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Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles DuceppeCHRIS WATTIE/Reuters

In a speech to 300 party members in Québec City yesterday, Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe said:

"We're on the right side, the rising side, of history. For the moment, we are resistants. But yesterday's resistants are tomorrow's winners….Quebec has no future in Canada…the only worthy future for Québec is full and complete political liberty. And that's called sovereignty. "

According to Bloc MPs interviewed by Le Journal de Montréal's Taieb Moalla , this marks the first time that the Bloc has used the term "résistant" to describe itself, and it signifies that the Party is "raising its tone" in regard to Ottawa.

At a press conference following his speech, according to a report by CP's Martin Ouellet, Duceppe defended himself when questioned by reporters about drawing a parallel between the sovereignty movement and the French resistance against the Nazis.

He said that he drew his inspiration from a text authored by the late intellectual and union activist Pierre Vadeboncoeur.

Nevertheless, he reaffirmed that sovereignty would only be possible with the work of the resistance, as was the case for the liberation of France in 1944.

"Québec sovereignty, no more than the Libération, is not possible, would not have been possible, without the work of the resistants."

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