Founded in the fall of 1974 by members of popular groups from Lower Town Quebec, the newspaper Right to speakthe oldest community newspaper in Quebec, will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary this fall, no less.
Yes indeed, the epic of Right to speakit is half a century of playing the watchdog of democracy by carrying community and citizen demands with tens of thousands of texts, photos and files on local issues concerning the environment, urban planning, mental health, housing, the defense of women’s rights, immigrants, consumers, workers, prisoners, sexual minorities, students and citizens.
Half a century of distilling counter-information inspired by the values of the universal left while adapting, with each half-generation, to the needs and precise demands of the new groups, taking into account, as much as possible, the modes of expression and the particularities of each. Quite an exercise, sometimes, that one!
Five decades, therefore, during which the members of Right to speak have valiantly resisted the infiltration of Marxist groups of the time, the various legal proceedings (City, real estate developers, private groups), the sirens of partisan politics, the numerous reductions in subsidies from different governments, the vagaries of ministerial bureaucracy, the digital shift, the invasion of social networks, the COVID-19 pandemic, the GAFAM embargo, and what else…
Counterweight
Fifty years, imagine! In fact, and without being too pompous, in terms of resilience and duration, it is still five decades during which the different teams of the tabloid newspaper (distributed free of charge in the central districts of Quebec) took turns to provide a useful and necessary counterweight to the six different municipal administrations that have succeeded one another since the 1960s.
A critical role that proved crucial during major events, such as the disruptive redevelopment of downtown Quebec City in the 1960s and 1970s, the Reagan-Mulroney Summit of 1985, the Summit of the Americas of 2001, the arrival of trash radio, Operation Scorpion (juvenile prostitution), the Rabaska file, the Port of Quebec and its pollution, the tramway and the third link, all burning issues for which the newspaper was often able to express and denounce what the traditional media could not or did not dare to do.
Here, is there any need to recall that many of these issues, whether they concern housing shortages, sustainable mobility issues, gentrification, the environment, mental health and homelessness, are more relevant than ever?
Funding
That said, as with mainstream media, times are tough for alternative and community media too, and Right to speak Although it prides itself on being a resilient, progressive, sustainable and versatile newspaper, it is also not immune to several major constraints and challenges: reductions in subsidies from the Ministry of Culture and Communications, advertising gluttony from GAFAM and a scarcity of local advertisers, more difficult replacements to find, competition from social networks combined with the blocking of Meta, in short, at times, it seems that everything is contributing to our shelving.
Fortunately, the newspaper can count on a loyal readership that appreciates the product as well as an activist and volunteer base that has always done everything possible to keep the newspaper alive. Fortunately again, there is a great new generation in the community, and politically speaking, the region is not limited to its “right-wing mystery”, far from it.
Otherwise, since money is the sinews of war, it is absolutely necessary for the current government to increase our basic funding and understand that community media are not only useful in times of crisis for its advertising (such as during the pandemic); in doing so, it must imperatively grant them at least 4% of its advertising volume on a regular basis. This promise of 4%, first announced in 1995 by Jacques Parizeau, was subsequently taken up by successive governments, but unfortunately never came to fruition.
Boots must follow lips! The future of community media is at stake. Our access to free local information depends on it. It is the guarantee of a healthy and better democracy. Long live Right to speak and to community and alternative media in Quebec!