First letter to Pettersen
SUBJECT: Report from March 27, 2020, LES EFFRONTÉS program. Natural products and Covid-19: beware of charlatans.
Madam,
We met with Mrs. Jacynthe René and Mr. Sylvain Garon, representatives of our client Maison Jacynthe Inc., who gave us the mandate to send you this letter.
Certainly, our client considers that the public's right to information "of public interest" is essential for freedom and democracy and that this right takes precedence over all other considerations.
However, it is also our client's opinion that the public has the right to obtain information from journalists, columnists and presenters in general, delivered with rigor, accuracy, impartiality and free from exaggeration or abusive interpretation of the facts.
Our client, through the transmission of your report of March 27th on the TVA station on the program " Les Effrontés ," was subjected to false information about her, exaggerations and above all a flagrant lack of fairness which it was your duty to assure her. Is it necessary to remind you that our client is a Quebec company that employs nearly seventy employees and therefore families that each of these falsehoods or exaggerations on your part affects on a daily basis.
During this radio show, after a commercial break, you move on to the topic of Maison Jacynthe. You begin by bursting into laughter about the upcoming topic while stating the following:
"(Laughs) Good! Jacynthe René (laughs). Yes! (laughs) She had to get people talking about her in these times of pandemic! Because since March 6th there has been an article published on her website, an article asking us "Can we protect ourselves from Coronavirus naturally" and obviously it's causing a stir. There's an article dedicated to this whole story, because there's a "free for all" there on Jacynthe René's page. We're offered things to help us breathe, potions of essential oils that would prevent us from catching covid-19 and all of this obviously concerns a lot of people and I'm the first to find it very dangerous and I wanted us to talk about it with a pharmacist: Christophe Auger."
Our client considers your introduction to be completely subjective and completely sensationalist. Indeed, we can guess, on the one hand, from your first laughs that our client is condemned in advance by you and will most certainly be by the pharmacist you invited. On the other hand, you refer to people who are concerned, who are afraid, who find it dangerous without ever mentioning giving examples of who is concerned and who is afraid, while the contested letter on our client's website is addressed to her subscribers.
Subsequently, after introducing your guest, pharmacist Christophe Auger, you state the following:
"Let's get back to our national Jacynthe . People are worried, people are looking for all sorts of ways to protect themselves against Covid-19, but also looking for home remedies. We see them everywhere on Jacynthe René's website. It's still tempting . Traditional medicine has no answer to this epidemic, so it's tempting to turn to alternative medicines, and there we have a whole protocol on her anti-coronavirus website that refers us to French sites that sell essential oils with antiviral properties.
Essential oils, OK! Christophe, there are people who think that it works, there are people who believe in it, but scientifically is it true that there are certain plants that can be effective enough to be anti-virals?
The question is indeed posed objectively. But the approach you are using to obtain the pharmacist's opinion is extremely biased and, once again, exaggerated. And what does the pharmacist do: he does not answer the question asked; on the contrary, he will completely deviate from his role as an expert and, above all, from the question asked, revealing the full subjectivity of his discourse. He will make a value judgment about our client and, worse, he will attribute a guilty intention to her:
"The first thing I would say is that it's truly a shame. It's a shame to take advantage of people's fear for one's own personal gain... But people who try to sell products by "surfing" on the fear of the population is truly a shame, and I hope there will be consequences for these people."
The verdict is in. Not only do you endorse this comment, which already goes too far, but to add:
"And what I find particularly pernicious, besides taking advantage of people's fear to sell products, is that on the site, there are several links to buy these famous essential oil kits."
"...Moreover, we tried to contact her at the magazine I'Actualité, she exonerated herself, she did not respond "I am not proposing anything as such" "She plays, in quotation marks, into the loopholes of the system."
"...A knows very well what he did, at least that's the impression I have."
With each of your attacks, the guest pharmacist will in turn increase his bid by declaring “ absolutely ” and will speak to indicate:
"I think she's well aware of what she can and can't say, but that's it. I don't know if any measures will be taken. We're in a time of crisis. Should certain measures be taken to better regulate misleading claims?"
