Like a dog worrying a bone, Quebec’s French-language La Presse just can’t let go of this non-story: this is its third full-length article about the meeting I had with Ensaf Haidar, the wife of Raif Badawi, who is in prison in Saudi Arabia for insulting Islam. (I wrote about the first two here and here.)
There is nothing much new in this latest article, “Est-ce bon pour Raif Badawi?,” that is, “Is it good for Raif Badawi?,” by Patrick Lagacé, La Presse, February 27, 2019. False charges about me repeated without evidence or any opportunity given to rebut them. The claim that I am secretly enjoying all their smears of me — how they came to have mind-reading skills, they do not explain. Horror that Ensaf Haidar had such poor judgment to as to meet with me, despite the fact that it is likely to offend the Saudis. Lagacé complains that besides meeting me, Ensaf’s “criticism of the Saudi regime has become frontal, incessant.” She even dares to “criticize Islam in general.” Only silent acquiescence and dhimmitude, and constant respect for his jailers will free Raif Badawi, you see, in the expert opinion of Patrick Lagacé.
The irony of this is off the charts. Raif Badawi is in prison today precisely because he spoke the truth rather than remain silent, despite the immense personal risk. In response, Patrick Lagacé and his quoted “expert,” Dennis Horak, Canada’s former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, are telling Ensaf Haidar to do just the opposite: to remain silent and submissive, not speaking unpopular truths for fear they might offend the Saudis, to whom we must apparently all kowtow.
Even worse, La Presse has shown that it doesn’t care about Raif Badawi at all. By repeating SPLC/CAIR lies about me, and trying to tar Ensaf Haidar as an “Islamophobe” for meeting with me, they are making an all-out effort to intimidate Ensaf into silence and/or to get her Leftist supporters to drop support for her cause. This is what is the most despicable about this entire despicable episode: Patrick Lagacé, Marc Thibodeau, and La Presse would rather see Raif Badawi’s cause discredited (which they are working so hard to do) and Raif himself die in prison than allow Ensaf Haidar to stray from the politically correct reservation. This is the quintessential fascist impulse: dissidents must be crushed. I knew journalists were a contemptible bunch, but Lagacé, Thibodeau and their ilk are changing my view: I thought entirely too highly of them.
Jon Sobieski says
Haida and Badawi are just roadkill as you are their main target.
mortimer says
Agree. Patrick Lagacé and Marc Thibodeau are on search-and-destroy missions to prevent JIHAD AWARENESS.
Patrick Lagacé and Marc Thibodeau give comfort to the Islamofascist Saudi government which has dozens of journalists and intellectuals incarcerated and tortured.
Patrick Lagacé and Marc Thibodeau are so ideological (globalists) they are without conscience. They are comforting one of the most fascist places on earth.
gravenimage says
+1
mortimer says
Yes, Sobieski. It’s the same old story of ‘FOR THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER’.
J D.S says
Journalist???..ha ha… An agitator not a journalist..I am old enough yo remember REAL journalist and sorry to say they are as scarce as hens teeth in today’s world. I can also remember when they would have been booed off the journalistic stage.
Lauren Hermann says
Terry Gain says
Islamophobe? Anyone who doesn’t fear Islam is ignorant about Islamic doctrine and history or is a mental defective.
Trish says
Amen to that….
mortimer says
WHERE ARE THE FACTS THAT SUPPORT THE ACCUSATIONS? What? NONE?
Repeating slanderous comments OVER AND OVER without investigating to see if the opinions have a foundation in fact is NOT JOURNALISM.
Repeating unfounded slanders is indeed part of fascism.
This sort of libellous defamation is probably chargeable.
Robert Spencer has never solicited violence against anyone.
CRUSADER says
Leftists are all about “J’accuse!”
Jamie Glazov’s book “Jihadist Psychopath” certainly maps that out….with a nod to the “Unholy Alliance”.
Michael Garant says
Poor Patrick Lagacé, like his coworker ”journalist”, he is a collaborator. To earn his pay, he must support without question the multiculturalism prism that canada wishes to impose on it’s citizens. Canada must defend, no matter the cruelty of the regime, it’s saudi friend cause we sell them armored attack vehicules that our premier peewee trudo calls ”Simply jeeps”. Our great leader has also decided that we would spend millions to help the yemeni children and women that the saudis have been waring against with possibly the jeeps and ammo we sell them. So it is not suprising that la Presse would support saudis…..sensabilities instead of supporting Haidar’s positions. A petite women, probably just short of 5 feet, but standing taller than any of the stooges of La Presse and of our gouvernment.
What should you expect from what is essentially a propaganda machine. Only the uninformed give any credence to what is published in La Presse and papers reproducing their propaganda.
gravenimage says
Fascist “journalist” Patrick Lagacé of La Presse continues smearing Ensaf Haidar for meeting Robert Spencer
………………..
Disgusting victimization of a woman whose husband is suffering under the horrors of Islam. Just shameful.
mortimer says
Lagacé should have said ‘no’. He is a trashy wimp.
A real man would have said ‘No, I won’t do anything that will damage her chance of freeing her husband’.
CRUSADER says
https://www.raifbadawi.org/about-raif-badawi/all-about-raif-badawi.html
https://www.raifbadawi.org/buy-raif-s-book.html
“1000 Lashes. Because I say what I think.” book by Raif Badawi
As with OpenDoorsUSA.org, this issue of persecution needs attention!!!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Charles says
Patrick Lagacé of La Presse is another coward and unexamined fool who simply views tolerance as the only virtue, without examining what we are expected to tolerate. Robert Spencer has become an untouchable because he simply quotes the demonstrable facts of Islamic literature and conflates those ideological facts with the actions of those who adhere to the immutability of the texts. Ensaf Haidar knows well that, under sharia law, the punishment for blasphemy is death. Islam is not just a religion, it is a theological totalitarian ideology with an entire set of governmental institutions and jurisprudence precedent. Robert Spencer was the source that encouraged me to download and read the Quran, many hadith, and histories, simply to confirm the sources he cites. I never have heard Robert to incite or hate or violence, but merely to examine and understand. It is more apparent than ever that the leftists are trying to conflate truth with “hate speech” through inculcated propaganda. Modern journalists are fake and myopic. As Orwell once asserted, “in times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”.
mortimer says
Lagacé is covering up the crimes of Soddy Barbaria. He is complicit in fascism.
Ed says
Who really cares what any French-Canadian press related person says outside of Quebec? It’s not like they’re the sharpest knives in the drawer regardless of the high opinion appointed themselves. Usually thinking with their privates, it’s the reason the English (or others) have been taking advantage of them for centuries. Sadly, all hopes for the French Empire faded with Napoleon, and he wasn’t even French!
mortimer says
Ed, you are wrong.
The French Canadians are expert horse traders and Lagacé is working to help Quebec win RICH CONTRACTS WITH SODDY BARBARIA which is oppressing brave men like Raif Badawi.
gravenimage says
Oh, I doubt it. It is more likely that he is leftist “virtue signalling” here.