You can read about the twisted story of Francis Chartrand here.  In a nutshell, Francis Chartrand was the duly nominated candidate for the Quebec riding of Riviere-des-Mille-Iles when he found out in mid-December that the NDP has rescinded his nomination.

According to Chartrand, the party did not even bother informing him, allowing news of the change to reach the media.  Chartrand says he found out through a news report.  NDP officials pressured a furious Chartrand to tell the media that the end of his candidacy was his own decision.  That worked for about a day, but the full story came out.  The NDP says Chartrand was removed as a candidate because of his uncompromising position against "reasonable accommodation" of minorities in Quebec.

Micheline Montreuil is a transgendered person who also found her candidacy rescinded.  She is threatening to take legal action against the NDP, charging that she is the subject of discrimination because of her gender identity.  The NDP maintains that Montreuil was too confrontational in her public appearances.

The new twist is that another candidate, Anne Humphreys, is charging that in both cases, the NDP was really making room for friends of Thomas Mulcair, the ex-Liberal provincial cabinet minister who won the Liberal stronghold of Outremont for the NDP in last year's by-election. Anne Humphreys has withdrawn her candidacy.

Some NDP candidates are showing solidarity with the NDP candidate Rivière-des-Mille-Iles, Francis Chartrand, ousted by the senior federal party, which asked him to withdraw his candidacy in the wake of remarks made on his blog.

In closing, the candidate for the nomination in the constituency of Marcus Aurelius-Fortin, Anne Humphreys, has decided to withdraw her candidacy. 

"I had taken steps with the help and recommendations of some members of the NDP Lower Laurentians, at the end of August, to file a notice of candidacy with the Federal Council of the NDP in Ottawa,"  she says. "Furthermore, I participated, in the meantime, as a volunteer in the campaign of MP for Outremont, Thomas Mulcair, with members of the Rivière-des-Mille-Iles NDP Riding Association, in the company of Francis Chartrand."

Last November, the NDP election planning committee has reviewed all the nominations of Quebec to come to the conclusion that it should reassess two nominations: Micheline Montreuil, transgendered lawyer in the Quebec City region, and Francis Chartrand.

That decision could be explained, according to Ms. Humphreys, by the promise of NDP lieutenant in Quebec, Thomas Mulcair.  "He had promised to find a dozen star candidates for upcoming elections. There would be a safe bet that other candidates will be removed," she says.

In some ways, this makes much more sense.  The notion that there would be wholesale resignations in support of Francis Chartrand seemed a bit of a stretch.  Though I have no doubt that Chartrand is popular in some circles, it seems far more likely that established NDP membership in Quebec might feel threatened by Thomas Mulcair.  Not only is he Jack Layton's new favourite, Humphreys is suggesting that Mulcair is supplanting existing NDP staff in Quebec with his own people.

If this is true, then dealing with Chartrand or Montreuil won't solve the problem.  There is a fight brewing between Mulcair and the NDP in Quebec, and it will manifest again until one side or the other has won.  This would also explain the stonewalling.  The NDP does not want their star Quebec MP Mulcair in any trouble.  Indeed, the pressure to keep a lid on these stories might be coming from Mulcair himself.

As for the resignations?  This article lists several:

In her resignation as a candidate, she also included those of Jeannie Hamel, in the district of Montcalm, Diane Lafrance, in Argenteuil-Papineau-Mirabel, Mario Langlois, in Laval, Christian Barrette, in Alfred Pellan, Dounia-Natacha Chikhani, in Pierrefonds-Dollard, Jean Rousseau, in Compton-Stanstead, Cynthia Corsilli, in Saint-Jean, Dominic Lemieux, in Verchères-Les Patriotes, and the candidates Ontario Arif Jinha in Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, Ryan Sloan, in Scarborough-Guildwood, and Jean-François Jasmain in Thunder Bay-Rainy River.

"I believe that the withdrawal of our candidates will cost the NDP the loss of more than 800 volunteers," concludes Ms. Humphreys.   The former candidate for the nomination suggests that other candidates are thought to be on the verge of furnishing resignations, also in a gesture of solidarity.

There has been some confusion over the scope of the problems for the NDP in Quebec.  Some reports I've heard list a dozen candidates quitting, but attempts to confirm have had mixed success (for instance, we know Arif Jinha did resign, but his resignation was also kept quiet by the NDP).  Clearly there is something going on.  But now one candidate is laying the blame for all this at the feet of Thomas Mulcair.

Things have gotten a great deal more interesting.

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