Céline opens up
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Celine Dion has begun a series of interviews to recount her life with stiff person’s disease.
Celine Dion began a series of interviews this week to recount the long ordeal she has experienced in recent years due to stiff person syndrome. To NBC, she notably recounted having taken megadoses of Valium, which could have killed her. “The pop music superstar wasn’t donning Valium to freeze her face or get high, but to sing at the high level she’s accustomed her fans to. Not to disappoint, even if it means ruining your health, in the most opaque secret, it breaks the heart to watch,” reacted Hugo Dumas. TVA will also broadcast an interview given by Charlemagne’s diva on Sunday at 8 p.m. The documentary I Am: Celine Dionwill be launched on June 25 on the Amazon Prime Video platform.
Read the column “Céline could have stayed there”
Finding asylum in Charlevoix
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The night manager at Germain Charlevoix, Abdek Ismaël, in Baie-Saint-Paul
Flee the Ivory Coast for La Malbaie, leave Djibouti for Baie-Saint-Paul… The Press met two asylum seekers who agreed to participate in a pilot project in Charlevoix to help them work in the tourism industry. Opportunities to be seized for Laeticia Gnanki, attendant at Manoir Richelieu, and for Abdek Ismaël, night manager at Germain Charlevoix. “It was in Montreal that I heard about the program and I told them: ‘Save me from Montreal!’” Mr. Ismaël explained to reporter Gabriel Béland. I want to go to a quiet region, especially a French-speaking region. I wanted to get out of the big city. »
Read the report “Asylum seekers in the region: reborn in Charlevoix”
Emmanuel Macron’s risky bet
PHOTO LUCA BRUNO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday
Shaken by the victory of the National Rally (RN), a party to the right of the right, in the European elections last weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron played his part by calling legislative elections. A vote which, he hopes, will allow him to get back in the saddle. However, his centrist party could bite the dust. Here’s why: to block it, the very popular RN would count on an alliance with Les Républicains (which is far from pleasing all the elected officials of the right-wing party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy). Also on the left, the Greens, the socialists, the communists and the La France insoumise group are joining forces in the hope of winning more seats. If these marriages of convenience please the French, Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party will find itself isolated in the center of the National Assembly after the votes of June 30 and July 7.
Read the article “France: the political spectrum reconfigured in rapid succession”
Alice, Noah, Michel, Sylvie and the others…
PHOTO LIUDMILA CHERNETSKA, GETTY IMAGES
Retraite Québec revealed last week its list of the most popular children’s first names in 2023.
As an annual tradition, Retraite Québec revealed last week its list of the most popular children’s names in 2023. Unsurprisingly, Noah and Liam, for boys, and Alice and Florence, for girls, sit at the top. A new development, Retraite Québec presented for the first time the list of the most popular names among… new pension applicants in 2023. From one spectrum to the other, so to speak. In this list, we learn that the new pensioners of 2023 are more likely to be named Michel, Daniel, Sylvie or even Johanne… Among newborns, we saw a change of guard among girls, while Florence and Alice both overtook Emma, which had been the most popular girl’s name in 2021 and 2022. Among boys, Noah retains the lead for the third year in a row.
Read the article “Most popular names: Alice, Florence, Noah and Liam at the top of the ranking”
Read the column “What Michel and Sylvie have in common with Noah and Alice”
A beach in troubled waters
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Batiscan beach
Located on Chemin du Roy, between Trois-Rivières and Quebec, Batiscan is one of the most beautiful villages in Quebec. Its beach, on the other hand, is quite less idyllic. Conflicts over access between neighboring property owners and members of the public have been going on for years. Photographer Hugo-Sébastien Aubert and journalist Ariane Krol went there to take stock of the thorny question of who owns the edge of the St. Lawrence River. A situation so tense that the term “beach” has disappeared from the latest development plan for the MRC des Chenaux which includes the town of Batiscan. “You’re in a wasp’s nest, do you realize that? », Said a man to our reporters who were strolling on a public part of the said beach.
Read the report “Batiscan Beach: tensions against a backdrop of blond sand”