L'affaire Amira Elghawaby : lettre ouverte à Allison Hanes

 February 6, 2023.

Out with it!
- Dean Wormer in “Animal House”.

Dear Ms. Hanes

This pertains to your piece published on February 1st in The Gazette. 

https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/allison-hanes-elghawaby-uproar-shows-how-criticism-of-quebec-is-weaponized?__vfz=medium%3Dstandalone_content_recirculation_with_ads

It is quite clear that your “journalistic” intellectual honesty is as impressive as that of Ms. Elghawaby. Your “one line in one opinion piece” shows that, for you, quantity prevails over quality.

Evidently, you were inspired by Condaleezza Rice’s famous “16 words” response (in 2003) in relation to Saddam Hussein’s fictitious programme of weapons of mass destruction: “It is 16 words, and it has become an enormously overblown issue [REALLY?] ...So yes, it is unfortunate [NO KIDDING!] that this one sentence, this [sic!] 16 words, remained in the State of the Union... There has been a lot of focus this week on 16 words [NOW, THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR].”

In addition, let me congratulate you on your phrase “A few questionable tweets”. Tweets that were vomited (metaphorically, of course) by Me. Elghawaby. That is what I call a brilliant example of the art of understatement: you adroitly avoided Ms. Elghawaby’s reference to her digestive discomfort at the idea that French Canadians have been victims of British colonialism in the past.

(While I am at it, Ms. Hanes, please note that you will find a number of fascinating “one-, and indeed, multi-liners”, at times somewhat, shall we say, “questionable”, in the (very) Holy Qu’ran and the New Testament, about Jews and unbelievers in general).

That being said, I submit that my own latest column, appended hereto, addresses all the points you have raised.

https://philippedecommynes.blogspot.com/2023/02/les-camouflets-infliges-par-justin-au.html

I just hope your knowledge of French will be sufficient to understand it: my comments are (as always) replete with literary and historical allusions. In other words, I write for a cultural elite, not the hoi polloi. In that respect, my own philosophy is that quality is superior to quantity.

To conclude, Ms. Hanes, on February 3rd, a letter expressing support of Ms. Elghawaby, signed by 30 more (or less?) “‘pro’minent” (sic) Quebecers, was made public. Amongst them, yes, there he was, the one and only, the undoubtedly “‘e’minent Charles Taylor, star-philosopher of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning. The Templetonian millionaire is thus delivering an impeccable after-sales service to the religious industry, above and beyond the call of duty. A fine and moving example of Christian charity.

And as the Good Book tells us, "as a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly"(Proverbs 26:11).

Yours truly,

LP

(A humble, hopefully rational, and definitely rationalist disciple of Bertrand Russell and Albert Camus).