2021, a red year | Press

In 2021, the planet chose the color of our warmed future, the scarecrow of our time is a word that begins with W, the Montreal Canadiens gave us the most beautiful night and we discovered that disinformation could kill people. human beings and shake the pillars of democracy.

Color of the year

The Red

The summer was hot, it was even the hottest summer. A Canadian village was razed to the ground, hours after breaking the heat record in this country. Photoreporters drew striking images of the forest fires that struck the planet, several of which appeared to have been processed with a red filter. It was not a filter. It was the real thing.

Scarecrow of the year

The woke, the cancel culture

It all exists, of course. But the hysteria surrounding every manifestation of “wokism” reminds me of the most laughable hours of anti-Communist paranoia. And under the guise of not giving in to “wokism”, quite legitimate recriminations are discredited. Convenient. Note that very often, the voices which are moved by “wokism” are moved a lot less strongly by the attempted coup d’état of the Capitol on January 6. We have the dangers we can.

The most magical night

June 24, 2021

CH triumph over the Vegas Golden Knights in the semifinals, earning their ticket to the final. The city exulted with cries and horns, it is the victory that this city, that this society needed after these long months of deprivation: a joyful triumph which announced a summer of freedom. Then, like a cruel mise en abyme, a few months later, the CH and Quebec are in tune: to the worst.

The fiasco of the year

The arrest of Mamadi III Fara Camara

Forget about COVID-19. The fiasco of the year is the arrest of Mamadi III Fara Camara, in January, in Montreal. Mistakenly referred to as the assailant by the police officer who suffered an attempted murder, Mr. Camara was rescued by the same police department that arrested him. Several cried out for racial profiling. It was, concluded Judge Louis Dionne who investigated, a stupid police error regardless of the skin color of poor Mr. Camara. And even if the police acted with the information they had in these frantic minutes of searching for the suspect of an attempted murder, it is nonetheless a fiasco … rotten.

Misinformation kills

Falling into the pot of disinformation, Bernard Lachance stopped his anti-HIV treatments, then began to treat himself with completely ineffective “natural” treatments suggested by key figures of sanitary conspi-negationism. He himself denied the coronavirus pandemic. Disinformation, yes, kills.

Object of the year, in Montreal

The handgun, of course

This is the year in which Montreal fully realized that the proliferation of arms on its territory is a serious problem. The city remains safe, but the more weapons are found, the more the sense of security will be affected. Thomas Trudel and Meriem Boundaoui, two teenagers killed at the beginning and at the end of the year 2021, are the faces of this problem which has very real effects.

A disturbing word

Feminicide

It’s a word that earns me lessons in applied etymology every time I use it. Yet it is well suited to the crime in question: killing a woman because she is a woman. A wife, a sex worker, a blonde, an ex… Who wouldn’t have been killed if they had been men. I write these words and I think of Romane Bonnier, victim of an alleged feminicide in October, in front of her house. One of 18, in 2021 (as of this writing).

Champions of disinformation

From Maxime Bernier to Éric Duhaime via Ezra Levant, Jeff Fillion and Dominic Maurais, not to mention Alexis Cossette-Trudel, Mel Goyer and Jean-Jacques Crèvecœur, the year 2021 has been auspicious for disinformers who turn credulity into dollars. The $ 1,000 question: are they a symptom of the landscape to come or of the charlatans who will disappear with the virus?