If you needed one more example to convince you of the contempt and ignorance of English Canadians regarding the cultural identity of Quebecers, here is a very good one.
CBC Podcasts, the division that produces and broadcasts English-language podcasts for the Crown corporation, produced the series Alone: A Love Story based on the book of the same name. It’s a huge success. Listens are counted in the millions. So we had the idea of adapting the podcast into French (and Spanish).
Because we want to have an international impact and we fear that the Quebec accent will harm this objective, the team of this department entrusted its French adaptation to a… Parisian studio.
The team at OHdio, the platform that produces and broadcasts podcasts for Radio-Canada, tried to make CBC Podcasts understand that this decision was bad and that Quebec artisans would be entirely able to carry out this task. task, but without success.
“We didn’t want a French person from Quebec, to encourage international interest,” Cesil Fernandes, executive producer at CBC Podcasts, dared to say to Mélissa Pelletier, journalist at Montreal Journal, who reported this story Thursday.
I was on my ass!
For any explanation, the CBC defended itself in an email sent to The Press stating that his wish was to “make the podcast accessible to the widest possible audience”.
Obviously, at CBC Podcasts, we are unaware that Xavier Dolan is a huge star in France and that his Quebec colors are not an obstacle to his success, quite the contrary. But here we are, at the CBC, where we struggle to attract viewers, we aim high! We want to seduce European podcast fans with an accent that is theirs, not ours.
And the Quebec public in all this? Are Anglos aware that adaptations made in France go less well here? Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais and Rosalie Vaillancourt even created a satirical series on the subject called Completely high school.
I listened to some of the ten episodes in French of this podcast show which has become Alone: A love story (the original series contains 28). With the purest Parisian accent, actress Marion Lesongeur tells the story of Michelle Parise, a journalist and author from Toronto who is going through a separation.
I’m probably not the intended audience, because I felt like I was being read an endless Harlequin novel.
What an affront to Quebec expertise! So many prejudices about our reality. Does Cesil Fernandes know that we have plenty of actresses capable of expressing themselves and performing in normative French understood in all French-speaking countries in the world?
Has this guy ever seen Anne Dorval, Émilie Bibeau, Sophie Desmarais, Élise Guilbault, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Pascale Bussières, Sylvie Drapeau, Evelyne Brochu, Céline Bonnier, Violette Chauveau or Sophie Faucher in the theater, at the cinema or at television? Does he know that they can play with or without the famous Quebecois accent that he is afraid of?
Being a chameleon is their job, hey!
This decision is all the more surprising given that a few months ago, the OHdio team brilliantly adapted another CBC podcast, Brainwashedbecome Brainwashed: the forgotten guinea pigs. I devoured this series which is hosted by Sophie-Andrée Blondin. We agree that this host does not have the illuminated accent of Marthe Laverdière.
Can you imagine the scene if OHdio had one of its podcasts adapted by Americans because we want to reach an international audience?
Or better, what if the adaptation was entrusted to a British studio on the pretext that the English accent is more refined than that of English Canadians?
Ouch, we would have a bad time!
I have no problem with podcasts made by the French. I listen to it regularly. OHdio also offers excellent productions from European partners. But when we know that it was born here, that it could have been adapted to Quebec and that it became a purely French product, I have a problem.
Let us point out that the money used to promote this work in both languages comes from a state corporation and Canadian taxpayers.
Dubbing issues have divided Quebec and France for years. The films dubbed here (which could very well be screened in French cinemas) are most of the time refused by the “cousins”.
The dubbing industry is fighting to prevent gains from being eroded. So, when we see a state corporation like the CBC entrusting a Parisian company with the French adaptation of a podcast and imposing it on French-speakers in Canada, I find it very cool.
I’m curious to see what CBC/Radio-Canada CEO Catherine Tait, who so likes to pepper her speeches with phrases celebrating the diversity of Canadian talent and the defense of our country’s cultural minorities, would have to say on this.
I hope this misstep will be brought to his attention.