Réjean Tremblay takes against Bianca
There was a bit of a twitterquake Saturday at Réjean Tremblay’s headline in the Journal: Bianca: Vive Toronto et fuck Montréal! Now, Bianca Andreescu didn’t say this, or anything like it, but apparently the young woman didn’t do anything to woo Montreal media when she came to train here this week. It’s not clear to me why she should owe Tremblay a damn thing, but – and yes, I know “fuck” is not considered a swear word in French – it’s a little rough for him to imagine her saying this, and then castigate her for it. And it’s a harsh word to see in the headline of a supposedly major media outlet.
We’ll hear more about this anon.
steph 06:23 on 2019-09-15 Permalink
She’s from Thornhill, Ontario, a Toronto suburb. JdM should get bent, no one owes them anything.
Michael Black 08:15 on 2019-09-15 Permalink
Didn’t Genie Bouchard get flack from the local press? I forget exactly, but something like she wasn’t acting like a Quebecois? Maybe her name, or living in Westmount, or that she moved away after her success?
So maybe the writers think star athletes need to be loyal to Quebec.
Michael
Kate 08:46 on 2019-09-15 Permalink
Michael, as steph points out, Andreescu isn’t from Quebec so she can’t be slammed on the same basis Eugénie Bouchard was. Tremblay’s only talking point is that Andreescu does some of her training at the Jarry Park tennis facility. (The irony is that Andreescu may have refused to talk to the press here because she knew about the flak Bouchard took. I don’t know whether Andreescu speaks any French.)
Among other things, Bouchard was criticized by Bock-Côté for going by Genie instead of Eugénie, and not doing more to present herself as a Québécoise internationally. Never mind that Quebec does not play as a nation in international tennis.
The fact that these are both young women excelling in a high-profile sport seems to encourage a certain type of male journalist to hit them hard.
Uatu 11:07 on 2019-09-15 Permalink
Such a non article although the JDM website layout makes it look like he’s a bitter ol’man sitting in a corner seething in anger at this ungrateful young’un. Actually pretty accurate if you think about it…hahaha
Blork 19:08 on 2019-09-15 Permalink
Regarding Genie Bouchard, she didn’t exactly endear herself to the Quebec sports media in 2014 when a journalist in France asked her if she speaks French and she replied in the affirmative the added “Je ne parle pas avec un accent québécois, alors au moins, ça c’est bon.” She’ll carry that one around for the rest of her life.
Faiz Imam 21:54 on 2019-09-15 Permalink
Anther thing with Genie is that in practice she mostly moved to Florida by the age of 13 to focus on tennis training. Unlike someone like Felix who is very much a “gars de chez nous” Genie was always a bit distant from the culture until she had success (at which point it made her a lot of money to present as local)
SMD 09:48 on 2019-09-16 Permalink
Money which Bouchard shifted to Florida, where she established residency to pay lower taxes in 2015, and now to the Bahamas, where for tax reasons she currently resides. I think that didn’t go over well with the general population.
But as this overview of tax evasion in sports notes, Milos Raonic and Félix Auger-Aliassime are both residents of Monaco, and Denis Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil are Bahamian for tax purposes as well. Being young and female does seem to bring added scrutiny and attacks.
Faiz Imam 19:43 on 2019-09-16 Permalink
Sure, all major international athletes engage in as much tax avoidance as they can get away with. I’m fully aware of that, but its not why i pointed Genie moved to Florida.