TLMEP Interview with Members of Les Belles-soeurs Musical, April 15

Written by Dominic Major and Tim FitzGerald


[Editor's note: If you've never heard of Michel Tremblay or Les Belles-soeurs, then it is your civic duty to read the Why this matters section to this article. I can't express enough how important this is to understanding Quebec culture.]

This evening's show starts with company members of a re-imagined musical version of the play that allowed Quebec culture to express itself, Michel Tremblay's Les Belles-soeurs. If the original play stirred controversy over its use of joual in higher forums of culture then, it has now managed even to win the hearts and minds of French audiences in Paris, where they're renowned to sneer at more provincial dialects.

Four guests are here to represent the company that played Les Belles-Soeurs in Paris’ Théatre du rond-point: René-Richard Cyr (director), Daniel Bélanger (composer/musical director), Janine Sutto (actor, Olivine Dubuc) and Guylaine Tremblay (actor, Rose Ouimet). Talk went back and forth and between all the guests quite quickly. Here are some highlights:

René-Richard Cyr, Guylaine Tremblay – Yes, we were surprised at how the French received us this time around. With so much history of disliking our “provincial-ness” it was amazing to see how much they enjoyed our patois and joual this time around.

Daniel Bélanger – DB did the music but was not a musician, so why did you go to Paris? To be there, to experience the moment and to help out if needed. It was fun. A small anecdote about the music: when doing the first rehearsals for the music RRC called Michel and invited him over – he said yes. It was a little nerve-wracking to say the least.

Janine Sutto – Janine will be 91 years-old on April 20th! How great is that? Asked if it was important for her to join the troupe in Paris she answers that she needed to be there to support to live to participate. Although the girls didn’t take her out much she still very much enjoyed it. Janine participated in the very first public reading of Michel Tremblay’s oeuvre back in May 1968. When asked to compare her performance then and now, she feels she was less authentic in 1968 and that today, she has more to offer.

The question of ultimate peril: Define alacrity. Well, no one got it. (which I found vaguely amusing). It means, we learn from Guy A., brisk and cheerful readiness, or pep.

Guy A. wants to know about the funding for the upcoming tour – 36 dates, all over Québec in the summer. It would cost a reported $1M. Where does the money come from? In part from Loto-Quebec and they found 3 other companies to help fund the project: CGI, La caisse de depot du Québec and Power Corporation Canada.

What’s next for everyone?

• RRC: looking to put on another Michel Tremblay play. This time, Albertine en cinq temps.
• GT: Filming all summer. Sonia Rochon will replace her as the company tours this summer.
• DB: working on a new album inspired by rockabilly. We hear a clip from his new song (I like it).
• Janine was simply asked how she manages to keep going after losing husband and daughter recently. Her answer, quite simply: You must assume/own whatever happens in your life. I love it.

Why this matters:


Les belles-soeurs was the first of Michel Tremblay's plays ever to be produced.
Who's Michel Tremblay? Well...

• Michel Tremblay is a playwright and novelist, born on the Plateau Mont-Royal in 1942. Far from the trendy neighbourhood we know it as today, the Plateau was a poor, working-class neighbourhood of primarily francophone origin. Like many in the area, he grew up in very modest standing, if not squalor. Writers of Montreal paint an excellent picture:
• Poverty squeezed three families--twelve people--into seven rooms. Until he was six he ate in a high chair; until he was nine, he slept in a crib. He was brought up by six women.
• In 1960, as Quebec begins its cultural revolution, the book Les insolences du Frère Untel  is published. Written by a Marist brother, the book laments the Church-dominated educational system and the poor quality of french spoken in Quebec. In writing this, he employs the word joual—a deformation of the word cheval (horse), as in people talking like the way a horse would —to describe the common people's dialect, as opposed to a proper French. Joual is exactly what Tremblay is exposed to growing up on the Plateau.
• The book sparks a firestorm, and is an important factor in the Quiet Revolution that starts at around this time. It raises questions like: what's wrong with the way I speak? The way we speak?
• I'm not finding a webpage to link to that adequately describes the debate over the quality of language, joual vs. le bon français.
• It's in this context that Les Belles-soeurs premieres at the Théâtre du rideau vert (the very same that still stands on Saint-Denis in the Plateau) in 1968. The language his characters use is the language all the women in his house used. It's his mother tongue in the most authentic sense of the word.
• To give you an idea of how it was received, some critical reviews at the time:
• Le Devoir critic Jean Basile "suggested that it was 'a necessary tool to make people aware of their nauseating cultural condition so they can vomit it up once and for all.' One would rather not see "the evidence of our degeneration," he added, but Tremblay's play was collective consciousness raising, difficult but necessary for the people to improve themselves."
• Martial Dassylva of La Presse "asserted that it was wrong to present joual as the national language of Québec, and that in so doing Tremblay broke an unwritten convention of drama writing, and transformed the play into an illegitimate cultural event."
• Tremblay's explanation of joual as a housewife's defense of the French language is beautiful:
• Pour moi, le joual est une chose assez admirable. Parce qu'il est né d'une volonté des femmes du début du XXe siècle de Montréal de rester francophone. [...] À la fin du XIXe, du début de la XXe siècle, les gens de la campagne sont venus s'installer à Montréal parce que c'est ici qu'il y avait les jobs, qu'il y avait des industries, qu'il y avait de l'argent. Mais l'argent était anglais. Alors les hommes allaient travailler en anglais, rapportaient à la maison des mots anglais, mais c'est les femmes qui voulaient rester francophone et c'est à la rencontre des mots qu'on rapportait à la maison.
• For me, joual is a rather admirable thing. Because it was born of the willingness of women in the beginning of the 20th century in Montreal to stay francophone. [...] At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, folk from the countryside settled in Montreal because that's where the jobs were, where industry was, where the money was. But the Money was English. And so the men went to work in English and brought home English words, but it was the women who wanted to remain francophone and met the words that were brought home.

The questions of Paris and funding has its history as well.

