XPost: can.politics   
   From: "@nyet.ca   
      
   National Post - August 13, 2014   
      
      
   Quebec Jewish community disturbed by lack of outrage over columnist's   
   'anti-Semitic' radio rant   
      
   'It's a continuation of a trend that has quite a history, and not merely   
   with Proulx but with other radio commentators in Quebec over the last...   
      
   MONTREAL - In the darker corners of the Internet, it is easy to find   
   racists and conspiracy theorists fuming about deep-pocketed Jews   
   controlling the world.   
      
   But a Jewish group has sounded the alarm after a well-known Quebec media   
   personality used his newspaper column and an appearance on a Montreal   
   radio show to spout such anti-Semitic opinions.   
      
   Gilles Proulx was invited onto Montreal's Radio X last Friday after   
   writing a column in the Journal de Montréal on the Israel-Hamas   
   conflict. "No need to be an expert to say that Israel could make   
   Washington, Paris or Ottawa bend, knowing in advance that its diaspora,   
   well established, will make any government submit!" he wrote in the Journal.   
      
   Speaking to Radio X, he elaborated on his thinking, suggesting Jews   
   historically provoke hate and persecution. "The diaspora is scattered   
   around the world, where they take economic control, provoke the hatred   
   of local nations, whether it is in Spain, for example, with the   
   Inquisition, or again later with Adolf Hitler," he said.   
      
   Later he added: "The diasporas are so powerful in Paris, New York,   
   Toronto or in Ottawa or Montreal, that they can manipulate the   
   government through their opinions, their threats, their pressure, making   
   it a marionette." The show's host never challenged Mr. Proulx's remarks.   
      
   Mr. Proulx has a long history of incendiary comments, going back as far   
   as the 1990 Oka crisis when his anti-aboriginal rants were blamed for   
   drawing a mob that hurled rocks at a convoy of Mohawk women, children   
   and elderly leaving the Kahnawake reserve.   
      
   During a 40-year career on radio and television, he singled out   
   anglophones and immigrants for failing to integrate into Quebec society.   
   In 1991, he warned that an influx of immigrants to Quebec would be   
   suicidal for the francophone majority. He lost his last regular   
   broadcast job in 2005 when he referred to a 14-year-old sexual assault   
   victim as a "cow" and a "slut."   
      
   The Quebec wing of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said it is   
   disturbing that Mr. Proulx's latest remarks have gone unchallenged,   
   saying it is part of a larger trend. Last month, a phone-in show on RDI,   
   CBC's French-language news network, featured a host thanking callers who   
   compared Israel to Nazi Germany, the CIJA said. The host also read   
   emails with similar sentiments.   
      
   Eta Yudin, a CIJA spokeswoman called Mr. Proulx's comments "classic   
   anti-Semitism" and said they should not be acceptable today.   
      
   She said the CIJA is concerned about the lack of public outrage. "We're   
   encouraged at times when we hear people speaking up... and right now   
   we're not hearing it," she said. "We're disappointed that this kind of   
   discourse goes unchecked and unchallenged."   
      
   In a statement, the CIJA said Quebec's Jewish community is "disappointed   
   and troubled" that Quebec media have allowed anti-Semitic views to be   
   aired. "The condemnation of anti-Semitism must not be the purview solely   
   of the Jewish community," the statement read.   
      
   Neither Mr. Proulx nor Radio X responded to a request for comment. CBC   
   spokesman Marc Pichette denied that the July 14 phone-in show identified   
   by the CIJA was intolerant.   
      
   "RDI managers do not consider that it could be deemed anti-Semitic, even   
   if some of the numerous comments expressed in the show were highly   
   critical of Israel's bombing of the Gaza strip, drawing a parallel with   
   Nazi Germany," he said. "Other callers were in agreement with the   
   Canadian government's unequivocal support of Israel's right to defend   
   itself."   
      
   Mr. Pichette noted that the show's host, Alexis De Lancer, "let the   
   callers freely express their opinion, and he thanked everyone of them in   
   the same neutral and polite manner."   
      
   Ira Robinson, interim director of the Institute for Canadian Jewish   
   Studies at Concordia University, said while Mr. Proulx's comments are   
   "particularly egregious," they are nothing new.   
      
   "It's a continuation of a trend that has quite a history, and not merely   
   with Proulx but with other radio commentators in Quebec over the last   
   several years," he said.   
      
   Mr. Robinson said he has seen a trend for the past six years or so where   
   Quebec radio commentators have increasingly been giving airtime to   
   people with controversial views.   
      
   "There's a sort of discourse in francophone Quebec where this sort of   
   thing comes forth. Quebec is the kind of place where these controversial   
   issues are discussed much more openly than in English Canada," Mr.   
   Robinson said.   
      
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