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Just a day after Mario Beaulieu became the new leader of the Bloc Quebecois, he was on the defensive for using an inflammatory phrase during a speech and facing in-fighting within his party.

Beaulieu is under fire for using the term “Nous vaincrons” (We shall overcome) in his acceptance speech. The term is closely associated with the FLQ, the group behind the 1970 Quebec crisis.

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Former Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe said the comment was “unconscionable.”

“I can’t associate myself with people who yell, ‘Nous vaincrons.’ We know what that means. It’s completely irresponsible, unconscionable,” Duceppe told the CBC. “It’s not by chanting slogans that we achieve sovereignty; it’s in being determined.”

Beaulieu said he did not intend to make a link to the FLQ.

Beaulieu, who won 53% of the Bloc vote, did not have the support of any of the four Bloc MPs in the House of Commons in his run for leader.

After Beaulieu won, two members of the Bloc voiced their dissatisfaction with the leader.