Geneviève Garon passes through the revolving doors of the Maison de Radio-Canada around 3 a.m., in the early morning, to be on the air at 6 a.m., when she hosts First the weekend info, at ICI RDI. Last Saturday, October 7, already at the end of the night, the host and her team sensed that we would have to follow last-minute international news: the rocket fire launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip.
However, around 5 a.m., when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decreed that his country was at war with Hamas, when the reports of hostages and deaths began to come in at a regular pace, Geneviève Garon and her troops understood that the entire weekend, and possibly even the following ones, would be devoted to these events which shook up the entire planet.
“Everything that we had prepared, 90%, was put aside. From five minutes to five minutes, it evolved super quickly. Everyone mobilized,” recalls the 35-year-old journalist, still amazed by the resources allocated by her employer to find the best experts in geopolitics capable of explaining the conflict on the spot.
“It was very intense. We had to keep in mind that, in such a context, if viewers have the reflex to turn on the TV, it is because they want to understand, not to hear gibberish from people talking to each other. A phrase often comes to me in these moments: we live it together. »
I, too, needed the experts to understand what it all meant. Together, we have it explained to each other, and I, like a belt, ask the questions you can’t ask…
Geneviève Garon
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Geneviève Garon at Maison de Radio-Canada
Building your confidence
If, when taking the helm First the weekend inforeplacing Caroline Lacroix, in mid-September, Geneviève Garon had drawn up a list of the most stressful unforeseen events likely to arise during her show, a resurgence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would certainly have figured in her top 3.
But the communicator did not panic. Better yet, she describes this hectic morning as a “beautiful experience”. “Once you’ve done it, it allows you to build your confidence, and the next time, you’re stronger and better prepared,” analyzes the woman who began her career at Radio-Canada in 2011 in Saskatchewan, then to Ottawa.
In 2016, this public broadcaster that she has tattooed on her heart called her back to Montreal to assign her to cover legal cases. The “courthouse,” she says, was her office for seven years. Her subscribers on Twitter saw her tweeting faster than her shadow, among others, the trials of Tony Accurso, Gilbert Rozon, Éric Salvail, as well as those of Harvey Weinstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in New York, before we offers to drive First the weekend info.
“I still love the judiciary, which provides access to incredible human stories, representative of social problems. It brings humanity, an understanding of the human,” notes Geneviève Garon about her first loves.
Host of First the weekend infoSaturday and Sunday, from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., and from The info nowSaturdays at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., and Sundays at 10 a.m., at ICI RDI, and previously assigned to the coverage of legal affairs at Radio-Canada.