Martineau deserves to be criticized

Re: “Let’s not single out Richard Martineau” (Dan Delmar, March 8)

Dan Delmar does not question the accuracy of Mélanie Beauregard’s master’s thesis, for which she scrutinized 438 opinion pieces delivered between 2006 and 2014 by Journal de Montréal columnist Richard Martineau, but merely its pertinence.

Delmar notes that Martineau promoted the Parti Québécois’s discriminatory Charter of Quebec Values: “He advocated for restrictions on garments like the hijab or burkini, which aren’t unique to Islamists. It’s safe to say he reflects an unfortunate, omnipresent anxiety about radical Islam.”

Martineau’s abhorrence for the hijab and the burkini proved that his concerns went way beyond radical Islam.

But Delmar comes to Martineau’s defence, while distancing himself from Martineau’s views.

On what grounds? That Beauregard’s study “might also help further the myth of a uniquely racist Quebec,” even if Beauregard made no such suggestion.

Delmar continues: “Martineau doesn’t even come close to the active xenophobia practised by peers in anglo Canada; he’s in the minor leagues . ... Martineau’s commentary is often condemnable, but it is not worth highlighting any more or less than the work of many of his peers in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada.”

Oh? Martineau has few peers in Quebec for the influence he exercises by his writings and his radio and television broadcasts. His populist, aggressive style of attacking les Autres needed to be documented and criticized.

It’s no defence to claim that others are as bad or worse. Every prominent and influential aggressive populist must be held individually to account. William Johnson, Gatineau