The aces of info | Consent, diversity in advertising and carnivals

Every Sunday, The Press broadcasts the content of Les As de l’info, a youth digital platform entirely devoted to daily news.

Consent is important

In recent months, in Canada, many scandals have come out in the media about the very toxic climate that reigns in the world of hockey. The biggest was obviously that of Hockey Canada, which we summarized for you in an article last fall¹, but another one was also recently revealed. In the wake of these events, we invite you to come back to the concept of consent, which has become fundamental, in sport and everywhere else. Let’s go !

NO to abuse of power!

In sport, it happens that we find ourselves under someone’s authority. It can be a coach or a team captain, for example. Most of these people use their authority to bring people together and create an atmosphere conducive to learning. But unfortunately, some abuse it to harm other people.

These people in a position of power can, for example, force players to do things against their will, under penalty of a “consequence”. For example, a coach might threaten one of his players to leave him on the bench for the entire next game, unless he goes 100 ice lengths right away.

It is clearly unacceptable to subject a player to such treatment. But sometimes it can be even worse. In the last year, numerous sexual assaults committed by a coach on players have been reported. And often, the player in question was under 18 years old.

Initiations, a trap to avoid

It has been determined that several cases of sexual assault in the world of hockey have taken place during initiations.

Basically, an induction is an event where new players are welcomed into a team.

A series of activities are usually organized to celebrate their arrival. But some of these initiations went wrong and the celebrations ended instead…in humiliations.

In Ontario, a group of hockey players has taken legal action against their league. According to them, the latter was aware of these situations, but did nothing. Several of these players claim to have suffered serious mistreatment during initiations and are still affected psychologically today.

Unfortunately, similar things would also have happened in Quebec. However, a movement among the hockey leagues is gaining momentum to ban initiations.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister François Legault described as “disgusting” what is happening in the world of hockey. He also invited the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (LHJMQ) to publicly explain these scandals.

The importance of protecting yourself

It may seem obvious, but it’s still important to remember: everyone has the right to feel comfortable and safe, regardless of the context. And when you feel that the imaginary line of what you consider “acceptable” is being crossed, it is essential to stand up and refuse to be mistreated.

The easiest way to do this is to say no. If that doesn’t work, we can physically distance ourselves from the person who is bothering us, by leaving the room, for example. You should also not hesitate to seek help if a situation escalates.

If you witness an event that troubles you or you experience something upsetting yourself, resources exist to talk about it.

For more diversity in advertising

Have you noticed that we always hear the same type of voice in commercials? When advertising concerns trucks, it is very often a man who speaks, and when it is for beauty products, it is a woman! And there are very few different accents as well. Well, an initiative called Here Comes New Voices intends to change that. We explain to you!

Diversity put forward

There are millions of people who have a beautiful voice. Unfortunately, it’s almost always those with a certain type of voice who are selected to speak on TV or radio. Most of the time, these are the voices of white people with a “Quebecois accent”.

Mélanie Delisle and Philippe Brassard, who work for the advertising agency Cossette, therefore had an idea. Why not put forward different voices? This is how they created the initiative Voiles de vos voices.

This initiative runs a campaign to promote the voices of diversity, that is, the voices of black, Asian, Arab, indigenous people, etc. To do this, we invite voice artists to record messages on the subject that will be broadcast on the radio. Franck Julien, whom you can see in the photo of the article, is one of them.

You can listen to one of the commercials here:

Why is this important?

In a society, it is essential that everyone feels represented and can identify with the things that each person sees, regardless of gender, background or skin color. It is for this reason that for several years, more and more movements have emerged, in particular to make more room for women and people from diverse backgrounds.

However, in advertising, we tend to use voices that listeners or viewers are used to hearing, ie “white” voices. This technique aims to establish a certain “trust” between the person speaking and the person listening.

I invite you to pay attention to the voices you will hear in the commercials this week. Soon you might be able to hear new ones with different accents!

According to an article by Émilie Côté, The Press

It’s carnival season!

Have you ever heard of the Rio, Venice or… Quebec Carnival? Before these periods of festivities come to an end, Mélanie explains to you what the carnival period is and where this funny tradition comes from!