Translating the printemps érable
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For more useful English-language sources on the conflict, see:
CUTV - broadcasting live from the protests nightly
Rouge Squad - Tactical Translation Team
Rabble.ca's Maple Spring Coverage
Pierre-Luc Gagnon June 19, 2012
Original French Text: http://voir.ca/pierre-luc-gagnon/2012/06/19/biere-tombale-001-analyse-de-la-publicite-preelectorale-de-jean-charest/
I’ve decided to use this blog to launch a new concept: “Tombstone beer.” At its most basic, the idea is quite simple; I crack open a beer and write an editorial on some hot topic, on whatever it is that’s been bothering, tormenting, endlessly eating away at me. For this first installment of Tombstone beers, I’m committed to critically analyzing this touching advert starring Jean Charest and his halo of divine clarity. In order to truly savour the beauty of this exercise, let’s take things sip by sip:
“Being Premier of Québec isn’t a popularity contest.”
-Really? So why run ads to boost your popularity?
“It’s the least we can say, considering the turbulent times Québec is going through.”
-To hear him speak, you’d think he were in a plane while burping garlic through a ofcouple air pockets. Hello? Quebec isn’t experiencing turbulence, it’s a social crisis you initiated and that you are arbitrarily maintaining for your own electoral gains. It’s about time your private jet lands so that you can face reality.
“Being Premier means working for all Québécois.”
-Unless you mean the thousands of Québécois who are in the streets every night. And also the voters of Argenteuil, who sent you a clear message at the beginning by storming one of your strongholds.
The Attack of the Killer Carré Rouge (C’est bien meilleur le matin, Radio Canada)
Jean-René Dufort with René Homier-Roy
June 15, 2012
Original French Video: http://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/cest_bien_meilleur_le_matin/2011-2012/chronique.asp?idChronique=227748
Transcript:
René Homier-Roy: …about all that’s going on.
Jean-René Dufort is going to save the day.
JRD: Yeah, well, while watching the current debate degenerate here in Quebec, I asked myself if the social crisis were not just an aqueduct problem.
RHR: Aqueducts?
JRD: Yeah someone put something hallucinogenic in the water…
RHR: That could be, that could be…
JRD: … and now everyone is collectively hallucinating. And the premier, Jean Charest, seems to be drinking lots and lots of water.
RHR: Oh yes, oh yes. He’s floundering.
JRD: Because our premier is in the middle of a fear campaign. He’s cultivating it. He couldn’t be cultivating it more. In his view, and this is what’s interesting, everything appears radical. He’s like an extreme-centre politician, an old man who thinks the music is always too loud. Everything is radical. The PQ are extremists, the CAQ is a waiting room for sovereignty, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is a 130-pound Taliban, the casseroles are a threat to the government, the red square is a diabolical symbol of intimidation and violence.
RHR: That wasn’t the minister of Culture who said that? Mr Charest also said that?
JRD: Everyone at the Liberal government. If we add up, if a premier considers that half of the population he’s leading is composed of violent extremists, if you add up the péquistes, those who wear the red squares, those who play the casseroles, well, it may be clear that it’s time for you to go take a rest, when you’re afraid of half of the population like that.
Jean-Claude Lord, filmmaker June 7, 2012
Original French Text: http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/351950/il-etait-une-fois-un-leader-genial
Photo Caption: Students protesting at Place Emilie-Gamelin in Montreal. Could it be that this youth craving a more just and humane society are not merely a flash in the pan, but that they will make the human being slumbering in each one of us proud?
Let me tell you a story, a story with a lesson… fictional of course. After all, it’s been my work for nearly fifty years to be a storyteller.
Once upon a time, there was an absolutely brilliant government leader, who sincerely cared for the welfare of his population. For many years, his people had been sleeping. The baby boomers had turned their backs on the “utopian” ideals of their youth to lazily enjoy the rewards of their struggles of days long past. Meanwhile, the leader and his cronies, feet firmly grounded, cast an aura of wealth and certainty.
Even the young generation, apathetic and individualist, preened in contentment, oblivious to the alleged injustices all around them that were gradually becoming more and more repugnant.
