Arpad Nagy's blog

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A federal by-election is about to be called in the riding of Lasalle-Émard-Verdun on the island of Montreal, following the resignation of former Justice Minister David Lametti. We met with a pro-life candidate who has decided to run in this by-election. Alain Paquette will be representing the Christian Heritage Party (CHP), and the date of this election will take place no later than September 16, 2024. This week, we had the opportunity to ask Mr. Paquette several questions. Here are his answers:

(This interview has been translated from French).

QLC: “Why did you decide to go into politics?”

AP “I answered a call to defend pro-life values politically. I was already active with other commitments, like writing to MPs and signing petitions. Up until now, I’ve remained in my individual comfort zone, but when I was asked about getting involved, I said ‘present’. And then I did the rounds and saw how I was to get involved. Since abortion was my main battle horse, I said I had to go to the federal level to change legislation, not the municipal or provincial levels.

Last year, I had the privilege to meet Arnold Viersen and we started talking more in-depth about politics, and his work to defend life in parliament really seemed exceptional. Around that time, I realized that the MP in my riding of Bourassa was promoting abortion rights in his home country of Haiti, where abortion is actually illegal. So my own MP was working against the right to life and against the laws of another country. I did my own research and the CHP represented the values I stood for the most, and I said to myself that is where I must go. That’s where I became a member and eventually raised my hand to become a candidate. I was planning to run as a candidate in Bourassa, but the CHP was looking for a candidate for the Lasalle-Émard-Verdun by-election and I answered the call.

This fulfills my desire to spread the good news and, above all, to allow people who have no other choice [to be able to vote pro-life]. Also, I want to go further in this, not just to be a pro-life on the ballot, but also to gather people to join the movement [of the CHP]. We’re moving in the right direction to defend the most vulnerable against the three scourges [in Canadian society], which are abortion, medical aid in dying and irreversible transgender surgery—scourges that must be reversed. These are my three main battle horses.”

QLC: “For you, what does it mean to be pro-life?”

AP: “Being pro-life means defending life from the moment of conception. Being a woman should be pro-life, because it’s women who generate life. The church defends the dignity of women, even in Mary—after all, [for Catholics] she’s the Queen of Heaven. The church sees Mary as the highest creature—only God is superior, so we magnify the one who replaced Eve, since she gave us our Lord, who was also born as a child—He who satisfied us all, delivered us, healed us and ascended to heaven with his body and soul. So, if we follow Jesus [we must believe that] life was made to be lifted up to heaven and not to be thrown away. For me, being pro-life means following ‘life’ in Christ.”

QLC: “You mentioned Mary. I assume that means you are Catholic. Does the CHP represent a specific Christian denomination or many?”

AP “[In the CHP], all denominations are present. Anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as our savior and has Christian values—Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican. Catholics are also part of the equation, and so I’m one of them. Of course, I’m more Marian than most others in the party, but it’s a party where prayer to God is important for all its members. [But for Catholics], the rosary of the unborn child is something [around which] every Catholic should rally. Our Lady gave us the rosary of the unborn and then as Jesus said in an apparition in 2006, we should use it as a nuclear weapon against legalized abortion.

Also, when you join [the CHP] as a member, you have to make a profession of faith. You then have the opportunity to get involved in the party and also to become a candidate to defend these values. You can always be sure that a CHP candidate is completely pro-life. He can only be someone who gives his all to defend [life] and to be a faithful advocate of the cause.”

QLC: “Why are Christian values necessary for the good governance of the country?”

AP: "Because we put the good news to good use. The word of God [which says] ‘love your neighbour as yourself,’ and ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ So, if we apply the maxim, we really are a salt to put the moral basis of society back into a perspective of peaceful, sanctifying life for all. So if we go in the direction of God’s word, then we’re really in a perspective where we’re going to favour the virtues rather than the misguidedness of sin. [In society], we’ve lost a bit of the sense of sin and the sense of immortal life. We act as if we weren’t accountable for our actions. As He says, ‘to whom much has been entrusted, more will be demanded.’ So, if we’re going to apply things that are diabolical, to kill the life we’ve been entrusted with, we’re not the faithful stewards we should be.

So, the treasure entrusted to us—at that point, if our personal freedom gives free rein to murder, it’s completely reprehensible. Of course, God’s mercy is great, but we can’t just wash our hands of it either. To help [to abort] is completely diabolical. If we violate [our conscience] for our freedom, we can put to death the vulnerable child who is there, who has been entrusted to us, our own flesh in the end. We have to protect women from what they believe is a way of saving their careers, their reputations, their friends or preventing their social lives from being disrupted. We need to save them all, the mother and the child too. We need their children, their families, because we can also solve the immigration problem by saving all the children. Through adoption, through material aid, by putting state resources at the service of a parental support program, we prevent women from mourning—because it’s not simply a bundle of flesh that’s left behind, it’s a complete being with feelings and a perception of what’s going on. You have to see it as a whole being. So if you cut it off, it brings mourning—you can say you’ve become free, but on the contrary, you’ve really bringing forth a funeral of a heart… Above all, we need to intervene to legislate so that unborn children become full-fledged legal beings—not to penalize women, but on the contrary, to help them—and I’m sure they’ll feel indebted later when they see that the child has changed their lives for the better and is a grace and a support.

