A few days after Ms. Montgomery wrote an article (March 18 - see article below) about a Filipino domestic worker who was fired from her job after she refused to get an abortion, The Gazette suspended Ms. Montgomery for two weeks on a what can only be considered a very flimsy excuse that she did not get a quote from an agency that deals in Filipino domestic workers. In addition, they told her that any other infraction would get her fired. She has been with the Gazette since the mid 1980s.

The Muslim Council Of Montreal holds the view that in fact the real reason for Ms. Montgomery's suspension is due to her outspoken and courageous political views, and not because she, with more than 20 years of journalism experience, didn't try extra hard to get a quote.

The right wing political agenda of the current Gazette owner, Israel Asper, is well known. Even former Publisher Michael Goldbloom quit because of the Asper owners and, in addition, the Gazette management have censored other columnists before - including Lyle Stewart - for his anti corporate globalization columns. Mr. Stewart, a part time but very talented columnist at the time, resigned rather than waste his time writing columns that were never run because of their content. Now it seems to be Ms. Montgomery's turn.

Consider the following and you will see why The Gazette has made this decision:

1. In her regular columns, Ms. Montgomery has consistently opposed the right wing Aspers who owns the CanWest media chain
2. She has criticized Concordia University's crack-down on free speech after they went after the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who prevented Benjamin Netanyahu's entrance
3. She revealed that the Gazette Xmas fund was being skimmed off the top
4. Recently praised the anti-war protesters and wrote against war (contrary to The Gazette's pro-war editorials).

The question also has to be asked did The Gazette get wind of Ms. Montgomery's intentions to expose the Diva agency's neo-slavery add on The Gazette's web site auctioning off three Filipino domestic workers for a price, and preemptively suspend her? According to a March 29th article by Gazette journalist Mark Abley, the ads have now been removed from the paper and website due to public pressure.

Ms. Montgomery's suspension is an outrage, and it should anger all those who believe in fair minded and balanced journalism which Ms. Montgomery consistently practices. Even her journalist colleagues are angered over