Pascale Déry has made history as the first Jewish woman appointed to a Quebec cabinet, a distinction tempered by the fact she represents a nationalist party many in her community have serious reservations about.
Déry, who comes from a prominent Sephardic family, was named minister of higher education by Premier François Legault on Oct. 20, one of 30 cabinet members (including 14 women). The re-elected Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) won 90 of 125 seats in the Oct. 3 election.
The former French-language television journalist, introduced by Legault as a star candidate in July, is the new Member of the National Assembly for Repentigny, a CAQ stronghold off the eastern tip of Montreal island in the Lanaudière region.
Déry and Liberal Elisabeth Prass in the D’Arcy McGee riding are the first Jewish women elected to the National Assembly.
Repentigny is overwhelmingly francophone (Déry is not aware of any Jewish residents), and long nationalist territory. Legault’s riding of L’Assomption borders Repentigny.
Although parachuted in, Déry strengthened the CAQ’s 2018 results, capturing 52 percent of the ballots in a voter turnout of 73 percent, significantly above the provincial average.
She did not coast on her media celebrity; Déry says she campaigned flat out on the ground and remains humble. “It’s a huge privilege,” she says of the trust that has been placed in her, stressing her pride in being Jewish of which Legault and the CAQ are well aware.
“I always was interested in public service and policy. As a journalist, I conveyed the facts, but as an elected official I can make things change,” she said.
Déry left TVA in 2015 after 15 years to enter politics —unsuccessfully seeking the federal Conservative nomination in Mount Royal. She was named the Conservative candidate in the central Quebec riding of Drummond in that election, but lost.
Asked if she is a federalist, Déry responded, “I identify myself as a nationalist. The CAQ is a coalition in which all kinds of people work together, people from different worlds, with different ideas. That is the strength of the party.”
Déry defends her government’s controversial state secularism law Bill 21, adopted in 2019, and this year’s Bill 96 strengthening French, describing them as “very balanced” and noting that some wanted more “coercive” measures.
“Bill 21 (which bans certain public servants from wearing religious symbols) is a choice Quebec society made, the majority endorse it, as I did well before I joined the CAQ.”
Bill 96, which like Bill 21 is being contested in court, is necessary, said Déry because “it’s a fact French is declining. We need to slow down that decline. I did all my studies and my career in French; for me (the law) is very important, but it is not done at the expense of anglophone rights. It does not remove those rights.”
She added, “We need to be pragmatic if we are to go forward in the right direction.”
Fluently bilingual, Déry is the daughter of Moroccan-born parents and grew up in a French-speaking home in Town of Mount Royal. Her father William Déry, a president of the Sephardic community, sought the federal Liberal nomination in Mount Royal in the 1980s, losing to Sheila Finestone.
He and her mother Evelyne were enthusiastic about her running for the CAQ, she says. “It’s been a family effort.”
After École Maimonide, Déry attended high school at Collège Marie de France, CEGEP at Collège Stanislas and then received a journalism degree at the Université de Montréal and a master’s in political science at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
She was a reporter and anchor at TVA, often covering politics. After her failed federal bid, Déry worked at the Montreal Economic Institute, an independent think tank, and most recently was Air Canada’s media relations director for Quebec and eastern Canada.
Déry lives with her husband Eric Castro and their children aged 13 and 9 in Côte St. Luc, which keeps her in close contact with the Jewish community.
She thinks the CAQ’s reaching out to her—she was first approached before the 2018 election—is in part due to her being Jewish. Her rapid rise signals that the government wants better relations with Jewish citizens and a broader attempt at conciliation with anglophones and allophones, she said.
“I will always be there to defend my community,” said Dery, “and to represent all Quebecers.”
Her higher education portfolio makes that a bit sticky. Déry inherits the government’s troubled relationship with English CEGEPs whose students, under Bill 96, will be forced to take three courses in French in addition to the two already required, and enrolment by francophones and allophones will be limited.
She will also have to deal with the CAQ ’s cancellation of funding for the expansion of Dawson College, the largest English CEGEP.
Déry said she will reach out to the English CEGEPs to “collaborate in smoothing the transition.”
She notes that the increased French curriculum will not be instituted until the fall of 2024, and that there will be flexibility in which courses students can take in French.
The restrictions on enrolment give priority to anglophones, she said, favouring those who were eligible to take their earlier schooling in English under Bill 101, referred to by the CAQ as the “historic” English-speaking community.
As for Dawson, Déry said the government had to renege on the funding agreement to allow for a “more equitable” sharing of resources across the province’s CEGEP system.
The plan now is to help Dawson, which she agrees needs more space, with the rental of extra premises.
Déry will be working closely with new education minister Bernard Drainville, a former Parti Québécois cabinet minister whose switch to the CAQ indicates its ideological diversity. Drainville, the architect of the PQ’s never adopted “Quebec Charter of Values” a decade ago, was, like Déry, a TV journalist.