The last big reveal of the conference of the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, the election of president and board members, happened today, and it was mostly a victory for Martin Bisaillon and his pro-union group, even though Bisaillon himself pulled out of the race after the OMGSCANDAL.
- For president, Brian Myles (Le Devoir), who replaced Bisaillon on the unofficial ticket, won against François Cardinal (La Presse).
- For the “region” (i.e. not-Montreal) administrator, Michel Corbeil (Le Soleil) lost to Nathalie Deraspe (Accès Laurentides)
- For the three other administrator posts, Isabelle Richer (Radio-Canada) and André Noël (La Presse) both won (because Myles ran for president, they only ran two candidates), along with Florent Daudens (Radio-Canada). Defeated were Yann Pineau (La Presse), Lise Millette (Presse Canadienne) and Maurice Giroux (Point Sud).
- The post for freelancer was acclaimed, Nicolas Langelier being the only candidate.
These people will join vice-president Richard Bousquet (Rue Frontenac) and secretary-treasurer Philippe Schnobb (Radio-Canada) on the board. If we look at it from a straight party perspective, the unionists have two of five seats on the board and the presidency. Hardly a majority, but will this send a bad message to managers and media bosses in Quebec that the FPJQ is moving toward taking sides (even if they say the point is not to do so)?
We’ll have to see how it plays out, but I didn’t hear any calls to radicalization in the candidates’ statements at the conference. Myles made the point is that the FPJQ should speak for the profession instead of leaving the job to analysts and (heaven forbid) academics. From my perspective, it doesn’t look as though the FPJQ will implode or radicalize.
Les idées exprimées au congrès étaient fort différentes que les allégations qui circulaient sur Internet avant l’événement C’était (pour une fois) très instructif d’être présent sur place pour entendre l’équipe de Brian Myles et François Cardinal s’exprimer. Loin d’être “pro syndicale”, l’équipe Myles a réussi à prouver sa bonne foi et surtout d’expliquer les différences entre sa façon de concevoir les prises de position de la FPJQ et celle, notamment, du président sortant. Je pense même que la fin de semaine permettra d’éviter un déchirement de la FPJQ et que tous les membres se rallieront derrière Brian Myles. Un déchirement qui semblait pourtant inévitable peu avant, tellement le débat avait dévié loin du terrain des idées…