They left there a text, a film, a drawing, or quite simply footprints in the streets. None of them emerged unchanged from the great student protest movement that Quebec experienced in 2012. Ten years later, five Quebecers tell us about their memories of the student strike and the Maple Spring and how these events were founders of their social journey.
Lea Clermont-Dion
“Spring 2012 is one of the most beautiful moments of my life! exclaims author and documentary filmmaker Léa Clermont-Dion. While studying political science at UQAM, she was very involved in the movement, participating in demonstrations, organizing kitchen assemblies or speaking publicly. In particular, she co-wrote a manifesto signed by some 200 artists to support the student cause. “I was full of ideals. Speaking was fundamental at that time. »
She has since taken a liking to it. “This citizen mobilization marked my career. I learned to question myself about the balance of power and domination that can come from the state, about the invisible sexism in social movements. I did a doctorate in political science thanks to this experience. […] And above all, I learned that it is important to speak publicly when you have something to say, something to denounce.
Ariel Charest
In 2012, Ariel Charest was 20 years old and finishing his first year at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Québec. Her establishment was not on strike, but she was in Montreal during the March 22 demonstration. “It was a tide of people, I did not expect that […] I remember saying to myself: “here, Ariel, you are part of the story with a capital H”. »
Ten years later, the actress (and queen of lip sync), cannot deny the impact that student mobilization has had on his artistic practice. “I became aware, as an artist, that art is political. […] When I play a role, I think about my character’s political quest in the play: what does he want to defend? What does he want to say to the spectators? What does he want them to think about? she explains.
The actress also appears in Hugo Latulippe’s recent documentary, I lift myself upwhich follows the artistic approach of a small theater troupe in which Ariel Charest carries “important words, in the flavor of Maple Spring”.
Jeremiah Battaglia
Jérémie Battaglia was the eye of the short film panswhich went viral during the 2012 student strike within minutes of being posted online.
It was the electric current necessary to allow the young Frenchman to restart his career in Quebec. “Everything changed with the video of the pansaccompanied by the music of Avec Pas d’Casque”, he recalls.
“I would say that it brought me closer to Quebec. In 2012, “I had the impression, for the first time, of living as a Quebecer. I shared something with a large part of the population. It was a fight that was common. This served as an accelerator for my integration. »
Jérémie Battaglia nevertheless has reservations about committed art. “I’m still ambivalent about militant art. To me, that’s a pretty fine line that can jeopardize credibility. I am always concerned with finding this balance. Still, the work he did during the strike was “an approach that was based on empathy,” he summarizes. “I wanted to convey that through my photos. »
Fred Dube
Fred Dubé was already a comedian when the 2012 student strike broke out. But the events have a profound impact on the way he practices his profession.
“My humor has become more political, says the one who is now considered radical. I started doing my homework better. When I came back to Rimouski, I realized that the fight was seen through the prism of the media […]. Like a little garbage can on fire that made the headlines. The beauty of the thing was hidden. »
To defend his point of view, the young humorist immersed himself in political essays and subscribed to newspapers. “I radicalized myself,” he says, adding that this word means “to go back to the root”. “I started to try to understand the world better and to make artistic material out of it. »
Since then, he decided that humor would not become an end in itself, to serve his career. “I prefer to associate it with other projects”, he concludes. He includes it in particular in the chronicles he signs at the Black sheepthe newspaper that claims to be “more biting than the wolf”.
Guillaume Desrosiers Lepine
In a few months of 2012, Guillaume Desrosiers Lépine went from student to striker, from being enrolled in the Department of Graphic Design at UQAM to instigator of the École de la montagne rouge, this creative group that accompanied the strikers during the whole conflict. He was 22 years old.
“These eight months of commitment have completely transformed my life,” says the man who is now a professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the Université de Moncton. “One of the direct consequences of this commitment is that I am [aujourd’hui] representing Université de Moncton professors and librarians on the Canadian Association of University Teachers. […] For me, it is a direct link with my involvement in the student strike. »
The strength of the Red Mountain School, according to him, was to act as a support point for different organizations of the movement. “People came to see us so that we could support them with visuals and design in their projects. Born with the strike, the collective dissolved with the end of the movement.