Pride by any other name

B R

B R

— 5 min read
Pride by any other name
The summer mood

I originally wrote this post in French as a means to practice for the language exam - part of trying to get permanent residence - in October. I already took two of the four parts of the exams before the Ministry for Immigration and Francisation changed the rules and made it necessary to do another run.

Recently, I had been trying to practice oral production. I had not liked any of my responses to any of the questions - you must speak for or against some point of view - save for one:

Un monde sans frontière, sans passeport ni visa est-il possible ? Pourquoi ?
A world without borders nor passports nor visas, is it possible? Why?

The test demands you answer such a question for a maximum of 4 minutes. Even in French I could probably talk about this for 4 hours. An alien from space observing humanity over its 2 million year history would not hesitate to remark on a few grand universal tendencies - music, language, and frequent migration would be among them. The situation today is a significant departure.

Unfortunately virtually all of the other questions are boring:

Je suis un(e) ami(e) qui va visiter à Montréal en été. Donnez-moi vos recommendations pour un bon voyage.
I'm a friend who is going to visit Montreal in the summer. Give me your recommendations for a good trip.

Well, in the spirit of practicing - and to promote the idea of visiting - I'll recount some of the recent activities in which we have participated. [[1]]

Just after my last post, we went to the Écomusée du fier monde. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed when I arrived. I had though that the subject of the museum was principally the labor movement. However, for the most part, it was about the old industrial quarter:

The (gai) Village is in pink, as you do I suppose.

Of course, it would be close to impossible to talk about the history of an industrial district without the labor movement:

You might expect the world frap, which could be translated into "strike" in English, would imply the same thing in both languages but of course French has it's own word - grève for a strike. So maybe that poster is actually talking about punching someone or something (complimentary).

But when it's nice out for the weekend, one most go outside: [[2]]

It's not necessary to travel very far to catch sight of a monument to the fact Quebec is something of a hydroelectric powerhouse (St Laurent, 15min bike ride north). Where there is ample power, there also tends to be aluminum production. This is/was the case in Washington as well. Locals are rather upset at the very steep tariffs put on that metal (as are US manufacturers, who are partially eating the price increases).
Got a new bike so I've been doing a lot more biking. This is far from the first child hauling bike I've been at a stop with, but there are four kids crammed in there.
World's laziest picque-nique in the park, killing a bit of time before an outdoor concert.

But the biggest event that we went to was the Wild Pride March (Fierte Indomptable). You may recall when I went to Pride Montreal last year and spoke of the protest against the Palestinian genocide that happened during the parade without the authorization of the organizers.

This time, those that could not tolerate a corporate Pride that invited (then disinvited, then reinvited) Zionist organizations instead organized their own march. It's now very clear that they did not have any idea how many people were going to show up:

They planned a BBQ at the end. They were planning on stopping at historic locations and giving small speeches detailing their importance to the queer history of Montreal/Quebec. They were clearly expecting ~100 people. This was no less than 10,000.

How is it possible that a march like this was legal? The organizers explained:

Municipal bylaw P-6, which once required submitting a route to the authorities, is not longer valid. Since 2019, no law requires us to collaborate with the SPVM [Service de la Police de Ville Marie] to organize a peaceful demonstration

Cool. Almost like a freedom to assemble or something.

It's difficult to remember the last time I had the opportunity to participate in a Pride march, instead of watching parades limited to organizations (corporate or corporatized) or for specific groups (like the Seattle Dyke March, which is cool and good). This was massive, inclusive, and inspiring.

The media and political response has been interesting. The march was simply too large to ignore. Instead, the politicians of Quebec Solidaire, who knew well that a lot of the people who will vote for them participated, as well as Mayor Valerie Plante, Radio-Canada, and even the organizers of Montreal Pride, all said the same thing: it's good there is a Pride for everyone. There wasn't a bad choice, effectively.

In a way, it was a clever move. Their problem will be that there was and is a bad choice and it's becoming increasingly obvious as time goes on. For politicians everywhere, the dam is bursting. The images from Gaza are too horrible to ignore with such platitudes. The only question that remains is: for how many will this change come too late?

It's weird ending with a dog picture after that subject but I've come to terms with the fact Bunny is and will always be more popular than I or my writing. No judgement if you scrolled here immediately.

I mean look at this.

[[1]]: The summer is quite lovely, but I'd say the fall is even better and we have a spare room for those interested

[[2]]: Like the patron saint of this post pictured above, who was featured as part of an exhibition at the Musée du fier monde

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