MONTREAL - The website for the French-language newspaper Le Devoir was hacked early Tuesday morning.
Whoever took over the newspaper site published an article stating that Premier Jean Charest had died of a heart attack -- something which is completely false.
The premier, very much alive in Quebec City, took the news in stride.
"It's not the first time that I've been announced dead, at least politically, but this is the first time for this angle," said Charest.
The phony story was up for about an hour and a half before the entire Le Devoir website was taken down by the publishers.
Once they had regained control, Le Devoir published a note apologizing for the incident, and said that their site had been taken over by hackers.
The newspaper also apologized to the Premier and its readers, and says it is trying to identify how the hackers gained access.
Charest said he bears absolutely no ill will toward the newspaper.
"I want to thank the [newspaper] Le Devoir because frankly they reacted very promptly and did what was needed to rectify the situation."
The newspaper has now filed a complaint with police about the cyber attack.