• In 1971, after a very successful run of Les Belles-soeurs in Montreal, a theatre in Paris proposes a production in the French capital.
• But they are unable to secure government funding. The stinger came from Quebec minister of culture who "said that she preferred theatre plays written in correct language and that she could not subsidize a play written in joual to represent Québec in Paris."
• They only made it two years later, with financing from... the federal government!

More info:

• Michel Tremblay: Bard of Plateau Mont Royal, Writers of Montreal
• Histoire de la langue québécoise (on Youtube), Radio-Canada

TLMEP Interview with Christian Tortora, Apr 15

Written by Dominic Major

Christian Tortora – journalist covering Formula One for over 30 years is our last guest of the evening. (Being an F1 fan, I was looking forward to this.)

Torto is here to help promote a new direct-to-DVD documentary that he participated in: Ecclestone’s Formula (Ecclestone: La formule du pouvoir). Torto had this to say about Formula One’s über-boss: Bernie’s a maniacal obsessive. He’s got all the money in the world and he’ll still check the journalists’ bathrooms to make sure they have the right toilet paper. He loves power, not money to the point of not even knowing the value of it within his sport; a new team wants in and he’ll simply quote a number, like $200M, which would get paid without hesitation. Next year will see TV stations re-negotiate their agreements with F1 in order to lower costs. It’s not that F1 is not profitable; it’s just that they must lower costs in order to continue down the right path.

After thirty-plus years in the paddocks, Tortora now works the races from home, in Provence. He’s got a nice set-up with multiple monitors and camera views and is able to do the races live on RDS. Torto doesn’t miss the paddocks so much anymore – his friends are gone and in the past few years, the pilots have become less and less accessible. There was a time where a driver would step out of his car at the end of the race and be immediately swarmed by journalists.

Asked about the 2013 race in New York (it’s actually New Jersey, but no one correct Guy A. they fear him I suppose) he doesn’t believe it will compete with Canada’s GP. The Canadian race is the second-largest event in the calendar by attendance, attracting approximately 150,000 people to the race.

Minister James Moore is asked about this and he makes a comparison to the Olympics: it’s not in our best interest to lose this event; it makes too much money.

Torto reminisces briefly about a most painful moment for him – May 8, 1982 at Zolder (Belgian Grand Prix), when Gilles Villeneuve, father of Jacques Villeneuve, crashed and died. He didn’t sleep for three days after the event as he was kept busy. He acted as spokesman for Joann (Villeneuve père’s wife) representing her to the media; there were so many tape-recorders at the hospital, they lined a whole wall. In the end, after having to speak with prime minister P.E. Trudeau, Villeneuve was given military escort to the airport and by plane back to Canada. Sleep came soon after.


Although the vroom-vroom interview segment is later, the speed at which questions are asked and answered is impressive, so I’ll use that here on in:

• Most memorable moment? Jacques Villeneuve’s 1997 World Championship win
• Why did JV not succeed more? Bad advice from his manager. ‘nuff said.

(Villeneuve fils was in Paul Arcand’s movie – he tested some of the modified cars for performance. He’s a great guy apparently.)

• Favourite course: Spa (Spa-Francorchamps, site of the Belgian Grand Prix for most of the 20th century, with breaks in-between due to safety concerns. It’s a crazy track!)
• Least favourite course: Monaco
• Favourite city: Montreal, of course!
• Least favourite city: Spa
• Most missed race: Argentina
• Course that should never have existed: Abu Dhabi
• Fastest driver: Tie between Prost and Senna
• Driver that could have profited from a better car: JV
• Least friendly driver: Michael Schumacher
• Most bastardly (salaud) driver: Schumi again.
• Most feared current driver: Alonso
• Biggest rivalry: Prost/Senna
• Biggest gaffe in career: during preparations for the 1981 Belgian Grand Prix (at Zolder, not Spa-F), Torto was called to Rome to cover the assassination attempt on Pope Jean Paul II. Upon arriving in Rome he was counselled by friends and colleagues to just go back and call a few times a day for info. Sadly, during a call in to his home network, listeners were greeted with the sound of speeding F1 cars as he delivered his report “live from Rome”.

Why this matters

There are positive and negative feelings towards F1 in Montreal so I’ll let you decide if it matters or not. In the end, it’s entertainment and therefore only matters to folks who gain from it – one way or another. I still like Torto a lot and I’m happy we’ve had his perspective tonight.

• The Canadian Grand Prix is a costly event to hold, but it's a worthwhile investment. Radio-Canada reported in 2010 that the event costs taxpayers $15mil. to hold (from municipal, provincial and federal investments). But the flip-side of that is a $89mil. windfall to the Montreal economy, especially the tourism, hospitality, retail and accommodation sectors. That's bang for your buck!
• That investment money was at the root of Montreal losing the Formula One event in 2009 as Ecclestone and the governments couldn't agree on how much to pay.
• Not everyeone thinks we should have it: last year the event was met with a protest, saying F1 encourages a lifestyle of overconsumption.

TLMEP Interview with James Moore, April 15

UPDATE: Kudos to Mr. Moore for posting a video of his appearance on TLMEP. Way to understand the digital society!

Written by Tim FitzGerald and Sylvie Lupien

James Moore is the federal minister of Heritage and Official Languages. His department is responsible for, among other things, the application of the Official Languages Act (the law before the constitutional change of 1982 that lays out how Canada is meant to be bilingual), the Naitonal Film Bureau... and CBC/Radio-Canada. A native of British Columbia, he is bilingual enough to come onto TLMEP and speak French.

The tone is set when Moore walks on the set. Over the loud speakers, we hear Offenbach's lead singer Gerry Boulet shout the lyrics: "Ayoye! Tu me fais mal, à mon coeur d'animal." (Ow! You're hurting me!)

Moore is the minister responsible for the CBC and Radio-Canada. Which means he will be the one implementing the $132M in budget cuts to culture as outlined in the federal budget. In a studio deep in the recesses of Maison Radio-Canada, surrounded by RadCan employees and other guests who make a living in part with federal culture funding, is he like Daniel in the lion's den?

