If you need another example to convince yourself of English Canadians’ contempt and ignorance of Quebecers’ cultural identity, here is a very good example.
Published at 2:38 am. Updated at 7:15 a.m.
CBC Podcasts, the division that produces and broadcasts English-language podcasts for the Crown corporation, produced the series Alone: A Love Story based on the book of the same name. It’s a great success. The number of listeners is in the millions. This is how we came up with the idea of adapting the podcast into French (and Spanish).
Because we want to achieve an international impact and fear that the Quebec accent could harm this goal, the team in this department entrusted the French adaptation to a… Parisian studio.
The team at OHdio, the platform that produces and broadcasts podcasts for Radio-Canada, tried to make it clear to CBC Podcasts that this decision was bad and that Quebec craftsmen were perfectly capable of completing the task, but to no avail.
“We didn’t want a Frenchman from Quebec to attract international interest,” Cesil Fernandes, executive producer at CBC Podcasts, ventured Mélissa Pelletier, a journalist from the Journal de Montréal, who reported this story on Thursday.
I was screwed!
For each statement, the CBC defended itself in an email to La Presse by reiterating that its desire was to “make the podcast available to as wide an audience as possible.”
Obviously, we at CBC Podcasts don’t know that Xavier Dolan is a big star in France and that his Quebec colors are not an obstacle to his success, quite the opposite. But here we are, at the CBC, where we’re having a hard time attracting viewers, we’re aiming high! We want to seduce European podcast fans with an accent that’s theirs, not ours.
And the Quebec public in all this? Are Anglos aware that adjustments made in France are less well received here? Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais and Rosalie Vaillancourt even created a satirical series on the subject called Complètement lycée.
I listened to some of the ten episodes of this podcast show in French that became Seule: Une histoire d’amour (the original series contains 28). With the purest Parisian accent, actress Marion Lesongeur tells the story of Michelle Parise, a journalist and author from Toronto who is going through a breakup.
I’m probably not the target audience because I felt like I was being read an endless Harlequin novel.
What an affront to Quebec know-how! So many prejudices about our reality. Does Cesil Fernandes know that in all French-speaking countries in the world there are many actresses who are able to express themselves and perform in normative French?
Has this guy ever seen Anne Dorval, Émilie Bibeau, Sophie Desmarais, Élise Guilbault, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Pascale Bussières, Sylvie Drapeau, Evelyne Brochu, Céline Bonnier, Violette Chauveau or Sophie Faucher in the theater, cinema or television? Does he know they can act with or without the famous Quebecois accent he’s afraid of?
Being a chameleon is her job, hey!
This decision is all the more surprising given that a few months ago the OHdio team brilliantly adapted another CBC podcast, Brainwashed, which became Brainwashed: The Forgotten Guinea Pigs. I devoured this series hosted by Sophie-Andrée Blondin. We agree that this presenter does not have the bright accent of Marthe Laverdière.
Can you imagine the scene if OHdio had one of its podcasts adapted by Americans because we want to reach an international audience?
Or better yet, what if the adaptation were entrusted to a British studio under the pretense that the English accent was more sophisticated than that of English Canadians?
Ouch, we were going to have a bad time!
I have no problem with French podcasts. I hear it regularly. OHdio also offers excellent productions from European partners. But if we know that it was born here, that it could have been adapted to Quebec and that it became a purely French product, I have a problem.
Please note that the money used to support this work in both languages comes from a government entity and Canadian taxpayers.
The synchronization issue has divided Quebec and France for years. The films dubbed here (which could definitely be shown in French cinemas) are usually rejected by the “cousins”.
The dubbing industry is struggling to prevent its profits from shrinking. So when we see a state-owned company like the CBC entrust a Parisian company with the French adaptation of a podcast and force it on French-speaking people in Canada, I think that’s very cool.
I’m curious to hear what Catherine Tait, CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, who loves to pepper her speeches with phrases celebrating the diversity of Canadian talent and the defense of our country’s cultural minorities, would have to say.
I hope this misstep is brought to his attention.