1. After giving Josee Legault a platform to accuse anglo Quebec journalists of harming democracy, the @FPJQ gave me -- a dues-paying anglophone member -- the right to address Legault's claims. But not without restrictions.
2. For starters, the FPJQ disclaimer at the beginning of the piece puts three paragraphs worth of distance between the federation and "M. Curtis." Also, they assure members that publishing my reply in no way puts Legault's anti-anglo journalist rant into question. 
3. How much distance did the FPJQ put between itself and Legault's piece? One sentence. And mind you, this was a piece that smeared "anglo Quebecer" journalists as if we were in league with the rest of Canada. We are not.
4. After being assured my work wouldn't be censored, an editor cut a direct reference to Legault and to Mathieu Bock Côté's use of the white replacement theory. Neither of these were used to insult them personally. The references were to illustrate the climate we're in.
5. Will think long and hard about my future association with the FPJQ and I invite others to do the same. The federation should have never given Legault a platform to smear anglophone members of the federation writ large. It's tone deaf and we have much bigger fish to fry.
6. Over the past few years, my newspaper -- an anglo one (gasp!) -- has published work by @Aaron_Derfel exposing a safety crisis in the healthcare system. Alongside francophone colleagues, @CityHallReport's investigative work helped launch the Charbonneau corruption Commission.
7. @JesseFeith's court reporting has highlighted injustices visited upon vulnerable people in our courts. @JasonMagder has uncovered a series of institutional bottlenecks in our transit system. @ReneBruemmer wrote the best story about pooping you'll ever read.
8. Paul Cherry and @moniquebeaudin have brought the city's criminal past and present to life with their new podcast The Dark North. @JMarianScott, our city hall reporter, approaches the work with humanity and a will to fight for those without a platform.
9. @PhilipAuthier is among the most respected political journalists covering the National Assembly. @ftomesco is actually a francophone (WHAT?) and our best (and only) business reporter. I guess that also means he's our most handsome business reporter. But also our worst dressed.
10. We do our best to serve, not only our anglo audience, but the province as a whole. Our work is meant to fight poverty, to weed out corruption, to give a platform to people who feel ignored, to hopefully play some part in making things fair for people who never seem to win.
11. You can look in anglophone newsrooms like @CBCMontreal, @CTVMontreal, @CJAD800, @CityNewsMTL, @Global_Montreal (and others) and find the exact same dedication to the work of journalism and democracy. We care.
12. I'm not interested in a discussion with the FPJQ about bad anglos vs. good anglos vs. idealogues who believe criticizing Bill 21 somehow harms democracy. It's silly. We have work to do. And I've wasted enough time on this.
