MONTREAL - A small group of French-language protesters demonstrated in front of a corner store in Verdun Saturday morning at the urging of a fringe group known as the Young Patriots of Quebec (JPQ).
The demonstrators were reacting to a phone interview conducted by radio host Benoit Dutrizac in which an employee apparently spoke negatively about French-speaking Quebecers.
The radio personality phoned the store after being told that some staffers were unable to speak French.
The context of the exchange was not immediately clear but a clerk who answered the phone reportedly said that French-Quebecers, "drink beer, smoke and take welfare."
The store is located on de l'Eglise St. in eastern Verdun, within one of the less-well-off parts of the borough.
"This situation goes beyond that of a new immigrant who hasn't had time to integrate within the majority," said JPQ representative Laurence Beauchemin.
"If the clerk wants to insult a French-Canadian minority, we invite him to do so with his redneck friends in Alberta," added co-spokesman Jean-Philippe Decarie-Mathieu.
About 20 people picketed outside the store after 10 a.m. but none apparently heeded the organizers' invitation to "smoke and drink beer," while demonstrating.
