Raymond Corriveau, president of the Conseil de presse du Québec for the past four years and social communication professor at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. (Photo: Claude Demers)
Did the media fuel the reasonable accommodation “crisis?”
Two specialists say “no”
by Geneviève Allard
On numerous occasions during the Bouchard-Taylor commission, the media was criticized for its coverage of the reasonable accommodation hearings. Too sensationalist, not accurate, etc. But how did the media really cover reasonable accommodation?
Journalists themselves were also put in the spotlight during the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec conference last November, but no clear conclusion was reached. Nevertheless, things seem to be a lot less serious than one might think, said Julius Grey, a Quebec lawyer specialized in individual rights, and Raymond Corriveau, the president of the Conseil de presse du Québec and social communications professor at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.
One sole complaint
“The only complaint we received at the Conseil de presse du Québec concerning reasonable accommodation, from about 800 complaints annually, is the front page of the Journal de Montréal from Jan. 15, 2007, with the headline ‘59% of Quebecers say they are racist,’” said Corriveau. “One complaint can’t be a mistake.”
The Conseil de press, which is comprised of eight members of the administration council from the public sector, companies and journalists, acknowledged part of the complaint when it came to the headline.
Corriveau, who has headed the Conseil for four years, recognizes that certain media may have put emphasis on certain cases of reasonable accommodation, but at the same time, they also showed what was presently happening in society. “In the political elite and law, there is discomfort with this question and the media witnessed this very well.” The professor also reminded that people know the media well and know that certain radio station or newspapers will emphasize things differently compared to others.
“Reflection on the role of the media has evolved with time. The citizen-analyst is much more sophisticated, and they have more interactive tools.” On top of that, Corriveau underlined that the discourse of the 1950s that dominated the media and dictated what people thought is no more.
“We can all congratulate ourselves, because even with this highly-covered process, with an equally emotional subject, there was only one complaint,” said Corriveau, adding the Conseil de presse du Québec’s mandate is to promote the highest ethical norms and media responsibility.
A highly covered event
“It’s a crisis on a small scale, and not a conscious crisis for everyone,” said Julius Grey. “The media’s objective is to sell, but you can’t say they promoted fear.”
Grey, who is well-known for defending controversial cases, such as the right to wear a kirpan at school or the rights of Hassidic Jews to put up Eruv during their Sabbath, thinks the media, for the most part, did a good job. “They played a smaller role than they did in the Conservative law on crime prevention,” he said.
A passionate defender of individual liberties, Grey said people tend to have a strong collective loyalty in situations like the Bouchard-Taylor Commission.
Looking back, Grey believed that while certain comments made by citizens showed some did not understand minorities, very few racist comments were written about in the newspapers and elsewhere.
“I think the Bouchard-Taylor Commission will have shown that there is no distinction between the different social groups in society, but in the villages and in the regions. Opinions in Montreal and Vancouver are usually more similar than those in Joliette and Prince Rupert,” Grey said.
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