Posted at 6:00 am.
I read it in Mathieu Bock-Côté's recent essay, “Totalitarianism without a Gulag,” published in November by Presses de La Cité. We therefore live in an Orwellian world dominated by an elusive but pervasive “diversity regime” that constantly monitors, censors and subjects us to a stifling ideological conformism.
That's basically the thesis of the book.
Under this new totalitarianism, the Gulag is “no longer necessary, as society has become an open-air re-education camp,” writes Mathieu Bock-Côté. Journalists and commentators of all stripes adhere to dogma and do not hesitate to distort reality or lie outright. “Factual accuracy is being replaced by ideological conformity, and this is valued all the more because one must adhere to it in order to advance in society,” he writes. According to this logic, the brain must reprogram itself: it is a question of civic, media and often financial survival. »
A question of media survival? It's a bit strong, it comes from a man who is multiplying the platforms to attack this so-called censorious regime with the verve that we know.
Mathieu Bock-Côté has built a flourishing career crafting this same-old speech in print and on television in Quebec and France. We have never seen a totalitarian regime so tolerant of criticism, even the harshest.
Mathieu Bock-Côté's impressive media success on both sides of the Atlantic shows through the absurdity that his thesis is untenable.
To support this, the author multiplies the examples intended to illustrate the excesses of totalitarianism without a gulag. Taken together, these stories actually paint a grim picture of the woke danger that threatens the Western world. But there you have it, some of the examples presented in the book don't stand up to simple fact checking.
Take this seemingly scandalous story, in which, according to Mathieu Bock-Côté, refusing to conform to trans ideology amounts to nothing short of parental abuse. “In British Columbia, […] “A father was sentenced to six months in prison because he refused to acknowledge his child’s gender transition and continued to view his daughter as a girl and address her with a female pronoun,” he writes.
Disgusting, isn't it? Except that this too brief summary does not correspond to reality. In fact, the father was convicted not because he refused to accept his child's transition, but because he publicly disclosed personal and medical information about his child, violating a court order protecting his private life.
And he didn't just do it once, by accident. On the contrary, the father had “blatantly, willfully and repeatedly” violated the order, a British Columbia Supreme Court judge noted with dismay1. He did this by conducting numerous interviews with American right-wing media and organizing an online fundraiser in which he did not hesitate to reveal his child's name and photo. Through this collection he was able to raise tens of thousands of dollars. When it comes to disregard for justice, the judge said, “there are few cases that are even remotely comparable.”
In his book, Mathieu Bock-Côté evades these facts, which are nevertheless necessary for a good understanding of history. This leads him to conclude, in a dramatic way to say the least, that “these recalcitrant parents and those who support them are the new political prisoners of the West.”
Two weeks ago this caricature of reality was denounced on X, and that encouraged me to delve deeper into the essay. I found many similar abbreviations there. In addition to this one, I have selected five – presented in the next tab – that illustrate the method used by the author.
Five more abbreviations
A man accused of disgrace
“In the fall of 2021, a man accused of misrepresenting one of his former colleagues who identified as non-binary at a restaurant was ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in damages to the non-binary question.” , argues Mathieu Bock-Côté in his work. Shocking, you say?
At first glance, yes. However, when we review the articles published in British Columbia, where the events took place, we find that the non-binary employee, Jessie Nelson, received $30,000 not for being treated wrongly, but for being treated unfairly was placed at the door after she asked Colleagues ask him to call him by the pronouns of his choice2. This is not a small nuance.
The bar manager was particularly hostile towards Jessie Nelson. He insisted on using the wrong pronouns and enjoyed giving her nicknames like Sweetheart, Honey and Pinkie. The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the restaurant discriminated against Jessie Nelson by concluding that it was easier to show her the door than to resolve the growing conflict between its employees. Although the bar manager was among those convicted in this case, the restaurant was found to be liable as employer for the entire amount of compensation payable to Jessie Nelson3.
A student was arrested by the police
In Ontario, “a student had to experience the police because he objected to the presence of boys who identified as girls in the girls' locker room,” says Mathieu Bock-Côté in his essay, limiting himself to the narrative.
