could trigger foreign instability.“In one week, we heard the Russians might invade us, then the Americans. So apparently the battlefield is going to be Drummondville,” he said.Despite the humour, Blanchet’s message carried a clear warning. He argued the sovereignty debate, long assumed dormant, is returning to mainstream political life, especially among younger voters who see independence not as radical, but as a logical conversation about democratic control.“We will be better neighbours as an independent country than unhappy partners forced to remain together,” Blanchet said.
