WikiLeaks cable speculates on whether firm influenced Charest’s stance on feds

<p>MONTREAL – The U.S. ambassador to Canada is deploring the reported leak of a diplomatic cable in which he speculates that Premier Jean Charest might have been influenced by Power Corp. to soften his criticism of Ottawa.</p> <p>Montreal Le Devoir says Ambassador David Jacobson sent the cable to Washington in December 2009.</p> <p>The newspaper published a front-page story about the cable on Wednesday and said the communication had been intercepted by Wikileaks.</p> <p>The paper quoted Jacobson as wondering if Charest was influenced by Power Corp., the owner of Montreal La Presse, to tone down his comments against the federal government during the Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009.</p> <p>Charest used the first days of the summit to blast the federal government’s approach to reducing the levels of greenhouse-gas emissions.</p> <p>Le Devoir said Jacobson was referring in the cable to pieces written in La Presse that were critical of Charest’s position vis-a-vis the federal government.</p> <p>In an interview with The Canadian Press on Wednesday, Jacobson would not comment specifically on the cable.</p> <p>He did say, however, that “to the extent that any of these cables have caused embarrassment, caused confusion, that’s something that I apologize for and the United States apologizes for.”</p> <p>Le Devoir said Jacobson noted in the dispatch that Power Corp. is the largest shareholder in a French company that had invested US$6 billion in the Alberta oilsands.</p> <p>”Whether (Jean) Charest was influenced by Power Corp. to tone down his criticism of the federal government is unclear, but the corporation’s provincial and federal influence is undeniable,” Le Devoir quoted the cable in English.</p> <p>Later in the English excerpts, Le Devoir quotes Jacobson as saying ”by the end of the (Copenhagen) conference (Charest) lay low, passing on further media opportunities to criticize Harper.”</p> <p>A spokesman for Power Corp. returned a call but declined to comment on the report.</p> <p>Power Corp. subsidiary Gesca, in addition to owning La Presse and several other French-language newspapers in Quebec and Ontario, is one of three media firms with a stake in The Canadian Press.</p> <p>Charest brushed off the matter outside the legislature Wednesday, saying he clearly wasn’t taking it easy on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government – even weeks after the cable was reportedly written.</p> <p>Charest pointed to a January 2010 article from the same newspaper – Le Devoir – that said he wasn’t shy about defending Quebec’s interests.</p> <p>To illustrate his case, Charest brought that old newspaper to a scrum with reporters and held it up for the cameras to see.</p> <p>”Le Devoir’s reporter should have completed his research and read that article,” he said.</p> <p>Relations between Quebec City and Ottawa appear to have thawed somewhat from a few years ago.</p> <p>Charest struck a less strident tone in the recent federal election campaign than in 2008, when he railed against the Harper government’s cuts to arts funding.</p> <p>Jacobson said in the interview he’s confident his country’s relationship with Quebec and its premier will continue on an “excellent basis.”</p> <p>”I can tell you that there is one thing about which I don’t believe there is any confusion and that is that Premier Charest answers to the people of Quebec,” the ambassador said.</p> <p>”I have had many meetings and dealings with him. I have always found him to be a very forceful advocate for the views of the people of Quebec. The relationship that the United States has with Quebec and with its people is a very strong one.”</p>