Elizabeth May says Green party is 're-vetting' candidates after anti-abortion comments come to light

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says her party is in the process of "re-vetting"at least one candidatepreviously cleared to run for the party following questions aboutpast statements by some candidates on abortion and Quebec nationalism.

Speaking in an interview with CBC's Power & Politics Friday, May said she is reviewing the candidacy of Mark Vercouterenin the Ontario riding of Chatham-Kent-Leamington after CBC News reported he made anti-abortion statements in two Campaign Life Coalition questionnaires in one case as recently as the 2018 Ontario provincial election campaign.

May also said she will retain former NDP MP Pierre Nantel, who jumped to the Greens in August, as a candidate for the party inLongueuil-Saint-Hubert. She said Nantel is a Quebec "sovereigntist" not a separatist and he's agreed not to fight for Quebec's independence if elected.

A spokesperson for the party initiallysaid Vercouteren didn't remember filling out the questionnairesor writing a2015 Facebook post in which he asked would-be anti-abortion Conservative voters to consider his candidacy.

"I personally am pro-life because I could not give more rights to animals and remove rights from potential humans," Vercouterensaid in the post.

When asked why Green Party vetters didn't come acrossVercouteren'sresponses to the questionnaires during his vetting, May said she is reviewing the situation.

"We're doing a re-vetting ... I find that unacceptable. His position within the party is being re-vetted,"May told Power & Politicshost Vassy Kapelos.

"Someone within the team has assured me they are talking to him to try and figure out how it could happen that he doesn't remember something as recent as 2018. This is an ongoing question and I'm not satisfied with the answers I've got so far but we do give people a chance to explain themselves."

May said the party vets every candidate andit hasan "extensive"process that includes a questionnaire and a search throughsocial media histories to ensure would-be candidates comply with the party's values.

"The news cycle goes so very fast. You need to actually realize that, in real life, by the time you actually get someone on the phone and talk to them, the re-vetting can take longer than 24 hours. But we do move very quickly," she said.

Before Vercouteren's anti-abortion positions came to light, May had said all approved Green Party candidates were solidly pro-choice and the party hadscreened out those who were not.

A request for comment fromVercouterenwas not immediately returned.

Another Green candidate, Macarena Diab, made a few anti-abortion posts on Facebook more than ten years ago.

In an email to CBCNews, Diab said sheis now solidly pro-choice.

"I wouldappreciate it if you could include in your article all my other posts where I am clearly pro-choice, as far as 2013 actually.I would also appreciate it if you could indicate that I havepublicly expressed the fact that I'm pro choice in all my pages," she said.

Green candidate Pierre Nantel is a Quebec 'nationalist'

As forNantel, May said she welcomes any sovereigntist who is prepared to put aside separatist views to tackle the more pressing issue of climate change.

Nantelsaidearlier this week in a radio interview that he supportedindependence for Quebec"as soon as possible."

But May insisted Nantel doesn't actually want to break up the country and would stay on as a candidate.

"He is not a separatist. He's a strong Quebecer within the context of Canada,"she said at her campaign launch in Victoria on Wednesday.

Yesterday, in an interview with Radio-Canada, Nantel said, "Of course I'm a sovereignist, everyone knows, and that's always been the case."

May explained away the contradiction Friday by saying there is a distinction between someone who advocates for Quebec sovereignty and a separatist.

"Sovereigntismand separatism they are ... it may seem like it's splitting hairs, but a lot of Quebecers are sovereignists they respect the sovereignty of Quebec. They're not interested in separating. Pierre is not a separatist. He's not interested in breaking up the country," May told Power & Politics.

In English Canada, both "sovereigntist" and "separatist" are used to refer tosomeone who advocates for the formal secession of Quebec from the federation.

According to the CBC's language guide,the two terms are used interchangeably in Canadato describe supporters of Quebec independence.

The Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage points out that separatist is "commonly used by those who dislike the idea of Quebec's breaking up," while sovereignist(or the more common spelling 'sovereigntist') is "favoured by those who espouse a sovereign Quebec."

May said she is confident Nantel will not advocate for a separate Quebec in Parliamentif he is elected under the Green banner.

A review of the House of Commons Hansard shows many of Nantel's interventions in Parliament were related to his position as theNDP critic for heritage. Many of his questionscentred on CBC/Radio-Canada.

In one of his last interventions in the Commons, Nantelmade it clear he considers himself to be a Quebec nationalist, if a "quiet" one.

"There is no denying, however, that, over the past few years, there has been an effort to relegate the sovereignty issue to the dustbin of history, to downplay the importance of acknowledging Quebeckers' quiet nationalism, which concerns me greatly," he said in French.

"I am talking about our national question being turned into a bit of folklore, because, I would remind honourablemembers, Quebec is a distinct nation. My general impression when it comes to defending the interests of Quebec is that there are not too many Quebec MPs who want to talk about quiet nationalism, an expression that I quite liked and adopted."