Mes Aieux Offended that their song is considered Pro-life

By Elizabeth O'Brien and Steve Jalsevac
MONTREAL, QC, August 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The French Canadian folk-rock Band Mes Aïeux has furiously responded to a LifeSiteNews.com news article for its "misinterpretation" of their song Dégénération.
In a June 25 news article, entitled, Immensely Popular Quebec Folk Song Laments Abortion and the Modern Culture of Sterility, LifeSiteNews.com reported that Mes Aïeux's song Dégénération described modern men and women's increasingly desolate severance from the land and the traditional values of their great-great grandparents. Quebec was traditionally one of the most faithfully Catholic, pro-life and pro-family regions in the world.
LifeSiteNews reported that the song lyrics portrayed a vivid contrast of the young and older generations. Verse three of the song, for example, underlines how, "Your great great grandmother, she had 14 kids," whereas in today's life-demeaning culture, "Your mom didn't want any, you were an accident."
The news article reported that one of the verses gave what many would see as a negative portrayal of abortion
"Now you, my little lady, change partners all the time,
When you screw up you save yourself by aborting,
But there are mornings when you awake crying,
When you dream in the night of a large table surrounded by little ones."

LifeSiteNews interpreted these lines as indicating that the song "specifically refers to abortion as a traumatizing mistake for a woman".
The story did not focus on the then unknown ethical stance of the band Mes Aïeux. In fact the word "pro-life" was never mentioned in the article. It merely implied that a pro-life message could easily be interpreted from these lyrics about a subject that is rarely so frankly and honestly addressed in the entertainment industry. At the same time LifeSiteNews reported the anomaly that such a song had become one of Canada's most frequently downloaded iTunes.
Nevertheless, Mes Aïeux was deeply offended by the LifeSiteNews.com news report. They called it a "kidnapping" of the song. "You have associated our song with your anti-choice cause without consulting us" they wrote to LifeSiteNews.com, and requested removal of the photo of the group and even the link to their website. Upon learning that they are a pro-abortion band, LifeSiteNews gladly complied although there is no legal obligation to remove such a link. LifeSiteNews has never received such a request in its ten years of existence.
Mes Aïeux also requested that LifeSiteNews remove the entire June 25 article which LifeSiteNews has declined to do.
In its communication to LifeSiteNews via its lawyer - Louis Charles Landreville, at 294 Square Saint-Louis,Montréal (Qc), (514) 288-4985, Télécopie: (514) 849-5429, the group stated,
"We the members of Mes Aïeux, have read the following article and are in profound disagreement with the interpretation given to our lyrics. We consider that the association of our song with the anti-choice policies on this web-site is akin to moral kidnapping. We are, in fact, and unanimously, pro-choice.
This is simply bad militant journalism, and an infringement of our moral rights."
In a subsequent email Landreville even requested that the widely circulated link to the YouTube page with the group's music video of Dégénération be removed from the story.