This matter is also more complex than it seems. Josh Alexander was suspended after he organized a demonstration outside his school to protest transgender students' use of the restroom of their choice. The 16-year-old student was warned by management that if he organized this demonstration he would be immediately suspended. He ignored that warning and moved on, supported by organizations like Save Canada and Freedom Fighters Canada. Among the thirty demonstrators, most of them adults, some waved signs reading “FUCK TRUDEAU,” “FAKE NEWS,” and quotes from the Bible 4, 5.
Following further incidents, Josh Alexander, a self-described “born-again Christian,” was suspended for the remainder of the school year because his behavior, which was deemed intimidating and harassing by school administrators, posed a threat to the safety of other students On February 6, 2023, he violated a ban on appearing at school, resulting in an arrest, a fine, and extensive media coverage, including an interview with American polemicist Tucker Carlson.
Josh Alexander, now 17, is still not admitted to the school's main campus. In August, he posted a video on X in which he practiced with a pistol on a target in a forest.
SCREENSHOT OF JOSH ALEXANDER'S X ACCOUNT
Josh Alexander's post where we see him practicing shooting and where we can read his commentary on weak men.
“Given the number of weak men who have corrupted our society, difficult times are inevitable. Prepare accordingly,” he wrote in a comment. The school administration perceived this as a threat, especially since Josh Alexander confirmed that he considered certain school employees to be weak men6.
A barbaric rape in Cherbourg
It's a sordid rape case in Cherbourg, France, an attack so brutal that the victim hovered between life and death. The 18-year-old suspect Oumar N., son of a French woman and a Senegalese father, was arrested and taken into custody until his trial.
“Activists who want to express their opposition to what they describe as immigration overwhelming are subject to a public ban – to the point where the state often takes tougher action against those who denounce illegal immigration or a connection between immigration and crime than with crime.” writes Mathieu Bock-Côté. As evidence, he cites an article in Le Figaro with the headline “Barbaric rape in Cherbourg: 12 right-wing extremist activists arrested for an unregistered meeting” 7.
However, one only needs to do a little research to see that the state did not take a “tougher approach” towards these twelve members of a small ultra-right group who were arrested after they gathered to protest in front of the house of suspect Oumar N.
Two days later, the twelve activists were released and subsequently found not guilty of “provoking without effect the commission of a felony or misdemeanor” 8. However, two of them were fined 200 euros for illegal possession of weapons.
Oumar N., for his part, risks a life sentence.
The initiative of the century
“In 2023, under the government of Justin Trudeau, Canada announced its support for the main proposal of the Initiative of the Century, a think tank that aims to make Canada a country of 100 million people by the end of the 21st century “required a radical increase in the country’s immigration thresholds,” writes Mathieu Bock-Côté in his book.
We can think what we want about Canada's migration policy, we can think the thresholds set by Ottawa are far too high, but the Trudeau government has never announced its support for the initiative of the century. On the contrary, following the publication of a file in Le Journal de Montréal in May 2023, the office of then Federal Minister of Immigration Sean Fraser sent an update to the media to reiterate his position on the matter. “The government does not adhere to the conclusions of the Centenary Initiative and does not have the goal of increasing Canada's population to 100 million people by the year 2100,” the press release said. These thresholds were set based on Canada's interests and not in response to the wishes of any independent group9. »
Teacher arrested in Ireland
“In Ireland, a professor who announced that he would refuse to use the new trans pronouns in conversation with his students saw his school tell him not to use them again. Since he showed up anyway, the police arrested him,” writes Mathieu Bock-Côté.
Once again, the essayist takes a shortcut that deprives the reader of a proper perspective on this topic.
The teacher, Enoch Burke, was suspended not for refusing to use trans pronouns, but for his belligerent behavior, including at a school board meeting where, according to a witness, he became angry and “exploded” and “completely changed color.” . to the scene. Later, during a religious ceremony, he again spoke out very publicly against the use of pronouns to describe a transgender student10.
Enoch Burke was jailed after breaching a court order banning him from attending school pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings. He was later fired for intimidating and harassing a colleague and violating the privacy rights of a transitioning student. The Irish Supreme Court ruled that the school's fear was “rational and reasonable” and that Mr Burke's conduct had been “the author of his own misfortune”11.
Enoch Burke, who came from a Protestant family of ten children, claimed persecution for his faith and continued his crusade. Despite his expulsion, he continued to show up at school, each time violating court orders. To put an end to his abuses, the Irish justice system had no choice but to imprison him again. He will be released if he agrees not to return to his previous job. The last I heard, he was still behind bars.
