The national ceremony for Karl Tremblay was touching, moving, successful. There was laughter, poems and songs both melancholy and full of spirit, like the music of the Cowboys Fringants.
But with a few days of hindsight, can you allow me to have a reservation about this large-scale event which touched the hearts of Quebecers?
There were major absentees among the 15,000 guests who were able to attend the show live: the journalists.
I do not want to complain here in the name of the “industry”, no corporatism in this text. Rather, I want to highlight an incongruity for which I know of no precedent, so that we can think about it for the future, for other events of a national nature that we will organize.
When Karl Tremblay died, all of Quebec cried. And Prime Minister Legault immediately proposed a national funeral to the family, because he said he “felt a great request from many Quebecers to pay a last tribute to Karl”.
The family of course had the choice to say yes, or decline in order to organize a private ceremony. And seeing the passionate outpouring that followed, I completely understand why she said yes to a national funeral in the form of a tribute ceremony.
But in doing so, has she not accepted what comes with such a collective event? Many people present… and journalists to bear witness to the event for those who cannot be present.
It was so obvious to us, The Press, that no one saw fit to get in line to get tickets. After all, there has never been a “national” event from which journalists have been excluded, so no need to pretend to be a citizen.
And yet, that’s what happened. The family chose to block access to all media… to instead broadcast the event on the platform that blocks the media, Facebook. Ouch.
However, here we were talking about a ceremony organized for all citizens to pay homage to the deceased. An event organized by the Protocol of the Government of Quebec. All at the Bell Center to show openness to as many people as possible… but no media, so that the event is “simple” and that “a spirit of contemplation” is preserved.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Thousands of people attended the tribute to the singer of Cowboys Fringants.
I think back to the funeral for Guy Lafleur, and I don’t really see how the media present harmed the dignity of the moment. But hey, beyond this dubious argument, I hope that this decision has raised a few eyebrows among the population. Not just among journalists.
Because if the absence of representatives of the press does not matter to everyone, I worry about what everyone thinks of representatives of the press and their role.
As a reminder, their mandate is to bear witness to history on a daily basis as it is written. They are the eyes and ears of the public. They are the representatives of all those who cannot be everywhere, all the time, therefore everyone.
In short, their role is to report what they see, what they hear, the answers to questions, so that everyone knows what is happening in Parliament, at the courthouse, in state corporations, in all neighborhoods, here and on the other side of the planet…
But on Tuesday evening, the media couldn’t do that job. They were turned back at the gates of the Bell Center. Noovo and LCN even had to set up their studio on the sidewalk.
But the worst part is not leaving the animators to freeze outside. It is to have prevented the Quebecers who were not there from taking advantage of the national ceremony as they should, in order to “pay a last tribute to Karl”.
Some radio stations covered live, others not at all, others partially. This prevented the greatest number of people from having access to it.
On TV, Radio-Canada did not broadcast in order to respect “the wishes of the family”. Noovo sent a team there for its 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. appointments, but nothing in between. And LCN did what it could with Facebook’s “feed”, broadcasting a show with too many pixels, jerky images, a red square flashing in the corner of the screen and several strong moments spoiled by freeze frames…
We have seen a more dignified moment of contemplation, let’s say.
Let us be clear, there is no scandal here, strictly speaking. There is simply a precedent, which should worry us at a time when we feel our culture is at risk.
If the family had chosen greater privacy, everyone would have understood, and the media would have stayed away. But choosing a national funeral and reserving it exclusively for an American platform is a rather surprising decision on the part of a group with a keen social conscience, because it contributes to the difficulty of sharing Quebec culture and to the narrowing of its place in public space.
However, until now, national funerals served precisely to share a moment of collective mourning, to say goodbye together to a personality who touched us.
The day Quebec decides that everything it experiences collectively must pass through Meta rather than through its local media, I predict that it is not just the latter who will pass through it. Our culture too.