Jean-Marie Lapointe, the son of two alcoholic parents, confided in a touching testimony to the podcast that he was “terrified of aging like his father and mother.” seed of hope under the direction of Maripier Morin.
For a rare time, the presenter and author has, among other things, addressed his childhood with an alcoholic mother who died at the age of 49.
“His job was to drink from dawn to dusk,” he said. She had to have a bad life and anger so she couldn’t find anything stronger than her alcohol as a medicine… Imagine we are here, my father, my sisters and I, their family, his loved ones and we are watching helplessly very long drowning.
• Also read: Jean-Marie Lapointe will publish a diary about the last months of his father Jean Lapointe’s life
Jean-Marie Lapointe’s candid interview, which lasted more than an hour, elicited a large number of mostly positive responses from listeners to the Grains of Hope podcast.
“I received hundreds of messages,” explains Jean-Marie Lapointe in an interview with Journal.
“I still get comments every day from people saying they’re touched,” he said. This is true vulnerability sharing and the intention of this podcast is to do good and put a human face on a disease that is felt to be shameful.
In the podcast, the son of the late Jean Lapointe returned to his own addictions, including his childhood eating disorders and a fondness for cannabis discovered around the age of 34.
He also addressed his father’s alcoholism.
Restorative Justice
Jean-Marie Lapointe also emphasized the importance of restorative justice in this podcast, co-hosted in part by Maripier Morin. We remember that she has had difficult years since she was accused of sexual and physical harassment in the summer of 2020.
“We don’t have to go there to shoot a person in a public square,” he tells the Journal, citing the treatment reserved for artists in recovery like Maripier Morin and Julien Lacroix.
On the air, Jean-Marie Lapointe said he himself helped Julien Lacroix [qui a fréquenté la Maison Jean Lapointe] and Étienne Boulay during her convalescence.
It is obvious to him that hosting this program is part of Maripier Morin’s healing and “redemption”.
“Maripier brings words to his ailments, he tells the Journal. She’s expressing what she’s made of, and that’s part of her recovery. She’s doing an exceptional job and she’s probably doing the best for herself the most.”
“There are always people who judge that the sentence is not severe enough, as was the case with Julien Lacroix,” he adds. But salvation comes through forgiveness: of oneself and of others. We must encourage recovery because it is the only possible outcome other than death.”