-Marc Labrèche presents Roger Tétreault, the king of lies, who managed to manipulate the media in a spectacular way around the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Television, newspapers, magazines have sometimes presented him as a nuclear expert, sometimes as an environmental activist or as a witness of a FLQ terrorist camp. Always the same man, never the same person.
-In front of the cameras, Roger Tétreault has worn many names - Yvon Rocher, Bernard Maillé, Robert Leblanc, Tubaal Caïn, Gérard Kenney... - and almost as many hats, claiming to be a nuclear expert, a feminist activist, a specialist in Japanese culture, a witness to an FLQ terrorist camp, and a grand wizard. The documentary series "Le roi du mensonge" portrays this man who became a master of hoaxes.Roger Tétreault, who has lived in many cities on the South Shore of Montreal (in province of Quebec, Canada), including Longueuil, Brossard and Mercier, has sought to demonstrate that "anything can be made to believe" in the media. This is at least the justification he offered in 1991 when he himself revealed the truth about his numerous hoaxes.Mr. Tétreault sent a press release to newsrooms across Quebec, boasting that he had been deceiving the media for several years. However, it took the investigation and research of CBC reporter Stephen Langford to get the story verified, cross-checked and published.In front of the camera of directors Charles Gervais and Stéphane Thibault, journalists, historians Laurent Turcot and Louis Fournier, Tétreault's ex-wife Louise Bégin and even comedians who, at one time, made hoaxes their trademark.Marc-André Sabourin, journalist and author of "Le maître de l'intox", helps us understand the extent of the phenomenon."Very brilliant", "master of the show", "influencer", creator of "real fake news"; the qualifiers to describe Roger Tétreault go in all directions, the speakers of the documentary underlining both the skill and the dishonesty of the man.One of the most striking bad moves is undoubtedly his media appearance as Yvon Rocher - a pun intended - as a nuclear expert.The day after the Chernobyl disaster, he was interviewed on Radio-Canada as the author of "Manuel de survivance pour la guerre nucléaire". He said that in the long term, "some people in Quebec could have minor after-effects" from the tragedy that struck Russia in April 1986.By his own admission, Mr. Tétreault had no knowledge in this area. He wrote the manual from "bits and pieces" of information, reading and collages.The second episode focuses on Roger Tétreault's time with the FLQ. Although he always claimed to be an undercover journalist, he was actually charged and sentenced to four years in prison for complicity in the bombing of the Prévoyance building in 1964.He published the article "J'ai visité un camp de terroriste du FLQ" under the name Jean-Pierre Parisse, in which he described being transported by snowmobile to a camp in the Laurentians where Felquist militants practiced handling weapons.Journalist Stephen Langford reports on the enormous and very real consequences of this false story, which caused concern and fears of insurrection."This article is for me no stranger to the application of war measures," says journalist Alain Gerbier. It will serve as a pretext, an argument or an alibi for the Trudeau government."Roger Tétreault even suggested - (false) secret note to support it - that the CIA had infiltrated the FLQ (Front de libération du Québec).The watchword of all the journalists who testify in the series is a call for caution, when it is not so clear that the media are entirely safe today from such manipulation.Marc Labrèche is the host of the documentary. He goes to meet Roger Tétreault (face covered), in a modest house deep in the woods.
