‘Le Monde’ takes aim at Quebec

France’s Le Monde, home to the country’s choicest polémiques, has aimed its guns at Quebec. In a lengthy tirade, plugged on the front page of France’s newspaper of record, Nobel Prize-winning author Jean-Marie Le Clezio spits 1,000 words at Hydro-Québec and its plan to dam the Romaine River on Quebec’s Lower North Shore. “The Romaine is one of those marvelous places that has survived on our planet, which has been severely mistreated by industrial civilization,” writes Le Clezio, noting the river is a source of spirituality and nourishment for the Inuit. Premier Jean Charest shrugged off the criticism on his tour through Europe, saying the project is also a source of hundreds of Inuit jobs.

The Canadian Press