The Canada-European Union summit opened in Montreal on Thursday without the premier of the province hosting it. Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon stayed away after the federal government refused to let him address the summit, and sent his chief diplomat, Pascal Paradis, in his place. Paradis attended the summit's first day and defended the decision, saying Quebec's request to speak was normal and legitimate. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly: “If he changes his mind and still wants to come, I'll be happy to welcome him with open arms.”
The row broke into the open on Tuesday, when St-Pierre Plamondon said in a statement posted on X that Ottawa had refused his request to deliver a speech at the summit, even though it is being held on Quebec soil. He accused Prime Minister Mark Carney of disrespecting Quebec and of holding a vision of Canada that “directly contradicts the principles defended by our government, specifically the respect for our autonomy and areas of competence,” and said Ottawa was “refusing to consult Quebec and involve it in the negotiations” with the European Union. His intergovernmental affairs minister, Marie-Claude Sarrazin, had already thrown Carney's own Davos line back at him: “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.”
On Wednesday, arriving for a cabinet meeting in Quebec City, St-Pierre Plamondon gave Carney one last chance to reverse the decision. “It's never too late to do the right thing,” he said. “It is not respectful to not give a place to the premier of Quebec at an event in Quebec, where Quebec's economic interests are being negotiated.” Hours later came an open letter to the European leaders: he would not attend, and Paradis would go in his place to “represent me and open the channels of communications.”
“We have concluded that in the framework of the summit, the federal government decided to exclude Quebec from discussions that are to be held,” he wrote, saying Quebec had “neither a chair at the negotiating table nor an occasion to speak to present the general orientations of the Quebec state to our European partners.” He warned that “negotiating important agreements without the participation or consent of Quebec will result in a certain level of risk and foreseeable pitfalls if our jurisdictions and our roles as hosts are not respected” — in Quebec's own fields: health care, education and natural resources. “You can rest assured that the interest of the Quebec nation will continue to be adequately represented given your and our histories that unite us,” he told the Europeans.
On X that evening, he added that being invited to sit and not speak was asking Quebec to fall into line: “As premier, I will always refuse to have Quebec reduced to the role of spectator when it comes to representing and protecting the economic and political interests of Quebecers.”
Ottawa's answer is that the premier was offered a place — just not a podium. Carney said his office offered him the honour of welcoming the European Commission president to Montreal, and a seat at Carney's own head table at the summit dinner. Quebec, he said, had been consulted three times before the summit, and the premier had refused his dinner invitation: “It's his decision to leave the chair empty.” Joly calls it a federal summit, in federal jurisdiction.
The criticism has come from both directions. Quebec Liberal leader Charles Milliard: “A letter does not replace a presence at the table.” “Being absent means being the loser.” Quebec Conservative leader Éric Duhaime said it was disheartening to see Ottawa refuse Quebec its rightful place, but warned against sacrificing Quebecers' interests “in the name of its referendum obsession.” No response from the European side to the premier's letter has been reported.
The summit is the 21st between Canada and the European Union, hosted by Carney with European Council President António Costa and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, meant to launch an “Alliance for the Future” and a year of negotiations on trade, critical minerals, digital rules and defence. It is part of Canada turning toward Europe while United States tariffs bite: Carney's office says Canada and the European Union are “building on each other's strengths — deliberately, systematically, and rapidly” in a more dangerous and divided world. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump congratulated him on his election win — three weeks late — sharing an article headlined “Separatists win Quebec provincial election in blow to Mark Carney.”
St-Pierre Plamondon has been premier for barely a week. His Parti Québécois won Quebec's October 5 election and he was sworn in on October 21, leading a sovereigntist government that promises a referendum on independence, though not while Trump is in office. He argues from the Gérin-Lajoie doctrine — Quebec speaks for itself internationally in its own fields — and points to former premier Jean Charest, under whom Quebec sat in on more than 100 Canada-Europe trade meetings. The summit closes Friday, with a joint declaration expected; what Quebec does when the agreements that follow reach its own areas of power is the question his letter leaves open.
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