Do artists cry for French?

Yesterday, I made Denis Villatrault cry. I’m not proud of that, it wasn’t intentional.

I was interviewing Madame Villatrault about her daughter Danielle Loren’s documentary about her life that will be broadcast tonight on TVA at 9pm.

But when I asked Denise what she thought of the result of the Leger poll, which gave Party Quebecoa a starvation score (9%) in voting intentions, she started crying. “It’s awful. It saddens me. Sad thing.”

When I heard it, I wondered why the artists, who have long supported PQ, the cause of independence and the cause of French, no longer exist today…

I remember

We must remind the younger ones that on the evening of November 15, 1976, Denis Villatrault was on stage, with Doris Loser, to name the PQ candidates elected one by one, when the Parti Québécois took power. Those who remember that “Denis Viliatrolt was jumping all over the place”.

For all kinds of reasons, over the years, Quebec artists have given up on PQ. They have the right.

But what makes me cry like Denis today is when I see young artists who don’t care about the Quebec cause like their first guitar.

When Air Canada CEO Michael Russo gave his famous speech in English, I wrote that I didn’t understand why no one was talking about it at the ADISQ party.

Yesterday we learned that CN’s board of directors did not include a single Francophone, even though the company is headquartered in Montreal. How is this kind of information no longer arousing feelings? If you are a Francophone artist in Quebec, the reason for the breakdown of the language should keep you up at night, right?

On Wednesday, Balarama Holness summoned the media to form a new regional party by writing a bilingual message on Twitter. First in English, then in French. French as a second language in Quebec, in another era, would have caused convulsions in the artists’ union.

But in 2022, it no longer makes hair of anyone’s legs descend in the “artistic community”, with the exception of Daniel Boucher, Patrice Coquero, authors like Claude Andre or animators like Sophie Stankey.

Today, the only reasons for capital C mobilizing young artists are inclusion and diversity.

But when French speakers are left out, it’s radio silence. In the face of the lack of linguistic diversity, radio silence promises.

in France please

In Daniel Loren’s excellent documentary, Dennis Villatrolt and Michel Tremblay recall with fondness the amount of theatrical Sisters In Law It was important to Quebec. It was because of the fights of Denis Villatrault that the play was staged, because no other theater wanted it. Because of Denis Villatrault’s promise to perform the play, in 1968 the audience went to see her.

When I was watching the documentary, I thought to myself: In the board of directors of CN, no one understands the language of Germaine Lauzon and Marie-Ange Brouillette…