Enfant au Québec, adolescent en Ontario, Pascal Justin Boyer s’interroge sur sa propre identité dans Le dernier Canadien français. Son documentaire aborde avec intelligence, sur un ton léger, la fragmentation du Canada francophone et son devenir. Entrevue.
Qu’est-ce qui t’a incité à te lancer dans cette quête ?
Mon déménagement relativement récent à Montréal. Je suis né au Québec, à Sherbrooke, j’ai grandi à Saint-Hyacinthe et j’ai déménagé à Ottawa à 14 ans, à un moment où je cherchais vraiment à trouver ma place dans un groupe. Je voulais appartenir à quelque chose de plus grand que moi et c’est là que j’ai fait la rencontre des Franco-Ontariens, qui m’ont accueilli dans la « Franco-Ontarie », comme j’aime l’appeler. Maintenant, mon permis de conduire dit que je suis québécois. Je le suis et j’en suis fier, mais j’aime aussi beaucoup ce que j’ai vécu en Ontario français. Comment conjuguer ces deux choses ? Est-ce que j’ai besoin de choisir entre les deux ? C’est là que je me suis dit que je pourrais être canadien-français, mais à force d’en parler, je me suis rendu compte que ce gentilé venait avec des connotations pas nécessairement jojo. L’enquête est partie de là.
D’où vient ton attachement au terme « canadien-français » ?
Il n’y a pas vraiment d’attachement, c’est surtout un terme qui, dans ma tête, me permettait de lier les deux identités qui me sont chères. […] There are many people who see this kindness as something that could unite French speakers around the French fact in the country. There is also a certain nostalgia in this term, among some people. But as soon as we speak to historians, they say that it is not possible to return to this designation, loaded with meaning: it refers to the link with the Catholic Church, to the myth of the two founding peoples who refused until at a certain point the presence of the First Nations…
IMAGE FROM THE DOCUMENTARY
Pascal Justin Boyer went to the Yukon to take the pulse of the French situation in the country.
Doesn’t this term also refer to another myth, that of bilingual Canada?
Quite. The fact remains that, basically, French Canadians are Francophones who live in French throughout the country. Is it possible to live in French only everywhere? Absolutely not. […] What is unfortunate, in my opinion, is that when we started to distinguish ourselves, it was as if we had lost a sort of common front.
What can Quebec and French-speaking Canada learn from each other?
The biggest point, I think, is that communities need to talk to each other. Quebecers must first know that francophones in Canada exist. We must defolklorize French outside of Quebec. […] Quebec has often mobilized when other communities have experienced challenges. I am thinking, among other things, of when the Ford government tried to close the Université de l’Ontario français project. The National Assembly unanimously mobilized to condemn this type of decision. Except that we’re not just crisis French speakers. We have to become partners again. It starts with better education and better knowledge of the daily lives of Francophones across the country.
Your animation and your narration bring a lot of lightness and humor to your words. For what ?
That’s my tone. I am less known in Quebec, but I have 15 years of career in front of the camera as a host and actor, especially in youth production. I have learned over time to approach complicated and delicate subjects by de-escalating, so that everyone is comfortable speaking. The objective, basically, is communication. If we talk to each other, it means that we exist, that we are alive and therefore we are moving slowly, not quickly, towards a solution. […] I didn’t want us to take ourselves too seriously, we’re not bashing anyone over the head. And I think it’s important to look in the mirror once in a while and tell ourselves that there are things we could do better. Together.
On ICI Télé, Saturday, 10:30 p.m., as part of Doc humanity