Finally, after clearly accusing our client of fraud, you raise the stakes again as if that wasn't enough:
"It's quackery, that's what I want to say on Jacynthe René's website in relation to covid-19, it's pretty much like that, quackery. I remind you that in 2018, the Quebec Order of Chemists warned Maison Jacynthe, therefore Jacynthe René's Company, for illegal use of chemicals in the manufacture of cosmetic products. The company had hired a chemist. The same year, Maison Jacynthe found itself in a bit of a pickle after one of its naturopaths advised a mother to give an enema to her baby who was barely three weeks old.
At no point in your report do you mention to your listeners, with precision, which products are part of the kit you decried. On the contrary, you refer to the Maison Jacynthe page as being a " free for all " you talk about essential oil tips and potions and "famous essential oil kits".
However, the truth is much more mundane than your March 27, 2020, report. The kit in question is made up of 11 products. It contains three hand soaps, a hand gel, household and air freshener formulas, a Health Canada-approved cough relief formula, and a moisturizer.
This is the content of the kit in question. Wash your hands, moisturize them because they've been washed too much, and clean surfaces with essential oils. In this time of pandemic, does the advice to wash your hands by buying local soap and essential oils go against the message sent by our governments? Madame René also advocated social distancing on her website, just as the government is asking. Obviously, there will be no mention of this from you.
As you know very well, our client's representative, Ms. Jacynthe René, has never claimed to have found THE drug that can cure the Coronavirus as currently being reported in the media, nor has she promoted false treatments against the Coronavirus as the headline in the News indicates, even less so when we know that the contents of the kit contain soaps and surface cleaners.
Please note that all Maison Jacynthe stores, care centers and restaurants closed before this was imposed by the government and that since then the employees who were not laid off have been working tirelessly to deliver salads to customers at home, in confinement, an average of 2,500 meals per week.
Maison Jacynthe is now considered an essential services company, for its food services as well as for its approved antiseptics.
Our client has been selling natural products and promoting physical health and good nutrition since its inception. She has over 100,000 subscribers who follow her blogs and communicate with her daily. Most of them are customers and fans of the natural products and lifestyle she advocates. For years, Madame René has been suggesting all sorts of reading material and opinions of all kinds. From traditional doctors, naturopaths, nutritionists, chefs, etc. Xavier Bazin was quoted in the article in L'Actualité, but on several occasions beforehand, Madame René had told her subscribers that Mr. Bazin, who was mentioned in the news, was controversial. Over time, through her jokes and her website, she has warned people to respect traditional medicine and its current treatments.
Please know that our client never had the desire or the need to deceive people, her customers, subscribers, in an attempt to make the company profitable. On the contrary, the company enjoys a special bond with its customers that unfortunately inflammatory reports, containing defamatory attacks and insults, like yours, clearly attempt to undermine.
Please note that the baby enema advice was given by a naturopath, Mr. Louis-Simon Leroux, who publicly acknowledged his error and his responsibility. He had given this advice, and he was solely responsible for it. Legally, this naturopath never worked for Maison Jacynthe.
Please also know that Maison Jacynthe has never had to hire a chemist and has never practiced chemistry illegally. This reminder from you is deliberate and made with the aim of harming our client, and contains falsehoods. However, the truth is more positive than what you want to imply to your listeners: our client has its own cosmetics laboratory, works with 3 chemists, 2 biologists, 1 pharmacist, and most importantly, the company currently has 45 product approvals, all obtained from Health Canada.
Letter to the News
We met with Mrs. Jacynthe René and Mr. Sylvain Garon, representatives of our client Maison Jacynthe Inc., who gave us the mandate to send you this letter.
Certainly, our client considers that the public's right to information "of public interest" is essential for freedom and democracy and that this right takes precedence over all other considerations.
However, it is also our client's opinion that the public has the right to obtain from journalists in general, information delivered with rigor, accuracy, impartiality and free from exaggeration or abusive interpretation of the facts.
Our client, through the publication of your article on March 26, has been subjected to false information about her, numerous exaggerations and, above all, a clear lack of fairness, which it was your duty to ensure. Is it necessary to remind you that our client is a Quebec company that employs nearly seventy employees and therefore families that each of these falsehoods or exaggerations on your part affects on a daily basis.
