Montreal's St. Jean Baptiste Society has a message for anglos and anglo media following the Metropolis shooting: stop demonizing separatists and those looking to defend the French language.

The Society's president, Mario Beaulieu, issued a statement on the shooting, and while they're calling it an 'isolated act of folly', it nonetheless has a socio-political impact.

"We appeal to the English-Canadian and English Quebec media for moderation," he writes. "They've increased accusations of xenophobia and all sorts of slanderous insinuations toward sovereignists or defenders of French."

He also criticizes anglophone media and commentators for accusing separatists and French-language defenders as xenophobic, intolerant radicals, saying it's a profoundly unjust portrayal.

One of those commentators, CJAD's own Tommy Schnurmacher, says they have every right to do just that.

"Blaming the media for what happened is absolutely absurd," Tommy says. "We have a right to describe what we see in the terms that we see it."

But Tommy does say, however, that comparing French-language defenders to Nazis and other murderous dictators, like some members of the public do, is over the top.

Beaulieu adds their vision of an inclusive society is no less inclusive than the so-called 'Canadian' vision, and points out that Quebec's treatment of linguistic minorities is more generous than it is in the rest of the country.

Photo: via Société St-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal