By consulting the many messages that invaded her inbox in the hours following the tragedy in Amqui, Mayor Sylvie Blanchette stopped on one name: Colette Roy-Laroche.
Despite the hundreds of kilometers that separate her from the city of Bas-Saint-Laurent, the former mayor of Lac-Mégantic, who was in office at the time of the train disaster that took the lives of 47 Méganticois in 2013, had taken time to write him a few words of support after Monday’s ramming attack.
“She sent me a very nice message of encouragement and empathy,” says Ms.me Blanchette in interview with The duty. “The fact that she sent me this message gave me a lot of comfort. It was a pat on the back. »
Nearly ten years separate the tragedies of Amqui and Lac-Mégantic. Their nature—deliberate in one case, accidental in the other—also differs.
But the tragedies that struck the heart of these two towns of around 6,000 inhabitants have more in common than one might think. Talk to Mélissa Généreux about it.
Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Sherbrooke, ten years ago she held the position of Director of Public Health for Estrie. It was that summer that a train full of crude oil derailed in downtown Mégantic, taking its share of human lives with it.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s intentional, whether it’s an accident, we realize that the type of impact it can have on the community [touchée] is similar,” she says.
An arrow in the heart of all
When they fall on a small town, tragedies have the effect of a wildfire in the population, analyzes the expert in public health. “It’s very tightly knit, and everyone knows a little about everyone. So, we are quickly impregnated with all the details on how it happened. Even if we weren’t there, we were told about it, ”says the DD Generous.
In Amqui, “we have social circles, whether it’s the Richelieu club, the Optimist club, the snowmobile club,” notes Sylvie Blanchette. “Even if we don’t know each other, we meet. There is a smile. There is a hello. »
Since last Monday, a handful of Amqui residents have been compiling a written list of the victims and carrying out a frantic investigation to find out their state of health and the nature of their injuries. At the Cantine Fortier, the city’s “lunch place”, which is located 100 meters from the scene of the crime, people look down over their coffee. It talks little, it does not laugh: the regulars speak in low voices of the wounded, remember the good memories lived with the deceased.
“Someone is always affected. Directly or indirectly,” laments Mr.me Blanchett.
The director of mental health and addiction programs at the CISSS du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Claudie Deschênes, was able to observe firsthand the feelings that have plagued Amquians since a driver took the lives of two of them this week. “The size of the collective emotion, it is greater in a municipality like this,” she agrees.
For all the people who have been shaken, who are not necessarily sick, we collectively need to rebuild something.
But there are not only negatives in being “tightly woven”. When tragedy struck in Lac-Mégantic ten years ago, it was primarily thanks to the sense of community of its citizens that the Estrie town was able to get through the dark months that awaited it, says Mélissa Généreux.
“For all the people who have been shaken, who are not necessarily sick, we collectively need to rebuild something, to restore meaning, to reclaim… The public place, we have to feel free to go, you have to feel safe,” she said. “The strength is that the feeling of belonging is very, very strong. »
power to people
In a report published in April 2022 — and co-signed by DD Generous —, the Estrie regional public health department recommends in particular that cities affected by such tragedies “leave power to the population” and “not rush into a reconstruction led by authorities from outside “.
In Amqui, the mourning could “last for months, the time to let the dust settle,” says Claudie Deschênes. ” [Lundi et mardi] again, we were in crisis management. There, we will be in the recovery approach, in ensuring that we offer services to everyone who needs them. Then, we will be there today, tomorrow, then for the days to come, as long as we will have needs, ”she says.
In its report on Mégantic, Estrienne Public Health emphasizes the importance of highlighting “known faces” in the months and even years following a tragedy. Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche played exactly this role in 2013, says Mélissa Généreux.
“It is above all necessary to give the power and the voice to the people of the sector”, she says. “Because when it’s a big crisis that seems to be appropriated by the government at the national level, well, those people, they end up stepping down. Then the community, it finds that rough. »
The party leaders, including François Legault, left Amqui on Thursday, after a short visit to the mourners. As the days pass, so will the cameras and microphones.
Sylvie Blanchette, she does not move an inch. She is busy accompanying her fellow citizens in mourning, even if, “it was not in [ses] job descriptions when [elle s’est] presented to the town hall.
“We are still in the ‘during'”, underlines the mayor, but the reconstruction will come. Until then, she can count on a few words of encouragement. Words signed Colette Roy-Laroche.
With Sebastien Tanguay