The Parti du socialisme chrétien (PSC) (known in English as the Christian Socialist Party) was a fringe political party in the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

province of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. It fielded 103 candidates in the

1985 Quebec general election The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

. Despite its name, the PSC had no connection with Canada's

social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

political tradition. It was established by Jacques Paquette, a former

heroin addict Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a substance use disorder characterized by cravings for opioids, continued use despite physical and/or psychological deterioration, increased tolerance with use, and withdrawal symptoms after discontinuing opioids. O ...

who operated drug treatment centres throughout Quebec in the 1980s. The party was primarily focused on drug issues, supporting both the legalization of

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...

and the introduction of the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

for traffickers in hard drugs. On one occasion, Paquette said that he would establish a leftist dictatorship in a "free Quebec" to remove heroin dealers from the province. He also promoted the use of

handgun A handgun is a short- barrelled gun, typically a firearm, that is designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun (i.e. rifle, shotgun or machine gun, etc.), which needs to be held by both hands and also braced ...

s by citizen vigilantes to fight

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

. Paquette ran in the 1985 election in Hull under the name "Jacob Easter," which was intended as a humorous translation of his real name. He placed last in a field of six candidates. Paquette was killed in a car crash near Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec, on August 28, 1986."Christian Socialist dies in crash," ''Globe and Mail'', 29 August 1986, A4. The party appears to have become inactive after his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parti du socialisme chretien Provincial political parties in Quebec