After 38 years at Radio-Canada, Diane Sauvé is taking her leave. She is one of eight sports journalists to have accepted the voluntary retirement plan put in place by the CBC, which is preparing to dismantle its sports department. On Facebook, Diane Sauvé wrote that she had the “very bad feeling of leaving the house when it is burning.” In an interview with Dutythe reporter insists on the importance of preserving sports coverage worthy of the name on the airwaves of the public broadcaster.
“I hope it’s just a reorganization, and that sports at Radio-Canada will come out stronger because of it. Because we must not give up. If it’s not Radio-Canada, who will talk about speed skating or figure skating in the media? It’s important to follow the athletes who practice these sports, and not just cover them once every four years, when the Olympics come around. We know everything about the lives of hockey players. It seems to me that other athletes also deserve a little visibility,” asserts with conviction the newly retired athlete, who clearly still had the fire to continue.
However, for some, Radio-Canada should abandon sports, which are already covered extensively by private broadcasters, with two specialty channels dedicated entirely to them. Diane Sauvé has heard this speech many times during her career. Still, she can’t get used to it, and above all, she can’t accept it. When confronted with this, she can’t help but roll her eyes in exasperation.
“Sports have a place in a Crown corporation. And I think that Radio-Canada has managed to find its own style. The way we cover sports is different from that of other broadcasters. I’ve done reports that I’ve never seen anywhere else, and I’m not saying that to brag. It’s normal for Radio-Canada to approach sports from a more social angle than the private one,” she says, getting carried away.
Canadian Radio at heart
Diane Sauvé’s attachment to the public broadcaster is obvious. And for good reason, she worked there almost all her life, with the exception of a short stint at RDS in the first months after the channel opened.
She was first parachuted into the Regina, Saskatchewan station, where she was a general assignment reporter, before asking her bosses to transfer to sports. They agreed, although a little disconcerted that a young woman would show an interest in sports journalism, which remained the preserve of men in the mid-1980s even more than it is today.
“For me, it was natural. Sports have always been a part of my life. I have three brothers. When we were young, we played hockey and I was the goalkeeper “, likes to tell with a touch of humor this tomboy assumed who grew up on a farm near the Ontario border.
Diane Sauvé would later make her mark in Ottawa, then join the sports department in Montreal in 1996, shortly after the closure of the old Forum. In what was then called the new Molson Centre, she was the one who waited for the players as they left the rink to collect their secrets during intermissions, at the time when Radio-Canada broadcast Canadiens games. Her career also led her to interview the greatest athletes, in all sports. But above all, Diane Sauvé covered 14 Olympic Games on the CBC.
Those in Paris were her last. Just before the Olympics, she accepted a retirement package, like seven other veterans of the sports department, including Guy D’Aoust and Jean St-Onge. These departures are in line with the cutbacks announced this fall at CBC/Radio-Canada, which ultimately turned out to be less significant than expected. No sports journalists were laid off. That said, the sports department in its current form will be merged into other divisions. Some of the employees will soon be in news, others in television.
“I’m thinking of my former colleagues, because it must really not be easy for them. When you come out of the Olympics, you’re always a little depressed to go back to your routine in Montreal, after having experienced so many emotions for two weeks. It’s really hard. This time, it must be even harder, with all this uncertainty,” says the woman who has made her mark in a very masculine environment.
Pioneer by default
Others before her, like Liza Frulla, had already broken the glass ceiling by crossing the doors of the Canadiens’ locker room. Nevertheless, Diane Sauvé is part, with Marie-José Turcotte and Chantal Machabée, of the first generation of women who really shook up the boys club sports journalism.
But when the subject is broached, Diane Sauvé suddenly seems uncomfortable. Was being a woman an obstacle? Trying to answer, Diane Sauvé hesitates, then falls silent, taking on a serious air. It takes her a long moment of silence before she gives her answer.
“I have often been invited to talk about my job as a woman. I have always said no. I never wanted to highlight that. I am not saying that sexism in the industry did not exist. But I never wanted to dwell on that. The only thing that mattered to me was to make the job “I did my best,” she eventually said, taking care to weigh her words carefully.
Diane Sauvé has always avoided positioning herself as a victim. Being the center of attention probably makes her rather uncomfortable. She is an old-school journalist. Her job has always been to make the athletes shine as best she can, not to show off herself.