As you know very well, the representative of our client, Ms. Jacynthe René, has never claimed to have found THE drug that can cure the Coronavirus as currently being reported in the media, nor has she promoted false treatments against the Coronavirus as your article title indicates.
Our client has been selling natural products since its inception, advocating for physical health and good nutrition. She has 107,000 subscribers who follow her blogs and communicate with her daily. Most of them are customers and fans of the natural products and lifestyle she advocates. For years, Madame René has suggested all sorts of reading material and opinions of all kinds. From traditional doctors, naturopaths, nutritionists, chefs, etc. Xavier Bazin was quoted in the article, but on several occasions beforehand, Madame René had told her subscribers that Mr. Bazin was contested. Madame René believes in the virtues of essential oils, like most of her subscribers and like so many people around the world, but to declare that she promotes false treatments against the coronavirus and now that she has invented the cure for the Coronavirus is defamatory.
Madame René simply puts it: "My practical kit created to help us these days includes our hand gel and essential oil formulas to spray on to take to eat and with which to clean our surfaces as well as three soaps and our calendula muslin to moisturize and nourish our hands."
This is the content of the kit in question. Wash your hands, moisturize your hands because you've washed them too much, and clean surfaces. In this time of pandemic, does the advice to wash your hands by buying local soap and essential oils go against the message sent by our governments? You noted that Ms. René also advocated social distancing on her website, just as the government is asking.
However, have you noticed that all Maison Jacynthe shops, care centers and restaurants closed before this was imposed by the government and that since then the employees who were not laid off have been working tirelessly to deliver salads to customers at home, in confinement.
Have you ever wondered if, like other companies around the world, publishing such an article at this precise time could be the fatal blow? Was that the intended goal?
The question is legitimate because the tone you used throughout the article is biased. Clearly, no matter what Ms. René explained to you during your interview with her, the conclusion and the title were already chosen by you. Moreover, you take great care to recall the case of the Order of Chemists which is currently the subject of a legal appeal and also the case of the rectal enema recommended by a naturopath who was employed by the company Actumus and not by Maison Jacynthe as you falsely claim in your article.
Furthermore, you failed to inform your readers that the window that appears in the direct link to Xavier Bazin's protocol and the message that can be read there are in no way the work of Maison Jacynthe. It has no control or responsibility over it.
Please be aware that our client holds you responsible for the very serious harm she is currently suffering as a result of this blatant lack of objectivity and fairness on your part. The media everywhere have been claiming, since your article, that our client invented the recipe for the Coronavirus cure, when this is not the case.
Letter to
Ms. Lise Ravary Journalist Journal de Montréal Cogeco Inc. 98.5 FM
Certainly, our client considers that the public's right to information "of public interest" is essential for freedom and democracy and that this right takes precedence over all other considerations.
However, it is also our client's opinion that the public has the right to obtain from journalists in general, information delivered with rigor, accuracy, impartiality and free from exaggeration or abusive interpretation of the facts.
Our client, through the transmission of your report of March 26th on the airwaves of the station 98.5 fm on the program " sinceil'il faut se lever ", was subjected to false information about her, exaggerations and above all a clear lack of fairness which it was your duty to assure her. Is it necessary to remind you that our client is a Quebec company which employs nearly seventy employees and therefore families that each of these falsehoods or exaggerations on your part affects on a daily basis.
During this radio show entitled "Les deux pieds sur terre", a summary of what I have learned since the beginning of the crisis; it seems that what does not kill us makes us grow, you began by talking about the "little crossers" who sell rolls of toilet paper for $2.75 each and immediately followed up with the following about the representative of our client, Ms. Jacynthe René:
"The incredible, the indefatigable Jacynthe René. The one who prescribed an enema for a three-week-old baby. She's selling $157 essential oils to protect against the coronavirus. She doesn't learn."
