Richard Le Hir is in the news once again. In the Aug. 13 issue of La Presse, the newspaper’s chief editorialist, Alain Dubuc, wrote a scathing editorial making fun of the PQ star candidate, and calling him “intellectually undisciplined.”
Dubuc was commenting on recent revelations that Le Hir was once a consultant to the Canada 125th birthday campaign even though he now claims to be a separatist.
“It is quite difficult, like Mr. Le Hir attempts to do, to reject federalism while at the same time celebrating federalism,” wrote Dubuc.
Dubuc was especially amused that Le Hir, “without laughing,” said that while he worked for the Canada 125 organization, he never saw the $50-million celebration of the nation’s birthday as “the promotion of national unity.”
“We don’t know if Mr. Le Hir takes us
for imbeciles or if he is one himself,” responded Dubuc.
Dubuc is not the first to tell off Le Hir in recent weeks. Le Hir, the former president of the Quebec Manufacturers’ Association who is touted as a possible Industry Minister in an independent Quebec, was also rebuked by Premier Daniel Johnson and Cree leaders for making disparaging remarks about native cultures and civilizations.
Le Hir made the anti-native remarks in a new film about the Great Whale Project called Power Of The North. “I would have something to learn from them (natives] if it could be shown that their culture demonstrated its superiority in one form or another,” he said.
“(But) when you look at what heritage has been left by native civilizations—if you could call them civilizations—there is very little.”
