CAQ MNA denounces the media over Northvolt coverage

The Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) has denounced the media for giving Northvolt's battery plant project in Montérégie bad press.

In a debate on Wednesday afternoon, Louis Lemieux, the CAQ MNA for Saint-Jean and a former journalist himself, denounced the "witch hunt" because Northvolt's $7 billion project is "too good to be true."

The Liberal opposition roundly denounced the MNA's remarks, pointing out that the media are going through a crisis and that they are doing their job by trying to obtain information on the project.

"I'm reading more and more observers, columnists, analysts, opinion people: the media, I'm the first to deplore it, have more opinions than facts these days," Lemieux said in the House as part of a motion on Northvolt.

"I think there are too many columns in the newspapers," he quipped to applause from his colleagues on the CAQ benches.

"The job of the news media is to make sure that we tell the truth," said Quebec Liberal MNA Marwah Rizqy.

Journalists who become columnists don't lose their sense of ethics, she added.

"Journalists who are columnists are doing a job to flush out the real news from the fake, in this age of disinformation. It's completely irresponsible to take a swipe at the news media," the MNA said, denouncing Lemieux, who was shouting at her at the same time.

On X, Rizqy added that her CAQ opponent had committed a "nasty slip."

In her opinion, claiming that there are more opinions than facts in the news media only "brings the fourth estate into disrepute."

In addition to saying that the "public opinion machine" doesn't "give the project a chance," Lemieux also condemned environmentalists who attacked Northvolt's project.

He likened their tactics to "eco-terrorism," including hammering nails into trees that were to be felled on the land where the Northvolt plant is to be built, between Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 25, 2024.