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opinion

Is being compared to a "bum" an insult worth $700,000 in damages? This is the deep philosophical question that has occupied precious court time in Montreal, as a result of Quebecor supremo Pierre Karl Péladeau's lawsuit against Radio-Canada executive vice-president Sylvain Lafrance for defamation because Mr. Lafrance had compared Mr. Péladeau to a bum.

Mr. Lafrance was referring to a decision by Vidéotron, Quebecor's cable company, to withdraw its contribution to the Canadian Television Fund. This was yet another episode in a long-standing war pitting the Quebecor media empire against the CBC, which Quebecor accuses of unfairly competing with the private networks because it's largely subsidized by the federal government.

So back to the infamous declaration of Mr. Lafrance, who told a reporter in 2007 that "this guy [Mr. Péladeau]walks around like a bum and is about to derail one of the world's most successful television broadcasting systems." Mr. Lafrance used the same term in three subsequent interviews.

The word Mr. Lafrance used was " voyou," which can be translated as "bum," "thug" or "tramp." The Montreal Gazette used the word "hoodlum," and the Cassell's English-French dictionary I inherited from my father - published in London in 1905 - suggests "cad." I prefer "bum."

While others are lining up to have their day in court, Mr Péladeau argued that he - a man who's at the helm of a media empire worth $8.4-billion - was shattered by Mr. Lafrance's offhand remark. His wife, Julie Schneider, who produces successful TV shows, testified that she "fell off her chair" when she read Mr. Lafrance's remark in the newspaper. She tearfully told the judge she fears the impact this will have on their children. She ended her testimony by melodramatically proclaiming: "I am here to claim justice."

Mr. Péladeau, meantime, seems to have survived the shock of being compared to a bum. Since that fateful day, he has launched the Sun Media TV channel to counterbalance what he sees as the left-leaning bias of the CBC. He also has waged a vicious battle against the unions at his flagship daily, Le Journal de Montréal, whose employees have been locked out for more than two years. The paper never stopped publishing, thanks to outside contributors and a group of former reporters promoted to managerial positions shortly before the lockout.

The defamation trial was quite an unusual affair. The courtroom heard Quebec's veteran linguist, Jean-Claude Corbeil, who was called as a witness by the defendant, explain that words can have many meanings depending on the context, and that the word "like" indicated that the phrase referred to Mr. Péladeau's behaviour, not to the man himself.

Meantime, the trial judge, Claude Larouche, couldn't hide his deep distaste of the case. He said he was stuck with it because none of his colleagues wanted it. At one point, he refused to adjourn the case to allow Mr. Péladeau's chief lawyer to attend his sister's funeral in Ontario. The funniest moment came when Judge Larouche brandished two magazines - La Semaine and L'actualité - which both featured Mr. Péladeau on their covers - to show that Mr. Péladeau had used his media to promote his image during the trial. La Semaine belongs to a competitor of Quebecor; L'actualité is a subsidiary of Rogers Communications.

A panel of three judges is now studying whether Judge Larouche should step aside. The suspense continues.

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