[A-List] Donneurs de leçons refuse lesson from Press Council

["Jim Yarker" <sjy_estrien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.jewishcanada.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=204946

?Quebecistan? Column Complaint Upheld

By Janice Arnold


The Quebec Press Council has upheld complaints against National Post 
columnist Barbara Kay that her Aug. 9 column headlined ?The rise of 
Quebecistan? unfairly portrayed francophone Quebecers, especially 
sovereigntists, as soft on terrorism and anti-Semitic.

The council ruled Mar. 5 that the column, which was a commentary on the 
massive march against the war between Israel and Hezbollah held in Montreal 
three days earlier, lacked ?balance, rigour, level-headedness, and... 
respect for certain social groups.?

The council said columnists can be controversial but still must be accurate 
and avoid sweeping generalizations.

It said that ?they must avoid, as much in tone as in the language they use, 
giving events a significance that they do not have or leaving 
misunderstandings that risk discrediting persons or groups.?

The council said Kay did not put the rally in context and attributed 
intentions to public personalities without supporting information. It said 
she ?distorted facts? in order to support her view that the leaders of an 
independent Quebec would remove Hezbollah from the terrorist list and that 
the new country would generally be welcoming to terrorists.

The council further commented that Kay?s was an ?unwarranted provocation? 
that perpetuated prejudices.

Kay reproached Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, Parti Québécois leader 
André Boisclair, federal Liberal MP Denis Coderre and Amir Khadir, 
spokesperson for the new party Québec Solidaire, for participating in the 
Aug. 6 march. The event, which was endorsed by 60 groups, was held to 
denounce Israel?s actions in Lebanon and demand a ceasefire. It drew about 
15,000 people, including a small number of people carrying Hezbollah flags 
and placards that were construed as anti-Semitic.

The plaintiffs were Jean Dorion, president of the Société 
Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal; Gilles Rhéaume, spokesperson for La Ligue 
contre la francophobie canadienne; and individuals Francis Leger, Martin 
Proulx and Josée Beaulieu. The council says the complaints were supported by 
eight other persons, not named in the decision.

They felt that Kay had drawn unsubstantiated conclusions that could foster 
hatred of Quebecers.

Dorion felt she was off the mark in making a link between Quebecers? 
sympathy for the Lebanese victims of Israel?s intervention and, as she 
wrote, ?the fat streak of anti-Semitism that has marbled the intellectual 
discourse of Quebec throughout its history.?

While acknowledging that anti-Semitism has existed in Quebec ?like all the 
rest of the western world,? Dorion took Kay to task for ignoring that the 
?national intellectual elites? of Quebec were often in the forefront of the 
struggle for Jewish rights, pointing to the 1832 act passed by the 
legislature of Lower Canada entrenching Jewish emancipation.

Dorion also observed that a group of ?clearly identifiable? Jews present at 
the march were ?warmly applauded?, which he believes shows the participants 
were not against the Jewish community, but rather the actions of the Israeli 
government.

He also took great exception to Kay?s assertion that, ?You can bet that 
Hezbollah would be off the official terrorism list by Day Two of the 
Republic of Quebec?s existence.?

Dorion insisted that the number of persons carrying Hezbollah flags was very 
tiny and their presence ?inevitable? in a crowd that size. He asserted that 
it did not give Kay licence to denounce Duceppe, Boisclair, Coderre and 
Khadir as ?shameless Quebec politicians who led that that pro-terrorist 
rally.?

The SSJB was not one of the groups officially endorsing the rally.

Rhéaume called the column ?francophobic? and ?an unworthy scathing attack? 
that exploited prejudices against Quebecers. He was dismayed that Kay made a 
connection between Quebec?s purported history of anti-Semitism and domestic 
terrorism and Quebecers supposedly being more sympathetic to Hezbollah 
today.

Rhéaume said that associating an entire people with terrorism to justify or 
explain one?s opinions amounts to racism.

Gerald Owen, who handles complaints for the National Post, responded to the 
complaint by providing the council a copy of a follow-up column by Kay that 
appeared Aug. 17, headlined ?Quebecers in denial: Counterpoint.? Kay 
reiterated many of the points she made in her first piece, including her 
central theme that if the province separates it could indeed become 
?Quebecistan,? where ?Islamo-fascism? could take root, in part due to 
pressure from Shiite Lebanese immigrants.

She also wrote that the organizers of the Aug. 6 rally criticized only 
Israel and not Hezbollah in their advance publicity, and she alleged that 
they deliberately excluded a Jewish presence. This should have warned off 
politicians who wanted to remain neutral on the conflict, she suggested.

Kay noted that the goal of Hezbollah is to eliminate Jews, not only 
Israelis, from the earth and said the Montreal Jewish community was 
devastated by the lack of judgment and sensitivity shown by the politicians.

In an interview with The CJN, Kay dismissed the decision and questioned the 
council?s motives. She believes the council is trying to ?chill? criticism 
of Quebec by anglophone journalists and those outside the province. She said 
she doesn?t recognize the council as having any moral authority or as being 
capable of impartial review.

She thinks the council should not make judgments on opinion and stands 
firmly by the accuracy of the information her column was based on.

?I?m sure they are trying to intimidate me and other anglo journalists, and 
hoped there would be repercussions against me at the Post... This is a bogus 
group of soft totalitarians with the impulse to shut people up.?

The council is composed of journalists, media managers and members of the 
public.

Kay said that in a free society, objections to a journalist?s opinion should 
be dealt with between that journalist and their readers or by other media. 
Kay said she received more than 300 e-mails related to the Aug. 9 column and 
answered all of them. She also accepted every request from the media for an 
interview, including television and radio.

Kay, who lives in Montreal, said Quebecers are ?hypersensitive? and are 
trying to suppress outside criticism. ?In Quebec, you can say anything you 
want, as long as it?s in French.?

She said the Post won?t appeal the decision, which it has the right to do 
within 30 days.

Owen said the Post is not a member of the council and chose not to take part 
in the process.

?When the council asked for a reply, we declined, but I referred them to 
Barbara Kay?s follow-up column as a courtesy,? Owen said in an e-mail.

?Similarly, we are not appealing or otherwise responding. I have only 
skimmed through the decision, since we decided at the outset not to spend 
time on this matter.?