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A nearly 1,000-word newspaper opinion piece written by Montreal lawyer Bernard Amyot in 2008 in which he called columnist Patrick Lagacé a pseudo journalist and accused him of lacking rigour is raising hackles in 2017 just as the Quebec commission of inquiry into police spying on journalists launches its work.

That’s because Amyot is the chief prosecutor of the commission that’s charged with investigating the surveillance of journalists by Quebec police, and Lagacé is a central figure in the matter.

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Revelations last fall that Montreal police had spied on Lagacé’s smartphone to discover his sources sparked the scandal and brought denunciations by journalism organizations around the world. The scandal prompted the Quebec government to set up the commission to formulate recommendations to protect journalists’ sources.

The Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec said on Friday that it’s calling on the commission to replace Amyot. The lawyer’s comments against Lagacé in the 2008 commentary, published in The Métropolitain, raise doubts about his neutrality, the organization says.