My year 2021 | Press

The recent municipal campaign has kept me busy. She also fascinated me with her many twists and turns. The place of French in Montreal worried me and continues to do so. And a poet left me with lasting memories. This is what the year 2021 could look like if I had to summarize it in a few fragments. Here they are !

Inspiration

Victor Pilon and the myth of Sisyphus

Those who saw Victor Pilon’s performance at the Olympic Stadium were all won over by a curious mixture of emotions. We came out both dumbfounded, troubled, but above all upset. For five weeks, six days a week and seven hours a day, the artist tirelessly moved a mountain of sand weighing five tons. This artistic performance was inspired by the myth of Sisyphus who, after committing the outrage of defying Zeus and Thanatos, was banished to the underworld and condemned to roll relentlessly to the top of a mountain a huge stone which in came down without ever reaching the top. “This myth is the supreme quest for meaning, it is the unreasonable silence of the world,” Victor Pilon told me in August, while he was preparing for this demanding physical and mental performance. During the final, on October 27, several people who had come to see the artist more than once at work applauded him wholeheartedly. Tears rolled down my cheeks. It must be said that this performance was also a tribute to her husband who perished in a tragic accident. All human beings face the absurdity of life. The pandemic that has hit us for almost two years now exacerbates this issue. Victor Pilon helped us to understand the eternal restarting that life imposes on us. His gesture was a great inspiration.

The fiasco

Sue Montgomery

The soap opera surrounding the mayoress of Côte-des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Sue Montgomery, monopolized a lot of attention and swallowed up hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. The tenacity shown by the mayoress of this populous district to protect her chief of staff and try to get rid of officials she deemed incompetent was spectacular. And almost convincing. Despite the many setbacks (expulsion from Projet Montréal, sanctions from the Commission municipale du Québec (CMQ), departure of councilors, etc.), Sue Montgomery never let go. If she managed to avoid the four-month suspension imposed by the CMQ, she however lost her bet to be re-elected. The citizens firmly showed him the way out during the elections of November 7. Tenacity and relentlessness were very present in this affair. But democracy had the last word.

The surprise

Young people in municipal politics

Even before the last municipal campaign officially began, I noticed that a new generation of municipal politicians was leaping into the arena. This was confirmed a few weeks before the ballot, but especially on election night. Strangely enough, this phenomenon coincides with a starving turnout for the ballot. What kind of equation can we make? Could it be that a large part of citizens are no longer found in this generation which wants to do municipal politics differently, less “asphaltist”, more environmentalist and democratic? I think so more and more.

Can do better next year

The place of French in Montreal

If there is one subject that has caused much ink to flow over the past year, it is the place of French in Montreal. Symbolized by the famous “hello-hi” that many sales employees give us, this dramatic situation is playing out before our eyes and our ears between the revolt of some and the indifference of others. Once again, the fragility of French divides. It moves its defenders, it exasperates others who have found phrases like “English is the language of business” as weapons. Or my favorite, “we young people know no borders”. While the Office de la langue française is sounding the alarm, Mayor Valérie Plante and Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette say they want to protect French in Montreal. But in reality, what steps have been taken to come to the rescue of a culture which seeks its air? We have to wait for the president of Air Canada to tell us that it is quite possible to live in English in the metropolis so that we step up to the plate by chanting: “It’s scary! It’s scary ! Time is passing. I see the lost gains, the carpet we are pulling under our feet.

The flash in the pan

Denis coderre

Who would have thought that the return of Denis Coderre, “unveiled” with great fanfare in Everybody talks about it, was going to take such a turn? Starting very strong in the polls, the seasoned politician then rolled down the coast slowly and surely. Fitter than in the 2017 campaign, he was a tough opponent for Valérie Plante. Unfortunately for him, the history of cellphones while driving and the way in which he got entangled in more or less convincing explanations led many to conclude that the new man announced had finally remained the same. Add to that the tiles that some of his candidates dropped on his head. It did not take more to convince Montreal voters that they were elsewhere. And that, ultimately, it was they who had changed.

departure

Michele Lalonde

The death of the poet Michèle Lalonde, author of Speak white, last July brought back to my memory the interview I had with her during the creation of the piece 887, by Robert Lepage, where it is about his famous poem. She told me how she wrote this punchy text standing up. “I wanted to put myself in this condition. I then typed it with two fingers on a typewriter, ”she told me. The year 2021 made us lose giants: Raymond Lévesque, Serge Bouchard, Claude Jasmin, Jacques Lacoursière, Roch Demers, Michel Garneau and many others. These people have built our history, they have told it, magnified and dissected it. They did it in the best possible way. Like poets.

“Speak white / tell us that God is a great big shot / and that we’re paid to trust him / speak white / parlez-nous production profits et percentages / speak white / c’est une langue riche / to buy / but for to sell oneself / but to sell oneself at a loss of soul ”