Version française ICI
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/245639.html
Maple Spring – The Iranian agency Press TV produced dozens of articles and many TV reports favourable to the student boycott against an increase of the tuition fees in Quebec. The opposition movement is described as a part of a global fight against neo-liberalism.
These last months, the Iranian Press TV agency produced dozens of articles and many TV reports about the student boycott in Quebec. Analysts contacted by the press agency in New York, Shanghai and different Canadian cities are all favourable to the striking students’ demands. Press TV did not bother inviting specialists who could have explained how affordable higher education is in Quebec and that it will remain so, even after the increases proposed by the Charest government are in effect.
Lysiane Gagnon (La Presse – April 17, 2012): Remarks about a boycott (Notes sur un boycott)
Nathalie Elgrably (La vitre cassée – May 25, 2012): For whom are they struggling? (Pour qui se battent-ils?)
Questions being asked by Iranian TV hosts to their out-of-Quebec guests about the repercussions of the Quebec movement seem to reflect a hope in Tehran that the instability occurring in the province will spread elsewhere in Canada and in North America. This reaction can be explained in part by Tehran’s will to hurt Canada, as much as it can, after it imposed various sanctions against Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, an important ally of Iran whose government is being challenged by the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda and other entities.
Daniel Pipes (June 15, 2012): Stay out of the Syrian Morass
GMBDR (February 15, 2012): Qaradawi Organization Sponsors Pro-Syrian Opposition Rally In Qatar
The titles of three videos broadcast by Press TV summarize the message conveyed by Tehran about the actual political context in Quebec:
– Students in Quebec protest neo-liberalism: Analyst
– ‘Financial dictators rule US, Canada’
– ‘Tuition fees, tip of iceberg of Canada student protests’
Matching the Iranian agenda with the demonstrations taking place in Quebec, Press TV stated in a June 9, 2012 article that demonstrators gathered near the Formula 1 race site in Montreal “were also calling attention to the violation of human rights in Bahrain, which also hosted the franchise’s races in April despite mass demonstrations.” Important confrontations have taken place between Shiites and Sunnis in Bahrain recently.
The tip of the iceberg
Michel Chossudovsky is professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and a frequent commentator on Iranian Press TV programs. Agreeing with conspirationists in Tehran, he claims that al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden had nothing to do with 9/11 events.
Fars News Agency (September 11, 2011): Ahmadinejad Views 9/11 Events as US Excuse for Attacking Muslim States
On Iranian Press TV, Chossudovsky describes the lifting of the tuition fee freeze in Quebec as the tip of a neo-liberal iceberg in Canada:
Now we also have to understand that the student fees, tuition fees is just the tip of the iceberg, what has been happening in this country in the last I would say 10 to 15 years is the demise of the welfare state, the de facto privatization or at least the movement towards privatization of health, the underfunding of health and ultimately also a rise in militarization of law enforcement.
It is ironic to notice that Mr. Chossudovsky’s office at the University of Ottawa is located in the Desmarais Building named in honour of Canadian and international businessman Paul Desmarais after he gave a large sum of money to the University.
Introduced as an “International affairs expert” by Press TV, Kenneth Fernandez has also been invited to comment about what is happening in Quebec. Fernandez ran for the Canadian Action Party (CAP) in the Saint-Laurent-Cartiervielle riding in 2000 and 2004. In 2004, CAP leader, Paul Hellyer, a former Minister of Defense in the Trudeau cabinet held unsuccessful talks with Jack Layton on a merger with the NDP.
Referring to Jean Charest’s previous job as a Minister in Brian Mulroney’s Conservative cabinet in the eighties, Fernandez describes a huge conspiracy in order to explain Charest’s decisions regarding the tuition fees. It involves the CIA through a connection with Mulroney and George Bush father:
(In this file,) there is also, it seems to me, a foreign element as well, which was well worth noting … (G)iven his history of close collaboration with both a prime minister who was US-inspired and supported (Brian Mulroney) and his connection to the former president of the US (George Bush father) who had been the CIA director general in the past, it would seem to me that he (Jean Charest) is receiving advice of some kind, perhaps support in various ways. I can not make an assertion, but it would appear to me as an analyst that’s what is very much at play.
