The recently announced Pontiac candidate for the Quebec Conservative Party has rescinded his candidacy after the Journal de Montréal published an article on Sept. 9 revealing past anti-abortion and homophobic statements he has made.
Last week Éric Lanthier was named as the Pontiac candidate, with his name and photo being uploaded to the party’s candidate page, but without a biography. THE EQUITY reached out to Lanthier when his candidacy was announced and following the publication of the Journal‘s article, but didn’t receive a response. This story will be updated in the event he responds.
The Journal’s report cites several statements made by Lanthier, a pastor and relationship coach, over the years:
- “It is the sexual act between two men or two women that makes me uncomfortable,” he wrote on the website of the anti-abortion group Campagne Québec-Vie in 2015.
- “The LGBT lobby won the ideological battle by making them believe that a homosexual relationship was of the same type as a heterosexual union [ . . . ] Yet, if we look at it objectively, this right to equality is by no means rational,” he also wrote in 2015.
- In 2019, he posted on social media about having “the privilege” of opening an anti-abortion march in Ottawa.
- Lanthier was also vice-president of the group Uni-T, Voix pour les valeurs chrétiennes (Voice for Christian Values) until 2021, and in 2020 signed a brief to the National Assembly and Ottawa decrying bans on conversion therapy, which Quebec law describes as therapies that “aim to change sexual orientation and suppress homosexual behavior.”
Lanthier declined to comment directly to the Journal when contacted for comment, but issued the publication a statement through the party.
“I am a man who respects people, regardless of their orientation, ethnic origin, or decisions,” he wrote in French. “I am a philanthropist; anyone who knows me knows me to be welcoming and a good listener, and I don’t judge anyone. I am well aware of the positions of the Conservative Party of Quebec and I pledge to respect them.”
Lanthier also commented on the situation in a post on his Facebook page Sept. 9 after withdrawing his candidacy.
“It is a peculiar situation: we have a Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, yet the moment we exercise those rights on the “wrong” side of the ideological divide, we apparently lose the right to participate in democracy,” he wrote in French. “That is partly why traditional media outlets are losing ground: they no longer contribute to debates; instead, they help shut them down. We are left with only the right to pay our taxes—and that is one right they never take away from us.”
At a press conference in Quebec City on Wednesday morning, in response to a question about the article, party leader Éric Duhaime said that Lanthier had withdrawn his candidacy, Noovo Info reported.
“He didn’t want to be a distraction for the party. I accepted his withdrawal,” he said.
“We live in a society where these people have the right to hold personal beliefs,” he said, adding that his party is pro-choice. “I don’t subscribe to the cancel culture.”
Duhaime, an openly gay man, has himself courted controversy numerous times during his career as a talk-radio host for comments about gay people, muslims, sexual assault victims and others. In 2017 he published a book, “La fin de l’homosexualité et le dernier gay” (The end of homosexuality and the last gay), where he argued that gay and women’s rights groups should receive less funding.
It should be noted that the Quebec Conservative Party is a separate entity unaffiliated with the federal Conservative Party of Canada.
