Émile Proulx-Cloutier is convinced that his generation — which is also mine — will one day be studied in major universities. Unfortunately, not for his exploits, but for his inertia in the face of the climate emergency.
Posted yesterday at 5:00 a.m.
“When we are seniors, it will be difficult for us to have a posture of wisdom,” says the actor and singer-songwriter who is not 40 years old.
“We’re going to be like, ‘What? You were in power in the first 20 years of the XXIe century !” We won’t have any alibi. We have access to a crazy amount of information. We can’t say we didn’t know. That the solutions were not within our reach. We won’t even have the pretext of fear of repression if we put forward changes. Our slowness to react — from which I don’t exclude myself — will be a subject of study,” adds the artist, seated in a park in Little Italy with an espresso in a cardboard glass.
Father (discreet) at the front
On this May morning, Émile Proulx-Cloutier has just returned from Quebec, where he took part in a demonstration by the Mothers at the front. His spouse, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, set up this collective with other mothers outraged by the inaction in the face of planetary danger. “It’s called the Mothers at the front, but I feel totally excluded! he laughs.
The couple — together and apart — are known for their art as well as their social engagement. Moreover, when the National Assembly awarded a medal to life partners in 2016, it did so both for their contribution to Quebec culture and for their contribution to civic life.
It was the demonstration, which fell on Mother’s Day, that made me want to have a coffee with Émile Proulx-Cloutier. That and his show, With bare handsa clever mix of songs and monologues.
Over coffee, I wanted to talk to him about the art of raising children when one has an acute ecological conscience. During our one-hour interview, even though I had announced my colors in advance, that was the only question he refused to answer. “When it comes to talking about the citizen approach to parenthood, either we fall into the anecdotal, or we seem to be giving lessons,” he told me. And lecturing isn’t his cup of tea.
The ball of demands
Moreover, when he tries to explain our collective difficulty in taking the necessary turn to preserve the planet, he chooses the path of empathy. The us. “There are so many worries swirling around in our heads. Things to fix, lunches to pack, obligations to the bank. We are always behind in a requirement. In these circumstances, the time to think, to have a collective thought, even when you are comfortable in life, there is little,” he says.
In addition to this hectic life, there is also our democracy which leaves little room for real discussion, for divergent ideas within the same party, he adds.
I will jump to the ceiling the day when I will hear three members of the same party say that they do not agree! This kind of dissension would be described as an internal conflict, when it should be celebrated.
Emile Proulx-Cloutier
He’s not wrong. The political system in force in our country, whether in Ottawa or in Quebec, leaves much more room for the party line than in the democracies around us, whether we think of the American or British model.
Whose fault is it ? A little that of journalists, believes Émile Proulx-Cloutier, but also of partisan logic. “With us, the sporting game [entre deux partis] too often takes precedence over discussion. We are going to use one cause to erase another. We prefer to display a facade of unity within a party rather than admit that the proposal of the other camp makes good sense. And by doing that, we collectively shoot each other in the foot. We unlearn to like the exchange and the common search for a precise and strong solution to a problem”, he believes.
And the role of the artist in all this? Émile Proulx-Cloutier notes that one does not change the world with a song, a novel, a show, but that the artist can contribute to the slow evolution of mentalities. “We can be a relay. Make people who have busy lives permeable to certain subjects, he notes. The trap as an artist is that people feel that they are looked down on. The interesting subjects, in creation, are those that we have not understood. What separates us. [À nous] to add flesh, humanity. To blur the lines between what is intimate and collective, what concerns the other and what concerns you. »
In other words, to create a “we” of empathy.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Emile Proulx-Cloutier
Questionnaire without filter
coffee and me
He accompanied me in so many moments, soft as hard. I imagine that he knows me better than myself… I like this sentence from Alphonse Allais about this trivialized drug: ” Coffee is a drink that makes you sleep when you don’t drink it. »
The people I would like to gather at the table, dead or alive
Nina Simone, Frida Kahlo, George Sand… and a virtuoso translator. I would fill the glasses and I would listen! Or, if the table is really, really big, my whole family tree for the past five centuries. I have lots of questions!
The last book I read
The birds by Tarjei Vesaas. A Norwegian novel from 1957, so cleverly retranslated, it looks like it just came out.
A historical event that I would have liked to attend
It hasn’t arrived yet. I would like to see the day when a majority of scientists can affirm that we have collectively succeeded in reversing the trend of our harmful impact on the climate, and that we have managed to stick to the least bad scenario. I know that sounds naive. But hope remains: I know many of us want to witness this victory.
Who is Emile Proulx-Cloutier?
- Born in 1983, he is the son of actors Danielle Proulx and Raymond Cloutier.
- He was 10 years old when he took his first steps as an actor and has since held dozens of roles on television, on the big screen and in theatre. He is also a director, director and scriptwriter in his spare time.
- Singer-songwriter, he has three albums to his credit, including High tide and love monsters. He is currently on tour with the show With bare hands.