Barbara Kay controversy
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On August 6, 2006, Parti Québécois (PQ) leader André Boisclair, Bloc Québécois (BQ) leader Gilles Duceppe, Québec solidaire (QS) spokesperson Amir Khadir and Liberal Party of Canada Member of Parliament (MP) Denis Coderre participated in a march for "justice and peace" regarding the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. On the following August 9, Barbara Kay published "The rise of Quebecistan"[1] in The National Post, painting the politicians (three of which, Boisclair, Duceppe and Khadir, being pro-independence) as having tacitly supported terrorism, Hezbollah and anti-semitism for votes in the Arab community. This article touched off fierce debate and controversy. Barbara Kay was accused of Quebec bashing.
[edit] Article
Kay wrote that "[t]he devil is always on the lookout for the moral relativism that signals a latter-day Faust, and it seems he has found some eager recruits amongst Quebec’s most prominent spokespeople." Kay claimed that they only condemned Israel's actions in Lebanon while not condemning actions on the part of Hezbollah. The article also mentioned the presence of Hezbollah flags (illegal in Canada, where Hezbollah is considered to be a terrorist organization). She claimed that an independent Quebec, separated from English Canada, would remove Hezbollah from the terrorist list "by day two". "Think about what this would mean if Quebec ever were to become independent, and detached from the leadership of politicians who know the difference between a democracy and a gang of fanatical exterminationists. [...] By Day three, word would go out to the Islamosphere that Quebec was the new 'Londonistan' ".
Advancing the thesis that Quebec intellectuals and politicians had a "fat streak of anti-Semitism", she also claimed that terrorism in 1960s Quebec gave these intellectuals and politicians a "frisson (shiver) of pleasure".[1] She also argued that "These politicians [...] have no political support from Jews (who are all federalists)".
[edit] Counterarguments
Quebec intellectuals generally denounced terrorist tactics, including Pierre Bourgault, Claude Ryan and modern Quebec sovereigntism founder René Lévesque, who was traumatised by the October Crisis to the point of tears.
This generalization that Jews do not support these politicians is incongruous to the point of the article because of the presence of federalist Coderre and ignores Jewish sympathizers of Quebec sovereigntism such as David Levine (PQ candidate in 1979 and 2003), Salomon Cohen (PQ candidate in 1994), Victor Teboul (in charge of communications for Cohen in 1994), Paul Unterberg (PQ candidate in 1970), Henry Milner (member of the national executive of the PQ in the 1980s) and Armand Elbaz (PQ candidate in 1996).
[edit] Reaction
The targeted politicians defended their presence. Gilles Duceppe stated that he was there in the interest of the Israeli and Lebanese civilian populations alike and André Boisclair said the Hezbollah flag had no place in Quebec. A press release from Duceppe's Bloc Québécois pointed out the presence of Jews in the march and noted that Duceppe's presence was conditional to no pro-Hezbollah demonstrators and no anti-Israel slogans.[2]
The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society lodged a complaint regarding Kay's piece to the Quebec Press Council. Kay was criticized by federalist La Presse editorialist André Pratte[3] and sovereigntist The Gazette columnist Josée Legault,[4] as well as La Presse journalist Vincent Marissal,[5] amongst others. Federalist Premier of Quebec Jean Charest called the expression "Quebecistan" "une grossièreté" (something rude, crude, a "vulgarity"). [6] Activist Gilles Rhéaume announced his intention to lodge a complaint to the police for hate speech.[6] letter to The National Post where he said that, as an anglophone himselWilliam Tetley, a McGill University professor and past Robert Bourassa minister, wrote a f, he deemed Quebec society as holding a historic tolerance for Jews. He reminded people that, at a time when his own English-speaking McGill University imposed quotas on Jews, the French-speaking Université de Montréal welcomed them; a factually false assertion. As a past alderman of the Town of Mount-Royal, he also evoked the existence of Jewish quotas in the English-speaking Mount-Royal, which was not the case for neighbouring French-speaking Outremont, where physical and verbal attacks against the Hassidic Jewish community is common. He supported the opinion that the manifestation was legitimate. Tetley, recipient of the Order of Canada, was vice-president of the federalist Liberal Party of Quebec.[7]
Reacting to the controversy, National Post Comment Pages Editor Jonathan Kay declared that his newspaper had no reason to offer apologies. He stated to La Presse that "[t]here is no doubt that Quebec has an anti-semitic past." As in many other examples of said "Quebec bashing" he cited the example of Lionel Groulx.[1] Barbara Kay was also defended by Howard Galganov (himself accused of "Quebec bashing"),[8] Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal president Beryl Wajsman[9] and Ottawa Citizen journalist Brigitte Pellerin.[6] Barbara Kay reiterated the same opinion in an August 17, 2006 piece called "Quebecers in denial : Counterpoint".[10]
