Montréal le 17 août 2006

Mr Wajsman,

"As usual the media focused on Lebanese flags, not the sea of Hezbollah flags"

"the sea of Hezbollah flags" ?

My wife was at the rally for peace, she took approximately 250 photographs from the very beginning right to the end of the event. I have seen all of them.

She was flabergasted when I showed her your article and in particular the reference to "the sea of Hezbollah flags". She claims that it is so far from reality that it must the closest she has come to what she has lived through in Cambodia as a child of chinese origin under Pol Pot’s propaganda before all her family managed to flee to France as political refugees. It was this particular outrageous exageration with a goal to villify and demonize which brought back her painful memories. She is hurt that such attitudes are alive here in Québec amongst opinion leaders. I am 61, I was born here and consequently I explained to her that as a quebecker I have had to live with this kind of opposition ever since I can remember and that she simply has to live with it.

I did not see more than 4 (or 5 ?) Hezbollah flags in all of the photographs.

My wife also says that she tried on many occasions to get her group of friends to move away from the flags but somehow the same 2 or 3 individuals kept tagging along where it was almost impossible to take pictures without having one flag in the background. Her group of friends were holding a Bloc québécois and a PQ banner.

The vast majority in the crowd was complaining about the Hezbollah flags, but for those in their vicinity it was not that easy to get away from them according to her. All were very unconfortable with the situation. She called me on her cell phone about 2:30 PM to say that all was OK except that she had a hard time getting photographs witout one flag carrier in particular who tried to be in the picture by moving along, always keeping only a few feet away from her group.

Your extreme focus on the Hezbollah flags, which is the foundation for your article, combined with the insults, the excessive tone and the choice of words will not help our understanding of your opinion. In my opinion quite the opposite is achieved ; somehow you seem to be slamming shut in the face of many quebecers the door to understanding. It is precisely this attitude which is so repulsive to most quebecers whatever their origins or political allegiances. I dont think that your regular readers will be pleased, should they, one day, discover that in matters of human activities all is not as black or white as is the impression conveyed by your text.

We both think that you are going much too far with your article and that it is worrysome for the cool-headed political climate we wish to reinforce and promote in a democratic society such as ours.

Sincerly yours

Jacques Nadeau

PS My wife cannot write as easily as I in english but she is available for more details should you wish to confirm all that precedes.