Wednesday, March 3, 2010

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.

13 comments:

  1. What a shame, really. I don't quite understand why he lied that way since he, himself, is both French ans English, but what I know for sure is that I don't have any respect for him anymore. I mean, come on... Admit what you've done (he did only after being caught). This fight has nothing to do with the English VS the French: it's only some people that were too drunk and over reacted.

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  2. A Naughty Moose said:
    Another artsie fartsie who needs attention and someone to blame for life's shortcomings. Why not fan the flames of a fire that is sure to get a spark. If this was an anglophone falsely claiming he was beat up or harrassed by a francophone, the francophone media would be all over this like white on rice.

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  3. Maybe Kevin was drunk, but its not is style to look for trouble!But one thing i know for shure, its that english people specially boys are stronger and feel more brave when they attack as a gang!I've been attack myself in front of my house by neighbors,they add put there car in front of my parking place and wanted to fight with me!Finaly they attacked my best friend and he was seriously injured!

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  4. Kevin is himself an anglophone so I don't get it why he would play the card of self-hate.

    Anyhow, in this issue, I chose to play the game of humor and derision as a way to evacuate this huge amount of stress anglos and francos have toward each other by trying to rewrite a song that Kevin Parent sang himself called Boomerang:

    "Je suis un tison de feu qui arrive sur un anglo. Ensuite on regarde le gars qui brasse le feu, on bat le chien, clic pow, j'l'ai eu ciboire."

    - "Un tison qui se dégage du feu que quelqu'un brasse et arrive sur nous n'est pas une raison pour cogner à coups de poing et de pied sur quelqu'un." - Kevin Parent

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  5. Had he gotten away with his bullshit, it would have sold a lot of albums for him in Quebec. Still, it probably will because the Brownshirts of this province will believe anything no matter how artificial. Just look at the texts that are passed off as History in the high school system in Quebec. Despite his admission of lying, I wouldn't be surprised to see him hailed as a neo-martyr of the Quebecois this up coming st jean. At least he'd make a better poster boy on the patriotes flag instead of the crackhead they have on it now.


    "its that english people specially boys are stronger and feel more brave when they attack as a gang"

    Hmmm, where have I heard this type of comment before? Oh yeah, it's what prejudiced white guys say about blacks. The good guy is always outnumbered right? It's a wonder any Francophone survives the drive through the dangerously English neighbourhoods in Beaconsfield and Kirkland where gangs of Anglo vigilantes rove in packs.

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  6. As I wrote elsewhere, as a native of Quebec City, I've seen my shares of drunken teens from Ontario (mostly) during Quebec winter carnival. But then, I've also seen my share of drunken french-canadian teens during that time, brawling and vomiting in buses...

    Let's face it, the carnaval is still an excuse for drinking oneself silly for a lot of teens (and young adults), whatever they're coming from. It's no surprise that some fighting ensues, it was "big news" simply because it happened to a "celebrity". The french media tried to present this as a language conflict, since it sells more newspapers (or create better ratings, whatever), and some bloggers used that to "prove" anglos were "after us" and/or were not able to hold their liquor, a cheap (and unjust) shot if I ever saw one.

    Much ado about nothing, eh? At least the truth got out.

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  7. No dogs, can you post your source for this story? I searched and did not find anything confirming what you're writing here concerning Mr Parent exaggerations/lies...

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  8. Pour Enkidu

    Here are just a few links... The story was the subject of a discussion on Denis Levesque on LCN on Monday where the facts were freely admitted.

    http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/est-quebec/2010/03/01/004-kevin_parent_plainte.shtml

    http://www.cyberpresse.ca/le-soleil/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/201002/28/01-4256207-kevin-parent-sexcuse-et-porte-plainte.php

    http://www.showbizz.net/articles/20100228225057/tout_monde_parle_kevin_parent_porter_plainte.html

    I also have some unofficial sources, others do not....

    I do not condone what was done to Kevin Parent. Nobody deserves to be beaten up.
    But it was a 'drunk' and 'blonde' fight.
    Parent was right to press charges, He looks too frail to have started any sort of fight!

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  9. No Dogs, Merci. Meanwhile, I did find the info on the Guazette web site, and it seems that if I listened to "Tout le monde en parle", I'd heard Parent apologize about this.

    Comme je l'ai écrit sur le site de Louis Préfontaine, c'est de la récupération malhonnête d'associer ça à un conflit entre communautés linguistiques... This had nothing to do with a supposed conflict between anglophones and francophones.

    And as I wrote elsewhere several times, we should mend this country by communicating with each other, we have much more in common that we think, and too many politicans are using this "divide" to their own advantage.

    Regards

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  10. This has nothing to do with Anglophone versus Francophone. Unfortumately hoodlums and idiots make up a percentage of all racial or linguistic groups. Outlaws are outlaws, regardless of what langauge they speak. If this gang hadn't turned on Kevin Parent they'd have just found someone else to violate...probably the first homeless person they came across.

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  11. "I doubt that there is one in ten Anglos who's heard of him or who could identify the picture on the right"

    I would have said, I doubt if there are 10 Anglos who've heard of him!

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  12. "I would have said, I doubt if there are 10 Anglos who've heard of him!"

    There are many Quebec based bands that fail to crack the Canadian and American markets and so pander to the locals and the nationalists to maintain their careers. The Respectables are another example. Hearing them pay lip service you would think that they all started their careers as French artists who love to express themselves in and through Quebecois culture. Complete bullshit - but if Quebecers bought the nationalist brand of cow dung, why wouldn't they swallow this one hook line and sinker?

    This might explain why mediocre talents like Parent don't have a wider appeal outside of Quebec and the st jean yahoos.

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  13. Its funny. I have never heard of him. Two solitudes! There was an article a few years back in the Globe and Mial (I think). It listed with photos all these household names in Quebec. I had never heard of one of them. I am an Anglophone from Toronto.

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