I like rites, rites create distinctive time-spaces.
One of my favorites, the weekend rite when I’m not on call in the emergency room.
Soon enough, I put on my cycling shorts, jump on my bike and storm Mount Royal on its different sides.
THE spin with a bike in my legs, I prepare breakfast which must be symbolically different from that on weekdays. There is no question of eating cereals or toast, at least butter croissants with jam or homemade scones, fruit salad and coffee with milk.
And there, according to the speed of climbing by bicycle and the hour of awakening, I caught the emission Desalts on Sunday in the first hour (10 a.m.) or second hour (11 a.m.) of the program. Little complete happiness of the weekend. But since June 18, 2023, this Sunday rite has gone to stay in the memory box.
Michel Désautels announced his departure from his Sunday radio magazine in the spring of 2022. In short, we were notified well in advance to get used to the idea. But it’s like all the things we love, we’re never ready to give it up without pain, without regret.
During the week preceding this last broadcast, listeners to All one morning were reminded of the impending end each time Mr. Désautels delivered his daily note. Moreover, Mr. Désautels, who made detours to expressly greet everyone before his departure, told us that the 6-year-old child of one of his colleagues urged his father every day to jump in the car. who brings her to school so as not to miss the gentleman with the “satisfactory” voice. Indeed, this warm, reassuring, benevolent, short, satisfying voice.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Michel Désautels hosted, last Sunday, the last program of his Sunday meeting Desalts on Sunday.
I did not hide my pleasure and I made my groupie, like several hundred listeners, and I accepted the general invitation to come in person to the house of Radio-Canada to attend this last broadcast. At 9 a.m., I was calmly queuing outside, under a gray sky, luckily without rain. A huge poster of Mr. Désautels in the entrance hall overlooked the audience room where pastries and hot drinks were waiting for us. Mr. Désautels was impeccable for his last animation, in full control, but where twice, he nevertheless allowed himself to bend his protocol, familiar with a guest. Her voice rocked us for two hours through different moments of memories and heartfelt praise from her guests.
Michel Désautels is a monument. Gentleman interviewer, with his velvety voice, he approaches all subjects with lucidity, decent curiosity and a benevolent listening.
He is not looking for the scoop, as Gilles Vigneault said so well in his eulogy, but rather “a meeting”. He does not adopt a confrontational stance, but, on the contrary, he creates a “safe space” where the interviewee can speak in his naked voice about subjects that are not “sexy”, often harsh, even violent. Calmly, without cynicism or voyeurism, heavy, complex, disturbing subjects are discussed, dissected and cut up without complacency to better understand the news of the day, whether local, regional or international.
Over the years, I have been interviewed a few times by Mr. Désautels. I was indignant about the fate of migrants, whether in Libyan prisons or during their forced displacements by sea and land, about sexual violence as a weapon of war, about planetary conflicts where hospitals are bombed. I am not a communication person, I am a humanitarian doctor who allows himself to speak out and I know that I can be rough around the edges. But during my interviews with Mr. Désautels, his skilful reformulations often made everything so much more understandable and accessible. Her generosity and integrity in delivering the best information has become her show’s signature and de facto platform for advocacy for all causes, including those deemed lost in advance.
Michel Désautels was for decades our vaccine against indifference, disinformation, ignorance. It is a great legacy. Hope this spirit Desalts remained in the next version of this Sunday news magazine. It is vital.