MELANIE ALAIN: “What struck me in 2022 was hunger among Quebecers. Young and old. I am executive chef at La Grande Table in Sherbrooke and, in the last year, we have seen a 30 to 35% increase in the number of meals served. It’s 650 children who eat lunch for free or at very low cost. And nearly 300 frozen meals a day sold at $1. That’s a lot for a small town like Sherbrooke, and the demand only continues to increase. »
MELANIE ALBERT: “The year my classroom snack bag is getting empty, student lunch boxes are getting emptier, fruit bin in the hallway has never been so popular and that even damaged apples and imperfect oranges and bananas find takers. »
DANNY CARON: “The sometimes unjustified inflation that comes from everywhere: homeowners, big grocery store banners and not forgetting our famous oil companies. »
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
Inflation is a topic that has stuck with many of our readers in 2022.
MARIEJO LEDUC: “One word: scarcity. In addition, we can have it all the way: shortage of health workers, school staff, medicine for our children, milk for our babies… And shortage of judgment and humanity when we look at what is happening. goes to Ukraine or Iran. »
MARTIN DESJARDINS: “A year that has hit us hard with hard-won women’s rights utterly flouted, a senseless war, disruptive climate change and an uncertain economic climate where our banks must force a recession. »
CHANTAL FONTAINE: “The endless battle for women’s rights. Iran, Afghanistan and in so many other countries, where women are obviously frightening. Otherwise why work so hard to reduce it to the sole functions of procreator and chief torcheuse? And let’s not forget all the feminicides and abuses that do not exempt our so-called developed countries. When gentlemen in the USA want to restrict the right to abortion, you don’t have to look very long to find out who will suffer the effects…”
HOUSSIN BEN-AMEUR: “Post-COVID-19 year, inflation, Ukraine, cryptocurrency implosion and generative artificial intelligence (Dall-e and ChatGPT): a moment as significant as the first iPhone. »
NORMAND BELISLE: “The Invasion of Ukraine”
OLEG KOLEBOSHYN: “For sure the war in Ukraine marked the year the most for me. This is the year when I completely lost faith in humanity… And when I regained it afterwards! I lost confidence because of the Russians, but I regained it thanks to the people who support me in my projects to help Ukrainians. It is also the year of pride. The pride of my Ukrainian people. And the pride of being a Ukrainian! It is the pride of my Quebec people and the pride of being a Quebecer. »
Janick Gagnon: “Volodymyr Zelensky”
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE UKRAINIAN PRESIDENCY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky presenting a medal to a soldier in Bakhmout on December 20.
STEVE PROULX above all felt powerless: Russia attacking Ukraine, a CAQ that does not make you dream, the climate which is deteriorating. “But we still solved a major injustice: non-binary people now have their pronoun. And we finally eliminated the gender categories in Gemini. We say to ourselves, let us therefore be inspired by youth… and then good. There was Greta, who seems so far away. Another era. The youth want cancel the story, eliminate the words that are not nice and include everyone in the great ball of differences. It’s quite perfect. To tell the truth, I would have thought that this generation would have been galvanized by other fights than that of wanting to impose on our society the code of life of a preschool of an alternative school. I was mistaken. Like I said, in 2022, I felt helpless. »
MARILOU DAVID: “Me, it’s the year when I learned to write with inclusive writing spontaneously and it happened that it hurts my eyes to read someone I respect not to use it. The masculine prevails? Could never! »
LYSANE: “In 2022? Inclusive and epicene writing! In French and English! After 3 days of intensive training, endless meetings and discussions, I can’t take it anymore! And it’s not even over! »
MARYLINE LEVESQUE: “For me, the year 2022 was the year of woke and the polarization of ideas. This ends with the removal of genders for Gemini trophies, the pinnacle of wokism. »
MARTIN LEVESQUE: The de-genderization of everything: the Star Fairy, children’s stories, Gemini. A trans woman in women’s prison. The CRTC and the N-word at Radio-Canada. Has lack of judgment become the new civic virtue? »