Not one to let his lose his cool on a guest, Guy A. rattles off the numbers coldly: $115M to be cut from the CBC/Radio-Canada, $10M from Téléfilm, $17M from the National Film Board... For the CBC, that represents 650 jobs to be cut in the next three years. Pretty rough decision, coming from someone who his Conservative colleagues call Monsieur Radio-Canada Lover.


To put it in perspective, the budget overall counts for $5bil in cuts, and over 19,000 job losses. And even then, Moore reminds us... that cut represents only 0.1% of the Canadian economy. And to take a step back further, we're certainly in a more fortunate situation that other countries right now (cf. Greece, Britain, Italy).

But does the government see the need for a public broadcaster, asks Guy A.? Yes, assets Moore. You wouldn't have any French broadcasts from coast to coast without one.

Moore repeatedly mentions that despite the cuts, much funding of art and culture has been protected. The budget to the Canada Council for the Arts, remains untouched. In fact, much of the cutting will happen within the ministry; the Heritage department is cutting 42% of its public service employees.

The situation of funding is less clear on the ground, guest Guylaine Tremblay tells us. She stars in Les rescapés, and she herself doesn't know with the budget changes if her show will be back next year for a third season. There are rumours it might, but with fewer episodes? The whole thing is unclear.

Wait a minute-- did he just say forty-two percent? Paul Arcand is flabbergasted. How can we afford such cuts? Well, Moore explains that in preparation of the Vancouver Olympics, of which there was a strong cultural component, the bureaucracy was expanded. Now that the Games are over, the need is gone and we can right-size.

So, if Arcand understands correctly... either Moore is flat-out lying that this can be done harmlessly, or his department has had a tremendous amount of waste for the past year and a half!

The conversation changes to a recent editorial cartoon published in Le Journal de Montréal on April 10th. It portrays an F-35 fighter jet on a collision course for the tower of the Montreal Maison Radio-Canada. Does one come at the expense of the other?

The fleet of CF-18s are in need of replacing. Moore defends the government's decision to move ahead by saying it will create jobs in Canada, notably in Quebec's developed aerospace industry.

But look at Aveos! When Air Canada was privatized, they were ordered by law to keep maintenance centres in Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal, and now Aveos, the maintenance company, has gone belly-up. Why isn't the Conservative government doing more to defend the aerospace industry today, as legal obligations aren't being met. Yes, Moore concedes, Air Canada has to explain itself to the Commons, but it will respect the law and keep jobs in Montreal. Will it be a shell of its former self? The minister dodges the question.

By all appearances, notes Turcotte, there is a growing divide between Quebec popular opinion and the Conservative government in Ottawa. Mr. Moore is aware. That's why this is his sixth appearance in Montreal in the past two months, to build bridges. But why are there bridges to be built?

Recently some unilingual Anglophones have been appointed to high-level public offices, notably Auditor General Michael Ferguson and Supreme Court nominee, Michael Moldaver. As federal minister responsible for the application of Canada's official languages, is that acceptable? Using his politi-ju-jitsu, he avoids the question of Fergusson, saying he's worked as auditor general in New Brunswick, Canada's only officially bilingual province, and he's super-duper-promised to really work on his French. As for the Supreme Court, he does find it's acceptable as to do otherwise would rule out a majority of otherwise qualified applicants, be they Anglo or Franco, from being considered.

René Richard Cyr speaks up at this point, saying he actually doesn't mind having Conservatives in power, if only because they are transparent in their position. All he's hearing from the minister's mouth is numbers, numbers and more numbers. No actual talk about culture itself.

One interesting remark is

Why This Matters

• As mentioned numerous times during the interview, Quebec has an important cultural industry. Local music is strong (Canadian content requirements has helped this in English Canada as well), as well as local television and film production.
• RadCan is part of the Quebec landscape, and it was on this network taht we saw Quebec culture emerge in all its forms, including theatre, film, music and comedy. At the time of the Quiet Revolution, it was the only game in town. To this day, it is the only network that holds as a value or policy to portray culture in all aspects.
• Radio-Canada is one of only four major francophone broadcasters broadcasters in Quebec. The others:
• TVA and V are private, and while they do have more local content than CTV or Global, a lot of their material is dubbed from American sources
• Télé-Québec, the provincial broadcaster, makes gems out of the paltry budget it has, but much of its airtime is dedicated to the mission of culture and education, and less to entertainment
• English Canada, by comparison that has not only three Canadian major networks (five if you count CTV 2 and Citytv?), but its viewers along the border (or who have cable or satellite) also have American broadcasters to watch.

Let's talk a little bit about laws and obligations

• One of the outcomes of the Quiet Revolution is Ottawa's enshrinement of Canada's bilingual status in the Official Languages Act.
• It codified the rights to federal services in French and English across the country, according to needs.
• It promises the right to address the courts in either language.
• The appointment of unilingual people in key positions raises concerns over the Conservatives commitment to maintaining bilingualism.
• Air Canada was a crown corporation, owned by the federal government (and coincidentally therefore subject to the Official Languages Act). When the company was privatized by law in 1989, a number of requirements were set. Among them, that it has to remain headquartered in Montreal, that it has to continue to operate in both languages, and that it had to keep maintenance centres in Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg.
• The maintenance wing was spun off as the company Aveos during Air Canada's brush wihth bankruptcy back in 2003. That just outsourced the obligation, but didn't change the requirement in law.
• With Aveos now declaring bankruptcy and the government not intervening (despite so many interventions in industrial relations, to the point where one analyst says they've poisioned the work atmosphere), many are concerned that the federal government won't hold Air Canada to account.
• (It doesn't help the Conservatives that there is still strong support for unions in Quebec. I can't find any numbers speaking directly to Air Canada, but in a survey in December of last year, 57% of people asked supported the idea of convenience store store Couche-Tard employees becoming unionized; I doubt the same numbers could be achieved everywhere else in the country.)
• Air Canada is not part of minister Moore's portfolio, but one of the hallmarks of our parliamentary system is that all cabinet members must stand in solidarity and support one anothers. So being on the show, Mr. Moore finds himself having to defend the federal budget globally, as well as the industry minister's actions.

More Food for Thought

Canada is far from the only country with an editorially autonomous public national broadcaster like the CBC/Radio-Canada, but not all countries have Canada's model.

