Normand Lester is our hero

By GUY BOUTHILLIER
G&M Monday, December 10, 2001

When federal MP Andrew Telegdi compared Canada's deportation practices to Hitler's, he was immediately summoned to withdraw his comments and apologize for trivializing the Holocaust. When Mordecai Richler compared Quebec's elected leaders and institutions to Hitler and the Nazis, he was lionized.

Nobody batted an eye when Rex Murphy found connection between the October crisis, Quebec's independence movement and the Sept. 11 crimes in his TV commentary on the anniversary of Pierre Trudeau's death ("The FLQ's dip into the ugliness of kidnapping, and the heinousness of murder, is not on the scale of this recent convulsion. But it was a first step on the same bitter road").

But when Quebec Premier Bernard Landry commented on Sept. 11 and then referred to Quebec sovereignty, demands for explanations flew from all sides ("The freedom of peoples and nations and their character is an indispensable condition for global equilibrium. . . . Since the events of Sept. 11, if there is one conclusion to draw in relation to the project of Quebec sovereignty and the sovereignty and liberty of all peoples, that is it"). Mr. Landry was immediately equated in cartoons and commentary to the man wanted dead or alive (Osama bin Landry).

The ease with which Quebec and its elected leaders are likened to Canada's worst enemies, and the concomitant double standard, is what inspired Normand Lester to write his book, Le livre noir du Canada anglais. That and the "propaganda machine" cranked up by Ottawa, especially since the 1995 referendum.

In the 1960s, English Canada responded to Quebec's growing independence movement by devoting money and effort to changing Canadians' attitudes and behaviour. The results were impressive.

French achieved official-language status, appeared on signs and was taught intensively everywhere in Canada. It became a language that even premiers of Ontario and other provinces proudly spoke, as they, too, passed language laws.

French Canadians were appointed to positions formerly beyond their reach: Minister of Finance and Defence, ambassadorships in London and Washington.

These changes alone couldn't stop the sovereignty movement. But Ottawa had other cards in its hand, including police and propaganda. Though official reports have documented the burned barns, stolen membership lists, planted bombs and the War Measures Act, Canada obviously did not become a police state. The propaganda machine, however, has never ceased to grow.

The idea was in the works before the current generation of Liberals reached power. In 1964, Pierre Trudeau wrote: "One way of offsetting the appeal of separatism is by investing tremendous amounts of time, energy and money in nationalism, at the federal level . . . [in] such things as national flags, anthems, education, arts councils, broadcasting corporations, film boards . . ."

Any doubts about the growth of this machine in recent years have been dispelled, thanks to sharp-nosed reporters like Normand Lester and well-connected columnists like The Globe's Hugh Winsor.

Mr. Lester broke the story of Ottawa's secret funding of Robert-Guy Scully's TV series glorifying Canada in the new millennium. In his March 30, 1998, column, The Battle For The Hearts And Minds In Quebec, Hugh Winsor bluntly asked: "Is propaganda justified if you are at war against a sophisticated enemy (Québec)?" Answering affirmatively, Mr. Winsor added that a small group, including Jean Chrétien and his advisers, were "secretly but vigorously" debating how to conduct the propaganda.

Commenting on Mr. Lester's revelations about Mr. Scully in May, 2000, a Montreal Gazette editorial described one of the secret source of funds, the ever-growing Canada Information Office, as "a propaganda tool of the federal government." It also noted that "the public broadcaster looks like an unfortunate stooge in a propaganda war."

Mr. Lester's Le livre noir du Canada anglais has created a stir. But shouldn't the real stir be about what he has uncovered as an investigative reporter with Radio-Canada? He has exposed the RCMP's paying of an informer at the highest levels of the Quebec government, the infiltration by CSIS of the CSN trade unions with plans to bomb a hotel, and the Chrétien government's vast new powers, obtained in 1996, to intercept cellular communications (a mini-version of the Echelon system shared among the security services of the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada).

Yet in May, 2000, our public broadcaster demoted Mr. Lester to working on translation and voiceovers. More recently, it suspended him and pushed him out. It is saying that courageous investigation is fine and dandy, but steer clear of the Canadian government.

Normand Lester will receive the Olivar-Asselin Award tonight in recognition of his courage and his excellence in investigative journalism. He joins a long list of great Quebec journalists such as René Lévesque, Judith Jasmin, Lysiane Gagnon and Pierre Nadeau. They also refused to give in to bullying.