The MBC method
This column is far from exhaustive, but hey, you get the idea: rip a story out of context and simplify it to the point where it appears scandalous.
It is ironic to say the least that the conclusion of “Totalitarianism Without a Gulag” begins with this quote from George Orwell: “How can we filter out the lies in this story?” »
How does that actually work? It's easy. It is necessary to cross-check and identify truncated information, omissions and falsehoods. This is what we generally do in newsrooms. An arduous task, but vital to the survival of our democracies at a time when fake news is triumphant.
Although Mathieu Bock-Côté is a columnist for the Journal de Montréal, he operates on the fringes of journalism. He probably feels that he doesn't have to follow his ethical rules. But rigor also applies to sociologists who write books.
After caricaturing reality for hundreds of pages, the author takes the liberty of denouncing “a kind of conspiracy theory among certain investigative journalists” who “distort reality and even create a parallel world that suits their ideological fantasies.”
Regarding journalists, he further writes: “These commissioners have a thesis to demonstrate and will prove it at all costs, even if it means selecting facts that have little connection between them, even if it means distorting them, themselves if it is necessary. , to invent them.” , without forgetting to erase others, to weave an imaginary Ariadne thread between them, to reconstruct a journey in a phantasmagorical way, confirming in retrospect what they thought they knew from the start. »
This is, perfectly summarized, the Mathieu Bock-Côté method.
Who is Mathieu Bock-Côté?
Mathieu Bock-Côté was born in Lorraine in the Lower Laurentians in 1980 and is a columnist for the Journal de Montréal.
He hosts a show on the digital radio platform QUB – now available on television – live from Paris. His career blossomed there. In particular, he succeeded the polemicist Éric Zemmour as a columnist at CNews, the channel owned by businessman Vincent Bolloré.
He also holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Quebec in Montreal.
The essayist's answer
Mathieu Bock-Côté denies twisting the facts, avoiding details or taking shortcuts to support the thesis of his recent essay, “Totalitarianism without a Gulag.” “Please note that I take the trouble to check each of my examples,” he wrote to me via email from Paris.
Regarding the four cases related to non-binary or transgender people, he wrote to me: “When I give such examples, it is because they reveal an overall picture, an ideological trend, a social trend.” I mention them in what what they have in common, beyond what each story has in itself: the establishment of repressive mechanisms, directly or indirectly (through the criticism of hate speech or through artificial procedural errors, for example), to punish the most outspoken critics of gender theory. In all the cases you mention, we see that adherence to gender theory becomes mandatory (even if it is an absolute ideological revolution) and that the price to pay for rejecting it can be very low. There is a backstory to all of these stories. In my view, that is the political and sociological significance of these events. »
Regarding the state's alleged greater severity towards those who denounce a link between immigration and crime than towards the criminals themselves, Mathieu Bock-Côté claims: “We have seen these cases several times. In recent months, the French state has been particularly tough on criminals.” Activists are denouncing this situation, as this article (and several others) shows. The article in question to which the essayist refers was published by Le Figaro with the title: “Barbaric rape in Cherbourg: 12 far-right activists arrested for an unregistered meeting”.
Mathieu Bock-Côté wrote in his essay that the Trudeau government announced its support for the initiative of the century in 2023. Despite official denials from Ottawa, the author sees no inaccuracy. “The Century Initiative has been promoting this ideology since around 2016. Clearly it has come to structure the official Canadian immigration vision and the government has actually joined it, regardless of its speech, by adopting the symbolism it proposed,” wrote he to me.
Mathieu Bock-Côté, a prolific commentator in Quebec and France, “doesn’t think so[t] not” that his blossoming career undermines one of the central theories of his essay: the survival of media and finance, he argues, forces journalists and commentators to abandon factual accuracy to conform to the dominant ideology of the left. He didn't explain to me why he saw no contradiction between his media success and his gloomy thesis. However, he told me that he considered me a “pretty convincing example” of the sad phenomenon that he tirelessly denounces in several forums.
I asked him if he was exaggerating when he said that we were living in a new totalitarianism in which the Gulag “is no longer necessary to the extent that society has become an open-air re-education camp.” His answer: “Of course not, otherwise I wouldn’t have written this book. »