• Britain's BBC collects funds directly from the public through licenses on television sets.
• Most of us are familiar with the American Public Broadcasting System, where funding comes from a mix of US Congress, state support, private corporate "underwriters", and of course, "Viewers Like You" who donate during telethons and get lovely tote bags out of the deal.
• Public broadcasting in the Netherlands gets its funding from the government, but its content is managed under an interesting membership model: if you are more interested in arts and culture programming, you become a member of that broadcasting association, and that association gets airtime proportional to its membership.
• In Germany, broadcasting is a state-level (Bundesland) responsibility and not a federal one. There's a fair deal of local programming, but also, in an example of cooperative federalism, national channels where they share content.

More Analysis

Chantal Hébert from Toronto Star: James Moore can’t repair Quebec rift on his own. Published Apr 16, 2012

TLMEP Interview with Paul Arcand and Claudia Di Orio, April 15

Written by Dominic Major; edited by Sylvie.

No-nonsense radio talkshow host Paul Arcand (the incomparable!) is here to promote his new documentary on reckless driving, called Dérapages (Loss of Control). Guy A. thinks should be mandatory viewing for all young aspiring drivers.

His third documentary, we start the interview with clips from the movie (to be released April 27, 2012).

After the short clip, the silence present on the panel and in the audience says a lot about the impact this film has. Claudia is here to help promote both the movie and CoolTaxi (more on that later). If her name sounds familiar, her father, Nicola Di Orio was on TLMEP on October 17, 2010, on the same topic. Claudia was in a traffic collision last year where she broke her hip, broke her nose, was left paralysed on her left side and was in a coma for about a month as a result. When her father asked her to speak with M. Arcand as part of the documentary film, she accepted. The short recap of her "accident": when she woke from her coma (no hair, wearing a diaper), her dad said: "you left the bar, Laurent ran at 120km/h, he hit a tree."
M. Arcand's film is centred around youth who "party" and then get behind the wheel. Also about kids with more guts than sense in their modified cars.

M. Arcand talks about the process and the method behind the film - he wanted to let the kids speak for themselves so he simply followed them from bar to bar, last-call to last-call and let them be... in front of his camera.

Yet another gruesome story in the film is the one of Brendan, then 18 years old, who drove down residential streets at 70km/h, lost control, hit the curb, bounced into the yard and whooshed two-year-old Bianca away from the side of her baby-sitter. The horrific part of this is that it happened in 2007 and in the process of heading to court (initially to be tried as an adult, then appealed to be tried as a juvenile) Nadine, Bianca's mom, had to continuously relive the stress and pain by having to go back and forth to court all these year.

Asked if he's angry, M. Arcand responds: "Yes, it's crazy! You made your choice, you did what you did. You lost control, you hit and killed a child on her lawn! You must live with the consequence." (I paraphrases a bit here).

M. Arcand is not the only one with lingering anger - Claudia is still angry with the driver in her collision as well.

(There are more stories shared and they are all in the film. I was certainly shook up and simply listening; I can't imagine how I'll feel after seeing the movie.)

Paul spends some time talking in general about the issues raised from his filming:

• In 1997 driving mandatory driving lessons were removed for licensing. They were brought back 2010. Despite that, still today you can get your licence without ever going on the highway.
• One law under review would have anyone under 21 not allowed to drink and drive: tolerance zero. it's a great idea according Claudia. (me too)

The big question asked of the panel in general: Do parents need to be involved more to help prevent these horrific acts? Yes, they need to be there. I can't solely be up to the state, but the state can help; with a curfew for example. But you still won't have police everywhere.

Parents must define the rapport with the car and the decisions drivers make, day in day out. Even though parents often say: "but my kids are responsible", they aren't thinking about all the friends their kids have and of course, how many drunk teens would call their folks at 3am for a ride? Not many. Luckily, Cool Taxi is here. Claudia's dad started this project with other fathers one year ago and it's been a great success. These are essentially pre-paid taxi chits that kids can use anywhere in Quebec. Guy A. mentions a time where his son took a cab and used Cool Taxi but that the driver did not want to take it - Claudia interrupts with her own story about the same issue where she took the time to tell her story to the cab driver to get him to take the chit. Afterwards, Guy A. explains that all you need to do is take down the cab car number and call the SPVM's taxi hotline and report the driver.

Final thought: Guy A. believes this movie should be mandatory viewing for everyone working towards their driver's licence.

Why this matters

Drinking and driving in Quebec is a major issue. As discussed by Paul in the documentary, it's in the rural areas that it can be most-problematic. Anything we can do to educate and maybe change will help. No one needs to die or live a horrible life following stupidity behind the wheel.

TLMEP Apr 15 Overview

Note: Trying a new format this week. Here you'll find an "executive summary," for lack of a better term. Dominic and I, together with a new partner, Sylvie (@lupsylvie on Twitter) will be publishing more detailed summaries of the individual interviews in the next few hours/days.

Stay tuned! Or, to borrow Éric Salvail's show's title, «demeurez Fidèle au poste!»

Culture Then and Now (and Tomorrow?)

This evening's show starts with company members of a re-imagined musical version of the play that allowed Quebec culture to express itself, Michel Tremblay's Les Belles-soeurs. If the original play stirred controversy over its use of joual in higher forums of culture then, it has now managed even to win the hearts and minds of French audiences in Paris, where they're renowned to sneer at more provincial dialects.

Éric Salvail, the variety show host, is in to talk to us about his upcoming antics, including the closing gala at Juste pour rire and a live, open-air summer production of his show Dieu Merci!

Demonstrating the relevance of cultural figures in society, the La Presse columnist and producer of hit show Star Académie, Stéphane Laporte, talks about the Prix À part entière award for helping advance the social inclusion of the disabled. He also speaks candidly of his own disability, the torment, humiliation, denial over it, and how he's persevered despite it.

But are all of these cultural productions in danger now that the Harper government is looking to hack and slash at expenditures everywhere? Not at all, says federal heritage minister James Moore. The so-called Monsieur Radio-Canada himself is the (small f!) fox in the hen house, here to explain that though the cuts (including 650 positions in CBC/Radio-Canada) will hurt, Canadian production spending will continue.

