Quebec’s forestry industry is in panic mode about the film L’Erreur Boréale.
The film, by poet-singer Richard Desjardins, portrays a devastating picture of how clearcutting affects the environment.
It has caused a storm of controversy in Quebec, which doesn’t seem to be dying down after many months.
La Presse reports the industry has mounted an expensive public-relations campaign to spruce up its tarnished image.
Journalists were flown by plane and helicopter to the Lac St. Jean region, put up in a luxury hotel and fed lavish meals. The three biggest media junkets cost $50,000, not including PR fees.
L’Erreur Boréale has now been translated into Swedish, which is further freaking the industry out.
“The stakes are too high to just let it go,” said André Dupras, vp-communications at Donohue, in a La Presse story. “But it’s going to be very expensive. We are paying for the errors committed in the past. We think we haven’t communicated enough with the public.”