Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘la presse’

Mario Dumont is one thing. But I would’ve never predicted that La Presse would endorse the Tories in a Federal election.

La Presse is one of Montreal’s major newspapers and is widely considered the French federalist voice in Montreal (as opposed to Le Devoir, which leans separatist) and it had previously endorsed the Liberals almost automatically. But with the sponsorship scandal tarnishing the Liberal name, there’s a feeling now that the Tories may actually make some inroads. I’ve been saying it won’t happen for a long time, and if it does I may have to admit I was wrong and eat my words.

Then again, as they say, the only poll that matters is on election day. I’m still not convinced that this surge in polling numbers is going to translate into seats. And there’s no way the Liberals will be shut out of Quebec – whatever else happens, the Liberal stronghold seats in English Montreal are safe. As for percentages, since polls are not conducted riding-by-riding, there are as many ways to predict how the distribution will break as there are political opinions in Canada. I still believe that the surge in polling for the Conservatives in Quebec will translate into a lot of second-place showings in ridings where the Bloc wins, as opposed to seats. (The Election Prediction Project has the Tories ahead recently for the first time, but too many seats are too close to call to truly predict the outcome).

Nonetheless, with less than a week to go, Stephen Harper has overcome his toughest challenge: fear of a Tory government. With 55% of Canadians saying they believe a Conservative majority is a good idea, it seems that the Liberal attack campaign backfired on itself. And take a closer look at those numbers: the percentage of people who think a Tory majority would be a good idea is highest in Quebec – even higher than it is in Western Canada. (For the record, I’m not among those 55%, but then, regular readers already knew that).

Ontario, of course, remains the key battleground, and if it turns out that people are all talk and no action on election day, then we will be ushering in another Martin government. If Ontario goes blue, however, Stephen Harper should start preparing for his new job as Prime Minister.

The Tribune has an update on the La Presse nomination of Arafat for “person of the year”:

Eric Clement, who is in charge of the paper’s Web site, Cyberpresse, told JTA that the paper had been deluged with e-mails and letters, “mainly from the Jewish community.”

“We have withdrawn Mr. Arafat’s name,” he said. “In fact, we have stopped the competition altogether.”

“Initially, we wanted to just suggest names among many that people could vote for. We wanted the public to come up with names,” he said. “After all the letters and e-mails, we decided it had not been a good idea. We made a mistake.”

In the words of C.J. Cregg, that’s a pretty good “non-apology apology”, coupled with a pretty standard Jew-blaming. And of course there’s also the fact that La Presse wasn’t big enough to admit it did wrong on its own website. Cyberpresse didn’t print an apology, retraction, or explanation as far as I can tell. It simply removed all the links or any mention of Arafat’s nomination, as though it never happened. As though their journalists never called Arafat a “noble freedom fighter” dedicated to “advancing the cause of peace”.

By the way, I’m still looking for a hard copy or the full text of the Arafat profile that has been so cleanly removed from the website. If anyone has it, let me know.

The local French newspaper La Presse has nominated Yasser Arafat as “person of the year” for 2003 (via Jay, among others):

Yasser Arafat a marqué l’actualité internationale en 2003. Il a légué une partie de ses pouvoirs à un premier ministre; il a proposé de nombreux cessez-le-feu et a encouragé les pourparlers pour faire avancer la paix au Proche-Orient, tout en se faisant officiellement menacer de mort par l’état israëlien. Pour son courage et sa ténacité à vouloir faire avancer la cause de son peuple envers et contre tout, Cyberpresse le nomme Personnalité de l’année 2003, Catégorie Politique (Monde).

Is this some kind of sick joke???

It would be one thing if he was nominated in a “newsmaker of the year” category or something, where any newsworthy person, good or evil, can win. But to be nominated for his “courage and tenacity”??? For “advancing the cause of his people”??? Either April Fool’s came early this year, or I’m living in the twilight zone!

It’s no wonder Quebec is the most pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist province in Canada, when people get their news from papers like La Presse. And La Presse is a bastion of balance next to Le Devoir.

I suggest e-mailing La Presse’s news editors at eric.clement@cyberpresse.ca or veronique.bouvier@cyberpresse.ca to let them know what you think of this disgusting award.

Update: A day later, the award page was removed. No explanation, no apology, just disappeared from the Internet as if it never happened.

If anyone has a hard copy of the December 8th La Presse, hang onto it, lest the moronic editors try to pretend that they never lauded Arafat.

In an editorial in Wednesday’s La Presse, Pierre Lapperrière makes the case against appeasement by highlighting the cost of appeasing Hitler in the pre-WWII era:

Les É.-U. jugent qu’il ne respecte pas certaines ententes et qu’il est dangereux pour la sécurité internationale qu’un tel président soit au pouvoir. Le président Hussein récolte toutes les sympaties, et des millions de manifestants, surtout dans les pays démocratiques et libéraux, manifestent contre la politique américaine. On observe aujourd’hui une forte division, une faiblesse au sein des démocraties occidentales. J’ai comme l’impression que l’opinion publique n’évolue pas avec l’histoire.

[ . . . ]

Hitler utilisa ce doute qui siègeait au sein même des démocraties pour se débarasser, subtilement, point par point, des clauses du traité. Chaque fois qu’il enfreignait le traité, l’occident se consolait en se disant que l’Allemagne ne voullait que corriger certaines des injustices les plus criades commises — Versailles et appliquer “le droit des peuples à disposer d’eux-mêmes”. À chaque écoupé, Hitler se répandait en discours pacifistes, proposait de nouveaux accords pour rassurer les états inquiets de sa gourmandise. L’occident ne voulait pas de guerre.

[ . . . ]

Churchill ne voulait pas tuer des enfants allemands pour assouvir une soif de sang ou assurer la supériorité anglaise en Europe, il voulait arrêter un virus déjà installé; c’est-à-dire couper un pied avant que la gangrène gagne le corps. Et pendant que les médecins occidentaux ne reconnaissaient pas l’infection ou refusaient de porter la responsabilité d’une amputation, le cancer se renforça et l’opération fut beaucoup plus sérieuse.

Lapperrière is right; the world has learned nothing from history and from its mistakes. And it’s about to make the same ones all over again. I can only hope that someone has the courage to step in before the cost is as high as it was sixty years ago.