Fast and Furious

No-nonsense radio talkshow host Paul Arcand (the incomparable!) is here to promote his new documentary on reckless driving, called Dérapages (Loss of Control). Guy A. thinks should be mandatory viewing for all young aspiring drivers.

On the other end of the speed spectrum, we have Formula One journalist Christian Tortora. F1 drivers don't encourage reckless driving... but that doesn't mean Schumi should be anybody's role model!

Continuing the Discussion

• How did you think James Moore did defending his government budgetary decisions?
• As another season of Formula One is underway and we prepare for the Grand Prix here in Montreal, what do you think speedracing's role in society is? Are they responsible?
• Have you ever seen Les Belles-soeurs, in musical or the original theatrical form? Maybe translated in English, Yiddish, or Polish? Would you consider going to the free show on June 29 in Parc LaFontaine?

Tous les autres en parlent - Brainstorming, Your Thoughts?

My third week in to this project that I quickly entitled "Tous les autres en parlent", and so far there does seem to be sustained interest from a certain audience (as much as I can say that after only three weeks).

That said, I am encountering some challenges, and so I thought I would share with you my thoughts and brainstorming on how to make this work, going forward.

I share these thoughts openly with you, partly to share the experience, but also to get your feedback. As always, I welcome any thoughts, comments or suggestions you may have!

Findings So Far

• People like the idea
• I have some subscribers to the newsfeed 
• The idea has gotten some minor traction on Twitter 
• From the survey I posted last week, of which I got about thirty-some responses:
• People generally find I put just the right amount of detail.
• The greatest improvements I can make are on the entries is more commentary, and photos/screenshots
• (Graphs with actual tallies coming shortly)
• Blogger is a bit of a bitch for formatting. (They're called paragraphs! There's even a tag for them, <P> !)
• Finding the time to make this happen is a challenge, especially at this point in my life, with a new job and upcoming wedding to balance.
• Last week, my friend Dominic helped me a great deal, writing summaries for three of the guests and taking notes with me for others. Even here though, I spent a good deal of time.
• I am consistently making mistakes:
• some minor typos
• others more important, like getting peoples' names wrong!

Personal Impressions

• "Tous les autres en parlent": suggest division, conflict? (nous vs. les autres; l'enfer, c'est les autres)
• Wasn't my intention
• Any better ideas of a name? None yet...
• For this to be relevant, the summaries need to be delivered in a more timely fashion, i.e. within 24 hours.
• So far, Dominic has helped me on two occasions, and a couple more have volunteered since.
• This week, I was still my own bottleneck, for no reason other than energy.
• People want commentary...
• One of the purposes of this project was to stimulate conversation, or bring more people in the conversation being had elsewhere in the greater Quebec culture.
• Providing commentary can do that, but I certainly to have opinions on many things.
• My intention with this project, however, is not to propagate my own opinions or biases, but rather present the story and the contextual facts and help let the reader participate in the conversation intelligently.
• Looking back, I think one of my influences putting this together is Kate McDonnel's Montreal City Weblog. I love her concise writing, mostly-objective stance (just subjective enough to make her human), and links, links, links!
• I feel a need to divorce it from the facts, like professional news entities do in separating reports from editorials.
• That divorce does devoid my ability from adding my voice to the summaries, trying to keep them interesting.
• When did I become a faux-citizen-meta-journalist?
• If people are pointing our my errors, it's because they're reading what I'm writing.
• That doesn't excuse good fact-checking, or simple spellchecking.
• Format
• I suspect having all of the episode in one article is a bit tedious.
• It also forces me in a certain respect to deliver all at once, whereas if I separated them, I could post them as they are ready 

Ideas Going Forward

Between Now and the End of the Season

• Accept people's offers of help.
• Keep a small set so that it remains manageable
• Set expectations:
• consistent style
• respectful tone (including <looks in mirror> getting names right!)
• neutral delivery
• with your own voice, to make the reading interesting
• Break up the workload, by assigning guests to writers
• Break up the delivery schedule:
• Prior to Sunday
• Assign guests to writers
• Assign cross-checkers (Tim checks Do, Do checks Mary, Mary checks Tim)?
• Sunday night, after the show
• One article (hereinafter referred to as "the high-level article")
• Start with an intro paragraph or two summarizing the show
• Bullet breakdown of each guest (3-4 bullets, max.)
• who they are
• why they're there
• any important points
• Share any notes between fellow writers (offline, not via the public website)
• Up until Monday evening
• Tim+other writers: Write summaries, fact check
• Tim: Build "Why this matters" segments, collect links
• Publish summaries in individual posts
• Update the high-level article with links to the individual summary
• Rest of the week
• If anyone is motivated to write commentaries, do so and post ad-hoc.
• Update the high-level article with links to the commentary

For Next Year

• Re-assess, make any changes from new learning lessons
• Set up a separate website?
• Possibly move away Blogger?

Tous les autres en parlent - TLMEP for April 8

Here is our summary. This week was a collaborative effort between myself and friend Dominic Major (@heydomajor). Mille fois merci, Do!

Survey Results from Last Week: Blog post coming tomorrow.

Normand Brathwaite and Isabelle Massé

The former, signer, entertainer, actor radio and television host; the latter, journalist at La Presse and writer of M. Brathwaite's biography

M. Brathwaite talks about being treated with prejudice and at times blind racism elsewhere in North America, where he travels anonymously. He always wears a suit when crossing the border or walking with his wife in the US or English Canada. The worst is when he lands in a helicopter he rents in the United States, dressed in his suit, and gets the gold star treatment because people assume he is a relation of Barack Obama.

When asked about an issue that arose with a colleague Jean-René Dufort, which led to his leaving radio station CKOI in 2006, M. Brathwaite gives a rote answer that all parties feel the subject is closed and he cannot discuss it. This means also that the matter, and the depression he had coming out of it, are not mentioned in the biography.

