Journalist and author Mario Roy, who worked at The Press for more than 30 years, passed away Thursday in Montreal.
Posted at 9:54 p.m.
Enter in The Press in 1981, after being a reporter for the Daily of Chicoutimi, Mario Roy notably covered court cases and the National Assembly, before directing the Arts section and the cultural pages of the newspaper. Became a columnist in 1999, he held this position for 15 years, until his retirement.
“Mario was a being of a formidable intelligence, which left no one indifferent”, underlines François Cardinal, assistant editor and vice-president Information of The Press.
“I remember, when we were both members of the editorial team at the turn of the 2010s, a colleague with a unique feather, able to dismantle any argument, assuming his positions even when they clashed or disturbed. In short, a journalist of great stature, who will be missed by the big family. The Press. »
“I had a lot of respect for his courage. He stuck to his guns,” testifies André Pratte, who was then chief editorial writer for The Press.
He is a guy who had very direct opinions, but also a very respectful, upright being.
Serge Chapleau, friend and cartoonist
“He was consistent in what he stood for. If you wanted to know the centre-right’s point of view on an issue, Mario was a very reliable, very accurate compass. But if you arrived with an opinion contrary to his, he was not going to demonize you for all that, ”abounds Brian Myles, director of the To have to, and longtime friend of Mario Roy.
“Make you think”
Passionate about essays, Mario Roy had a particular admiration for the French philosopher Jean-François Revel. “I had borrowed his copy of The totalitarian temptation, almost one out of two sentences was underlined”, illustrates André Pratte. “He had interviewed him when he was younger, he told me that he was so embarrassed that he had taken a couple of scotches before! says cartoonist Serge Chapleau with a smile in his voice.
“I am grateful to him for one thing: for making us think,” also mentioned the essayist Mathieu Bock-Côté, in the introduction to a long interview published in 2012 in The Journal of Montreal.
“We’ve known each other for 30 years, if not more… He was part of my group of old friends, we met regularly to unscrew our heads and put the world to rights,” columnist Richard Martineau wrote on his Facebook page on Monday. saluting his “brilliant pen”, his “sharp humor” and his “mind-blowing culture”.
Mario Roy has published several books, including Before I gobiography of Gerry Boulet which has been adapted for the cinema (Gerry), then recorded in audio book by singer Dan Bigras for Radio-Canada.
He also wrote a novel, Cited, A try, To put an end to anti-Americanismand a court record, The hanged man of Chicoutimi.
“All the planetary issues still fascinated him, he read, he watched TED conferences”, underlines his companion of the last 20 years, Joane Prince, journalist-presenter at Radio-Canada.
I will very much miss his intelligence, his humor, his sensitivity, his kindness, his sometimes grumpy side…
Joane Prince, his companion of the last 20 years
Mario Roy, who is also survived by his two children, Juliette and Thomas, died in palliative care at the CHUM, after a brief hospitalization following a long illness.