LEA ALICE, a trans woman, replied to Martin Lévesque on my Facebook page: “Finally, do you want us to glorify the ultra-conservative mentality? »
PIERRE-YVES McSWEEN: “The year when the crypto boys took their hole. »
VALERIE GARCEAU: “My sweet and kind neighbor whom I adore came knocking on my door, on behalf of Éric Duhaime, whom she supported in the elections. I was speechless, I was not able to be polarizing. I foolishly smiled and told him that I admire people who get involved. Difficult to be divisive, face to face. I knew that agitators like Duhaime recruited naive people, but this was my sweet neighbor who is no fool. We even have a lot in common. The pandemic has polarized me and this is not the way we will be able to face the next trials that the climate will bring to humanity. »
THOMAS: “For me, the year 2022 in Quebec is the moment when we (finally) collectively became aware of the fragility of French at home. »
JULIE BIBEAU: “It will have been the year of pitiful conditions in our schools. Lack of resources, buildings falling apart, the realization of the consequences of homeschooling, teachers dropping like flies and the ever-increasing workload of teachers. On an almost positive note, the bunker I work in, in the heart of the Saint-Michel district, will finally have windows that won’t open! I hope that this little light from which we will benefit will be able to raise the morale of the troops. Students especially, who come from ultra-disadvantaged backgrounds, who have to combine with poverty at home, the lack of services at school and the palpable violence in the neighborhood. I have been working with this beautiful youth for 12 years and my heart aches for them on a daily basis. »
ELISABETH BISAILLON, involved in women’s hockey: “Seeing the scandals at Hockey Canada, I realized that was why they said they had no money for women’s hockey and for women’s para hockey: the national team Women’s Para Hockey is still not recognized and supported by Hockey Canada… But the National Men’s Team is. Despite all the efforts we can make, if the top of the pyramid is rotten, we won’t be able to go any further. »
PHOTO ARCHIVE REUTERS
Afghan women demonstrate against the closure of universities to women in Kabul on December 22.
CHLOE: “I teach francization and I have a student who comes from Afghanistan. She was in primary school when the Taliban landed and prevented her from studying. And the nightmare happened again. In the breaks, she calls in Afghanistan and I was able to greet a few members of her family. Women who cannot leave the house unaccompanied. Say how lucky and how emotional I feel to be a woman here, and to be able not only to study, to teach, but also to transmit to those who have been less fortunate than me. »
PIERRE JACQUES: “It was a year of war, of false starts, of stagnation, of wanting to get out of our misery…And seeing inflation, Omicron, the conscienceless rich: Elon, Trump, Putin and company living life as if they know, knew and will know…”
HAJAR FILALI: “My year has been difficult, ups and downs… But this last month with the World Cup and what Morocco has accomplished, it was wonderful, euphoric! You know when you wake up in the morning and you already have a smile and you’re happy inside, that’s what Moroccans have been living for the last month, a beautiful dream. »
MARC-ANDRE BEAULIEU: “The year 2022: the year in which I was ashamed for the first time in my entire life of being a truck driver, after seeing the bacon crisis of the lubbers in Ottawa last winter when in our profession, there are more truckers vaccinated, proportionally, than the general population. It is also the year of consternation with what is happening in Ukraine and extreme weather phenomena. »
E., an Indigenous woman who does not want to be publicly identified: “I have experienced racism all my life. And what dazzled me was the solidarity of civil society with respect to the rights of First Nations. I’m talking about big corporations becoming allies and going against the political rhetoric. For me it’s a big step. »
Louise Dugas: “It was the year of many dramas: the war in Ukraine, repression in China and Iran, the crisis in Afghanistan again, feminicides. But from a personal point of view, it was the year when I felt “physically” that the planet was really bad. A hell of a shock. It was 32 degrees when I arrived in Dawson City, Yukon, and 31 when I set foot in Fairbanks, Alaska in the middle of July. This is where COP15 should have taken place. »