This Wednesday, the National Assembly is honoring a great Quebec humanist. Tirelessly indignant at social injustice, Vivian Labrie has for more than 35 years refused the economic rules of the game which tolerate the crass poverty of some and the unbridled enrichment of others. Portrait of a woman who continues to dream of the advent of a world where no one will be left behind when the prosperity train passes by.
At 70 years old, more than half of which has been spent fighting against inequalities, Vivian Labrie exudes the serenity of one who has lived in accordance with her values. She walked through life shod with kindness and compassion, engaged in civic struggles alongside the less fortunate, whose nobility she still admires. Researcher, storyteller and above all, great lover of the human race, the one who likes to describe herself as a “woman of tales and accounts” still marvels, in the Saint-Roch café where The duty the meeting, in the memory of an uneducated woman, incapable of reading and writing whose name she has forgotten, but capable of humming 500 songs from memory.
“People like her carry our collective treasure!” enthuses Vivian Labrie. We call them “the disinherited” because everyone has the right to a place like everyone else in the world and theirs is not there, it is still to be found. Yet they carry repertoires of stories and songs [qui forment] true folk wisdom passed down from generation to generation. That’s quite a heritage! »
A charter for a Quebec without poverty
Today, however, it is his that the solidarity deputy, Étienne Grandmont, wants to highlight by granting him a medal from the National Assembly. Vivian Labrie, born in Sherbrooke but rooted in the capital’s lower town, played, as coordinator of the Collective for a Quebec without Poverty, a central role in the development of a first law against inequalities.
“The adoption of this law gave the government the obligation to work on this issue,” explains the member for Taschereau. Honoring Vivian Labrie today brings to the forefront the good measures provided for in the law which still need to be put in place to fight against the poverty and social exclusion that we are seeing resurface, 21 years after its adoption. »
The framework law, born in the wake of a Street Parliament organized at the Esplanade park in Quebec in the fall of 1997, was to serve as a charter to guide government action towards a fairer society. Its ambition: to eliminate poverty within 10 years.
Submitted for the first time to the Salon Bleu on November 22, 2000, accompanied by a petition with more than 217,000 signatories, the proposal from the Collective for a Quebec without Poverty worried the government in place, which considered it too restrictive.
“There is, in this law, a provision which increases the minimum wage from $7 to $8.50 per hour,” alarmed the Prime Minister at the time, Lucien Bouchard. “At first glance, there are things that scare me,” added the Minister of Social Solidarity, André Boisclair. I’m not ready […] to give a blank check on what is there. »
Two years later, on December 13, 2002, 104 parliamentarians nevertheless unanimously adopted the law aimed at combating poverty and social exclusion, a watered-down version of the framework law written by civil society. “Karl Marx was right too,” said Prime Minister Bernard Landry at the time. We do not create wealth to enrich oligarchies, we do not create wealth to provide well-beyond-average comfort to a very small part of the population. We create wealth to distribute it. »
words, words
Twenty-one years to the day after her adoption, Vivian Labrie notes some progress, but also several failures. “The framework law was based on three principles. First, make the fight against inequalities a priority. Then, include people who experience poverty in the process that concerns them. Finally, improve the income and living conditions of the poorest fifth before improving the existence of the richest fifth. It is this last point which was missing in the adopted law, she deplores. This explains why there are still such large wealth gaps at the moment. »
Behind her small gold-rimmed glasses, Vivian Labrie’s gaze has lost none of its acuity in dissecting society and the mechanisms that reproduce inequalities. “Logically, to move towards a society without poverty, basic social protections should cover basic needs and the minimum wage, full-time, should guarantee a life free of poverty. Is this the case today? No. »
Since the law came into force, real GDP at basic prices by industry in Quebec, a measure of collective wealth dear to those in power, has almost doubled, going from 231 billion to 420 billion in current dollars. Despite the law, it was the top of the social pyramid that benefited the most from this prosperity while at the base, the most deprived remained stuck in precariousness.
“We must ask ourselves the question: is this a society where it is possible to climb the social ladder without ever encountering a ceiling that will help us emerge from the current socio-environmental crisis or is it a society which considers wealth differently? I’ve asked hundreds of times what wealth really matters, and it’s very rare that I’ve heard about money. »
Refusal of discouragement
The law adopted in 2002 planned to elevate the fight against inequalities to the rank of a national imperative and stated the objective of “moving towards a Quebec without poverty”.
“Obviously, we can “tend” for a long time,” quips Vivian Labrie, noting the lack of political will of different governments over the past 20 years. Despite this state of affairs, she refuses to give up. The law improved social assistance benefits, shed light on an issue that had long been under the radar and made the state accountable by requiring the government to prepare action plans. The development of the fourth is also underway.
“There are things that take almost a lifetime to achieve,” she philosophizes. We already said to ourselves that it would take 10 years to make Quebec a territory without poverty. Twenty years later, we would still have to add another 10 years, but at the same time, perhaps that is the speed of humanity. At least, if this dream can continue to flourish… That’s perhaps the most important thing. »