Since Porte Parole marked its 10th anniversary at the Sala Rossa on November 1st, we have much good news to report:
The successful presentation of our Seeds workshop at CINARS PLUS
Sexy béton, l’intégrale accepted for a coveted presentation slot at the Bourse RIDEAU 2011
Annabel Soutar and Porte Parole having received the 2010 MECCA’s Myron Galloway Award for Distinction. Our good friend Chip Chuipka, who plays Percy in Seeds, accepted the Best Actor Award for his work in the Tableau d’hôte production of A Line in the Sand.
Monday, November 1, Porte Parole celebrated its 10th birthday. It was my pleasure to be in attendance at La Sala Rosa, watching the entertainment, nibbling on snacks, drinking beer, renewing old acquaintances and making new ones. Porte Parole is a big family — a unique family in Montreal’s theatre community. Just watching the video Annabel made in which she interviewed Montrealers about their knowledge of the documentary art form, it became clear that Porte Parole still has lots more work to do to raise awareness of the genre. But as somebody once told me — I forgot who — “anything worthwhile doing is hard.” And documentary theatre is very worthwhile doing indeed, even if it remains a mystery to most people! Read More »
The 2010 Commonwealth Games, which end today, almost didn’t happen. Three weeks ago, news stories began to surface about major infrastructure problems: the collapse of a pedestrian bridge that injured 23 workers as well as dirty and unsafe athlete living quarters. The Guardian live-blogged about the crisis. Read More »
A bouquet of flowers left at the site of the broken overpass in 2006.
On this day in 2006, the de la Concorde overpass collapsed onto Highway 19 killing Mathieu Goyette, his pregnant girlfriend Véronique Binette, Jean-Pierre Hamel and his wife Sylive Beaudet, and his brother Gilles Hamel. 6 other people driving over the bridge were badly injured in the incident: Mohamed Ashraff Umberthambi, Louise Bédard, Paul Cousineau, Robert Hotte, Anne Leblanc, and Claude Bastien.
As far as I can see, not one major newspaper in Montreal or the English CBC has mentioned this important anniversary today. Sept 30th will therefore pass Montreal by without a moment of reflection about de la Concorde.
So September 30th is coming up again, this will be the fourth year since the fatal Concorde overpass collapse. What have we learned in four years? What is being done? What has changed? I regret to say that these pressing questions have gotten a bit dusty. While the Concorde victims and families will remember September 30th as a sad day, the end of a life or the end of the hope of pursuing justice in the legal realm, will Quebec citizens even remember the date? With the flurry of things happening in our world, it’s not surprising that this type of anniversary gets overlooked especially when the media seems to want to make sure there is nothing left to say about it. For example, last October, La Presse came out with an article to close the debate: “Concorde Overpass: The Victims Will Not Pursue”. That’s it, there’s nothing else to say except maybe that it’s the Prime Minister’s prerogative now to give the victims more money. So hopefully he’ll be thinking about Concorde on September 30th…
Annabel Soutar's play 2000 Questions puts stock market investing on trial.
Next Thursday, August 12th I will be participating in a round table discussion at the Institut du Nouveau Monde’s 2nd edition of its Festival de l’Expression Citoyenne (FEC). Along with two other panelists (fromWapikoni Mobile and Jeunes musiciens du monde) I will debate the merits of using art to engage in social dialogue. The round table is free, open to the public and promises to provoke an inspiring conversation about how to trigger potent democratic dialogue through image-making, storytelling and music. What do you say?
Thursday, August 12th at 7:30pm
The John Molson School of Business, Concordia University
Room MB 1.210 1455 de Maisonneuve West
In his recent op-ed, published today in the Montreal Gazette about the BP oil spill, New York Times editorialist David Brooks argues that the current global political struggle today is between ‘democratic capitalism’ and ’state capitalism’. Democratic capitalism, Brooks explains, allows private companies to exploit and manage important resources like oil with the state playing a marginal, regulatory role. State capitalism (like that practiced in China, Venezuela, Iran, etc…) keeps wealth creation firmly in the control of governement and directs it according to the political needs of the State. Why is this discussion of democratic versus state capitalism important and how is it relevant to Quebec?
Last Wednesday June 9th, a truck belonging to Yves Mercure, the President of the construction wing of the Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ) was torched in what looks to be an indirect arson attack on the union leader:
Police involved in Operation Hammer, the special squad investigating corruption and collusion in Quebec’s construction industry, have been called in to take a look at the incident.
With everything going on around former Liberal Justice Minister, Marc Bellemare and his allegations against Charest, it really looks like a can of worms has been opened on the political stage in Quebec. And it’s really getting muddy.
You may remember a story that many of us pointed to as great success when it came out in the media a few months ago. Claude Robinson, creator of “Robinson Curiosité”, had won a lawsuit in the Quebec Superior Court against CINAR (and other big children tv corporations such as France Animation, Ravensburger, RTV Family Entertainment) for the plagiarizing of his work. For more information on this, check out this article in Le Devoir. While this story is really inspiring,
FrenchFanBarca: J'ai beau savoir que bcp d'électeurs du FN vivent dans le sud j'm'y fais pas à ce que leur porteparole ai l'accent du Sud... #plop #dcdc 5 days ago
FDiehlmann: PorteParole #FHollande: A force de se présenter comme le commentateur neutre de sa propre action, il a oublié de dire qu'il en est comptable 1 week ago
cathcerisey: +1 RT @giomarsi: "@COUHETEric: @giomarsi @cathcerisey @AubeWalter Un trio d'exception" avec un porteparole extraordinaire, merci Eric!!! 1 week ago
Annabel Soutar and Porte Parole having received the 2010 MECCA’s Myron Galloway Award for Distinction. Our good friend Chip Chuipka, who plays Percy in Seeds, accepted the Best Actor Award for his work in the Tableau d’hôte production of A Line in the Sand.