Cocaine was a part of his time on the show Beau et chaud. A drug he characterizes as one that renders you impotent and paranoid —la fille est dans la lit et tu la regardes par la fentêtre (the girl is in bed and you're looking at her through the window)—which is no fun. He didn’t take it at the time while he worked, but now he’s big on wine.

M. Brathwaite’s father was of Jamaican/Barbadian origin. His biography describes him as a good man. The day he passed away, M. Brathwaite went on stage anyway, and didn’t go to the funeral. He organized and helped, but couldn’t deal with it himself. He admits with shame that he never even went into his brother’s hospital room on his death bead, dying of diabetes. For him, his brother died when he couldn’t see or play the guitar.

The biography touches little on M. Brathwaite’s two younger children. It was among the people he wanted to protect in his biography.

A reporter recently blasted him for doing too much on auto-pilot. He condemns people who criticize others gratuitously.

Why this matters:

• M. Brathwaite is a star in Québec. Even if you don't watch French television or listen to CKOI radio, you've doubtless seen this man's face on billboards and signs in the metro. He hosted the morning show Ye trop de bonne heure (It's Too Early) on CKOI for 15 years. He has done commercials for 25 years, including currently ads for Réno-Dépôt (the ones voiced by Ted Bird, the Anglo former morning man on CHOM, in English).
• Not a lot has been said about the dispute that had him abruptly end his tenure at CKOI. We know that M. Brathwaite could not tolerate M. Dufort's attitude toward another co-host, Roxanne Saint-Gelais. CKOI is one of the most-listened to stations in Montréal and is rebroadcast across the province, so the spat caught public attention. We now know that we are not likely to learn much more about what happened.

Jacques Martin

Former head coach to the Montreal Canadiens

M. Martin was fired from the head coaching job of the Canadiens just before Christmas but is still employed with the Habs; he has a special mandate to follow previously drafted players in their current clubs; Juniors, European teams and other pro affiliates.

When asked whether it is hard to work for the organisation that fired you, M. Martin says he doesn't find it hard—although he did think that coming to Montreal would see him end his career there... many years down the line. The hardest part for Jacques is to be unable to finish what he started as a coach and mentor.

The team shows the clip of M. Gauthier's (then the Habs' General Manager) press conference following M. Martin's dismissal. Gauthier is quoted as saying M. Martin did an excellent job and continues to do so.

Which, for Guy A., begs the question: Despite doing an excellent job, why is the coach always the one to get sacrificed first?

M. Martin has no absolute clear answer on this, although Dany and Normand pipe up with: "It's symbolic". After confirming M. Gauthier and he are still friends, Guy A. asks if they've gotten together since M. Gauthier's firing? They haven't had a party yet, but maybe in the summer M. Martin will put together a BBQ!

After showing a clip and listening to last week's thoughts from M. Leclerc on this very program, the crowd once again appreciative of those thoughts about M. Martin's performance as coach of the Habs.

Asked if he's happy the team is not doing well, he quickly answers no: "You always want the team to win".

Mme Massé points out that according to Forbes, the Canadiens will still be profitable next year. To which Dany provides more insight: (paraphrasing here) "...the luxury boxes are sold out and the hot dogs are $15, of course they're making money."

M. Brathwaite is excited to see the new players but does not believe it's right to see the Canadiens in the bottom of the barrel.

Jacques offers some interesting insight in the current team: there's a solid core group of players and Montreal's youth movement is impressive with Subban, Pacioretty, Desharnais, Emelin and Diaz all making great headway this year. Listening to this, wouldn't the vacant GM job be interesting? M. Martin is open to suggestions but he is under the employ of the team already.

Lots of hockey talk happens here with thoughts on:

• Patrick Roy as GM/Coach or both: No comment. Being both is just not a good idea.
• Satisfied with performance past 2.5 years: No. I was expecting a cup.
• Regrets with leaving Florida: None at all.
• Cunneyworth: Have not spoken with Randy at all, only the other assistants.
• The Cunneyworth Anglo-gate: too bad for Randy. he's a great guy, knows his hockey. He didn't deserve the flack.

Looking back on his career highlights—his 1999 Jack Adams awared, and being one of only nine coaches with 600 wins in the NHL—what is he most proud of? His answer, the 2002 Salt Lake Games Olympic gold. The ring he wears, that Dany points to, is the championship ring from the 2004 World Championship; he couples that victory with Olympic gold as the two greatest accomplishments.

Press conference interview segment is here. Guy A. will ask questions as if they are at the post-game press conference. The first questions gets a laugh:

• Why do you always start your answers with «Oui, c'est sûr que...»? ("Yes, it's true that..."). Reply: I'm from Ontario.
• Jacques, how do you manage to answer all the same damned boring questions night after night after night without getting the hell outta Dodge yelling: "That's it. I've. Fuckin' Had it. With. Your. Goddamned. Stupid. Questions." Answer: Well, journalists could be more creative with their questions and we'd have more creative answers.
• After brief talk about PK and Halak, we skip the last question about Gomez.

La Carte: Voici le titre de ta nouvelle biographie: Jacques Martin: Hockey, Puck et Belles Oreilles. (A dig at his ears, and a play-on-words of the 80s sketch comedy show that launched Guy A. Lepage's career, Rock et Belles-Oreilles)

Why this matters:

• The. Habs.
• Really? You need more than that?
• The Canadiens, most storied franchise in professional hockey, if not professional sport all-round, has had a dismal season.
• They now stand second-to-last in the standings.
• Quebec society has a kindered relationship with the Canadiens. They were founded specifically  as a team of French Canadians to play in an otherwise Anglo league.
• If you need any more than that, may I recommend donning a Boston Bruins or Toronto Maple Leafs jersey. You'll be schooled pretty quickly.

Rachelle Blais

Runway model.

Mme Blais is 26 years old and she is a working model. She's here to talk about her participation in the  film, Girl Model. The documentary is about the dark side of child-modelling. She's one of the models that denounces the industry's habit of seducing 14-16 year-olds away from their lives and families.

We quickly learn that it is commonplace for girls aged as young as 12 to be "lured" away to Japan or other softly-controlled countries to work in the modelling business for what amounts to a pittance—sometimes no money at all, or simply for shelter and clothes.

