It is in these words that Jean-Francois Roberge, Minister of Education made an official apology in person, then by press release Sunday, to the professor of McGill University for having dismissed him from a conference the last week.
“I would like to state publicly that the Ministry of Education and Higher Education wishes to hear it again and I hope that it will be able to intervene and present its conference and its point of view as an expert during the next scheduled forum, as he did at the Quebec forum. ”
The Ministry of Education and Higher Education first retained the services of Mr. Daniel Weinstock to make a presentation “with the aim of initiating discussions on the place of ethics in the curriculum school system ”, indicates the press release.
Mr. Weinstock, who was to act as a lead expert, was then removed.
PHOTO ARCHIVES THE PRESSDaniel Weinstock, McGill Philosopher, and Law Professor
Mr. Roberge said last week that it was not following the writings of Richard Martineau, columnist at Quebecor, that Mr. Weinstock had been dismissed (after initially claiming on Wednesday that this was the case).
On February 19, Richard Martineau wrote in the Journal de Montreal that “Daniel Weinstock proposed that Quebec doctors perform ‘symbolic excisions’ on young girls”.
Friday, Richard Martineau wrote a “clarification”. “This statement was incorrect. It should have been specified that Mr. Weinstock was relaying a proposal made by American doctors which consisted in carrying out a symbolic excision, as a compromise to avoid real excision, a proposal which he did not validate, but which, according to him, “could not simply be evacuated.”
“Case closed,” says Professor Weinstock
In a telephone interview, Daniel Weinstock said he was satisfied with the apologies. “I had a good conversation with the minister. Apologizing in politics is not easy and I appreciate it all the more.”
The forum will continue on Thursday in Trois-Rivieres, but because of the courses he must give, Mr. Weinstock does not believe that it will be possible for him to go there.
There is no longer any annoyance on his side. “I hope to be able to contribute after the debate,” he said.
Friday, Mr. Weinstock said he was thinking about the possibility of prosecuting Mr. Roberge and he was irritated that he had not had any real apologies from the minister so far, but simply “regrets”.
