Angry in the Great White North

a heat-seeking missile in the Conservative arsenal

The Leger poll on racism in Canada is generating a lot of interest:

Fifty-nine per cent of Quebecers admit to being racist to some degree, according to a Leger Marketing survey published Monday in Le Journal de Montreal.

In comparison, only 47 per cent of those outside of Quebec say they are racist to some degree. One per cent of Quebecers surveyed said they were very racist, 15 per cent said moderately racist and 43 per cent responded that they were mildly racist.

Jean Dorion acts surprised. Very surprised:

The findings stunned Jean Dorion of the Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste.

"I do not perceive the Quebec society as being racist," he told Le Journal de Montreal.

Really? Then Jean Dorion suffers from some sort of memory disorder. Back in June, he was caught up in a racism scandal in the SSJB itself:

The concert had all the trappings of a typical rock 'n' roll show: a raucous five-piece punk band, free-flowing beer and more than 100 guests jammed up against the stage or bouncing happily in the mosh pit. Organized by the Montreal chapter of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society (SSJB), a group long at the forefront of Quebec's sovereigntist movement, the concert had a political tilt to it as well. The band, Fleurdelix et Les Affreux Galois (essentially, Fleur de Lix and the Dreadful Gaullists), played songs about their love for Quebec and the importance of the French language, and much of the crowd sang along.

But there was also a worrisome element: a dozen or so young men with shaved heads, combat boots and several large Norse tattoos -- including one of Thor's hammer, a symbol of white supremacists. Also in the crowd: Cedric Tremblay, who in 2003 pleaded guilty to spray-painting intolerant graffiti on the city hall of Baie d'Urfe, a largely anglophone community on the West Island; and Daniel Laverdière, who in 2003 was sentenced to four years for stabbing a man in what the court said was a racially motivated attack.

The SSJB has been around since 1834, and is best known for organizing the yearly Saint-Jean-Baptiste parade in Montreal. With a membership of 3,000, it's been an influential force in Quebec, and was instrumental in the founding of several key institutions, including ecole des hautes etudes commerciales de Montreal. In years past, La Societe was also known for its rapprochements with other ethnic communities. But now many in its ranks are worried it has opened itself up to a radical fringe.

I'm not sure that you can call something a "fringe" when it exists inside the executive of the organization:

And there was Andre Forget, the treasurer of SSJB's downtown chapter. Forget is a regular at SSJB functions, and known for his devotion to the separatist cause. But on the Internet, he's known as "Moise Theriault," and has written tirades denouncing Jews, Muslims, the Koran and blacks...According to Yvan Bombardier, president of the downtown chapter, Forget had to be called to order during a meeting after referring to Haitian-born Governor General Michaëlle Jean as Quebec's "nigger king."

François Gendron, the SSJB's youth-wing president, says he knew nothing about Fleurdelix's past. "The group told me they made mistakes," he said. "I know Fleurdelix. It's excellent music, and I never heard any racist talk. They talk about peace, love and friendship." But Gendron, 26, has his own controversial past. He's a sympathizer of the Mouvement de liberation nationale du Quebec, the ultra-nationalist group founded in 1995 by FLQ founder and convicted murderer Raymond Villeneuve (a regular presence at SSJB functions). And in 2003, when his friends (including Cedric Tremblay) were arrested for vandalizing the Baie d'Urfe town hall, Gendron appeared on TV in their defence. Asked how far he would go for an independent Quebec, he said, "I don't have any limits."

As for Andre Forget's comments, which are a good deal more incendiary, Gendron maintains he was joking about calling Michaëlle Jean a "nigger king." "It was like, 'yeah, now we really have a nigger king, ha, ha.' He was going by Moise Theriault, not Andre Forget. It doesn't excuse it, but Theriault is an online character. It's more of a joke. I didn't do anything to encourage him, though."

But Forget does not characterize it as a joke. He admits to having made the comment at the SSJB meeting and online under the alias "Moise Theriault." "That's a fact," he told Maclean's. "It's a term that's been used since the '60s to describe decolonization, and it's happened here in Quebec. We [usually] have nigger kings with white skin. This time we have the real thing." And it wasn't the first time "Moise Theriault" opined on black people. "Whites control the planet," he wrote on May 2, 2004. "They are far from stupid for having accomplished that. Why is it that those who denounce the 'monkey junkies' are always said to be racists?"

To be fair to Forget, he has denounced racism...in racist terms:

On June 3 of that year, he [Andre Forget] wrote, "Racism is like black people, it shouldn't exist."

So what did Jean Dorian say when he was confronted with this serious and violent strain of racism permeating his organization?

For his part, Dorion has denied the presence of racist or neo-Nazi elements in his organization.

And he further accused Maclean's of "McCarthyism" when asked about the issue. But he also said he had not known about Forget's comments. "It's been noted," he said. "It will be taken care of."

So if you see racism in Quebec, and write about it, you are a McCarthyist, a metaphor that makes no sense whatsoever. Makes you wonder what names Dorion has for the people at Leger who had the audacity to run this poll.

I mean, why bother? You could save yourself a lot of time and trouble and just asked Dorion. He would have told you that racism doesn't exist in Quebec. Not in June and not today. Despite all the evidence to the contrary. And then he'd call you a McCarthyist (or some other name randomly chosen from his list of quasi-political insults) for even suggesting otherwise.