A16 QUEBEC OTHEGLOBEANDMAIL | SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2019
I
t could be that Mordecai Ri-
chler has once again had the
last laugh: TheBarney’s Version
author is finally popular among
the francophones in his native
Quebec.
Newer translations of his
work, more sensitive to Mon-
treal’s uniqueness, have made his
voice more recognizable. (Older
translations into French from
France called bagels “little breads
with holes in the centre.”) At the
same time, interest in Jewish
Montreal is on the upswing.
Times have changed in La
Belle Province since the author of
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kra-
vitzpilloried its language laws, its
political bosses and its Jewish es-
tablishment, and this week,
scholars, family members and
notable Richler fans such as writ-
er Adam Gopnik gathered at a bi-
lingual conference, “Mordecai Ri-
chler: Against the World/Morde-
cai Richler contre le monde,” to
compare notes.
On the sidelines of the confer-
ence at Concordia University,
French studies professor Sherry
Simon said that “the French are
discovering a Montreal they nev-
er experienced – look at the tours
of Mile End” – referring to the
gentrifying Jewish neighbour-
hood made famous inSt. Urbain’s
Horseman. “Now that the old Jew-
ish world is on the verge of dis-
appearing, they’re nostalgic for it- now it’s theirs.”
To some Quebeckers, Mr. Ri-
chler’s caustic views on Quebec’s
nationalism even are proving
prescient.
Samuel Mercier, the franco-
phone co-organizer of the two-
day conference, says Mr. Richler
is increasingly used in Québécois
literature departments because
he’s “the best weapon against
François Legault.” The Quebec
Premier, who leads the Coalition
Avenir Québec, has brought in
nationalistic measures such as
Bill 21, the law banning certain
public servants from wearing re-
ligious symbols.
Mr. Mercier says Mr. Richler
misrepresented Quebec’s politi-
cal reality in his early 1990s writ-
ing that took nationalism to task.
“But it’s as if the reality caught
up: look at the ADQ [Action dé-
mocratique du Québec], CAQ,
and Bill 21,” said Mr. Mercier at a
coffee break.
In Quebec’s debates over
literature and nationalism,
Mr. Richler has become
“weaponized” he says – by those
who want a diverse, inclusive na-
tionalism against a conservative
ethnic nationalism.
Ever since The New York
Times honoured his passing in
2000 with a two-page obituary,
Montreal has also honoured him
in small but symbolic ways. His
scraggy face peers out from a mu-
ral on Laurier Avenue. A repaint-
ed pagoda on Mount Royal now
bears his name. The Mile End li-
brary was renamed after him.
But he was not always so be-
loved. “The only thing the Mon-
treal Jews and French Quebeck-
ers ever agreed on was that Mor-
decai was the devil,” says Michael
Levine, an entertainment lawyer
turned literary agent and lifelong
Richler friend who opened the
conference.
New Yorker writer and Mon-
trealer Adam Gopnik’s talk on
“Many More Mordecais” was the
keynote, which took place in a
historic nunnery donated to Con-
cordia by the Grey Nuns who
used the very room to watch
hockey games.
Mr. Gopnik began by explain-
ing how Mr. Richler would have
satirized the opening Indigenous
territorial acknowledgement –
not because he didn’t have sym-
pathy for the cause, but because
he hated “pieties”: anything pro-
grammatic said to advertise one’s
morality. Mr. Richler’s morality,
Mr. Gopnik explained, had to be
learned by the individual, who
needs heroes “as flawed as we
are” so that we can emulate
them. Which flaws? For Mr. Ri-
chler, the voracious appetites
that affirm life itself. How could
he be pious, while loving bagels,
Macallan whiskey and sex?
Mr. Gopnik later tells us how
his Québécoise publisher hadoriginally seen Mr. Richler as a
dangerous outsider, but has
come to love him, realizing: “He’s
just as hard on the Jews as the
French!”
This shift in attitude may
come from shifting demograph-
ics and culture. Catherine Leclerc,
who teaches Mr. Richler’s novels
in her French literature classes at
McGill University, says that “na-
tionalism is no longer the defin-
ing character of Quebec litera-
ture, so it’s easier to integrate Ri-
chler.”
