Alienfest music festival in Abitibi-Témiscamingue | A group deprogrammed for its criticism of the Horne Foundry

The harsh criticism of the Fonderie Horne of the committed hardcore metal group Guhn Twei cost it its participation in the Alienfest music festival in La Sarre, in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, a situation which says a lot about “the culture of silence which reigns” in the region, deplores the singer of the group.

The event, which was ultimately canceled completely, had as its main sponsor the company Métal Marquis, a Lasarro-based manufacturer of metal parts and equipment for the mining, forestry and industrial sectors, which counts Fonderie Horne among its clients.

“We are one of the suppliers of the foundry and this is exactly where it becomes sensitive,” explained the organizer of the festival, Francis Pépin, himself a shareholder of Métal Marquis, in a message sent to the singer of the group Guhn Twei , Simon Turcotte.

This artist from Rouyn-Noranda, who had a leg amputated after five cancers, is a virulent critic of the copper smelter whose toxic emissions have polluted the air and soil of the region for a century.

“I am the Horn and its chimneys/The black plague, the last judgment/Without pity for the vermin on the ground/I am death, karma”, he sings in particular in Parasitesa piece from the album Glencorruptionwhose title is a reference to Glencore, the Anglo-Swiss multinational owner of the Horne Foundry.

Organizer Francis Pépin states in his message to Simon Turcotte, dated March 26, that the situation leaves him “no other choice but not to add Guhn Twei to the Alienfest 2024 programming.”

Six days later, on the 1st^er April, the festival was completely canceled, the organization citing in a press release “conflicts of interest between our sponsors and participants”, reported Radio-Canada – The Press was unable to obtain this press release and Francis Pépin did not respond to requests sent to him through various channels.

“Outré” singer

Simon Turcotte says he is “outraged” that his group was canceled from the Alienfest festival, which was to be held for the third year, to which he was invited in November.

“It’s very worrying for culture, for the financing of culture, for other artists,” he told The Press.

The Horne Foundry assures that it has not intervened in any way whatsoever in this matter, its spokesperson Cindy Caouette affirming that the company “has no connection with the Alienfest festival and was not aware of what is happening. alleged by the music group [Guhn Twei] “.

Whether the Horne Foundry intervened or not does not matter, believes Simon Turcotte: “The sponsor is so afraid of offending a business partner that he decides to remove us from their festival, then to cancel their festival, it’s big . »

Ironically, the band addresses this issue in their song Melt water : “The apology of ecocide/Collective muzzling/Their profits are worth more than our lives”

Simon Turcotte finds it all the more difficult to explain the decision of the Alienfest festival since he has given shows with his two music groups, Guhn Twei and Tumeurs, at other events in the region, including the Emerging Music Festival in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, which was sponsored by the Horne Foundry.

He also performed at the traveling concert festival Au pays des pick-ups, in 2023.

“We played on the Horne Foundry pitch,” he says. We were right in front of the fences and chimneys. »

Precedents

This is not the first time that criticism of the Horne Foundry has been excluded from cultural events, recalls the Guhn Twei group, which is concerned about freedom of expression in the region.

The Horne Foundry ended its funding of the Rouyn-Noranda Exhibition Center in 2005, which it had supported for many years, due to a “controversial exhibition,” reported Radio-Canada at the time.

Work of the artist Véronique Doucet, the exhibition Casually criticized the company and was concerned about the impact of its polluting discharges on the health of the surrounding population and on the environment.

Even the now famous documentary Norandadirected by Daniel Corvec and Robert Monderie and narrated by Richard Desjardins, was excluded from the Abitibi-Témiscamingue International Cinema Festival when it was released in 1984, recounts Pierre Céré in his book Journey to the end of the minepublished in the fall by Écosociété.

“It must be said that the festival received a subsidy from Noranda Mines,” he wrote, adding that Daniel Corvec had even been arrested by the police on the evening of the film’s premiere at the Théâtre du Copper, for an unpaid fine. .