Media commentators and Liberal ministers are angry a father filmed himself challenging Canada’s foreign minister on the street for enabling genocide. The outrage exposes the media/political establishment’s anti-democratic ethos.
Ten days ago, a man biking with his two kids saw Melanie Joly on Laurier Avenue in Montreal and asked the foreign minister to “lift the cap on the number of Palestinian refugees”. In response, Joly hit his phone and grabbed his jacket. Antoine (sole identification of the man) then told the minister to calm down and after she mentions the children with him says he’s trying to instill “good values” in them by opposing Israel’s killing. After the minister says she’s trying to have a relaxing walk Antoine says she doesn’t have that right while enabling a genocide in Gaza. Antoine then says it’s his job to harass her for promoting genocide.
Two weeks before the incident Joly made what she called a “solidarity” trip to a state the International Court of Justice found to plausibly committing genocide. In response to its mass killings in Gaza, Joly’s Global Affairs sped up the approval of weapons permits to Israel, okaying $28.5 million in arms in the two months after its onslaught on Gaza began.
A slew of commentators condemned Antoine, not Joly who may have assaulted him. They seem to believe Canada’s foreign minister can enable mass slaughter and not expect to be challenged about it. A number of the commentators demanded greater police protection for the minister even though an RCMP agent was with Joly. Radio Canada’s flagship weekly program Tout Le Monde en Parle (everyone is talking about it) played the video and had the minister on to discuss how difficult it’s been for her during the past six months.
According to the commentariat, people filming themselves challenging politicians on the street is a threat to democracy. Of course, this is an inversion of reality. While sometimes messy and unpleasant, common people questioning politicians and sharing it on social media subverts our society’s political passivity and the dominant media’s power to ‘manufacture consent’ for imperialism. Journalists with regular access to politicians rarely ask tough questions on international affairs, prioritizing ‘access’ over holding power accountable. Beyond their cozy relations with politicians, the commentariat don’t support this type of social media activism because it subverts the establishment media’s power. Over one million viewed Antoine’s interaction with Joly on my X account and hundreds of thousands more on others’ social media platforms.
Alongside media commentators, Liberal ministers came to Joly’s defence. Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge posted on X, “As MPs, we’re here to listen to the public. It’s part of our job. There are many ways to reach us, to express yourself. But no one deserves to be harassed, followed and filmed without their consent in their private life. My heart goes out to my colleague and friend, Melanie Joly.”
Leaving aside her “my heart goes out” hyperbole, St-Onge is a hypocrite. Three days later St-Onge and her staff cancelled a press conference, hid in a room for half an hour, called the police and ultimately fled out a backdoor to avoid a simple question about her government backing a holocaust in Gaza. When I arrived a few minutes late to a press conference with St-Onge a TVA cameraman was waiting in the room and the minister was touring a public housing project. The press people asked my name and then what I was planning to ask the minister about (which was the Heritage Minister’s silence on Israel destroying 40 UNESCO sites and killing 100 journalists in Gaza). Five minutes later they asked me to leave. I refused. Subsequently, they said the minister would not return to conclude the press conference so I found St-Onge. To avoid appearing on camera she hid inside an apartment for nearly half an hour while her attaché called the police and the manager of the facility to ask me to leave. As the police talked to me, the minister fled out a side door.
Hours after releasing a sanctimonious statement about the appropriate place to ask politicians questions, St-Onge went to embarrassing lengths to avoid taking my question at a press conference!
I already knew St-Onge’s ‘there’s a right time to communicate with politicians’ rhetoric was hogwash. A year ago I attended a press event with St-Onge and asked the then sports minister, who was pushing to bar Russian and Belarusian athletes from sports competitions, whether she felt the same way about US athletes after they invaded Iraq? She smirked and walked away.
As she left the room and waited for an elevator I asked the same question regarding Canadian athletes after the Canadian led bombing of Libya or Israeli athletes. Multiple millions viewed the clip on social media and the embarrassing encounter was picked up by a slew of major international media.
A bid to avoid a similar clip may explain why she went to such absurd lengths to elude my questioning her on camera (though after a run Media commentators and Liberal ministers are angry a father filmed himself challenging Canada’s foreign minister on the street for enabling genocide. The outrage exposes the media/political establishment’s anti-democratic ethos.
Ten days ago, a man biking with his two kids saw Melanie Joly on Laurier Avenue in Montreal and asked the foreign minister to “lift the cap on the number of Palestinian refugees”. In response, Joly hit his phone and grabbed his jacket. Antoine (sole identification of the man) then told the minister to calm down and after she mentions the children with him says he’s trying to instill “good values” in them by opposing Israel’s killing. After the minister says she’s trying to have a relaxing walk Antoine says she doesn’t have that right while enabling a genocide in Gaza. Antoine then says it’s his job to harass her for promoting genocide.
Two weeks before the incident Joly made what she called a “solidarity” trip to a state the International Court of Justice found to plausibly committing genocide. In response to its mass killings in Gaza, Joly’s Global Affairs sped up the approval of weapons permits to Israel, okaying $28.5 million in arms in the two months after its onslaught on Gaza began.
