Maria Mourani (born 19 May 1969) is a Canadian politician who was elected as a Member of Parliament in the federal riding of Ahuntsic in Canada. She was formerly a member of the Bloc Québécois before leaving the party over its support for the proposed Quebec Charter of Values. She joined the New Democratic Party in November 2014 but was not a member of the party's caucus due to the party's policy against crossing the floor; she stood for the NDP in the 2015 Canadian federal election, but did not win. Mourani was the first woman of Lebanese origin elected to the Canadian House of Commons.[1] In 2017, she became the Quebec representative in the Permanent Delegation of Canada at UNESCO.
Maria Mourani | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the Canadian Parliament for Ahuntsic | |
| In office 23 January 2006 – 19 October 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Eleni Bakopanos |
| Succeeded by | Mélanie Joly |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 May 1969 Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Political party | Bloc Québécois (2006–2013) Independent (2013–2015) New Democratic Party (2015-present) |
| Residence | Montreal |
| Alma mater | Université de Montréal |
| Profession | Politician, criminologist, parole officer, rehabilitation counsellor, researcher, sociologist, teaching assistant, consultant |
Before politics
editMourani was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.[1] Of Lebanese descent, Mourani immigrated to Canada in 1988. She has held positions as rehabilitation consultant, professor, researcher, and parole officer.[1] She is a former parole officer for Correctional Service of Canada. She is a former member of the Saint-Laurent volunteer action, Henri-Beaulieu school establishment council, Founoun artistic journal, Quebec Association of Criminologists, and the Reflection Committee and Social Action. She is the former President of the Bloc's citizen's committee and on the Parti Québécois riding executive in the provincial riding of Acadie and the Committee director of the PQ orientation congress. She was also a freelance writer for L'Avenir.
Mourani is also the author of La face cachée des gangs de rue (October 2006), a book about street gangs in Montreal. She followed it up with a second book on street gang networks in Canada, United States and Central America entitled Gangs de rue inc. (September 2009).[1][2][3]
She was a co-founder and a co-president of the Canadian Lebanese Friendship Association in the Canadian Parliament as well as the President of the Algerian Canadian Friendship Association.
On 15 August 2008, she was awarded an honorary medal in Beirut, Lebanon by the World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU).
Political career
editIn the 2003 Quebec election, she ran unsuccessfully as the PQ candidate in Acadie.[4]
She was elected in the 2006 Canadian federal election and reelected in 2008 and 2011. She was consequently assigned as the Bloc Québécois Critic on Public Security and on the Status of Women in the Canadian Parliament.
After the 2011 federal election Mourani was one of only four Bloc Québécois MPs left in the House of Commons, the only Bloc member from the Montreal area, and the only female Bloc MP in the 41st Parliament.[5]
She declared her candidacy in the Bloc Québécois leadership election that was held to choose a successor to Gilles Duceppe and ran on a platform of making the Bloc more independent from the Parti Québécois.[6][7] She was defeated on the second ballot by former MP Daniel Paillé on 11 December 2011.[8]
She was expelled from the Bloc Quebecois caucus on 12 September 2013, for opposing the Quebec Charter of Values and subsequently sat as an independent for the remainder of her term as MP.[9]
On 18 December 2013, Mourani surprised citizens by announcing that she had renounced sovereigntism. She now believed that Canadian federalism was the best way to protect minority rights, and argued that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was best suited to protect "the Quebec identity and all citizens of Quebec." She also accused the PQ of running its election campaign "on the backs of believers."[10][11][12]
