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Fri Dec 15 10:20:10 Quebec premier urges reflection after TV network backtracks on mosque report TVA walked back its now-debunked report Thursday, but did not issue apology CBC News Posted: Dec 15, 2017 7:20 AM ET| Last Updated: Dec 15, 2017 10:02 AM ET Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard says the erroneous report by a French-language network concerning a Montreal mosque should serve as a "wake-up call" to the media. "For once, the media should look at these things and learn from it," he told CBC Montreal's Daybreak. TVA, a French-language television network, said Thursday it can no longer stand by its now-debunked report that a Montreal mosque tried to have women banned from a nearby work site during Friday prayers, but did not issue an apology.​ Couillard said the story created a lot of "tension" in the Montreal community, a situation that he called "regrettable." ■Quebec premier condemns 'baseless' media report that women were barred from work site near mosque ■Doubts cast on news report that Montreal mosque asked for women to be kept away from construction site Couillard wouldn't say whether he thought TVA should issue an apology, but did say "there should at least be a recognition of the social impact." The premier said that when the story was first published, he tread carefully and said only that if it were true, it would be problematic because accommodations can't go against the principle of equality between the sexes. But host Mike Finnerty pointed out that Couillard lent the story credence by commenting on it before it had been verified, and asked Couillard if he should have said "no comment" when he was first asked about it. "That's what I said, after," Couillard said, admitting he may have said it "a little bit too late." ■Watch the full interview with Philippe Couillard here 'A serious mix-up' ​The original report, broadcast Tuesday on TVA, said there was a clause in a contract between a Côte-des-Neiges mosque and a construction company that said women were to be kept away from the work site on Fridays. On Thursday afternoon, Quebec Labour Minister Dominique Vien confirmed that request was never made. During TVA's 10 p.m. news show, reporter Marie-Pier Cloutier said that in addition to the revelations made by Vien, the network had obtained "new information" that showed the story had "evolved" to the point where it could no longer definitively say the request had been made. She said the situation appears to have resulted from "a serious mix-up between the people involved," but did not offer an apology on behalf of the network for running the story. TVA posted a clip of Cloutier's segment on its website, but has not added it to any of its previous online articles on the subject. Waiting for an apology Zahra Al-Mawlawi, who for three years has been attending the Ahl-Ill Bait Mosque, one of two mosques involved in the story, said while she is happy the network has acknowledged the new developments in the story, she still wants the network to apologize. "They waited until after 10 yesterday, when all the other news stations, by like 6 o'clock, were reporting that this was actually false and there was no clause like that at all," she said. ■Mosque members dispute claim they wanted women barred ■Montreal mosque story shows how dangerous myths can be in era of fake news, far right Al-Mawlawi pointed out TVA never posted the video of Cloutier to its Facebook page, but it posted the original story. Quebec's press council said Thursday it had received at least one complaint about the TVA story and will be following up. Some groups were planning to protest in front of the mosque Friday. Those plans were cancelled. In the time since the original report ran, Moayed Altalibi, a director of the board of the Ahl-Ill Bait Mosque, one of the two mosques involved, has received hate messages, which were forwarded to police. With files from CBC Montreal's Daybreak http://www...struction-tva-mix-up-1.4450046

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