Montreal elected officials will be called upon to consider a motion by independent councilor Serge Sasseville which aims to support drag artists in the metropolis, on the sidelines of the suspension of the hour of storytelling by the artist Barbada in libraries in Saint-Laurent. , which has since flip-flopped.
At the beginning of july, The duty revealed that pressure exerted by at least one elected representative from Saint-Laurent would have threatened to lead to the cancellation of a story hour hosted by the “drag queen” Barbada, personified by Sébastien Potvin. “It particularly shook me,” says Mr. Sasseville, who represents the district of Peter-McGill as an independent elected official.
This situation had also raised an outcry and prompted the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, to recall the important role played by drag queens “in our libraries and places of dissemination”. “Through their presence and their art, they contribute to making Montreal a more open, fair and inclusive city,” wrote the elected municipal official at the time. on social networks.
The borough has since corrected the situation at the beginning of August by promising that this activity will take place as planned on November 5 in the libraries of Vieux-Saint-Laurent and Boisé, after Barbada had met the mayor of the borough. and local elected officials to explain this activity to them and reassure those who had concerns.
Despite this outcome, Serge Sasseville believes that lessons must be learned from this saga to prevent it from happening again in the future. He also recalls, in a motion that will be debated during the municipal council meeting on August 22, that the reading of stories by drag artists is a “frequent activity” in municipal libraries, which took place “without controversy”. in recent years “on dozens of occasions” in Montreal, “to the great joy of parents and children”.
“This must not happen again,” insists the To have to Mr. Sasseville, regarding the “incident” that occurred in Saint-Laurent. “The purpose of this motion is to send a message”, explains the elected official, himself a member of the LGBTQ+ community, who wishes to remind that we are “all equal”.
To take a position
The motion thus asks the City to “reaffirm that there will always be a place for drag artists”, including in municipal libraries, in addition to committing to “fight against homophobia, transphobia and against all forms of discrimination” that affect the LGBTQ+ community.
“It’s important that Montreal take a position on this,” said Mr. Sasseville, whose motion receives the support of the councilor for Projet Montréal in the Mile-End district, Marie Plourde.
Mayor Valérie Plante’s cabinet declined to comment on this motion, preferring to wait for it to be presented next week at a city council meeting. Serge Sasseville hopes for his part that this document will be adopted unanimously by the 65 elected officials who sit on this body.