The maple spring was, to say the least, trying for the Minister of Culture at the time, Christine St-Pierre, who found herself having to defend her government against an artistic community united as one against rising tuition fees. . Ten years after the monster demonstration of March 22, 2021, the liberal has made peace with this period, this time avoiding any reproach towards the artists who wore the red square.
“Artists are very sensitive. They are not conformists. It was normal for them to be involved in this movement, ”recognizes the one who announced on Monday that she was going to leave politics in October.
Christine St-Pierre would have been very surprised anyway if the Paul Pichés and the Loco Locass of this world supported a 75% increase in tuition fees. Appointed to Culture in 2008, the former journalist always knew that she was the minister of a very left-wing environment, and still very sovereignist at the time. She nevertheless assures that her differences of opinion have never influenced her decisions or her relationships with people in the industry.
But at the height of the student crisis, in June 2012, Christine St-Pierre lost patience and exceeded the limit she had always set for herself. When storyteller Fred Pellerin refused to take part in the National Order of Quebec ceremony in support of the protest movement, the minister retorted by associating the red square with violence and intimidation. Her statement sparked a huge outcry, to the point where she eventually recanted.
“I was clumsy. Fred Pellerin is a big star, and you don’t attack a big name like that. I should have kept a distance between his gestures as an artist and my function as a minister,” concludes the member for L’Acadie, on the island of Montreal.
lost friendships
Christine St-Pierre is delighted that this incident has not tarnished her work with the community. Until the defeat of the Liberals in the September election, her relations remained more than cordial with artists and cultural organizations, she points out. The politician never felt any hostility towards her, even if she was almost the only one not to wear the red square at galas and premieres.
In his private life, however, it was a whole different story. Christine St-Pierre and her husband, renowned author Jean-Pierre Plante, were among their close friends with several big names in the entertainment industry. But as the student crisis got bogged down, some turned their backs on them. Some don’t speak to them to this day.
“I had a great friend whose son was red square. She said that we were a draconian government, a government of this and that. We never spoke to each other again, ”confides Christine St-Pierre, with a certain bitterness in her voice.
The member for L’Acadie does not have fond memories of this period, one of the most difficult of her political career. Although she apologized to Fred Pellerin, the maple spring remains in her mind inseparable from certain slippages during the demonstrations. The violence during the Liberal convention in Victoriaville in May 2012 remains a trauma, even ten years later.
“Line [Beauchamp] and Michelle [Courchesne] surely have psychological consequences, but all the ministers found it difficult. We could see that the situation was deteriorating and that the student leaders were doing nothing to calm the situation. On top of that, they had no desire to come to a consensus,” she thunders, accusing the unions of having fueled the crisis.
fight lost
In her memoirs published in 2020, Christine St-Pierre also smears her former colleague in Finance, Raymond Bachand, believing that he did not step up to the plate when the Minister of Education, Line Beauchamp, would have needed his support.
Despite criticism, the former Minister of Culture remains convinced that the increase in tuition fees was absolutely necessary to respond to the underfunding of universities. The election of a PQ government and the cancellation of the rise that followed forced him to conclude that the Liberals “lost this battle”.
Surprising observation when we hear several former red squares also adopt a defeatist tone when they take stock of the maple spring. As if on either side, no one had won in the end.