Gaffes by mayor of Saguenay need to be discussed
Saguenay’s Jean Tremblay’s gaffes need to be talked about, Sylvain Raymond says.
Saguenay is not a village or a small town. It’s Quebec’s seventh largest city, and with its vast boreal forest and abundant aluminum resources, it’s a pillar of the province’s economy.
It’s also run by a very colourful mayor. Jean Tremblay has been in power since 1997 and is best known for having asked the Supreme Court to authorize him to pray at the beginning of every town council meeting. He’s generated so much media attention in his career that his occasional blunders are now met with laughter and the occasional “Aw shucks, he’s at it again.”
However, his latest gaffe is deserving of a tad more scrutiny. During an interview on a local radio station, Tremblay was asked about his recent criticism of Greenpeace and intellectuals. On a tangent, he proclaimed that “il y a des gens qui travaillent comme des nègres,” and while trying to correct himself stated that “blacks work hard” even if “they don’t earn big salaries.”
But the most surprising part of the whole ordeal is that these comments have generated very little sustained media outrage.
In the entertainment world, TV host Giuliana Rancic’s career is still suffering from a comment she made about entertainer Zendaya’s braids, about how “she smells like patchouli oil or maybe weed.” Despite a public apology on her show Fashion Police, she’s still being lambasted for her misstep.
And what about the queen of Southern cuisine, Paula Deen, unable to overcome media criticism following allegations of discriminatory remarks related to the use of the n- word? Her fame couldn’t do anything to stop the media wrath, and she was dropped by more than half- adozen big name sponsors.
But these are celebrities; Tremblay is an elected official. Even other Canadian provinces have more aggressive responses: ask New Brunswick MP John Williamson.
“There is no doubt that racial issues are more often overlooked in Canada, in Quebec than in the United States,” says Dominique Trudel, a Quebec- born media scholar now working at New York University. “But as the expression ‘ travailler comme un nègre’ has long been common in Quebec, the press is likely to give the benefit of the doubt to Tremblay.”
Trudel also points out the complex media landscape around the story: “The remark was aired on Radio X, a station positioning itself against political correctness and intellectual elites,” he says. “The station immediately pre- empted further media reactions, denouncing their alleged hypocrisy and elitism. Ultimately, national media outlets may have wanted to avoid a pre- manufactured debate likely to strengthen the position of Radio X.”
For example, Fred Gagné, the host who interviewed Tremblay on Radio X, commented on Facebook that he didn’t feel like asking the mayor to justify himself since “he already felt he had said something not appropriate.” Although, Gagné insists that “( Tremblay) used a common expression, like many Quebecers from another generation would use on a daily basis, like ‘ ma p’tite Chinoise, mon p’tit Juif ’ without wanting to be racist, but simply just by being ignorant.”
But Tremblay’s remark was more than just a clumsy comment. Still, that’s essentially how it’s been treated in the Quebec press, and the absence of media condemnation should worry even the most conservative of critics. The editorial choice to breeze by this seems to reveal an ugly truth about the weight some Quebecers give to racism.
Jean Tremblay may have missed a great opportunity to shut up, but the news media have missed a great opportunity to insist that we all need to talk about this particular remark.
But Tremblay’s remark was more than just a clumsy comment. … The editorial choice to breeze by this seems to reveal an ugly truth about the weight some Quebecers give to racism.
Sylvain Raymond