MONTREAL — In the darker corners of the Internet, it is easy to find racists and conspiracy theorists fuming about deep-pocketed Jews controlling the world.

But a Jewish group has sounded the alarm after a well-known Quebec media personality used his newspaper column and an appearance on a Montreal radio show to spout such anti-Semitic opinions.

Gilles Proulx was invited onto Montreal’s Radio X last Friday after writing a column in the Journal de Montréal on the Israel-Hamas conflict. “No need to be an expert to say that Israel could make Washington, Paris or Ottawa bend, knowing in advance that its diaspora, well established, will make any government submit!” he wrote in the Journal

Speaking to Radio X, he elaborated on his thinking, suggesting Jews historically provoke hate and persecution. “The diaspora is scattered around the world, where they take economic control, provoke the hatred of local nations, whether it is in Spain, for example, with the Inquisition, or again later with Adolf Hitler,” he said.

Later he added: “The diasporas are so powerful in Paris, New York, Toronto or in Ottawa or Montreal, that they can manipulate the government through their opinions, their threats, their pressure, making it a marionette.” The show’s host never challenged Mr. Proulx’s remarks.

Mr. Proulx has a long history of incendiary comments, going back as far as the 1990 Oka crisis when his anti-aboriginal rants were blamed for drawing a mob that hurled rocks at a convoy of Mohawk women, children and elderly leaving the Kahnawake reserve.

During a 40-year career on radio and television, he singled out anglophones and immigrants for failing to integrate into Quebec society. In 1991, he warned that an influx of immigrants to Quebec would be suicidal for the francophone majority. He lost his last regular broadcast job in 2005 when he referred to a 14-year-old sexual assault victim as a “cow” and a “slut.”

The Quebec wing of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said it is disturbing that Mr. Proulx’s latest remarks have gone unchallenged, saying it is part of a larger trend. Last month, a phone-in show on RDI, CBC’s French-language news network, featured a host thanking callers who compared Jews to Nazis, the CIJA said. The host also read emails with similar sentiments.

Eta Yudin, a CIJA spokeswoman called Mr. Proulx’s comments “classic anti-Semitism” and said they should not be acceptable today.

She said the CIJA is concerned about the lack of public outrage. “We’re encouraged at times when we hear people speaking up… and right now we’re not hearing it,” she said. “We’re disappointed that this kind of discourse goes unchecked and unchallenged.”

In a statement, the CIJA said Quebec’s Jewish community is “disappointed and troubled” that Quebec media have allowed anti-Semitic views to be aired. “The condemnation of anti-Semitism must not be the purview solely of the Jewish community,” the statement read.

Neither Mr. Proulx nor Radio X responded to a request for comment. CBC spokesman Marc Pichette denied that the July 14 phone-in show identified by the CIJA was intolerant.

“RDI managers do not consider that it could be deemed anti-Semitic, even if some of the numerous comments expressed in the show were highly critical of Israel’s bombing of the Gaza strip, drawing a parallel with Nazi Germany,” he said. “Other callers were in agreement with the Canadian government’s unequivocal support of Israel’s right to defend itself.”

RDI managers do not consider that it could be deemed anti-Semitic, even if some of the numerous comments expressed in the show were highly critical of Israel’s bombing of the Gaza strip, drawing a parallel with Nazi Germany

Mr. Pichette noted that the show’s host, Alexis De Lancer, “let the callers freely express their opinion, and he thanked everyone of them in the same neutral and polite manner.”

Ira Robinson, interim director of the Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies at Concordia University, said while Mr. Proulx’s comments are “particularly egregious,” they are nothing new.

“It’s a continuation of a trend that has quite a history, and not merely with Proulx but with other radio commentators in Quebec over the last several years,” he said.

Mr. Robinson said he has seen a trend for the past six years or so where Quebec radio commentators have increasingly been giving airtime to people with controversial views.

“There’s a sort of discourse in francophone Quebec where this sort of thing comes forth. Quebec is the kind of place where these controversial issues are discussed much more openly than in English Canada,” Mr. Robinson said.

National Post