So what are the responsibilities of the parents in this practice? They are responsible, but coming from desperate circumstances, they are easily convinced to let go. The modeling industry operates almost

completely without ethics. There are visa requirements to pass into and work in those countries, but they aren’t well enforced.

Blais feels one big solution to the problem would be to limit the age at 18 for models to obtain work visas. Not only can they essentially work in slave labour, when they try sporting adult clothes they lose all protection they would have modeling under-age clothing.

The girls are travelling around the world, and many are not well monitored. The industry will say they will travel with chaperons or parents, but they aren't always there, and that doesn’t address the root question of why the industry wants children anyway.Retail outlets claim this is what *their* clients require. Blais considers the practice of using under-age models is tantamount to pedophilia.

Mme Blais herself started at 16 in Montreal, but she was fortunate to have an angelic look and was never overly sexualized.

The expectations are unhealthy. She was told at age 18 that she should get liposuction in order to lose 1cm of waist length. She refused. At this point, she herself says she's too big to be a runway model. (Dominic says: I think she needs a medium Schwartz' and a Coke, but what do I know?)

Many models are not well paid for their work; many are paid only with clothes, accessories/jewellery or shoes. Mme Blais relates that others (although the film doesn’t touch the topic of prostitution head on) wind up as escorts for club promoters or agents and that this is common practice.

At the end Mme Blais is asked if she still loves her job and she does. She's found new challenges that keep her occupied and she's prepared/preparing for a future outside the fashion biz. Good on her!

Why this matters:

• The horrified look in M. Brathwaite, a father's, face tells you why this matters.
• I did a few quick searches online, but I couldn't find interesting numbers from the modelling industry. So all I can speak to is the reaction from the audience and from the other guests - they were all universally appalled at the stories related by Mme Blais. And that is good enough.

More info: www.girlmodelthemovie.com

Thomas Mulcair

Newly-elected leader of the New Democratic Party and as such, Leader of the Loyal Opposition in Parliament

After a long and arduous leadership race, Mr. Mulcair was elected party leader at the convention on March 24. Now he must rebuild his party, face internal conflict to his election... do you want to resign already? No way!

Given that some people in his party were strongly against them, will they now support him? Mr. Mulcair says yes, and gives the example of Libby Davies. She came out in support of his main rival and party insider, Brian Topp. Mrs. Davies will stay on in her role as co-chair in the party leadership.

As far as Mr. Mulcair is concerned, his adversary is ahead of him, across the aisle in the House of Commons: Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The NDP needs to enlarge voting base. Guy A. asks they the party will now move to centre of the political spectrum? Mr. Mulcair says wants to move the centre to him. (The immediate reaction is: isn't that saying the same thing? Kinda like sucking in your gut?) The notion is to not change the party’s ideas, and remain social democratic but bring people around to their way of thinking. The party leader says many people have always said NDP always had great ideas, but couldn’t be trusted with leading a G7 country. Now is the time for him to convince the public that they can be trusted.

Merge with Liberals? Not on the agenda. Coordinating strategically with them or the Greens over ridings would play to their disadvantage, as they would lose funding as a national party.

So where can they grow? 65% of youth 18-24 did not vote in May 2011; that’s what Mr. Mulcair wants to tackle.

From here the tribune turns more into an electoral stump speech:

• The Conservatives have just released their latest budget, in which about the 19,000 government positions abolished. The CBC/Radio-Canada is feeling it already. The Conservatives promised jobs, and are now firing!
• Regarding cutting Old Age Security and transfer payments. Layton asked Harper if any of these would change during the election debates, and he said no. We are now learning otherwise.
• Aveos: Conservatives—who are supposed to be the party of law and order (Loi et l’ordre)—are not applying the law.
• Gun registry: first time he sees government remove public protection.
• Guy A asks, did Layton not challenge this enough?
• Mulcair admits there were divisions among MPs from differnet ridings. The more rural ones were opposed to the registry. Mulcair says Layton wanted to bridges.
• And Mulcair’s way? He would bring back the registry, and he would have his MPs toe the line.
• CF-35 fighter jets??? The Auditor General identifies known overruns while the government makes deep cuts to services. Where are the priorities? To Mulcair, the last thing a government should cut is public services. Cutting health inspectors before military?
• Many of the above topics are closely felt in Quebec, but he touches one that impacts Western Canada specifically, the government's decision to close the Wheat Board's monopoly. This will hurt grain farmers' ability to negotiate prices on the world market.

Why this matters:

• Jack Layton was born in Montreal but built his political career in Toronto. Thomas Mulcair is the party's first elected leader from Quebec, and from Quebec's unique political culture.
• Mulcair was a member of the National Assembly (as a Quebec Liberal) and Charest's environment minister from 2003 to 2006, when he quit during a cabinet re-shuffle. He was strongly opposed to his government's plans to develop part of Mont-Orford natonal park privately.
• After an unprecedented victory for the NDP in Quebec in the May 2011 election, public favour turned away when Layton died. In January, the NDP dipped back below the Bloc Québécois in standing in Quebec. With Mulcair (still in the honeymoon phase!) the NDP is up surveys, in Quebec and nationally.
• Aveos is a company responsible for aerocraft maintenance, with Air Canada as its primary client. It was relatively unknown until mid-March, when it announced bankruptcy and fired all of its employees. Air Canada used to be a Crown corporation; when it was privatized in 1989, the Government imposed a series of regulations on the company, among which many are important to Quebec: its headquarters is to remain in Montreal, its operations are to remain bilingual, and its maintenance is to be kept in Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal. This bankruptcy puts Air Canada in an illegal situation.
• Quebecers are by a vast majority against the abolition of the long gun registry. Quebec has had a particular history of mass killings using guns—notably the École polytechnique massacre in 1989, the shooting at Concordia University in 1992, and most recently the shootings in Dawson College in 2006. All these events have had considerable clout in the media; a movie entitled Polytechnique, starring Karine Vanasse, was released in many theatres in 2009.

