The “Gazette” denies having disrespected René Lévesque

The caricature of the Montreal Gazette which aroused the controversy on Tuesday, was misunderstood, according to the editor of the newspaper, who argues that it was precisely intended to denounce the contempt which René Lévesque may be subject to.

The caricature of Boris (Jacques Goldstyn) represents an old lady, drawn in a rather stiff way, and for me it is her and her outdated (and inappropriate) attitude that is targeted by the cartoonist. Mr. Lévesque, he was drawn gently, with obvious respect, ”said Bert Archer in a written exchange with Le Devoir. “I would add that the Gazette does not sanction the attitude of the lady or what the dog does. »

Earlier Tuesday, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon had asked all the leaders of Quebec parties to denounce the drawing signed Boris illustrating an old lady whose dog urinates on a poster by René Lévesque.

“If we choose to crash and lay down, they’ll wipe their feet on the rest of us,” wrote on Twitter the leader of the Parti Québécois, quoting the author Pierre Falardeau. “Quebecers are entitled to respect. Aplaventrist federalism will give us nothing but decline and contempt,” he continued in his tweet.

Asked later to specify what had shocked him so much in the cartoon, the PQ leader said he saw it as a mark of contempt. “We are celebrating the 100^e anniversary of the life of a great man who advocated that Quebec should decide for itself, finally become a normal democratic society. […] And this cartoon is pissing on it. »

“It’s a reflection of a larger phenomenon called the Quebec bashing. It is a reflection of what is written regularly in the media in the rest of Canada on behalf of Quebec,” he denounced.

The PQ leader, however, did not ask for the cartoon to be removed, saying he was a “fervent” defender of freedom of expression.

An unexpected kindred spirit

A choice that turned out to be rather wise since the cartoonist in question, Boris, subsequently spoke on various platforms to let it be known that he was in fact an admirer of René Lévesque who in no way endorsed that we urinate on its image in reality.

“The works can give rise to divergent interpretations”, also underlined the editor-in-chief of the Gazette Bert Archer. “We give our columnists and cartoonists plenty of leeway to express themselves. »

Relaunched on this subject, the leader of the PQ did not want to withdraw his remarks, but came to the conclusion that the cartoonist and he were of the same opinion. “It’s as if the cartoonist wanted to say the same things, namely that if we don’t agree with René Lévesque, there will only be contempt. […] It surprises me, because that’s not how I read it. »

Initially silent on the subject, the leaders of other other parties finally commented in turn on this affair on Tuesday afternoon. The leaders of the Coalition avenir Québec and the Conservative Party of Quebec, François Legault and Éric Duhaime, both argued that the cartoon was “in bad taste”, but that they nevertheless respected the freedom of expression of its author. .

Later, solidarity leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said he first found the cartoon “frankly inappropriate”, before reading the comments of its author. “It’s a shame that we fueled the tensions like that all day long around a figure that should bring Quebecers together,” he said.

In the evening, a spokesperson for the Liberal Party of Quebec indicated that the content of the drawing was “completely unacceptable”.

With Marco Bélair-Cirino, Florence Morin-Martel, François Carabin and Alexandre Robillard

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