On 19 November 2014, Mourani announced that she would run for the NDP in the next election, though as per the party's policy on crossing the floor she remained an independent MP until the election.[13][14]
On 21 January 2015 she was acclaimed the NDP's candidate in the renamed Ahuntsic-Cartierville for the 2015 Canadian federal election,[15] but lost her seat to rival Liberal candidate Mélanie Joly.[citation needed]
After the 2015 elections, she opened a consultancy office Mourani-Criminologie on criminology with a concentration on issues of organized crime and gangs, juvenile delinquency, human trafficking, prostitution and international terrorism. She is a member of the Quebec Professional Order of Criminologists.[16]
On 25 October 2017, the Quebec government nominated Mourani as the Quebec representative in the Permanent Delegation of Canada at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris replacing Julie Miville-Dechêne. She assumes her position starting 5 December 2017.[17]
Bibliography
edit- Books
- La face cachée des gangs de rue, Les Éditions de l'Homme, 2006, 211 pages ISBN 978-2-7619-2253-1
- Gangs de rue inc. : leurs réseaux au Canada et dans les Amériques, Les éditions de l'Homme, 2009, 416 pages, ISBN 978-2-7619-2683-6
- Others
- Rose Dufour, Ina Motoi (preface by Maria Mourani and Hélène Manseau), La femme, sa sexualité et son pouvoir sexuel: programme d'appropriation de sa sexualité, Les Presses de l'Université du Québec, 2011
- Notre indépendance: 28 Québécois s'expriment (collective book), under the direction of Catherine Fillion-Lauzièr, Stanké, 2012
Electoral record
edit| 2015 Canadian federal election: Ahuntsic-Cartierville | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Liberal | Mélanie Joly | 26,026 | 46.8 | +15.7 | – | |||
| New Democratic | Maria Mourani | 16,684 | 30.0 | +0.1 | – | |||
| Bloc Québécois | Nicolas Bourdon | 7,346 | 13.2 | -15.1 | – | |||
| Conservative | Wiliam Moughrabi | 4,051 | 7.3 | -1.3 | – | |||
| Green | Gilles Mercier | 1,175 | 2.1 | +0.7 | – | |||
| Rhinoceros | Catherine Gascon-David | 285 | 0.5 | – | – | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | – | 100.0 | $220,041.13 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | – | – | – | |||||
| Turnout | – | – | – | |||||
| Eligible voters | 82,863 | |||||||
| Source: Elections Canada[18][19] | ||||||||
| 2011 Canadian federal election: Ahuntsic | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Bloc Québécois | Maria Mourani | 14,908 | 31.80 | -7.68 | ||||
| New Democratic | Chantal Reeves | 14,200 | 30.29 | +21.32 | ||||
| Liberal | Noushig Eloyan | 13,087 | 27.91 | -10.68 | ||||
| Conservative | Constantin Kiryakidis | 3,770 | 8.04 | -2.32 | ||||
| Green | Ted Kouretas | 620 | 1.32 | -1.25 | ||||
| Rhinoceros | Jean-Olivier Berthiaume | 299 | 0.64 | – | ||||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 46,884 | 100.00 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 516 | 1.09 | - | |||||
| Turnout | 47,400 | 64.98 | -0.66 | |||||
| Bloc Québécois hold | Swing | -14.50 | ||||||
| 2008 Canadian federal election: Ahuntsic | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Bloc Québécois | Maria Mourani | 18,815 | 39.48 | +0.57 | $53,286 | |||
| Liberal | Eleni Bakopanos | 18,392 | 38.59 | +1.30 | $51,887 | |||
| Conservative | Jean Précourt | 4,937 | 10.36 | -1.89 | $56,496 | |||
| New Democratic | Alexandra Bélec | 4,276 | 8.97 | +1.07 | $6,663 | |||
| Green | Lynette Tremblay | 1,228 | 2.57 | -1.10 | $20 | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 47,648 | 100.00 | – | $82,379 | ||||
| Total rejected ballots | 523 | 1.09 | ||||||
| Turnout | 48,181 | 65.64 | ||||||
| Bloc Québécois hold | Swing | -0.40 | ||||||
| 2006 Canadian federal election: Ahuntsic | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Bloc Québécois | Maria Mourani | 19,428 | 38.91 | -2.34 | $69,180 | |||
| Liberal | Eleni Bakopanos | 18,594 | 37.24 | -6.51 | $64,168 | |||
| Conservative | Etienne Morin | 6,089 | 12.25 | +7.01 | $16,100 | |||
| New Democratic | Caroline Desrosiers | 3,948 | 7.90 | +1.70 | $4,702 | |||
| Green | Lynette Tremblay | 1,836 | 3.67 | +0.99 | $411 | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 49,895 | 100.00 | $77,453 | |||||
| Bloc Québécois gain from Liberal | Swing | -2.1 | ||||||
