| Catherine Dorion | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | MNA |
| Birth Date: | 30 September 1982 |
| Birth Place: | Quebec City, Quebec, Canada |
| Profession: | Politician, actress, comedian, artist, writer |
| Party: | Québec solidaire (January 2018-present) |
| Otherparty: | Option nationale (2011 - 2017) |
| Office1: | Member of the National Assembly of Quebec for Taschereau |
| Term Start1: | October 1, 2018 |
| Term End1: | August 28, 2022 |
| Successor1: | Étienne Grandmont |
| Residence: | Limoilou, Quebec City |
| Education: | King's College London Université du Québec à Montréal Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec |
Catherine Dorion is a Canadian politician from Quebec, who was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2018 provincial election.[1] She represented the electoral district of Taschereau as a member of Québec solidaire (QS) from 2018 to 2022. Dorion is aligned with Option nationale, a pro-independence faction, referred internally as a "collective", within QS.[2]
Dorion was born in Quebec City in 1982.[3] Her father, Louis Dorion, who died in 1998, was a lawyer from Quebec City; her mother, Claudette Brasseur, was a court reporter. She grew up in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste neighbourhood of Quebec City and was the last of nine children.[4] Her mother raised her by herself; her father having left the family when Dorion was a year old. Her grandfather was Noël Dorion, a Progressive Conservative (PC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Bellechasse riding.[5] She has three daughters, one of which is from a father who wished to remain anonymous.[6] [7]
Dorion is a graduate of the Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec. She also received a bachelor's degree in International Relations and International Law from Université du Québec à Montréal, in 2009, and a master's degree in Political Science from King's College London, in 2010. She also studied in Chile, Russia and Spain and travelled in more than 30 countries.
She has been living in the Limoilou neighbourhood since 2014.
As an actress, Dorion has performed in several television dramas and theatre productions, including L'Auberge du chien noir. Her performance in Amélie Nothomb's Fuels at the Théâtre du Trident, earned her the 2007 Prix Révélation of the Year Award at the Gala des Masques.
She also performs slam poetry, has won several competitions, and has been a regular guest artist at the Francofolies de Montréal.
She was a columnist at the Carrefour de Québec (2012-2016) and at Update - Québec (2016). She also collaborated on a show for Radio-Canada (2015) and has written blogs for Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec (2016-2018).[8]
In 2013, Dorion produced a micro-documentary on immigrants and Quebec sovereignty.
She has published several written works including Même s'il fait noir comme dans le cul d'un ours (2014),[9] and two collections of poems, FUCK TOUTE (2016) and The NoShow (2015 and 2017).
In the essay Les luttes fécondes. Libérer le désir en amour et en politique, she defends polyamory, which she herself practices, and discusses the revolutionary potential of desire, which, left free, is for her a means of deconstructing institutions.[10]
She published the youth novel Ce qui se passe dehors, which tells the story of high school students in Quebec who engage in politics.
In an article for Le Journal de Québec, she advocates for nudity in the locker rooms of public swimming pools.[11]
Dorion was elected as Member of the National Assembly (MNA) for Taschereau, October 1, 2018, as the candidate for Québec Solidaire.[12]
On November 8, 2019, Dorion was barred from the Blue Room of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec for dress code violations. Examples of her wardrobe included t-shirts and Doc Martens shoes and an orange hoodie that drew criticism previously. Speaker François Paradis notified Québec Solidaire leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois of complaints. Speaking to the media, Deputy speaker Chantal Soucy said, "we have a decorum to respect, we reminded her of it several times, it was time to draw a line".[13]
On April 1, 2022, she announced she wasn't running for re-election in the 2022 election.[14]
On November 13, 2023, she released a book about her experience as MP, criticizing Quebec's legislative apparatus as outdated and in need of a shake-up, describing MPs as inconsequential actors reduced to the role of zombie tribunes unable to make significant decisions,[15] while also criticizing the male spokesperson of her party and fellow MP, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, for his increasing influence and control on the party.
* Result compared to Action démocratique du Québec.