Recent re-translations of Ri-
chler works into Québécois
French by Éditions du Boréal
have sparked interest among a
newer generation who “never
knew francophone oppression,”
added Ms. Leclerc.
Essential to Mr. Richler’s new
popularity are those recent re-
translations of his books into
Québécois French. Pascal Assath-
iany, the director-general at Bo-
réal, explains that the Paris trans-
lations had glaring mistakes.
“Tasse Stanley” sounds more
like “Stanley teacup.” And, horrif-
ically, Maurice (Le Rocket) Ri-
chard was referred to as “La Fu-
sée” –Quebeckers felt misrepre-
sented when their hero’s nick-
name wasn’t in Franglais as they
knew it.
With the new translations,
Quebeckers can recognize them-
selves, and the city they’re proud
of, in Mr. Richler’s novels. Instead
of English academia, the realm of
francophone Quebec is finding
that Mr. Richler still proves rele-
vant, despite his own heroic
flaws, to Canada.SpecialtoTheGlobeandMailThis three-storey homage to Mordecai Richler, created by Dominique Desbiens and Bruno Rouyère, is one of
about 100 murals that the organization called MU has fashioned on walls around Montreal.OLIVIERBOUSQUETAtlonglast,MordecaiRichler
gainstherespectofQuebeckers
Inrecentyears,
perceptionoftheauthor
hasimprovedinhis
homeprovinceJOSEPH ROSENMONTREALAuthor Mordecai Richler is seen on the set of a movie based on his
novel, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, in Montreal on 1973.T
hursday night in Montreal, we had an illicit Hallo-
ween. Children and their parents stalked the rain-
soaked streets, dragging soggy capes, trading tres-
passers’ glances. Our block was uncharacteristically
dark. Many of the houses had extinguished their porch
lights, conforming with Mayor Valérie Plante’s edict; others,
like ours, blazed like orange-tinted marquees.Come here,we
were saying,have some candy. Whereas the parents of trick-
or-treaters are usually no more than benign – applauding
top-tier costumes and helping little doggies up front steps –
last night we were like militants, brothers and sisters of
common cause. This wasn’t merely an annual dress-up: it
was a form of protest. Pairs of skeletons tapped umbrellas in
solidarity. Vampires and butterflies all but cheered.They
tried to keep us down, we thought.But here we are.
I hadn’t told my son that our mayor postponed Hallo-
ween. At three and a half, he’s faintly aware of what a mayor
is – I pointed out the placards during a recent borough
election campaign, then described the federal election as a
choice for “even more mayors.” When we happened to
stumble across Justin Trudeau, campaigning outside Café
Olimpico, I said the prime minister was a kind of Mayor of
Mayors.
“But not everyone wants him to be mayor,” I admitted.
“Why?” my son asked.
I tried to think of a policy that my son (whose best friend
is an imaginary flying pineapple) would understand. I think
I said something about homeless people. In my experience,
children inherently believe that everyone deserves a home.
They also believe that Halloween is the best and should
never be unnecessarily toyed with. If you are going to mess
around with Halloween, only two things are allowed: mov-
ing it closer, or making it permanent.
Ms. Plante was doing neither of these things. Her an-
nouncement came on Wednesday, asking the city’s trick-or-
treaters to postpone their yearly mischief until Friday, Nov.
- Experts were calling for rain, she explained, and “violent
winds.” In the end, more than 25 municipalities across Que-
bec joined the Oct. 31 boycott, abandoning their pumpkins.
Montreal, Magog, Trois-Rivières and Sorel-Tracy had all de-
clared the Halloween weather too gloomy.
Nobody I talked to seemed to be heeding Ms. Plante’s
warnings. Halloween is not a wedding, a street fair, an out-
door rally. It’s a misappropriated pagan ritual where chil-
dren go from door to door through the stricken night,
dressed like monsters, demand-
ing toffees and Mars bars until
they tremble from sugar shock,
cavities rusting in their mouths.
