“The building”! This qualification, repeated several times by the president of the assembly of the Union of Quebec writers and writers (UNEQ), on March 29, speaking of the Maison des écrivains, revealed his indifference to the question without even does he realize? Is that why he didn’t offer the assembly a time-limited discussion period on dues, when he knew there was another important proposal for members to vote on?
He led this gathering as if overwhelmed by the chaos he faced. He said he was tolerant, but is it tolerance to repeatedly let several participants express themselves at the same time, in a cacophony that increased impatience, when he could very well have turned off the microphones?
What respect for “the building” the assembly had by agreeing to interrupt the discussion on the sale of the Writers’ House which had only lasted a few minutes when the preliminary question was asked, thus preventing everyone from speaking those who had raised their hands, and who could be seen very well on the screens?
Yes, it was late, yes, the participants were tired, but “the building”, whose fate was “settled” in a few minutes (it will be sold after an 18-month moratorium), is the one that the founders of the UNEQ have desired and sought for thirteen years, the one they have transformed into a meeting place which has welcomed, from 1992 to the present day, writers from Quebec and abroad, and lovers of Quebec literature, and the one whose walls are covered with the works of our writers.
La Maison is not a “building”, it is a historic site, it is the visible face of the efforts of all those who have created and continue to create Quebec and French Canadian literature, and of all those those who cherish it. And no one had a few minutes to call him back…
Perhaps we should not be surprised by this indifference, since even the leaders of the UNEQ, those whom we elected to represent us and defend our socio-economic rights, considered the Maison des écrivains only as a Income source. They were even ready to sell the association’s most important asset at a loss to finance negotiations for which the general manager admitted that he had put the cart before the horse, but he “assumes it”, told us he said.
No, it is not him who “assumes it”. He only has to leave the UNEQ, if the negotiations for which we will have sacrificed the House do not give the expected results. It is the writers who will have to bear the consequences of this haste, this lack of reflection.
In her speech, the president of the board of directors, who has just resigned en bloc, mentioned my name, acknowledging my passion for defending the cause of writers. She was right, and it is this passion, still alive, that led me to write this letter.