“I don’t understand that Nick Suzuki, the captain, hasn’t learned French in five years!”
No, it’s not an embittered revanchist nationalist French speaker who wrote that. He is an English speaker. And what’s more, a journalist from the Montreal Gazette. And what’s more, this guy, Brendan Kelly, is a super nice guy who I got along really well with when he interviewed me for his book and his documentary series.
Conclusion #1: Life is sometimes full of surprises. Conclusion #2: only hockey can reconcile the two solitudes!
AGREE WITH AN ANGLO FROM THE GAZETTE
Brendan Kelly wrote the column for eight years What the Puck in the Gazette. He just released the book The CH and its peoplepublished by Éditions de l’Homme. A documentary of the same name will be broadcast on illico+ at the end of October.
Kelly interviewed Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and Biz, from Loco Locass, Jean-Nicolas Blanchet, from Newspaper, and Alexander Pratt, of The Pressand lots of former Canadiens like Serge Savard and Bob Gainey, to better understand the emotional, cultural and sporting links that unite the CH and its people…
His main argument: the Montreal Canadiens are a cultural institution in their own right and not just a sports team like any other. Second argument: “The CH wins more often if there are a lot of Quebecers on the team.”
I don’t know much about hockey. But I devoured Brendan Kelly’s book. Because we are talking about a subject that is close to my heart (in case you haven’t noticed yet): the preservation of French and its crucial importance as a criterion of identity for Quebecers as a distinct society.
And on this, Kelly and I agree 100%.
Page 18, Kelly is indignant: “One evening in May 2021, the lineup did not include a single French speaker.”
What is at the heart of Kelly’s book is highlighting this perhaps irreconcilable tension: while “the team has a distinct cultural identity,” for the team’s owners, it is a private company like the others, whose sole aim is to be as profitable as possible.
On page 173, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon sums it up very well: “The identity of the Montreal Canadiens has evolved at the same time as the National League towards a global business model, while abandoning popular roots.”
While reading this book, I learned that the actor Viggo Mortensen, who speaks impeccable French, learned the Tremblay language by listening to Canadian matches, commented by none other than René Lecavalier! And I learned that he shot several scenes from Lord of the Rings by wearing a Canadian t-shirt under his costumes!
WHAT THE PUCK?
Brendan Kelly wrote a book in French on the importance of French for the Montreal Canadiens.
He has been doing multiple interviews for two days (he was with me yesterday on QUB radio) and he speaks in impeccable French, like Viggo Mortensen.
So if Brendan and Viggo are capable, why can’t the Canadian players make this little effort? This mark of respect, culture, integration, understanding?
As Loco Locass say so well in the song The goal: “It’s more than a sport / It’s a metaphor / Of our fate.”