A number of posts ago, I wrote a post on Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois (GND), in which I described his place in Québec’s recent history.

You can read that post by clicking HERE.

If we’re going to look at things that can help bridge the Two Solitudes, you might as well know about the types of things people are talking about in Québec, be it during coffee breaks at work, between neighbours across the fence, or in other contexts.   If for nothing else, you can take this as a satirical and comical post — but there actually is a serious side to it which truly is not funny at all.

You may recall that I mentioned that everyone is left wondering where Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois will pop up next.  Well, he just popped up again – in the the last few hours, and in the most unlikely of places… on a children’s television program!  And what’s he doing?  Seemingly offering a course to 5, 6, and 7 year old children on what we could probably dub “Street Protests 101”.

What I came across here is just too good to not devote a separate post to it.   I don’t know what in the world Télé-Québec was thinking when they decided to air this program (province wide and across Canada).   This is just waaaaay too mature of subject matter for children that age.

You can watch the entire program online at Télé-Québec’s website here: http://zonevideo.telequebec.tv/media/19468/dis-moi-tout-gabriel-nadeau-dubois/dis-moi-tout

The children learned

• what kind of spoon is best to use when banging pots while marching and protesting through the streets (we learned we need to use a wooden spoon instead of a metal one),
• how tear gas reacts when it gets into your eyes and what to do (every pre-adolescent child and kindergarten student apparently needs to know this when bad policeman hose them down with pepper-spray for going on a rampage)
• how to start a new, fun tongue-twister fad on the school yard using GND’s name (Can you say Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois 10 times really really fast?  All the kids are doing it now!  It’s the new black on the swing set!  Serious folks, this was in the show – I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried)
• GND told all the little darlings that his parents didn’t make the right decisions when choosing what school to send him to (that ought to make the kiddies stand up for their rights when their parents tell them what to do),
• that their parents might be proud of them if they hit the streets during protests (hey little buddy… you now have an alternative course of action when mommy tells you to eat all your peas and you don’t want to),
• how to best affix a carré rouge (red square badge of solidarity) to their clothes (because kids love to wear things… but pins can be sharp),
• that they can “change the world” by making demands (and some of these sweet little kiddies, right on the program, jumped on the band wagon and came up with a class-room list of demands! “Les revendications des enfants”),
• the kiddies all agreed on air that Mr. GND would make a good premier (I mean, why settle for simple role-model when you can shoot for the top spot?),
• kids will get what they want if they gang up together in massive groups.   (Just great!  Absolutely wonderful!  Any authority figures might as well hang up their hats now and retire – or hide).

And to top it all off, guess what art was displayed as a backdrop in the studio?  “Fists in the air”.  Les poings en l’air (take from that what you will).

What an amazingly great format for an early-age extreme activism training boot camp children’s program!   All I can say is I’m so happy I’m not the school playground supervisor watching over the children after they returned to school from having sat in the audience of this show.

I’m not sure whether I should laugh or be horrified.  One thing I will tell you, even if it’s Halloween, after knowing the little ones have been watching this, I for one will run in the opposite direction if I see a group of little critters wearing balaclavas and playing cops and robbers… er… cops and protesters… er… “pots and spoons”.

Oh, and by the way – for all the news and political junkies out there… the new date to mark on your calendar is 21 March, 2015.   That’s the day the student association “Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ)” wants to organize a protest against government cutbacks.  It remains to be seen what, if any involvement GND will have.  Here’s a write-up on the ASSÉ “plans” http://a.msn.com/01/fr-ca/AA8Ntb4

Maybe Big Bird will make a star appearance in the crowds too.