An article in Maclean's magazine has once again outraged Quebecers.

On Monday Andrew Potter wrote a piece about the Highway 13 debacle in which he said it was a symptom of "social malaise."

In the piece, Potter described the incident that let 300 cars stranded on Highway 13 during a blizzard as a "mass breakdown in the social order," and said it was a sign that "Quebec is an almost pathologically alienated and low-trust society, deficient in many of the most basic forms of social capital that other Canadians take for granted."

The article immediately generated double-takes from Montrealer and Quebecers, with some saying that Potter must be living in a parallel world.

Others noted that some of the things Potter said routinely happened--such as restaurants offering ways to pay bills without paying taxes--had never happneed to them.

In Quebec City politicians were quick to dismiss the article.

Premier Philippe Couillard said "It's deplorable," and was an article "of poor quality based on prejudice."

The Parti Quebecois' director of communications said the piece was simple "Quebec-bashing."

Within 24 hours Potter retracted some of what he wrote, stating he "generalized from a few minor personal anecdotes about the underground economy in Montreal to portray entire industries in a bad light. I also went too far in my description of Quebec society as alienated."

"My intention in writing the piece was not to insult Quebec and Quebecers. As naive as this sounds, it came out of a good-faith attempt to understand what happened with the closure of Highway 13 during the snowstorm, and to find that understanding in some statistics on social capital in the province and compared to other parts of Canada," wrote Potter in his apology.

Potter earned a BA in Philosophy at McGill University, and did post-doctoral research work at l'Université de Montreal. He worked at the Ottawa Citizen, Canadian Business, and Maclean's magazine between 2007 and 2016, when he was named Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

McGill University issued a notice Tuesday that Potter's article did not reflect the views or opinions of the university.