We weren’t born in a place we chose, or to parents we chose, or at a time we chose, but why are we here? Because we had a mission to accomplish, and we have to see things from that perspective. What the Christian Heritage Party is really going to do is prevent […] these murders from being paid for by the public purse. We also want to save doctors and nurses from being hired killers—we want to free them and regenerate their denomination to its best foundations. We wonder why there’s a shortage of family doctors when doctors are forced to perform abortions and euthanasia against their moral judgment. We also need to save our children from transgender ideology—we need to put the catechism back in school rather than these ‘casino shows.’ In the whole culture, too—we need to remove violence and legislate that child abuse be replaced by a supportive environment. We want to put forward a regenerated culture that is rooted in the beauty of creation and life."

QLC: “Professionally, what do you do for a living? What have you done in the past?”

AP “I’m retired now. In the past, I did many things—after my studies, I worked in general insurance. For over five years, I worked for several companies, including here in Lasalle […] I worked in other fields. I worked for Bell, I even patrolled for Star Choice in Verdun—selling satellite plans. I was a customer service representative for Bell Canada, and I also did a bit of trucking and delivery. As an experiment, I started a small company for music publishing and recordings. I lived out this passion, and after that I changed jobs. At one point, I also went into the food industry.”

QLC: “What are the CHP’s other priorities?”

AP: “Among the CHP’s pillars and policies are the economy, obviously, because we can’t live on credit all the time, the family, and also justice. Here in Lasalle, we recently had the Minister of Justice, Lametti. Justice is a determining factor in establishing the right to freedom, the right to expression, but also non-interference in all parental rights. There’s also the right to self-defence, and immigration [policies]. We will establish these predispositions in all spheres of public administration. We’re going to prevent non-resident land purchases, but also [other issues of] homeland security. In all spheres, we will apply the right policies based on the Gospel. We can’t go wrong with [biblical values].”

QLC: “How can people help you with your campaign?”

AP: “Obviously through prayer to begin with. [We’ll need help] to canvass the vote, to encourage new membership [to the CHP] as well. [We need people] who can spread the message that, yes, there is a pro-life option in this election, and that it’s important to go out and witness and vote out of conviction. If you vote for such [another candidate], yes, maybe some [of these candidates] will sell good things, but they won’t advance the fight against the three scourges, which are medical aid to die, abortion and transgender mutilation. We need to take a leap of faith, an act to finally break the ice and vote out of conviction. So [we need] to reach out to people of good will, encourage them to vote, encourage them to get involved as volunteers or to become members and perhaps candidates themselves.

Of course, I also need signatories in the riding support my candidacy—[since Election Canada requires] one hundred people to sign up for my candidacy. We also need those who can contribute financially to my campaign for the printing of our campaign materials. We cannot accept donations directly to my campaign yet—not until the writ is dropped and I become registered—but those who want to help can visit my candidate webpage here: chp.ca/Alain-Paquette.”

QLC: “You’ve talked a lot about abortion. What are your thoughts on Euthanasia in Canada?”

AP: “Completely closed. We have to admit we made a mistake. We opened the valve. These were supposed to be compassionate exceptions. But we don’t even have the manpower to sufficiently elaborate palliative care—everywhere [access to palliative care] is deficient—so [euthanasia] should never be the case. It’s a door that needs to be closed completely, hermetically, therefore, we need the full reversal of medical aid in dying. A bit like Christ, he carried his cross, he went all the way, he even refused the gall he was given as crucified. If we open the door to despair, the world is bound to say: “If it’s decriminalized, if it’s authorized by law, it becomes an acceptable practice”. It’s as if our conscience has been subjugated into accepting the door to despair. So, faith, hope and charity are theological values, and despair is a completely diabolical value. We still need to put in place care to ensure that horrors that have happened recently don’t happen again, where, for example, a patient was there for 10 hours without care, and after that ordeal, he was offered euthanasia. But on the other hand, we are also funding suicide hotlines. You can’t say you’re offered sympathy for your problems, but then you’re offered suicide [for those same problems], and that doesn’t make sense. There has to be balanced justice. You have to keep your nose to the grindstone. The trend is to go further and further into medical aid in dying when, on the contrary, we need to reverse that. We are in favour of medical aid in living. We’re diametrically opposed to what’s being decided everywhere.

QLC: “Thank you so much for answering the call to become a candidate, and for your commitment to defending life from conception to natural death. That’s all the time we have for today. If anyone would like to contact you, or learn more about CHP, how might they do so?”

AP: “For more information on the Christian Heritage Party, visit chp.ca. If you’d like to contact me, you can do so by e-mail—[email protected]. During the election campaign, come do some door-to-door with me [in Lasalle-Émard-Verdun].”