Independent MP Maria Mourani speaks to reporters at her constituency office in Montreal, Friday, September 13, 2013. Morani, a former Bloc Quebecois MP who quit the party after a disagreement over Quebec's proposed secularism charter, says she's no longer a sovereigntist. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
December 18, 2013 - 11:39 AM
OTTAWA - A former Bloc Quebecois MP who quit the party after a disagreement over Quebec's proposed secularism charter says she's no longer a sovereigntist.
Maria Mourani made the announcement in an open letter, where she writes that she's leaving the "independentist" movement because it has changed for the worse.
She writes that she now believes federalism is the best way to defend minority rights.
Mourani says she's remaining as an independent MP and won't join a new political party for now.
The independent Montreal MP says she's been reflecting on her political beliefs since her expulsion from the Bloc Quebecois caucus in September over her public criticism of the Parti Quebecois government's proposed values' charter.
She subsequently quit the party.
In her letter, Mourani accused the PQ of wanting to conduct an election on the "backs of believers."
The federal politician says everyone is a Quebecer, without exception.
“I have come to the conclusion that my belonging to Canada, including its Canadian Charter of Rights of Freedoms, better protects the Quebec identity of all citizens of Quebec," she wrote in the letter released Wednesday.
The criminologist was first elected in the Montreal-area riding of Ahuntsic in 2006 and was one of only four Bloc MPs to be elected in 2011.
The leader who cut her loose from the Bloc, Daniel Paille, announced this week he was stepping down from the political party for health reasons.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2013