Yesterday's Gazette featured a front-page column by Sue Montgomery titled "Ex-official seeks audit of Alliance Quebec."

"News with attitude," indeed! Let's look at this "ex-official" who made these allegations. Is there a shred of truth to any of the insinuations in Montgomery's column, including the thinly veiled accusation that Alliance Quebec is squandering federal tax dollars? Did the column give any evidence that Alliance Quebec's defence of human rights no longer serves the province's English-speaking community?

The column relies on Carlos Roldan, Casper Bloom and un-named members of Alliance Quebec's board of directors. Gazette readers should have some background on these sources.

In May 2001, Roldan received fewer votes than any other candidate elected to the board and was elected for a one-year rather than a two-year term. In May 2002, Roldan was part of a group, along with Chris Dye and Giuliano D'Andrea, that opposed my candidacy for the presidency. They lost.

Since then, they have used every conceivable means to discredit Alliance Quebec and me personally, including filing bogus assault charges, posting libelous comments on an Internet forum operated by CanWest Global (which owns The Gazette) and feeding journalists with inaccurate and incomplete information about Alliance Quebec's activities and funding.

Casper Bloom is a lawyer and Quebec Liberal Party supporter who no doubt pines for the days when Alliance Quebec was the farm team for his party. He was part of a group that opposed William Johnson's candidacy for the presidency in May 1998. They lost.

Why would these people say these things? Because they have an agenda - to suppress and discredit the human rights agenda put forward by Alliance Quebec. For example, Alliance Quebec's actions include defending a Park Ave. dry cleaner against state-sponsored harassment for not speaking French well enough; defending small businesspeople prosecuted for their bilingual signs or English Web sites; assisting parents seeking equal access to English schools; and taking the government to court for failing to implement access plans for health care in English.

If Alliance Quebec does not do this, who will?

The Gazette's sources are unable to come up with one single statement made by me or any other representative of Alliance Quebec that would not be considered mainstream in any liberal democratic country on the planet. Instead, they resort to ad hominem attacks and make no attempt to address Alliance Quebec's positions on human rights on their merits.

Consider the column's reference to the "damning report" to the federal Department of Canadian Heritage from Roldan. Montgomery makes no mention of whether the department even received anything from Roldan. Alliance Quebec has not been advised of any such document.

Alliance Quebec is audited every year by a reputable accounting firm. We file regular reports of our activities with the department. In 2001, the department required that groups seeking federal funding adopt results-based management. We have not been advised by the department of any failure to respect our obligations under our contribution agreement. It is an insult to the current board of directors that Roldan's baseless allegations were given any currency by The Gazette.

As for Bloom, we at Alliance Quebec make the Quebec Liberal Party look bad. It is our job to remind Quebecers of Robert Bourassa bragging that "we have suspended fundamental liberties" and that the rule of marked predominance of French on outside signs is a Liberal invention. It is our job to point out that opinion polls show that between 71 per cent and 81 per cent of Quebecers believe that parents should be able to choose the language of instruction of their children.

Meanwhile, the Quebec Liberals voted with the Parti Québécois on Bill 104, which turns the screws on access to English schools. It is our job to recall that in a 2001 survey by the Missisquoi Institute: "Equal rights were spontaneously identified as the principal issue across (the) entire spectrum of respondents."

As for the unnamed sources in Montgomery's column, this is the stuff of yellow journalism, dwelling on innuendo, gossip and the obsessions of a few malcontents, rather than reporting on the substantive issues.

Alliance Quebec wants to be judged on performance: on the number of people helped every day from every corner of this province, on its influence on the public debate about human rights and minority language rights and on the extent to which we achieve social change. On that measure, Alliance earns every penny of your federal tax dollars.