Our client considers this comment to be a simply gratuitous, totally subjective, inaccurate and defamatory attack in that:
"She who prescribed an enema for a 3-week-old baby." This only comment that could be considered "factual" is completely erroneous since the one who suggested it to the mother of a three-week-old baby was not Mrs. Jacynthe René but a young naturopath fresh out of school, solely responsible for his own suggestions and advice. This naturopath immediately admitted his fault and decided to take all the blame. Legally, this naturopath was never employed by Maison Jacynthe.
"Here she is selling essential oils for $157 to protect against the Coronavirus." This is completely false, again. No essential oils are for sale for $157 at Maison Jacynthe.
The truth is, however, that an 11-piece kit is actually available for $154. Three soaps, a hand gel, household and air fresheners, a Health Canada-approved cough relief formula, and a moisturizer.
This is the content of the kit in question. Wash your hands, moisturize your hands because you've washed them too much, and clean surfaces with essential oils. In this time of pandemic, is the advice to wash your hands by buying local soap and essential oils contrary to the message sent by our governments?
This comment falsely suggests that our client is taking advantage of the pandemic to increase her prices (especially immediately after indicating that there were small crooks who were taking advantage of it to sell toilet paper rolls at $2.75 each) in addition to suggesting that these have anti-coronavirus properties, which is quite the opposite. However, this comment is not supported by any comparison in the pharmacy, supermarket, online sales of soaps, hand moisturizers, diffusers, etc.
"The incredible, the indestructible Jacynthe René" "She doesn't learn."
These gratuitous, subjective comments, clearly condemning our client's representative, are completely unreasonable. They leave listeners with a very negative and, above all, unfounded opinion of our client.
Please be aware that our client holds you responsible for the very serious harm she is currently suffering from the dissemination of falsehoods about her, as well as for the flagrant lack of objectivity and fairness on your part.
Answer
We are following up on the formal notice letter, dated March 30, 2020, that you sent at the request of your client, Maison Jacynthe Inc., following the broadcast on Friday, March 27 (and not March 26, 2020, as mentioned in your letter), on the airwaves of 98.5 of the column described in the subject line as part of the program Puisqu'il faut se lever (hereinafter the " Chronicle ").
We confirm that upon receipt of this formal notice, we removed the Chronicle from the 98.5 website, in order to allow us to carry out the necessary checks.
Additionally, on Friday, April 3, 2020, Lise Ravary will apologize during her regular segment on the show Puisqu'il faut se lever on 98.5.
Chronicle, by Patrick Lagacé:
"Stupidity is like the coronavirus, I mean it strikes everyone without discrimination. Even Prince Charles (3) has it (coronavirus). And in Quebec, the queen of the fake cure business (4), Madame Jacynthe René, is also seriously affected (by stupidity)."
Response from Patrick Lagacé in relation to a column entitled “ Category of beautiful stories ” published in LaPresse+ on the same day.
After reviewing the file, and without any admission of responsibility, we inform you that the following clarification was published in Patrick Lagacé's column entitled " The homeland before the parties " in the "News" section of La Presse+ on April 8, 2020:
" Jacynthe René
Last week, I devoted a few lines of my column to Jacynthe René, actress and owner of Maison Jacynthe, a website selling natural products.
I shared an article from L'actualité magazine that raised important questions about the difference between what works and what doesn't work in the fight against COVID-19. This article highlighted words used by Jacynthe René that suggest she believes certain products can help protect against this terrible virus. In these perilous times, everyone must choose their words carefully to avoid highlighting ineffective ways to protect themselves.
Jacynthe René says that wasn't her intention. She even removed a blog post that could have caused confusion. This is very good news.
Now, I associated Jacynthe René with the stupidity virus in this column. She was offended by it. Dear Jacynthe: I make amends and I am sorry for this image. I take this opportunity to remind everyone that the stupidity virus is not fatal and that it can affect anyone... Even me! You only have to reread my column from March 3rd to be convinced...
So we wash our hands with soap and warm water (or hydroalcoholic gel with a minimum alcohol content of 70%), we keep our distance and we stay at home as much as possible.
For now, this is the best defense."
We also advise you that we will vigorously contest any action that may be brought by your client against La Presse or against Mr. Lagacé.
Please accept, dear colleague, the expression of our distinguished sentiments.
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