| 2004 Canadian federal election: Ahuntsic | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Liberal | Eleni Bakopanos | 21,234 | 43.75 | -10.13 | $59,946 | |||
| Bloc Québécois | Maria Mourani | 20,020 | 41.25 | +9.02 | $53,286 | |||
| New Democratic | Annick Bergeron | 3,013 | 6.20 | +4.33 | $3,308 | |||
| Conservative | Jean E. Fortier | 2,544 | 5.24 | -3.85 | $39,703 | |||
| Green | Lynette Tremblay | 1,301 | 2.68 | +0.57 | $2,388 | |||
| Marijuana | F.X. de Longchamp | 314 | 0.64 | – | ||||
| Marxist–Leninist | Marsha Fine | 102 | 0.21 | -0.09 | ||||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 48,528 | 100.00 | $77,288 | |||||
| Liberal hold | Swing | -9.6 | ||||||
| 2003 Quebec general election: Acadie | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Yvan Bordeleau | 23,211 | 70.39 | −4.80 | ||||
| Parti Québécois | Maria Mourani | 6,702 | 20.33 | +1.22 | ||||
| Action démocratique | Jean-Pierre Chamoun | 2,253 | 6.83 | +2.18 | ||||
| Bloc Pot | Jonathan Bérubé | 440 | 1.33 | – | ||||
| Independent | André Parizeau | 161 | 0.49 | – | ||||
| Marxist–Leninist | Linda Sullivan | 111 | 0.34 | – | ||||
| Equality | Marina Paümann | 95 | 0.29 | – | ||||
| Total valid votes | 32,973 | 99.05 | – | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 316 | 0.95 | – | |||||
| Turnout | 33,289 | 65.66 | −12.39 | |||||
| Electors on the lists | 50,699 | – | – | |||||
References
edit- ^ a b c d "MOURANI, Maria, B.A., M.A." Library of Parliament. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
- ^ "Bloc MP helps police make big pot bust". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 26 March 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- ^ "Shooting not expected to spark Montreal street war". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 7 January 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- ^ "Quebec Votes 2003 - Riding: Acadie". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2003. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- ^ "Bloc to seek party status, new leader: MP". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 10 May 2011. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- ^ "MP Maria Mourani bids for Bloc Québécois leadership". CBC News. 21 September 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- ^ Authier, Philip (4 October 2011). "Daniel Paillé throws hat into Bloc ring". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 9 October 2011.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Daniel Paille new leader of Bloc Quebecois". CBC News. 11 December 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- ^ Mas, Susana (13 September 2013). "Bloc Québécois expels MP over secular charter comments". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- ^ Bourgault-Côté, Guillaume (18 December 2013). "Mourani "n'est plus indépendantiste"" (in French). Le Devoir. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
- ^ https://www.dropbox.com/s/9vk38kel5eonpq4/Lettre%20Maria%20Mourani_18%20dec%202013.pdf Mourani's Letter to the Public
- ^ Canadian Press. "Maria Mourani, who quit Bloc Quebecois over Quebec values charter, says she is no longer a sovereigntist". National Post. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
- ^ "Maria Mourani, ex-Bloc MP, to join NDP". CBC News. 19 November 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
- ^ "Former Bloc member Maria Mourani join NDP — but not as MP". Toronto Star. 19 November 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
- ^ "Maria Mourani, Ex-Bloc MP, To Run For NDP In Montreal". Huffington Post. 21 January 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- ^ "Mourani Criminologue Official website". Mouranicriminologue.com. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
- ^ "Former Bloc MP Maria Mourani appointed Quebec's representative to UNESCO". CTV Montreal. 26 October 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
- ^ "Elections Canada – Confirmed candidates for Ahuntsic-Cartierville". Elections.ca. 30 September 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
- ^ Elections Canada – Preliminary Election Expenses Limits for Candidates Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine