Guy's intro to Lucian? Quand il est dans le ring, y'a des hommes qui tombent - When he's in the ring, men will fall.
M. Bute was supposed to be on the episode on December 31, 2011 but could not make it; why? Well, in mid-December he took his exam to become a Canadian citizen and on the 31st he was... (actually, he never tells us specifically why he wasn't there on 12/31. Hey!) Lucian arrived in Canada in 2003, no French, no English. He spent 6 months at Université de Montréal learning French as part of his goal to become like us - to have the Canadian passport, to be able to vote. He became a citizen on March 26, 2012. He's very proud of his passport - he even has it with him as he essentially just got off the plane from Florida.
Let's talk boxing! Lucian's been training in Florida in preparation for May 26th when he will confront former WBF World Champion Carl Froch in Nottingham, England. Asked about going abroad to defend his IBF title, Bute talks about how it was his choice to go there. He knows he'll be in enemy territory, but he'll have all of Quebec behind him so he's not worried. "When I hear Quebecois at ringside yelling in French, it'll lift me up". Froch was quoted as saying Bute was either very confident or very stupid for coming to England for this fight. Bute believes he's just showing he's willing to do whatever he needs to prove he's the best. It's less money in England, even than it would have been in Montreal.
Initially Bute wanted to fight Andre Ward but Ward countered with some trash talk - Bute needs to pay his dues first so M. Froch it shall be. Besides, for Lucian now, it's all about the next fight, not the one after - even though it most certainly is his goal to fight the best in the world.
Dany wants to know about the coaches - Lucian is so nice, how do the coaches get him to fight? It's about work ethic. "I don't need to trash talk, the best will win." Apparently M. Bute has never even told another boxer he's smelly.
Adonis Stevenson (a guest on TLMEP on Feb 26, 2012 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfeWRaM2SMc) had a few interesting things to say about Bute then. When watching the clip, Lucian looks quietly amused. "Yes, he and I sparred, yes, in the 5th round he hit me with an uppercut that hurt me but I didn't fall. Now in the same sparring session, in the 12th round I hit him with a left that left him stunned."
Asked who hits the hardest, Lucian responds: Berrio, Glen Johsnon. Wait, Glen Johnson's your sparring partner? M. Bute responds that sparring partners are there to help, so they can't be nice. They have to push you.
One fight HBO would like to see is Bute vs. Jean Pascal but that would involve Bute going up a category - from 168 lbs to 175. He'd still love to do it - what with JP's international credibility, it would mean a lot.
It's very hard to change weight category though - everything changes, from diet to exercise. The hardest is going down - it's nearly impossible for a boxer to lose muscle mass.
Dany presents Lucian with a wonderful card (I like Dany's cards and he seems so honest when giving it out, to the point of wondering if Lucian can even read it. Which he does) "Quebec will be behind you in the ring and since the French lost in 1759 it's now up to you to get revenge."
Why this matters: Bute is 30-0 right now and is a Southpaw. This fight will likely be his toughest and it will open many doors for bigger and better things.
Quebec's been behind Bute for some time now and we love to watch him win. He's had many fights in Quebec City and in Montreal and he's contributed greatly to the popularity of the sport here in Quebec. GO LUCIAN!
Written by Sylvie Lupien. Merci mille fois, Sylvie!
Dolan enters the set with the song "Tout le monde aime Xavier Dolan". Dolan is here to talk about his film "Laurence Anyways" who was nominated at the Cannes Film Festival but not in line for the prestigeous Palme d'or award; it is being screened outside of the competition (hors compétition). He wants to set the record straight because in the press he was perceived as being childish and spoiled for reacting negatively for not being in competition.
Everyone thinks that this young man is brilliant, articulate and should appreciate his luck. Well, that is where Xavier Dolan gets interesting, I think. He further explains that the press for the last year, has written that his movie should and would be nominated and then, last week, he, we, find out that it isn't.
"Yeah I was disappointed," he says. But not only that, its has been eleven years since the last nomination for "Les Invasions Barbares" (The Barbarian Invasions) by Denys Archand. No one will convince me, Dolan says, that there hasn't been a good movie, here in Quebec, over the last eleven years. We have the talent, we have the knowledge, we are capable, we are proud; therefore we should dream of the ultimate dream and push for it. We should not be quiet and accept other peoples' conclusions on our movies or anything else for that matter. Culture is what makes us human and he believes that in every bone in his body. He is ambitious, he wants to dream bigger than life, he wants it all and believes everyone should do the same if that is what they want. He hates that in school, teachers say things such as: Tu rêves en couleur (you're dreaming in Technicolor). "We, in Qc, have the talent, the courage the ability and the obligation to dream big, to believe the Hollywood dream. We are survivers. If we want Quebec to be a country, then we can dream of being the best. Why the hell not?" he says. He is a proud trooper! "Tink big, ostie," comme dirait Elvis Gratton!
On Twitter, the reaction to his interview was immediate. It was positive, if only because people view him as being arrogant and pretentious. The way much of the Twitter population sees it is, you don't get where he is now by being silent, conservative and precocious. You need to make waves, oser, make a scene to get what you want or, you end up living your life like a québécois expression: Né pour un petit pain! Dolan does not want that and he wishes the Quebec population would arise above also.
Why is this interview important?
Xavier Dolan is the youngest director to have been nominated three times at the Cannes Festival
He has written and directed three films, J'ai tué ma mère, Les amours imaginaires, Laurence Anyways
The subjects of his three films have never been dealt with before, at least not the way he wrote them. He is daring with the subject he choses...very personal except for Laurence Anyways who is fictionnal and not "autobiographique"
He financed his first movies by doing dubbing movies into French (du doublage), such as the caracter Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies. He did this when he was young and still does it today. He even called Warner's Brother studio to complain that the doublage should not be done in a french from France. He thought it was a mistake since their expression are not understood by most french population.
UPDATE: Added the Youtube video of the entire interview at the bottom of the blog entry. Thank you to GASMORG on Youtube for posting a high-quality, sound-synchronized version.
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is co-spokesperson for CLASSE
Martine Desjardins is president of FEUQ
Léo Bureau-Blouin is president of FECQ, the Quebec Federation of Cegep students
The leaders are introduced with a play on word that cannot I cannot do justice by translating: « Ils font le ménage à trois du printemps québécois. » Just remember: faire le ménage means housekeeping, you know what ménage à trois means, and ménage du printemps is the same as spring cleaning.
The threesome are met with applause and a standing ovation. Many of those standing are wearing the red square badge, including fellow guest Xavier Dolan... who wasn't wearing one ten minutes ago!
Altogher, these three leaders represent 175,000 cegep and university students on strike (or boycotting classes, if you are concerned with abusing the term "on strike") for the past twelve weeks now in protest against the government's plans to raise tuition.
Minister of education Line Beauchamp invited student leaders to meet early last week, on the condition that there was a 48-hour stop ("trêve", "truce") of all economic disruption. After some wrangling, all three student leaders met with the minister for some 40-odd hours.
Bureau-Blouin: They were ready to listen and negotiate. They were prepared to walk away from the table with concrete proposals to take back to students for voting. But the minister applied different standards to the different associations, in deciding to kick CLASSE out of the talks after they were accused of organizing a protest during the "truce." This short-circuited any negotiation with all three of the groups. Desjardins pointed out that her federation, FEUQ, did organize protests during the truce, notably in Rimouski, and yet they were not kicked out. "Il y avait deux poids, deux mesures dans cette circonstance-là" ("There was a double-standard in this case").
Nadeau-Dubois points out that the accusation stems from a link the CLASSE website has to an open Facebook group, upon which a user organized a protest. It was not sanctioned or encouraged by CLASSE. In his opinion, the minister invited thinking she could divide the student groups at the table. Once faced with a block standing in solidarity, "elle n'avait pas le choix de retourner sur la vieille stratégie de diviser pour mieux régner" (she had no choice but to return to the old strategy of divide and conquer) and to do that, she kicked the CLASSE out.
Does the minister have anything personal against you, Nadeau-Dubois is asked. It's not between the minister and Nadeau-Dubois, or minister and the CLASSE. It's between the 180,000 students (he gives a different number from Guy A. in the intro) fighting for "accessibility to studies," and against a government he accuses of being corrupt, and whose credibility is being undermined more and more with each passing week.
Guy A. asks: There has been a lot of clashing (grabuge), thugs (casseurs) in the protests in recent days... Does the federation control their members? BB says yes, but reminds us that when one organizes demonstrations with tens of thousands of people, it can happen that some ill-intentioned people can infiltrate the event.
What's important, suggests BB, is that the vast majority of demonstrations have been peaceful, and among the thugs is "toute une génération qui se lève et qui fait un cri du coeur" (a whole generation that is rising up and making a plea from their heart.)
Normally it's the children who should be listening to their parents, but today we have hundreds of thousands of youth asking their parents and their government to be heard, "parce que c'est nous les jeunes qui devons vivre les conséquences de ces décisions" (because it is us, the youth, who will have to live with the consequences of these decisions.)
CLASSE has a lot of direct democratic processes that the minister finds student association's structure heavy and difficult. In fact, all the student federations involve their memebership in the decision-making process, through general assemblies, votes by raised hand and secret ballot at time. Nadeau-Dubois finds the minister's confusion normal: "le parti libéral du Québec et la démocratie, ça semble en effet avoir une relation compliqué" (the Quebec Liberal Party and democracy do seem to have a troubled relationship). But it's the implication of the membership in the decision-making, rather than a top-down approach, that helps drive and mobilize them.
Not just a pretty face.
Source: Le Soleil via Le Globe
Let's take a quick break here. Xavier Dolan keeps making googley eyes across the set, and is blushing, laughing... What's going on? Guy A. sets the stage, by quoting Dolan from earlier last week: "Il est très, très éloquent, il m'impressionne beaucoup et aussi je trouve--mais bon, c'est sans importance--qu'il est très sexy."
Dolan, blushing and laughing, reaffirms: Bravo pour le bon travail. Nadeau-Dubois returns the compliment "sans aucune gène, ni malaise" (without any embarrassment or unease... and yet he has a little difficulty making eye contact), saying Dolan makes great films.
Turcotte rubs salt in the wound by pointing out the newly appeared red patch on Dolan's jacket. Dolan, now struggling to contain himself, explains he meant to wear his but forgot it at home, and so he had to borrow one before the interview with the student leaders began.
Okay, okay... back to democracy. Desjardins feels the government has nothing to Quebec Liberal party has no right to lecture the students on democratic principles, when they perform general assemblies and votes by raising hands (le vote à main levée). The Libs work exactly the same way in their conventions! And the alternative, the secret ballot, leads to even higher numbers in support of the protests, so it's not to the government's advantage, anyhow.
The federations never encouraged violence without denouncing them either, at first. Then the vandalism, the fighting. Do you denounce it now? Bureau-Blouin says there is no doubt they condemned violence from the outset, that the movement go on peacefully, and he appeals to the student public again to continue to demonstrate pacifically. What concerns him is that the Quebec government knew in cutting off the talks that it would spur violence, and questions if that was not ultimately their true intention.
Is the semester scrapped? Bureau-Blouin says it's not worthwhile to cancel the entire term, as it will cause problems cascading problems for people finishing high school and looking to find seats in cegeps.
How busy are these guys? They can't count the hours they do, but they've done about 30 interviews on the day of taping. (Later, on the Téléjournal newscast, he hear about how news of the demonstrations is making international headlines... They must be even busier now!) But the work of these three pales in comparison to the hard work the leaders in individual colleges and universities are doing to rally the troops, hold the picket lines and organize the general assemblies and votes.
Guest Louis-Gilles Francoeur, journalist with Le Devoir, finds what these leader are living is essentially a course "applied political science." He is pleased to see a renaissance of the spirit that he thought dead after the 60s.
On March 28, support against the tuition hikes was at 45% in survey; on April 16 it's gone as low as 38%. What happened? Bureau-Blouin: The message in the public has been consistent--that they don't want to empty taxpayers' pockets, that there are plenty of savings to be made in universities and the organization. But the violence helped lose the message.
Spoken like a true politician, he says: C'est aussi bien sûr que toutes les violences, les débordements sur lesquelles on a mis beaucoup les projecteurs ont peut-être pas aidé dans ce sens-là (For sure, also, all of the violence and overflowing that the screens have been focused on have not helped in this regard.)
Dany's card, to all three leaders: IT'S RED, instead of the usual green! It reads: "Vous êtes l'avenir du Québec. S'il vous plait profitez à plein de vos études afin que nos futurs gouvernements soient plus matures, intègeres et visionaires." You are the future of Quebec. Please make the most of your studies, so that our future governments may be more mature, integral et visionary.
Patrice L'Écuyer, Denis Bouchard and Gino Chouinard are invited on the set to explain how they reacted to winning le prix Artis, presented at a Gala broadcast on TVA last Sunday. Denis Bouchard won best male role in a television show for the drama following the lives of crown attorneys, Toute la vérité (The Whole Truth). Gino Chouinard, weekday host of the most popular morning show in Quebec, Salut, bonjour!, won best host for a service broadcast (émission de service), and Patrice L'Écuyer won for best host for a game show, L'Union fait la force. As they all say, its always nice and honoring to be chosen!
Lucian Bute know something about winning. The current IBF Super Middleweight champion, and recent Canadian citizen, is prepared to face Carl Froch on May 26 in Nottingham, England.
The 23-year-old actor, director, screen writer, Xavier Dolan, comes on the set tonite to speak about his disappointment for not being selected in the official run at the Cannes Festival's Palme d'Or for his third movie Laurence Anyways. It will be, now the third time, being selected but never in the official competition--once for writing and directing J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother), then for Les Amours imaginaires (entitled Heartbeats in English). He admits being disappointed, but not for dreaming and being ambitious. He would of like to have had the opportunity to be selected honoring Quebec where talent is growing and for all the young directors out there who wish to make it in the business. He is not humble about his success, he is not going to down play it. Dolan is proud of what he has accomplished and will not be quiet about it.
Journalists Raymond Saint-Pierre from Radio-Canada and Louis-Gilles Francoeur from Le Devoir, talk to us about the North, in the governments' plans and in reality on the ground, and why it's important that everyone understand the issues and demand to have their say in the decisions being made.
Do too many cooks spoil the broth? Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, spokesperson for student association LA CLASSE, and Martine Desjardins and Léo Bureau-Blouin, presidents of FEUQ and FECQ student groups respectively, have kept up their student protests using a potent recipe of direct democracy, solidarity, boycotting and (mostly) peaceful pressure for the past twelve weeks. They're turning up the heat... Will it bring the government to a boil?
Christian Bégin is a busy man – acting in a new play for Juste pour rire this summer, writing a new play now being performed, starting on TV and raising a teenager. Is there anything he can’t do?
Prénom, adapted for Quebec, from the French play of the same name will show in the summer during just for laughs. It’s a 5-character diddy that takes place at a dinner party in one evening. Should be interesting.
His third play, just finished and now showing, explores sadness and isolation and questions why we are so alone. CB thinks there’s a glorification of the ME and that our participation in so many virtual worlds is making it worse. Relief and salvation will come only when we sincerely believe others are as important as we are. (It is here that I begin to understand that CB has some interesting insight to offer. Yup, I had prejudice walking in to this interview) If only our governments could take the lead on this, we’d be doing so much better.
His critically acclaimed TV series (aired on Tele-Quebec) Bar Ouvert was cancelled and CB is sad at this even though his mother was quite pleased. The show was weird and pushed the boundaries of taste and may have even been disconcerting at times but it was still magical in its creativity.
CB recounts an amusing anecdote involving getting two denver boots in two weeks because of address changes not being done in one office vs. another. His fines would be sent to an old address and yet they found his car. Twice.
Speaking about his part – David Roche – in the prime time drama series Trauma, he’s asked how close to reality the portrayal is. Well, this is fiction, so there must be exaggeration for effect.
Talking about his teenaged son Théophile, he’s worried; worried that his son is about to live his first true heartbreak as a member of CLASSE. He doesn’t believe the students will win this battle. Although Théo will suffer heartbreak, CB thinks this will have good positive consequences for his son’s character. CB thinks he understands why (at the time of the recording of the show) CLASSE had not officially condoned the violence and that is because he thinks the government wants to undermine the students as much as possible and possibly discredit the movement altogether (take a moment, it’s not that far-fetched a notion). Asked if he believes this is the Printemps Quebecois, he’s not so sure. Maybe in a dozen years we’ll think back to 2012 and see it a turning point… as a final thought CB offers this beautiful insight: (…, paraphrasing a little) we need to denounce things. Change only comes from opportunity or revelation; not through individual thought.
Why this matters: CB is a well-known character actor and entertainer. Like all guests of his profession before him, this is the simple continuation of growing our arts culture. At least this guy’s quirkily interesting and talented. Check out his rant from TLMEP in 2010.
Alain Gravel and Fabrice de Pierrebourg are here to discuss their findings in the recently exposed corruption case in Mascouche - google news link here. Alain Gravel is the host and of Radio-Canada's investigative news series Enquète and Fabrice de Pierrebourg is an investigative reporter with La Presse. They are being interviewed to discuss their findings in the Mascouche case. All that information is readily available online and they offer no unique insight into that investigation. Of course, when the shit hits the fan in Montreal and all our corruption is exposed, it'll be much bigger sums. What is interesting is their take on UPAC's mandate - which now has become much too big. 55 police officers investigate for UPAC and now they have to investigate daycare centres as well as politicians and their business partners. In many cases the RCMP seems to be getting in the way of UPAC. M. Parent pipes up here to explain that not all is as it seems - sometimes the RCMP just doesn't have enough to go on and therefore doesn't want to muddy the waters with imprecise intel. Why this matters: Ok, exposing corruption at any level of government is very important. The work that journos like Messieurs Gravel and de Pierrebourg do is incredibly important to keeping our politicos honest. See the links I posted and you can get a full understanding of the scope of this investigation. Many thanks to bl1ndedbyfear on youtube for posting TLMEP videos so quickly. I hope to get in touch with you soon!
Marc Parent, chief of police for the city of Montreal.
The number of protests certainly has increased in the past few months. Indeed, confirms Parent, there have been 160 student demonstrations since January of this year. It asks for a lot of vigilance on the police’s behalf, but they are trained and equipped for it.
How well trained? Guy A. plays clips of police strong-arming, including a protester being wrestled to the ground, policemen punching their way through a human chain of protesters, and using of pepper spray. Do they use a judicious amount of force?
Parent explains that the police department is responsible for upholding the right to free speech and assembly, but they are also responsible for seeing that demonstrations unfold safely and peacefully. They oversee the events (on est là pour encadrer les manifestations), and they have to intercede at time when violations are committed.
Only when public safety is threatened. They progressively announce their intentions to disperse the crowd, if for example they are blocking a building and holding people captive. Police are trained to use a minimal amount of force.
Do the police intimidate protesters? The beating of batons on shields and advancing in formation is not a form of intimidation but rather an announcement of police’s intentions, that they want the crowd to disperse. M. Parent concedes that the police force is not perfect (on a pas un bulletin de 100%). There are times where they haven’t made the best solution, but explains that these are decisions that are taken in the heat of the moment.
Turcotte suggests the police is not at war with today’s youth. Quite the opposite, says Parent, they try to work with them and oversee their protests (he repeats the word encadrer). That being said, he has found in the past two weeks, there have been a radicalization of the movement (casseurs, agitateurs): including tactics as unleashing smoke bombs in the metro, bricks on the metro tracks, break-ins into government offices, use of pyrotechnic devices…
Guy A. reminds of that one protest is more delicate than all the others, the March 15 annual protest against police brutality. This year there were 226 arrests. Parent says this protest has been a problem for the past fifteen years. He feels there’s a legitimate message in the movement, but like in others, like the anti-capitalism movement, there is a radical element that infiltrates, causes problems, and the message is lost.
Two La Presse journalists were arrested and their material confiscated during the vandalizing (saccage) of the ministry of education’s offices. In this case, regrettably, the police intervened as the last was being broken and they arrested everyone on the spot, including the journalists. They were released not an hour later. Parent believes journalists are partners of public safety. One of the journalists arrested has been reporting on the protests since the beginning and there hadn’t been any problems before or since, and the arrest was not well handled. Since then, there have been discussions with La Presse management and the Qc federation of journalists. Unfortunately, in the fog of war, it’s not always clear who is a journalist. Not all journalists want to clearly identify themselves.
Mole Yan Davidson tried to sell a list of informants to the mafia. How did this simple police officer get access to this info? There’s a limited set of officers have that access; no one doubted his integrity until it was found out. The availability and security of sensitive information has been in. Officers take discretions like this very seriously among themselves. M. Davidson committed suicide. Guy A. infers that it could have been an inside job: did he commit suicide, or was he suicided? Parent confirms it was definitely a suicide.
Inquiry into police officers releasing confidential information. Journalists question the real intention of the inquiry and feel it is meant to intimidate them. It is normal for journalists to speak to the police, but police must have a certain discretion. When confidential information is transgressed.
Mario Hamel shot last year, or Freddy Villanueva has undermined the credibility of the SPVM. Are you aware? Not a single officer wakes up waking to kill an innocent. There are 33,000 calls of people in mental distress, which is related to the issue of vagrance. When problems aren’t resolved with health services and street help, it falls on the police. And when drugs are involved, their behavior worsens. Thus why they watch synthetic drugs, such as speed and ecstasy; it’s a growing problem.
Police is in Parent’s blood. His father was a cop, and one of his son’s is considering it in his future. He was hired as chief of police year ago was hired, to the cheer of the police corps.
The topic of corruption is being put aside for the interview later with reporters Alain Gravel and Fabrice de Pierrebourg.
Parent produces a pair of gloves. A policeman’s out-reach initiative at Louis-Joseph Papineau High school given drop-outs and youth with other problems an outlet through the discipline Olympic boxing. Parent offers Turcotte and Guy A. boxing gloves and invitations to the upcoming gala.
Turcotte counters, first with a jet of “pepper spray”, but then with his traditional card: I'm pleased to have met you. Next time I get stopped, I can say: Hey, I know your boss, okay? Get back in your car." (Heureux de vous avoir rencontré. La prochaine fois qu’on m’arrete, je pourrai leur dire: <<Hé! Je connais votre boss, oké? Retourne dans ton char.>>)
In a surprising reversal, Parent counter-counters with a card of his own: he invites Turcotte to experience a night in a patrol with police officers, or Parent himself! (Je vous invite à vivre une experience unique: une nuit à Montréal en auto-patrouille avec nos policiers ou en ma compagnie.)
Why this Matters
As the police chief noted, tensions have ramping up, and not just in Montreal:
Ultimately Sunday night, while CLASSE agreed to condemn the violence, while encouraging peaceful civil disobedience such as occupying public offices, and upholding the right to self-defence.
