Editorial: Steve Galluccio on The Healey Affair

The Quebec Thing

The Healey Affair - Not Here

by Steve Galluccio

Going back to the Mike Healey/Tarragon affair... 

It is clear now that the Tarragon did not produce the Healey play, which was supposedly anti-Harper, fearing reprisals from the Harper government. 

I wrote a movie called Funkytown set in the disco 70s. One of the back stories was how the election of the PQ government drove a lot of big businesses out of Montreal and as a result we lost our biggest-city status to Toronto. One of the characters, Gilles, a francophone record producer, is fervently anti-Lévesque and his party. I also took a shot at the Office de La Langue française, the language watchdog organization which is still in existence today. The movie was bilingual, with Québécois (for the most part sovereignist) actors playing the roles. It was well received, and did boffo box office. 

A few eyebrows were raised in the media, and that is okay because all these issues are still very sensitive ones in Québec. But the movie got made. No one pulled out. No one was afraid of what it said. And that is the sign that I live in a truly free society. I thought it was a Canadian thing. Clearly it is not. It is a Québec thing. 

We continue to make art and are not afraid of Harper cutting our funding. We are fighting because this is who we are in Québec: we have fought for the survival of our language and our culture and we will continue to fight. I can only wish that the ROC would do the same. 

What happened at the Tarragon proves otherwise. I have never been happier and prouder to call myself Québécois than I am today.


For more on the Healey Affair read:
Steve Gallucio's Open letter to Richard Rose
Brad Fraser's Open Letter to Richard Rose
Brad Fraser's essay on the Healey Affair
Gaëtan Charlebois's comments on the Healey Affair