Infiltrators
More conspiracy: asked to comment by their Iranian host about the origin of vandalism that takes place in demonstrations where people displaying the red square gather, Michel Chossudovsky and Kenneth Fernandez blamed infiltrators controlled by police:
Kenneth Fernandez: It appears to be a tried and tested tactic that the authorities here have applied and put into effect such that they engage in the hire or otherwise induce certain people to engage in acts of violence for and on their behalf and then say, Look! The protesters are violent, we have to curtail the rights otherwise this thing will get out of hand and there will be lawlessness and we are not in favor of the lawlessness so we have to impose these strict measures.
Michel Chossudovsky: This has been from the outset a peaceful protest movement and if there has been violence, this violence has been the result of agent provocateur (secret agents) which one suspects work in complicity (with) the police forces. This is not something which is new, we’ve had several cases of police agent provocateur who actually were revealed by the media and by the nongovernmental organizers.
In an interview broadcast by Quebec network TVA, MNA Amir Khadir has also given credibility to the argument of infiltrators in order to explain the vandalism that has occurred in Montreal in the last few weeks:
“Tactics of infiltration do exist … we cannot reject out of hand something that occurred in the past. When such a hypothesis is alluded to, we must make sure to disprove it.”
(Amir Khadir) considers “very troubling” the fact that smoke bombs were thrown in the Montreal subway the day after a press conference was held by various groups asking for a public investigation about a violent demonstration that occurred a few days earlier.
On June 7, 2012, MNA Amir Khadir’s own daughter, Yalda, was arrested by Montreal police who suspects her of having taken part to various acts of vandalism perpetrated during the student protest.
Press TV’s questions reveal a concern about the PQ and its secession project
Sometimes, one’s questions are more revealing than one’s assertions. Although nobody, for all practical purposes, in Quebec has made a connection between the recent demonstrations and the project of independence of Quebec, it should be stressed that Press TV hosts seem to worry about the issue. They insisted on asking their guests to comment about the impact that the demonstrations could have on a possible Quebec secession.
Michel Chossudovsky answered that, according to him, the current movement is not influenced by the sovereignty vs. federalism dynamic:
At this stage the issue of sovereignty and separatism is not the key issue. I’m not suggesting it might not become later on.
As for Kenneth Fernandez, he fears that the PQ will benefit from the current turmoil:
The more heavy handed the tactics of this government the more it plays into the hands of a separatist opposition party (the Parti Québécois), which is then likely to take power in the next election and then it is likely then that the issue of constitutional amendments will be raised by government and opposition parties at the federal level and we may then see the Balkanization of our country to the benefit of the United States. So I think there’s a broader agenda at play.
After having lined up commentators who portrayed Jean Charest in a negative light, after having expressed its reserve towards the PQ, Press TV has kept its only good words for Amir Khadir after he was arrested on June 5, 2012 for taking part in an illegal demonstration in Quebec City.
On June 4, 2011, Press TV also reported MNA Khadir’s statement to the effect that Prince William and his wife Kate touring Canada could be compared to “circus performers.”
During the Bouchard-Taylor Commission in 2007, another Iranian press agency (IQNA) announced that Amir Khadir and his Québec-Solidaire party had called a proposal aiming at forbidding public servants from wearing the Islamic veil “a delirium.”
Press TV made the headlines when its commentator Tariq Ramadan was fired by the city of Rotterdam in 2009
In 2007, Tariq Ramadan was hired by the city of Rotterdam “to help ‘bridge the divide’ between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities.” After having found out that Ramadan was working for Press TV, the propaganda organ of the Iranian regime, many Dutch political parties asked for and got his firing.
Nrc.nl (August 18, 2009): Rotterdam fires Tariq Ramadan over Iranian TV show
“Bridges” are built by Islamists to allow people to go in only one direction. Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), the Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, summarized this facet of the Islamist program best in his classic Milestones:
The chasm between Islam and Jahiliyyah (non-Muslim world) is great, and a bridge is not to be built across it so that the people on the two sides may mix with each other, but only so that the people of Jahiliyyah (non-Muslim world) may come over to Islam … in order that they may come out of darkness into light and may get rid of their miserable condition. (Milestones – chapter 10)
As we write these lines, we cannot determine with certainty whether or not Tariq Ramadan still hosts a program for Press TV. The relationship between Iran (Shiite) and the Muslim Brotherhood (Sunni) has severely deteriorated since the Brotherhood is involved in a military campaign to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime (Alawi) allied to Tehran.
Further reading
Richard Martineau (Blog/Journal de Montréal – June 7, 2012): Trade-unions financial contributions to Quebec student associations (Contributions financières des syndicats aux associations étudiantes du Québec)
Lysiane Gagnon (La Presse – June 12, 2012): Wind of folly (Vent de folie)