Jean Ziegler

Former member of the Swiss parliament, diplomat, and author of the new book, Destruction massive : Géopolitique de la faim (Mass Destruction: The Geopolitics of Hunger)


Herr Ziegler is here to talk to us about world hunger.

Who is responsible for world hunger? These days, hedge funds that make speculative transaction on wheat, rice and maize, making astronomical profits, but creating terrible inflationary pressures on the price of these life-sustaining necessities. And the first world is letting it happen.

Be careful, reminds our host. Herr Ziegler is sitting next to the Leader of the Loyal Opposition. Ziegler turns and asks: but you are not an International Socialist? "Ah, Comrade!" the former professor exclaims. (The NDP is indeed an affiliate of Socialist International, but being received as camarade probably won't help Mulcair's street-cred as he tries to woo the political centre.)

By outlawing speculative buying of basic foods they could make graet strides to fight world hunger.


Another real problem is this idea of bio-ethanol Human cost of bio-ethanol. In Sweden, where half of all vehicules have been converted to bio-ethanol, they've figured to fill a 50-litre car tank with bio-ethanol you have to dispose the equivalent of 352 kilograms of rice. That amount could sustain a child for a year!

Can we hope for the end of hunger (la fin de la faim)? It's possible. The world community did it last in 1946, in a large global effort following WWII. Miltinationals have since taken over in pursuit of profit, which is normal; what is not normal is the passivity of states in letting the multinationals get away with it without hurdles.

Ziegler also questions the richness of his native Switzerland. It is based on its banks, dating back to Protestants fleeing Louis XIV. If Switzerland is today's second richest country per capita, it's because of these banks, still. And what's making the banks work today? Autocrats—tout dictateur qui se respecte a ses comptes en Suisse (any self-respecting dictator has his accounts in Switzerland)—,money laundering, and tax evasion. The privacy of Swiss accounts is the primary reason why the nation still refuses to join the European Union.

Herr Ziegler is donning the red square in solidarity of the student movement against tuition increases. In his stay in Canada so far, he has been invited to Université Laval and UQÀM, and has been impressed by the public's mobilization.

(We should mention that both Dominic and I cringed as we prepare ourselves for the first-class, first-world guilt trip. But Herr Ziegler is jovial and forthright, with a charisma and diplomacy that is very soothing. There's a lot I'm missing here, but it's all very moving.)

Why this matters: You have a heart, don't you? And if you don't, then I'm afraid there's not much I can do in way of context to help you.

Marie-Hélène Poitras

Host on Radio-Canada's speciality channel Bande à part, and author of the "urban Western" novel, entitled Griffintown

Mlle Poitras is here to talk about her upcoming novel (to be released in French, April 11.) This novel touches on how and where Montreal’s horses were stabled. She found inspiration for the subject while driving horse-drawn carriages (calèches) in Old Montreal for two years, and the stables are in Griffintown, no less.

Poitras started writing in Grade 3. Wanting to write about child abduction, she decided she'd test the Block Parents (parents-secours) system. She went to a neighbour's house who had the sign and reported a strange van. It worked; police came by her house to follow up.

Griffintown is not her only novel – her first work, (Soudain le minotaure, Suddenly the Minotaur, DC Books, 2007) won the Anne Hébert prize in 2003.

The question of ultimate peril (La question qui tue) : When was the Marché Bonsecours officially opened? Relying on her training giving tours on calèche, the answer she gave is the correct one! 1847.

Mlle Poitras keeps herself busy in all her professional pursuits; Litterary critic, music journalist for Le Voir and web editor. Because of the music punditry Guy A. brings her into entrevue coups de coeurs for music.

There's a lot of talk about music, and especially the indie type music you would hear on Bande à part. We hear and discuss:

• "Into Giants", Patrick Watson
• "Galope" feat. Georgette Leblanc, Radio Radio
• "Petite leçon de tenèbres", Philippe B
• "The Rose with the Broken Neck", Danger Mouse and Daniel Luppi
• "Intuition #1", Avec pas d'casque

 (Dominic says give ‘em a listen, see what you like)

Why this matter:

• She’s cool, she’s writing about Montreal. Neat-o!
• Griffintown in particular is a neighbourhood that has gotten a lot attenion in recent years, including:
• Songs by the United Steelworkers of Montreal
• Crazy development plans and expropriations, and opposition to said plans
• Crazier development plans (think casino in a poor neighbourhood kind of crazy) just across the canal. And more opposition.
• Closure of the Canada Post sorting facility, and still more development plans
• As the name might suggest, Griffintown was a working-class Irish neighbourhood with light industry mixed in. The neighbourhood, along with nearby Goose Village, were mortally wounded with the building of the Bonaventure Expressway in prepartion for Expo.

Alain Dumas

Humorist, radio host, and author of Le temps qui presse, on his twenty-one years at "Opération Enfant Soleil"

Played a clip from last year’s telethon, where an ill girl sang a song dedicated to Alain. Gasto-parésie severe. Girl is still alive and has built a rapport; initially to get her out of her shell for the interview, then as a friend.

The girl wanted to make a CD; she has now sold two and is working on a third; all going for Opération enfant-soleil.

A telethon is no easy thing, especially when you work the night shift like M. Dumas. Trying to get attention for the later hours of the event, he's gone to some extreme lengths, including concocting a story about having a pet pig—and going so far as posing with a stranger pig—to get some coverage in the newspaper.

Dumas is known for his impressions... his most famous being Jean-Guy Hood, the mechanic. They play a clip of a show with him and Brathwaite, where Dumas speaks and Brathwaite is cleary confused.

His contrat on Rock Détente was not renewed last year; his slot was taken by Brathwaite. Radio c’est ingrats and he’s had to swallow it. Another point in common with Brathwaite; and Jacques Martin.

(There's a series of impressions and impersonations that follows that, quite honestly, I can't make heads or tails of. So I'm not even going to try. Sorry, folks.)

Why this matters:

• The 25th annual Téléthon Opération Enfant Soleil takes place on June 2 and 3, on the TVA network.
• Opération Enfant Soleil is a non-profit that "raise funds for the development of high-quality paediatrics and to contribute to social health projects for all the children in Quebec."