Vindication for Maclean’s writer who penned Quebec “most corrupt” story
Last year, Maclean's Quebec bureau chief Martin Patriquin wrote a cover story that called Quebec the most corrupt, asking why it seemed to claim most of the nation's political scandals. He was lambasted.
Last year, Maclean's Quebec bureau chief Martin Patriquin wrote a cover story that called Quebec the most corrupt, asking why it seemed to claim most of the nation's political scandals. He was lambasted.
The province's politicians and public accused him of Quebec-bashing and a motion was introduced in the legislature to express "profound sadness at the prejudice displayed and the stereotypes employed by Maclean's magazine to denigrate the Quebec nation, its history and its institutions." While Patriquin wrote an editorial refusing to back down, Rogers Publishing brass distanced itself from the whole issue.
Now, a year later, Patriquin has been vindicated. Today, a report by former Montreal police chief Jacques Duchesneau, was leaked. It confirmed suspicions of corruption and collusion within Quebec's construction industry — reinforcing everything written by Patriquin in last year's cover story.
Patriquin posted his thoughts to the Maclean's blog:
[node:ad]Zen is a wonderful thing, and anyway the fact that the province of my birth has a political culture that allows such a thing to fester for so long is nothing to be happy about. One thing, though: I wonder whether Parliament will express its similarly profound sadness at a situation Le Journal de Montréal pithily dubbed “Corrupt To The Bone” this morning, as it did when we dared write about it almost a year ago?
