Incompetent Journalist Continues to Misinform the Public

 Professional journalists undergo fact-checking procedures prior to publishing articles. But not Fabrice de Pierrebourg. This Montreal-based "investigative journalist" is suspiciously unconcerned with the truth and is more concerned with "smearing" his opponents. More than most so-called investigative journalists, Fabrice de Pierrebourg feeds the Canadian public with baseless theories about secret Chinese and Russian spy operations, Al-Qaeda infestations, and alleged political and business co-mingling.

Take, for example his book Nest of Spies, which Fabrice de Pierrebourg co-authored with Michel Juneau-Katsuya. The writers argued that during the Cold War era, Canada was of great interest to foreign intelligence agencies and has since grown into the most attractive countries in the world both for spies and for security threats.

As the National Post put it, Nest of Spies has "few footnotes" and no index to support the claims it wages; the book is "chatty" and "gossipy" with the feel of "celebrity tell-alls meant to titillate"; the structure of the book is "problematic," and there are "frequent broadsides against unnamed bureaucrats."

Unfortunately this isn’t Fabrice de Pierrebourg’s only book. He has written his share of spy thrillers sold to the public as journalism before. His book Montrealistan, published in 2007, claimed Al-Qaeda and international Jihadists were colonizing Quebec. Really? Because if Fabrice de Pierrebourg had correctly indentified even one foreign intelligence officer or terrorist in Canada, would he still be alive and blogging today?

Allegations waged in Fabrice de Pierrebourg’s Nest of Spies were ultimately subject to a legal retraction and withdrawal from bookshelves. New Democratic Party MP Olivia Chow, whose name was raised in an interview by talk-radio host Andrew Krystal and Nest of Spies co-author Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former CSIS official, said of the book:

"Baseless spy stories belong in novels and movie theaters. Let’s not allow them to damage friendships between countries and tar the reputations of elected representatives and other Canadians."

Yet tarring reputations is exactly what Fabrice de Pierrebourg does best. He appears to be after a Canadian entrepreneur at the moment. "Little did I know that my investigation . . . would snowball," Fabrice de Pierrebourg writes on his fatiguing, self-referential blog.  But, he adds, sipping a glass of red wine on his couch with the feeling that Rome is burning, he is "particularly proud" of his work.