MONTREAL — The Montreal daily newspaper La Presse continued to use the term “shylock” in a series of articles on loan sharking in Quebec despite an objection from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).
The series “Les Nouveaux Shylocks” was featured prominently on the front page of the Jan. 19 edition and continued on pages 2 and 3. The four articles, all with “shylock” in the headline and in the text, were still available online as late as Jan. 21.
Luciano Del Negro, CIJA’s Quebec vice-president, said the term is unacceptable because it is “demeaning and degrading” to Jews.
Del Negro said there is a proper French word usurier (usurer), which could have been used.
No apparently Jewish individuals are cited in the articles. The series investigates the pervasiveness today of loan sharking over the Internet and the powerlessness of the police to control it.
Del Negro said he is not satisfied with this explanation and says it does not befit a newspaper that claims to be the largest French-language daily in North America. La Presse cites a circulation of more than 200,000.
He thinks the paper is “trying to be obtuse” in refusing to acknowledge the racism implicit in the term “shylock.”
He recalled a similar argument with La Presse over the word “nègre,” in which the paper insisted this was a correct term for a black person.
“It’s unsettling. It shows a lack of sensitivity to these matters,” Del Negro said.
In response to a request from The CJN for comment, the series’ author, La Presse staff reporter Hugo Meunier emailed that “at no time did the use of the word ‘shylock’ aim to hurt in any way the Jewish community.
“In fact, the word ‘Jewish’ did not appear anywhere in the article and the use of the term shylock has been common for a long time in Quebec to designate usurious lenders who demand astronomical rates and use rather unorthodox, sometimes violent, methods,” he added.
“The police use it [shylock], even the people I met in doing the reporting use it. No one, however, made a reference to the Jewish community in using it, I can assure you.
“I elsewhere indicated the origin of the term, referring to the character in a Shakespeare play. If I did not mention that he was of Jewish origin, that is above all because I had no idea, like my colleagues at La Presse.”
The series did include a sidebar explaining the origin of “shylock,” saying it comes from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and is the name of “an unscrupulous banker.”
“In the play, the usurer Shylock signs a contract with the merchant Antonio authorizing him to take a pound of flesh in the event of non-payment,” the article stated.
Del Negro points out that there was no mention of the anti-Semitic overtones of the character, which the Stratford Festival, for example, takes pains to put into context whenever it stages the play.
He said CIJA has made its point to La Presse and does not plan any further action.