A slew of commentators condemned Antoine, not Joly who may have assaulted him. They seem to believe Canada’s foreign minister can enable mass slaughter and not expect to be challenged about it. A number of the commentators demanded greater police protection for the minister even though an RCMP agent was with Joly. Radio Canada’s flagship weekly program Tout Le Monde en Parle (everyone is talking about it) played the video and had the minister on to discuss how difficult it’s been for her during the past six months.
According to the commentariat, people filming themselves challenging politicians on the street is a threat to democracy. Of course, this is an inversion of reality. While sometimes messy and unpleasant, common people questioning politicians and sharing it on social media subverts our society’s political passivity and the dominant media’s power to ‘manufacture consent’ for imperialism. Journalists with regular access to politicians rarely ask tough questions on international affairs, prioritizing ‘access’ over holding power accountable. Beyond their cozy relations with politicians, the commentariat don’t support this type of social media activism because it subverts the establishment media’s power. Over one million viewed Antoine’s interaction with Joly on my X account and hundreds of thousands more on others’ social media platforms.
Alongside media commentators, Liberal ministers came to Joly’s defence. Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge posted on X, “As MPs, we’re here to listen to the public. It’s part of our job. There are many ways to reach us, to express yourself. But no one deserves to be harassed, followed and filmed without their consent in their private life. My heart goes out to my colleague and friend, Melanie Joly.”
Leaving aside her “my heart goes out” hyperbole, St-Onge is a hypocrite. Three days later St-Onge and her staff cancelled a press conference, hid in a room for half an hour, called the police and ultimately fled out a backdoor to avoid a simple question about her government backing a holocaust in Gaza. When I arrived a few minutes late to a press conference with St-Onge a TVA cameraman was waiting in the room and the minister was touring a public housing project. The press people asked my name and then what I was planning to ask the minister about (which was the Heritage Minister’s silence on Israel destroying 40 UNESCO sites and killing 100 journalists in Gaza). Five minutes later they asked me to leave. I refused. Subsequently, they said the minister would not return to conclude the press conference so I found St-Onge. To avoid appearing on camera she hid inside an apartment for nearly half an hour while her attaché called the police and the manager of the facility to ask me to leave. As the police talked to me, the minister fled out a side door.
Hours after releasing a sanctimonious statement about the appropriate place to ask politicians questions, St-Onge went to embarrassing lengths to avoid taking my question at a press conference!
I already knew St-Onge’s ‘there’s a right time to communicate with politicians’ rhetoric was hogwash. A year ago I attended a press event with St-Onge and asked the then sports minister, who was pushing to bar Russian and Belarusian athletes from sports competitions, whether she felt the same way about US athletes after they invaded Iraq? She smirked and walked away.
As she left the room and waited for an elevator I asked the same question regarding Canadian athletes after the Canadian led bombing of Libya or Israeli athletes. Multiple millions viewed the clip on social media and the embarrassing encounter was picked up by a slew of major international media.
A bid to avoid a similar Media commentators and Liberal ministers are angry a father filmed himself challenging Canada’s foreign minister on the street for enabling genocide. The outrage exposes the media/political establishment’s anti-democratic ethos.
Ten days ago, a man biking with his two kids saw Melanie Joly on Laurier Avenue in Montreal and asked the foreign minister to “lift the cap on the number of Palestinian refugees”. In response, Joly hit his phone and grabbed his jacket. Antoine (sole identification of the man) then told the minister to calm down and after she mentions the children with him says he’s trying to instill “good values” in them by opposing Israel’s killing. After the minister says she’s trying to have a relaxing walk Antoine says she doesn’t have that right while enabling a genocide in Gaza. Antoine then says it’s his job to harass her for promoting genocide.
Two weeks before the incident Joly made what she called a “solidarity” trip to a state the International Court of Justice found to plausibly committing genocide. In response to its mass killings in Gaza, Joly’s Global Affairs sped up the approval of weapons permits to Israel, okaying $28.5 million in arms in the two months after its onslaught on Gaza began.
A slew of commentators condemned Antoine, not Joly who may have assaulted him. They seem to believe Canada’s foreign minister can enable mass slaughter and not expect to be challenged about it. A number of the commentators demanded greater police protection for the minister even though an RCMP agent was with Joly. Radio Canada’s flagship weekly program Tout Le Monde en Parle (everyone is talking about it) played the video and had the minister on to discuss how difficult it’s been for her during the past six months.
According to the commentariat, people filming themselves challenging politicians on the street is a threat to democracy. Of course, this is an inversion of reality. While sometimes messy and unpleasant, common people questioning politicians and sharing it on social media subverts our society’s political passivity and the dominant media’s power to ‘manufacture consent’ for imperialism. Journalists with regular access to politicians rarely ask tough questions on international affairs, prioritizing ‘access’ over holding power accountable. Beyond their cozy relations with politicians, the commentariat don’t support this type of social media activism because it subverts the establishment media’s power. Over one million viewed Antoine’s interaction with Joly on my X account and hundreds of thousands more on others’ social media platforms.
Alongside media commentators, Liberal ministers came to Joly’s defence. Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge posted on X, “As MPs, we’re here to listen to the public. It’s part of our job. There are many ways to reach us, to express yourself. But no one deserves to be harassed, followed and filmed without their consent in their private life. My heart goes out to my colleague and friend, Melanie Joly.”
Leaving aside her “my heart goes out” hyperbole, St-Onge is a hypocrite. Three days later St-Onge and her staff cancelled a press conference, hid in a room for half an hour, called the police and ultimately fled out a backdoor to avoid a simple question about her government backing a holocaust in Gaza. When I arrived a few minutes late to a press conference with St-Onge a TVA cameraman was waiting in the room and the minister was touring a public housing project. The press people asked my name and then what I was planning to ask the minister about (which was the Heritage Minister’s silence on Israel destroying 40 UNESCO sites and killing 100 journalists in Gaza). Five minutes later they asked me to leave. I refused. Subsequently, they said the minister would not return to conclude the press conference so I found St-Onge. To avoid appearing on camera she hid inside an apartment for nearly half an hour while her attaché called the police and the manager of the facility to ask me to leave. As the police talked to me, the minister fled out a side door.
Hours after releasing a sanctimonious statement about the appropriate place to ask politicians questions, St-Onge went to embarrassing lengths to avoid taking my question at a press conference!
I already knew St-Onge’s ‘there’s a right time to communicate with politicians’ rhetoric was hogwash. A year ago I attended a press event with St-Onge and asked the then sports minister, who was pushing to bar Russian and Belarusian athletes from sports competitions, whether she felt the same way about US athletes after they invaded Iraq? She smirked and walked away.
As she left the room and waited for an elevator I asked the same question regarding Canadian athletes after the Canadian led bombing of Libya or Israeli athletes. Multiple millions viewed the clip on social media and the embarrassing encounter was picked up by a slew of major international media.
A bid to avoid a similar clip may explain why she went to such absurd lengths to elude my questioning her on camera (though after a run across a parking lot I opened the heritage minister’s door to question her before she drove off). Politicians controlling questions and scripting public events is a far bigger threat to democracy than common people rudely filming them on the street. So is a Montreal media sphere which devoted more attention to criticizing a father for challenging the foreign minister on the street then to 20 weeks in a row of mass marches in the city against Canada’s complicity in Israel’s genocide (from week 5 to 26 the media all but stopped covering the protests even though thousands came out each weekend).
Joly, St-Onge, Justin Trudeau and others should be questioned on video whenever possible. We need to give the decision-makers a bit of a headache and inspire like-minded individuals to act. With the dominant media largely refusing to cover critical perspectives on important international issues, we need to find other ways to put forward our message and push back against government policies.
Shame on all the commentators and politicians who denigrated a father for challenging Canada’s foreign affairs minister for promoting genocide. We need more people with Antoine’s convictions and a willingness to act.clip may explain why she went to such absurd lengths to elude my questioning her on camera (though after a run across a parking lot I opened the heritage minister’s door to question her before she drove off). Politicians controlling questions and scripting public events is a far bigger threat to democracy than common people rudely filming them on the street. So is a Montreal media sphere which devoted more attention to criticizing a father for challenging the foreign minister on the street then to 20 weeks in a row of mass marches in the city against Canada’s complicity in Israel’s genocide (from week 5 to 26 the media all but stopped covering the protests even though thousands came out each weekend).
Joly, St-Onge, Justin Trudeau and others should be questioned on video whenever possible. We need to give the decision-makers a bit of a headache and inspire like-minded individuals to act. With the dominant media largely refusing to cover critical perspectives on important international issues, we need to find other ways to put forward our message and push back against government policies.
Shame on all the commentators and politicians who denigrated a father for challenging Canada’s foreign affairs minister for promoting genocide. We need more people with Antoine’s convictions and a willingness to act.across a parking lot I opened the heritage minister’s door to question her before she drove off). Politicians controlling questions and scripting public events is a far bigger threat to democracy than common people rudely filming them on the street. So is a Montreal media sphere which devoted more attention to criticizing a father for challenging the foreign minister on the street then to 20 weeks in a row of mass marches in the city against Canada’s complicity in Israel’s genocide (from week 5 to 26 the media all but stopped covering the protests even though thousands came out each weekend).
Joly, St-Onge, Justin Trudeau and others should be questioned on video whenever possible. We need to give the decision-makers a bit of a headache and inspire like-minded individuals to act. With the dominant media largely refusing to cover critical perspectives on important international issues, we need to find other ways to put forward our message and push back against government policies.
Shame on all the commentators and politicians who denigrated a father for challenging Canada’s foreign affairs minister for promoting genocide. We need more people with Antoine’s convictions and a willingness to act.
Yves Engler is the author of 12 books. His latest book is Stand on Guard for Whom?: A People's History of the Canadian Military . Read other articles by Yves.
The star attraction was the Grim Reapess (feminine of reaper?) with a wagon of baby dolls covered in blood, her hubbie in top hat ringing the bell of the Apocalypse. And an outsize Palestinian flag which an agile volunteer weaved among the marchers, fluttering in the breeze (and in our faces), like we were a flotilla come to rescue the Palestinians from starvation.
