This past Saturday was the funeral for controversial filmaker and left wing pamphleteer, Pierre Falardeau. He died two fridays ago, from a battle with cancer, he was 62. (Eternal Rest grant unto him oh Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God, rest in peace.) Whatever one believes of his views, does not change the fact a soul has gone home to meet his Lord in judgement. At his side were his common law girlfriend, and his three children.
Pierre Falardeau, in many respects (not the first time I've mentioned him on this blog...) was an enigma. A left leaning member of the socio-politico intelligentia with strong convictions and even stronger words for people who disagreed with his view of things, Falardeau will be remembered for two things in the Rest of Canada. The first is his public spats with Telefilm Canada over federal funding to spread his separatist bullsh...errr, propaganda, and secondly the creator of Bob 'Elvis' Gratton. The latter was meant as a political send-up to the type of voter Falardeau and his 'ilk' would brand as eternally colonially brainwashed and who ultimately thwarted the 1980 and 1995 referendums. Gratton(portrayed by Julien Poulin, another separatist lefty...) is obsessed by materialism and anything american, including his unhealthy fascination with winning an Elvis impersonator contest. His catch phrase; 'Think Big!..Sti!'
The strange thing is that in any other country, Falardeau's presence would the cause the mainstream media and arts community to crawl into a sewer. An example of this is that while the PQ tries very hard to court anglophone and allophone Quebecers, Falardeau interjects himself by saying that he would like to take a chainsaw to Federalist anglos. Nice going Pierre. Nevertheless, his funeral was attended by all PQ brass as well as BQ leader Gilles Duceppe,.who tried distancing himself from everything Pierre did. (On a side note, Bernard Landry opined that he shared Falardeau's view of things, just would express it differently...I feel a bowel movement coming on...) Surprisingly, Pierre-Karl Peladeau was there which should cause angst within the business community,.then again his girlfriend is Julie Snyder, the proud Quebecer who came back only because her career in France tanked.
As far as the funeral, it was a Liturgy of the Word, at least I think...In typical Quebec style, the priests allowed a layman to read the Gospel, (Julien Poulin attempted to 'act' it, the video is on Youtube, if your normal, it will make you ill...)and tributes were given by Luc Picard (another separatist actor) as well as Falardeau's kids who were dressed one like a hell's angel wannabe, and the other kids like they were going to a skateboard park. Now how's that for respect! Yup 'crayon politically correct don't offend anybody Jesus' was in full force, (when they mentioned Him, and weren't busy celebrating this icon of division.) along with the separatist grand-pappy himeself, the icon, Jacques Parizeau.
To conclude, we must always pray for the salvation of the soul, however I think it is important to conclude that Pierre Falardeau will mostly be remembered as a polarizing figure. An icon of racism and prejudice for many of us in the 'argent et votes ethniques' category. I do pray he rests in peace.
Think Big!..Sti!
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