New Vigile.net Management Maintains Fine Tradition of Hate

vigile.net.... New face/same racism

Readers might remember two years ago when the separatist website vigile.net (which includes aggregated stories from the mainstream press as well as original contributions from readers) came under fire for printing a series of antisemitic pieces. It led to a firestorm of criticism and condemnation from politicians and media and the affair frightened the PQ into abandoning its support of the website both financially and editorially as some sovereigntist writers went so far as to demand that their archived pieces be removed from the site, lest they be tainted by association.

I'm not going to re-visit this story, the then editor and chief cook and bottle washer of the website, Bernard Frappier is departed and beating a dead horse serves no purpose.
I wrote these articles a couple of years ago and for those of you relatively new to this website, you can take advantage of the weekend to catch up.

Read:
Is Vigile.net Racist? -Is the Pope Catholic?

Vigile.net and Me       
Vigile.net - We Love You!  
Sovereignists Flee Vigile.net   

After the death of Bernard Frappier, Richard Le Hir, has since become the big kahuna at the website and as such I imagine, along with the editorial board, helps select those reader submissions to be published.

In no way do I assert that Mr. Le Hir necessarily ascribes to the many divergent opinions presented, but the decision as to what to publish remains a collective responsibility by those in charge, one that cannot be shirked.

Now back when the first vigile.net controversy struck, Mr. Le Hir accused enemies of the website of using certain antisemitic remarks published on vigile.net as a smokescreen to diminish whatever prestige and legitimacy the website maintained.

Here's just a small sample of what readers were treated to;

"I'm sure if one of my grand-sons died in Lebanon or Palestine, I would spend the rest of my days trying to blow up every Jew in the world, and even the children of  each Jew, so it would make them feel as bad as I."  -André Vincent

"...the very history of the Hebrews, the ancestors of the Jews and later the Israelis, is one of massacres, killings, genocide under divine inspiration of their god Yahweh"- Ivan Parent

"...The Anglos are no more at home in Quebec than Jews living in settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip"... - Simon Girard

"When I hear my fellow Quebeckers say they will vote for the ADQ because they want change, I feel like running away to Palestine to become a suicide bomber." Redacted

Mr. Le Hir characterized certain antisemitic remarks made by two specific contributors as nothing more than 'unwise,' in other words a trifle, used by enemies as a battering ram to beat down a legitimate avenue of opinion.

Well, perhaps that is all behind us and I for one was certainly willing to give vigile.net a chance to redeem itself under new management.

Before I continue, let me say that the very large majority of original articles offered by vigile.net are nothing like the above.
In fact most are well-thought out opinion pieces which you may or may not agree with, but are as legitimate as anything you will read in the mainstream press.

Also published are some strident or poorly written diatribes and rants, but almost all, well within the bounds of legitimate free speech and opinion. 

Vigile.net remains a website that is run by non-professionals and as such should be given a little latitude. If something is published that perhaps should not have been, a simple acknowledgement of a mistake should suffice.

Unfortunately, that seems not to be the case and one gets the feeling that in fact vigile.net is actually holding back its true sentiments.

Last week, the website published another unfortunate screed, which can only be described as just one more racist rant against immigrants by the indomitable Réjean Labrie, perhaps vigile.net's most prolific xenophobe.

Once more we are treated to an orgy of immigrant-bashing, this time a contention that there is a vast federalist plot to depict Quebec as multicultural, all because of the disproportionate amount of minorities shown on television commercials and advertisements. A distorting mirror: "biased" advertising{fr}

In the article Mr. Labrie is offended by Quebec television being saturated with visible minorities, his first target, an advertisement, that according to the author, features a 'veiled clerk' with an 'unpronounceable name,' presuming to offer advice about art supplies.
By the way, I'm pretty sure the actor wasn't wearing a veil (which covers or obscures the whole face,) but rather, a Hijab an innocuous headscarf which nonetheless I imagine, is as offensive to Mr. Labrie as a kippah or a turban.

In the second example he complains of a commercial that features an African couple (which I imagine again is offensive in and of itself) while the third example is a complaint that gangster movies shown on Quebec television feature too many 'non-white' gangsters, a word he advises readers that he uses to be 'politically correct,' implying obliquely that the criminals are Black.

All this is underscored by a picture of an advertisement that features a Black actor in sunglasses, reinforcing Mr. Labrie's objection to minorities being so prominent in advertising.

What is offensive? The fact that the actor is Black or the gaudy sunglasses?

 Mr Labrie's underlying argument; 

"In any country, in the name of social harmony, there must be only one collective identity to which everyone adheres voluntarily and positively, it is the basis of the concept of nation."

 Sounds like something you're likely to read on an 'Aryan Nation' website!
And by the way, how does Mr. Labrie know, without speaking or interacting with the actor above that he isn't part of the 'collective identity.'
Is it because he excludes all Blacks automatically? I'll let readers draw their own conclusion.

He then goes on to tell readers that if minorities are to be depicted in such numbers, then by right, the same should go for mental patients, those in  wheelchairs, blind people and stutterers, dwarfs, gays, lesbians and ugly people, etc. etc.
And then this; 

"....the purpose of this unhealthy propaganda, this excessive multiculturalism in the media is to reduce the importance of the native population and relegate it to the status of a minority just like the others, which, as we know, is part of their overall plan for our decimation. It is an aberration, as well as the pro-ethnic positive discrimination in hiring, which prioritizes employment to foreigners rather than to us and our own children."

Yikes!!

credit... antagoniste.com

Now before I let readers have their two cents in the comments section, I would like to comment on the last paragraph where Mr. Parent actually proposes that in Quebec, foreigners are taking over the jobs rightfully belonging to native born Francophones.

For Mr. Labrie's information, no province does as poorly in assimilating immigrants into the work force as Quebec and the contention that the good jobs are being gobbled up by these 'furiners' would be laughable if not so sad.

So on what basis exactly does vigile.net choose to print this offensive tommyrot?
It is for Mr. Le Hir and his editorial board to answer.

One has to be surprised over the lack of condemnation in the comments section below the story.
With just two supporting comments, either not many people read Mr. Labrie and vigile.net or many agree but are embarrassed to admit it in the open,  or the article didn't garner much interest.
Probably it's a combination of all of the above, plus the fact that vigile.net has a reputation for deleting unfavorable comments. ...whatever.

It's too bad nobody made a big deal over the story, because someone should have.
Somebody has to call out vigile.net for publishing something that is so offensive, either for its lack of judgement or its racism.

If such an article appeared in any English website with the readership of vigile.net, all Hell would have broken loose, of that I'm sure.

Few would assert that Mr. Labrie's attitude is representative of mainstream Quebec Francophones, but has language and culture extremism in Quebec led to a spike in intolerance?

That readers is a question for you to discuss in the comments section..

Have a good weekend!
Bonne fin de Semaine!