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One year ago on April 22, the Journal de Quebec locked out more than 250 journalists, photographers, classified ad and office staff belonging to three CUPE unions.
Never one to avoid a principled fight for workers rights, CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan recently found himself being censured by the Toronto SUN for an article he submitted on the Journal de Quebec lockout. There’s a likely reason why Ryan, who has been writing a column for the tabloid since 2005, had his submission refused. The Toronto SUN is owned by Quebecor Media, the same media conglomerate that owns the Journal de Quebec.
When word of the refusal reached the striking Quebec workers, they swung into action with lots of ink of their own. That’s because the workers have been publishing their own newspaper, Media Matin Quebec, and handing it out each morning to Quebec City residents.
Media Matin ran a feature interview with Ryan on April 11 in which Ryan discusses freedom of the press and the lack of it in Canada. Then on April 15, Media Matin ran a front-page story entitled Censuré par la «famille» (Censored by the family’) along with a French translation of Ryan’s article that he originally wrote for the SUN.
