Locked-out workers picket outside the Journal de Montréal on Tuesday

Le Soleil did the rounds of the provincial parties and found they’re not about to anger journalists in the Journal de Montréal labour dispute. The Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire are, as you might expect, solidly behind the union. The Liberals and ADQ are more on the fence, but aren’t going out of their way to grant interviews to scabs.

In other Journal news today:

• Stéphane Gendron (remember him? He used to be a small-town mayor or something) says he’ll continue writing for the Journal. His excuse is that he’s not a journalist and he loves hearing himself think too much to cut off that avenue of communication. He also thinks the union is evil.
• Rue Frontenac starts tomorrow, Steve Proulx says. (When I asked the union directly, they weren’t so sure – tomorrow or Thursday.) Confirmed in a news release: they launch at 2pm with a press conference.
  
• ProjetJ has a piece about media convergence and how this conflict is all about Quebecor wanting Journal writers to promote the activities of other groups in the Quebecor Media empire.
• Quebecor is apparently now an underrated stock, because all this journalist soul-crushing is going to save them a lot of money.