--- title: "Canadian Publisher Drops Novelist Thélyson Orélien Over AI Use in Best Seller" description: "Boréal said an outside review found AI tags in the metadata of some of the author’s files, and it will not reprint the novel." author: "rews desk" published: 2026-10-21T22:16:50Z modified: 2026-10-22T01:44:45Z url: https://rews.cc/a/canadian-publisher-drops-novelist-thelyson-orelien-over-ai-u-7ea219 language: en tags: ["ai", "books", "ethics", "racism", "literature", "world"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Canadian Publisher Drops Novelist Thélyson Orélien Over AI Use in Best Seller *Boréal said an outside review found AI tags in the metadata of some of the author’s files, and it will not reprint the novel.* By rews desk · October 21, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/canadian-publisher-drops-novelist-thelyson-orelien-over-ai-u-7ea219 ## In brief - Montreal publisher Boréal ended its relationship with novelist Thélyson Orélien on Wednesday, citing AI use in his novel - An outside review found AI tags in the metadata of some documents, and Boréal will not reprint the book - Boréal said it did not know how much of the novel AI produced and might never find out - Mr. Orélien admitted plagiarizing a 2012 contest text but denied using AI to write the novel - Grasset publishes the novel in France, and it was not clear how it would respond Les Éditions du Boréal, the Montreal publisher of the Haitian-Canadian novelist Thélyson Orélien, said on Wednesday that it had ended its professional relationship with him after concluding that he used artificial intelligence to write his best-selling novel, *C’était ça ou mourir*. The book, published in English as *It Was Either That or Die*, came out in Quebec in March and has been one of the most talked-about novels of the fall in France, where Grasset publishes it. Boréal said it had opened a further investigation after the allegations surfaced in September, [Al Jazeera reported](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/21/canadian-publisher-cuts-ties-with-best-selling-writer-orelien-over-ai-use). That investigation turned on an outside review of the manuscript drafts, which, according to [Le Devoir](https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/1018514/editions-boreal-mettent-fin-relation-affaires-thelyson-orelien), found traces of AI tags in the metadata of certain documents. Boréal will not reprint the novel and won’t publish anything more by Mr. Orélien, the newspaper reported. In its statement, Boréal said the AI use came even though the author had assured the house several times that he never used it to create the book. The publisher also conceded the limits of what it found. It said it still did not know how much of the novel AI had produced, and might never get a definitive answer. The case started on Sept. 21, when an account on X posted an analysis of passages from the book run through Pangram, an AI-detection tool, and accused Mr. Orélien of writing it with AI. He denied it the next day. ![A watercolor magnifying glass reveals branching circuit patterns on blank cream paper stacked on a rustic wooden table.](https://rews.cc/img/95ff80d4861dd4988d079076b7f5cd696a07bd84.webp) A second problem followed. Users on X spotted similarities between his work and someone else’s in a text Mr. Orélien wrote in 2012 for a Radio-Canada writing contest, and the fact-checking service of the French newspaper Libération confirmed the plagiarism claim. On Sept. 24, Boréal [suspended the novel’s promotional tour](https://www.franceinfo.fr/culture/livres/l-editeur-canadien-de-thelyson-orelien-suspend-sa-tournee-promotionnelle-face-aux-accusations-de-plagiat-et-d-utilisation-de-l-ia-qui-visent-l-ecrivain_8209064.html) in Canada. About a week before Wednesday’s announcement, Mr. Orélien broke his silence. In a statement, he [acknowledged the plagiarism but again denied](https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/1016420/thelyson-orelien-reconnait-avoir-plagie-mais-nie-tout-recours-ia-roman) using AI to write the novel, saying he began it in the fall of 2017 and finished in the spring of 2019. He said he had occasionally used tools for research, especially to find expressions in foreign languages. Boréal was more cautious then. At the time, it [said it had no proof](https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2292699/boreal-thelyson-orelien-reaction) either way and left the book in stores so readers could judge for themselves. Mr. Orélien had promised a file documenting how he wrote the novel to clear his name, but he did not produce tangible evidence. Boréal had received the manuscript in September 2025. Its decision this week, [Radio-Canada reported](https://ici.radio-canada.ca/en-bref/90-17577/boreal-tyleson-orelien-ia-etait-ca-ou-mourir-editions), rested on the traces of AI the outside review turned up. A detection score like Pangram’s is a statistical estimate, not proof of how a text was written, and it was not clear how Grasset would respond.