Maria Mourani
| Maria Mourani | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the Canadian Parliament for Ahuntsic | |
|
In office 2006–2015 | |
| Preceded by | Eleni Bakopanos |
| Succeeded by | Mélanie Joly |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Political party |
Bloc Québécois (2006-2013) Independent (2013-present) |
| Other political affiliations | New Democratic Party of Canada |
| Residence | Montreal |
| Alma mater | Université de Montréal |
| Profession | Criminologist, sociologiste, parole officer, rehabilitation counsellor, researcher, sociologist, teaching assistant |
Maria Mourani was an independent 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]
Before politics
Mourani 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.
Maria 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).[2][3][1]
She is co-founder and 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
In 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 December 11, 2011.[8]
She was expelled from the Bloc Quebecois caucus on September 12, 2013, for opposing the Quebec Charter of Values and has subsequently sat as an independent.[9]
On December 18, 2013, Mourani surprised citizens by announcing she was no longer in support of Quebec sovereignty and believed that Canadian federalism and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was better at protecting the Quebecois identity and the identity of all citizens of Quebec.[10][11][12]
On November 19, 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 January 21, 2015 she was acclaimed the NDP's candidate in Ahuntsic-Cartierville for the 2015 Canadian federal election,[15] but lost her seat to rival Liberal candidate Mélanie Joly.
Bibliography
- 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
| Canadian federal election, 2015: 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[16][17] | ||||||||
| Canadian federal election, 2011: 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 | ||||||
| Canadian federal election, 2008: 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 | ||||||
| Canadian federal election, 2006: 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 | ||||||
| Canadian federal election, 2004: 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 | ||||||
| Quebec general election, 2003: 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
- 1 2 3 4 "MOURANI, Maria, B.A., M.A.". Library of Parliament. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
- ↑ "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, September 21, 2011.
- ↑ Authier, Philip (October 4, 2011). "Daniel Paillé throws hat into Bloc ring". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved October 9, 2011.
- ↑ "Daniel Paille new leader of Bloc Quebecois". CBC News, December 11, 2011.
- ↑ Mas, Susana (September 13, 2013). "Bloc Québécois expels MP over secular charter comments". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
- ↑ Bourgault-Côté, Guillaume. "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. November 19, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Former Bloc member Maria Mourani join NDP — but not as MP". Toronto Star. November 19, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Maria Mourani, Ex-Bloc MP, To Run For NDP In Montreal". Huffington Post. January 21, 2015. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
- ↑ Elections Canada – Confirmed candidates for Ahuntsic-Cartierville, 30 September 2015
- ↑ Elections Canada – Preliminary Election Expenses Limits for Candidates
External links
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