Who the Heck is Kevin Parent?

If ever there's a gulf between Anglophones and Francophones, it's highlighted by a whole set of Francophone musicians and television stars of whom Anglos know nothing about at all. Even though Kevin Parent is the second most famous Quebec singer (after Celine Dion) I  doubt that there is one in ten Anglos who's heard of him or who could identify the picture on the right.

So when he complained that he was beaten up by a group of Anglos in Quebec City a couple of weeks ago during the Quebec Winter Carnival, you can be sure it was big news in the French media. As for the English media, well as I said, who the heck is Kevin Parent?

The story has been in the news since the incident took place a couple of weeks ago and culminated with an appearance on a famous Quebec talk show last Sunday.

Last February 13 Keven Parent left a bar with two women (whom he worked with) and stopped on a cold night to warm himself at a little bonfire set up and to have a shot of 'Caribou'.

It was then he claimed, that for no apparent reason he was attacked by a group of Anglos who delivered a punishing beating that left him with a concussion and several contusions. (By the way, the French have a great word for getting the crap beaten out out you- "tabaser" (Tab'- ass-eh))

Ten days after the incident he met with reporters and told them that he had no idea what triggered the violent attack.

Parent told the media that rioting between Anglophones and Francophones, are a regular occurrence especially at the Quebec Winter Carnival or during Spring Break in March.

"I now understand the anger of oppressed francophone Quebeckers who get pissed on in their own capital city during their own carnival..."

"That's history. This incident made me understand the fear that a woman feels in an assault or a child who is afraid of being beaten by a gang at school. I understand the rage of the oppressed artist who is pissed upon  in his own city. I do not know to whom to complain, I do not know how it works and I can not identify my assailants that I do not know. I hope it will not revive the rivalry, which I've spent my life wanting to build bridges between the two languages. I am English and I sing in both English and French. I have friends across Canada and I do not understand what happened. "

His agent, Eric Allain, from the Tandem agency who handles the singer's promotion told a French television network that the people who attacked Kevin Parent were seeking a confrontation. 

 "He was assaulted by a gang of about a dozen people who were presumably there to fight."

The story was a dream come true for nationalist bloggers, the allegorical image of an Englishman pissing on a poor defenceless Francophone, sure to become an ever-lasting lesson in Canadian hegemony and likely to become as famous a legend as that of matronly Eaton's employees of old who told French customers to 'Speak white.'
Great stuff!

Drunken Anglo-Canadian Mob Beats up One of Their Own: Kevin Parent

Click

"As if the apparently xenophobic attack was not pathetic enough, Kevin Parent is himself an Anglo.  The morons beat up one of their own"

Golden shower : le statu quo sous la douche
"For many young Quebeckers, who for the last 20 years attended the Quebec Winter Carnival, the statement from Kevin Parent is not surprising. I myself witnessed these Anglos who do not speak a word of French, curse and taunt me at the Carnival around 10 years ago."

But the police and Carnival officials weren't so quick to buy Parent's story. A spokesman reported that there hasn't been an 'English/French' incident in the city since the year 2000. Some journalists noted that Parent was ill at ease at the news conference and that he didn't sound too convincing as he read from a prepared text.


Their interest piqued, the police set out to find out what they could. They found out quite a lot.

Perhaps Mr. Parent should watch more television crime shows, the ones that depict police methods wherein they gather up video evidence from surrounding surveillance cameras.


JACKPOT!  The whole incident was clearly caught on tape and the story turned out to be not quite what Mr. Parent recounted.


It seems that Mr. Parent was feeling 'no pain', a fact he reluctantly admitted to afterwards. Hey, it's Carnival, everybody drinks he said sheepishly, but according to him, he wasn't drunk.


It seems that he was fanning the flames of the aforementioned fire a little too enthusiastically and a hot ember sailed into the air and landed on a women's jacket, setting it on fire.

Her Anglo chums took  great offence and then a fight ensued. Perhaps they over-reacted, if so they should be prosecuted, but as a story, it turns out to be a rather a run of the mill drunk fight instead of a hate crime.


Faced with the evidence, Kevin Parent went on television like Claude Dubois before him, to excuse himself for lying. Confronted with the video evidence, he admitted that there was perhaps more to the story than he had originally let on.


He then went on to apologize to the City of Quebec for sullying their reputation, implying that their city is rife with English/French problems.


No excuse of course to the English community that he accused of senselessly attacking innocent Francophones on an ongoing basis during Carnival or Spring Break. No that would be too much, Anglos are always good targets and must remain so.

None of the fanatics who leapt onto the story and wrote English-bashing articles will apologize either, because they all so wanted the story to be true. Notwithstanding that it didn't happen as reported, according to them, it could have happened, might have happened and something that probably did happen in the past.

It's hard to get people off of a legend, even if it isn't true, just ask those little old ladies in Eaton's.