The worse the weather, the bet-
ter. Make it dark and stormy,
make it hair-raising – make it
spooky, for Beelzebub’s sake! Let
the kids trudge doggedly
through a gale, propelled by
candy, as the winds whip their
sodden witch hats down the
road.
Some referred to Ms. Plante’s
announcement as “the most To-
ronto thing Montreal has ever
done.” I disagree. Postponing Halloween is gorgeously 514:
first of all, it’s literally incredible, as far-fetched an idea as
spaghetti on pizza or unicycling up Mount Royal or putting
a building’s staircases outside its walls. It’s also sound public
policy (or it would have been, if the wind had come on
time) – like cheap daycare or selling wine in corner stores.
Finally – and this is arguably most Montreal of all – there’s
the way that so many on the island ignored the directive, or
intended to exploit it. For every nine-year-old ninja who
accepted the official advice, staying in on Thursday, there’s a
seven-year-old dinosaur who’s planning to go trick-or-treat-
ing twice, double-dipping from the city’s collective candy
bowl.
Halloween isn’t some immutable physical law, like the
mass of a proton or the only date when Montrealers are
allowed to move apartments (July 1). It’s more like demo-
cratic socialism or a friendly, levitating pineapple: some-
thing imagined into the world. Oct. 31 is like human rights:
we choose to make it important, to let it shape and jack-o’-
lantern our lives, giving us opportunities to hoard tiny
candy bars and dress up like lobsters. Since we choose to
make it happen, we could choose to make it happen differ-
ently – on Nov. 1, or July 10, or only once every four years,
like a leap year or the Olympics, albeit a more delicious
Olympics (with better snacks).
This year, in Montreal, we chose to make Halloween hap-
pen twice. Once, on a rainy Thursday, out of tradition. Sec-
ond, on a windy Friday, by bureaucratic decree. It was con-
fusing. It was ad hoc. It was slightly annoying. But these are
some of the essential characteristics of this place that I love
- as are its capacity for magic, neighbourliness and ambiv-
alence to weather. I love that we’re a city with a caretaker
government and an obdurate populace. I love that our kids
alternate between “trick-or-treat” and “Joyeux Halloween”
with jolly indifference. Nobody really needs two Hallo-
weens, and I hope this administration never repeats the
experiment. But if they do, or even more – three Hallo-
weens? Or 10? – I swear that Montreal would be ready. The
only thing we enjoy more than one spectacular fiasco is a
bunch of them, like fun-sized candies in a box.
InMontreal,Halloween
onlyhappenstwiceayear
SEAN MICHAELS
OPINIONAuthorofUsConductors,whichwontheScotiabankGillerPrize.
HisnewnovelisTheWagers.
Oct.31islikehuman
rights:wechooseto
makeitimportant,to
letitshapeand
jack-o’-lanternour
lives,givingus
opportunitiesto
hoardtinycandy
barsanddressup
likelobsters.
A crash-prone ferry that struck
a Quebec wharf last February
was an accident waiting to
happen, according to a report
released Friday by the Trans-
portation Safety Board of Cana-
da.
The TSB investigated how
the MV Apollo collided with
the landing dock in Godbout,
Que., on the north shore of the
St. Lawrence River, on Feb. 25.
Investigators concluded thevessel’s propulsion and mano-
euvring systems had many
anomalies and the ship’s cap-
tain needed more time to get
acclimated to the functioning
of the vessel.
The captain’s limited training
and experience in manoeuvring
the newly acquired vessel led
to an incorrect assessment of
the ship’s speed and course,
and of the effects of ice and
wind when it approached theGodbout wharf.
On Mar. 16, the ship collided
with a wharf in Matane, Que.,
forcing the province’s ferry
authority to remove it from
service permanently.
The collisions, one of which
left a gaping hole in the ves-
sel’s bow, ended its sailing life.
But the TSB concluded the ship
was already badly damaged
before the two crashes.
THE CANADIAN PRESSBADCONDITIONOFMVAPOLLOLEDTOCOLLISIONATQUEBECWHARF,TSBREPORTSAYS