Columnist Gilles Proulx persists and signs in his fight against Québec solidaire. In a column signed Thursday, he asks Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois “to admit that he erred” by accusing him of making calls for violence. The chosen one retorts that he has nothing to be ashamed of.
Under the spotlight since the solidarity demanded an apology for having described them as “bastards” and “gangrene” in a radio column, Mr. Proulx had not yet commented on this saga, except in a short tweet published on March 23. In his column published Thursday morning, he tackles it head on.
Quebec solidaire believes that Gilles Proulx made calls for violence in his March 21 column on QUB radio, when he said that “the English are really right to say that we should finish them off once and for all, these thick ones” at the conclusion of a long diatribe with regard to Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. According to the columnist, the left-wing party is attacking him “on false premises”.
“During a flight on QUB radio where I ironically exclaimed that the people of Quebec deserve to be “finished off” for their historical indolence and bonassery, Mr. Nadeau-Dubois thought he heard that I was calling for violence. . No… “, he defended himself in his column of the day.
“If the head of QS had bothered to listen to the excerpt, as elementary rigor commanded, this storm would not have arrived,” he added. “So I ask him to make amends and admit that he was wrong from the start. »
“Bad explanation”
If Mr. Proulx “has the right to defend himself”, his explanation is at best “wobbly”, replied Mr. Nadeau-Dubois when questioned on this subject Thursday morning. “He has the right to justify himself. In a democratic society, this is quite correct. After that, even if we adhered to his explanation for this sentence, does that justify saying that the Liberal Party is “to be destroyed”? he asked.
In an excerpt from QUB radio dated September, Mr. Proulx had actually made the following remarks about the Liberals: “They are bastards, bastards of demagogues, stinkers. To knock down, to knock down. [Pour] me, the Liberal Party is a party of cellars or thieves. »
“These are comments that are not acceptable,” argued Mr. Nadeau-Dubois Thursday. “QUB radio should not have accepted them. We are still waiting for an apology from Mr. Proulx, from Mr. [Richard] Martineau, who let these remarks be expressed at his microphone without correcting his columnist, and from QUB radio. »
While leaving Gilles Proulx his version of the facts, the deputy for Gouin pointed out that “almost all of Quebec’s political class understood the same thing as us when they heard these remarks”.
On Tuesday, both the Coalition avenir Québec and the Liberal Party had supported a motion denouncing “the remarks made earlier in March on QUB radio about the members of the second opposition group, calling them in particular “bastards”. and “junk”. The Parti Québécois opposed, arguing that it did not want to see the National Assembly become a “court”.
“Less glorious things”
In his Thursday column, Gilles Proulx agrees that “it is true that he [lui] sometimes use harsh words to describe politicians and their parties”. “After more than six decades in the media, I have done good things and I also recognize that I have done less glorious things,” he wrote. He still maintains his right to freedom of expression.
Last week, Québec solidaire made known its intentions to boycott QUB radio while awaiting apologies and retractions from the columnist and his media. Since then, and despite several reminders, the media relations of Quebecor, the parent company of QUB radio, have not shown any sign of life. No one at QUB radio, either, deigned to answer our questions.
Contacted by the Sûreté du Québec this week to find out if he wanted to file a complaint against Mr. Proulx, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois decided not to do so. “QS’s goal is not to drag anyone to court. It’s to send a message that we shouldn’t do this in Quebec, ”he said on Tuesday.