Posted at 1:00 p.m.
On Friday, June 3, the Dr Pierre Lalonde, an experienced psychiatrist and many times rewarded for his work, was supposed to give a conference at the congress of the Association of Psychiatrists of Quebec (AMPQ), in Mont-Tremblant. Facing doctors convinced that systemic racism plagues psychiatry in Quebec, Dr.r Lalonde wanted to present another vision of things, arguing that psychiatric practice in Quebec was rather characterized by “systemic benevolence”1.
Preparing for this debate, he invited, a few months ago, the author of these lines to accompany him, with the aim of having a second plea2 to deconstruct the arguments of the supporters of the theory of systemic racism. It was therefore with pleasure that I had accepted this invitation and that I was preparing myself accordingly.
However, a week before the congress, three psychiatrists from the Charles-Lemoyne hospital circulated a letter stating that Dr.r Lalonde did not have the “expertise” to talk about systemic racism and that, for my part, I was making “racist and homophobic remarks”. These three doctors, Imen Ben-Cheikh, Mohammed Zaari Jabiri and Don Quang Tran, have received some forty support from other doctors in Quebec, so that the members of the AMPQ board of directors have decided to cancel our game during the presentation. It was the president of the AMPQ, Claire Gamache, who told us in a letter that provides no justification or explanation, let alone an apology.
The Dr Lalonde and I believe we have suffered a smear campaign that is once again fueling the culture of banishment (cancel culture) From our era.
It was following these events that I contacted journalist Isabelle Hachey, in good faith, believing in her professionalism and her interest in freedom of expression. I tried to give him a faithful account of the events over the course of email exchanges. On June 10, when I came across her column on this case, I could only be overwhelmed by her comments. At the very beginning of his text, Hachey warns that ” [i]It would be too easy to make another illustration of the cancel culture in Quebec “3. Oh good ? And what justifies such a warning?
Mme Hachey makes a very quick conclusion about who I am in order to disqualify me from rational discussion. She titled her column “Faut se parle”, although she never tried to reach me on the phone or talk to me in any other way… By her shortcut, she thus made her readers understand that the cancellation suffered by the Dr Lalonde and myself is a shame, but still predictable, and perhaps even deserved. She speaks of Cécile Rousseau, the presenter, as a doctor in good faith who wanted to discuss, but who was prevented by circumstances. However, the DD Rousseau concretely justified and supported our cancellation without ever attacking the smear campaign that targeted us.
Moreover, Isabelle Hachey fails to mention certain facts that are crucial to understanding the events. As we learn that we will not be able to hold our conference, the Dr Lalonde nevertheless suggests that I attend the convention, which I have every right to do. As the days go by, the organizers nevertheless manage to put a spoke in my wheels, so much so that in the first place, I am told that I will only be able to register for the day of Thursday, whereas the conference on racism (amputated from our part) is held on Friday. Wishing to inform me about this strange modality, the DD Martine Dériger, general manager of the AMPQ, replies that in the end, I am simply banned from the premises, whereas it was she herself who told me the day before that I had the right to register…
Of all the doctors involved in our cancellation, none of them, I repeat, provided us with explanations, justifications or excuses. We were treated as negligible, as a “problem” to be solved in order to let the “real” experts in systemic racism speak on stage, without compensation. It is unfortunate that M.me Hachey decided to help legitimize the vision of these censors. Next time, we really need to talk to each other.