(Quebec) The National Assembly of Quebec paid tribute to journalist Jocelyne Richer on Thursday, highlighting the 40-year career of a woman “of mind and heart”, “pioneer” in a male environment, rigorous and go-getter.
Mme Richer received a standing ovation from all the elected officials present following the reading and unanimous adoption of a motion, which reads as follows: “That the National Assembly highlight the career Mrs. Jocelyne Richer, parliamentary correspondent then bureau chief of La Presse Canadienne in Quebec City until her retirement; that the National Assembly salute the contribution of Mr.me Richer and all the artisans of the Press Tribune to the democratic life of Quebec. »
After having read the motion in his own name, and in that of members of the other parties, the leader of the second opposition group, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, was the first to take the floor to underline “the exceptional career of the one who has cooked so well, for years”.
“Jocelyne Richer spent 20 years at the forefront of Quebec politics, reporting on our debates, asking questions that are often difficult, but never unfair, to elected officials. In short, to be accountable to Quebecers,” declared Mr. Nadeau-Dubois to the National Assembly.
After a few years of freelance journalism in Quebec City in the 1980s, Ms.me Richer gets a job as a daily journalist The right in Ottawa.
Back in Quebec, she will be a parliamentary correspondent for the daily The duty from 1990 to 1992, before moving to The Canadian Press in 1993, first in the Montreal office, as editor-reporter and desk editor, then in Quebec City after obtaining the position she had coveted for a long time in 2002 : that of parliamentary correspondent at the National Assembly, which she held for twenty years.
Starting in 2017, she will also hold the position of bureau chief for The Canadian Press in Quebec City, until her recent retirement.
“Jocelyne has had a career, it must be remembered, in an environment that was for men for a long time, but she never gave up her place; on the contrary, it imposed itself,” recalled the MNA for Québec solidaire, adding that it “opened the way”, but that “the work is not finished”.
Mr. Nadeau-Dubois highlighted her remarkable work in covering women’s rights and the place of women in politics and in the media. “She shone the spotlight on these issues, issues too often evacuated, and it is to her credit,” he argued.
The elected officials who followed the united MP in the ten-minute tribute paid to the journalist also underlined her character as a “pioneer”, such as the Minister of International Relations, Minister responsible for the Status of Women and former journalist, Martine Biron.
“Indeed, she was among the first female journalists on Parliament Hill. […] Her particular style developed, and that’s how over time she won the respect and envy of her journalistic colleagues and she became the terror of politicians,” said Ms.me Biron.
The Leader of the Official Opposition, Marc Tanguay, went further by speaking of his professionalism: “For an interview with Jocelyne Richer, you had to be well prepared for specific questions, I would even say surgical. She always wanted to get to the bottom of things, she didn’t easily let go of a subject that had piqued her curiosity. »
The PQ MNA for Matane-Matapédia, Pascal Bérubé, made a point of underlining “the contribution to Quebec journalism of a woman of head and heart, a talented journalist”.
“The flexibility of his pen, his deep knowledge of Quebec politics and his long experience with the members of this assembly have made his articles, over the years, examples of journalistic rigor,” said Mr. Bérubé.
Mme Richer will have written thousands of texts on Quebec politics, and will have covered a total of seven election campaigns and seen five prime ministers.
In the opinion of Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, her most important faculty is “memory”, since she will have been able to follow the debates and the issues “precisely in their duration”, with the necessary perspective.