MONTREAL - Popular francophone radio host Benoit Dutrizac took aim at the spoken French of two West End Montreal politicians Thursday, leading to a lively public exchange with council veteran Marvin Rotrand.
The outspoken radio host wrote a note on Twitter Thursday afternoon in French criticizing the French of Executive Committee member and Mayor of the Cote-des-Neiges/NDG borough Michael Applebaum.
"Michael Applebaum's French is an insult to francophone Montrealers. It is incomprehensible to those who try to understand," wrote Dutrizac.
He later added, "Applebaum and (Marvin) Rotrand's mangling of the French language is unacceptable."
NDG City Councillor Rotrand tweeted back in French, saying that he is "proud to be bilingual," and finds Dutrizac's words "deplorable."
Dutrizac, 50, responded that his listeners found Rotrand incomprehensible during a recent radio interview.
Rotrand, 60, has served on Montreal's city council since 1982, making him the longest serving sitting councillor.
He described Dutrizac's criticism to CTV Montreal, as "a bizarre unprovoked attack."
"The reality of the situation is that I choose to speak French at city council. I don't have to but 99 percent percent of my interventions are in French and they're comprehensible," he said.
Benoit Dutrizac did not back away from his comments in an interview with CTV Montreal.
"They just don't speak French well enough. They don't get their message through. It's hard to understand what they are saying," said Dutrizac.
Dutrizac said the criticism is fair game, as some francophone politicians such as Louise Harel and Pauline Marois have been criticized their inability to fully speak the language of Shakespeare.
Rotrand suggested that his colleagues and constituents must have better hearing than the radio host and his listeners.
"I'll never pretend to be entirely grammatically correct my accent is admittedly charming but none of my colleagues have any trouble understanding me," he said.
