In the Yukon, social theater puts words to the evils of immigration

The community room at the Center de la Francophonie is full. The thirty or so participants all have at least two things in common: their first names displayed on their sweaters, and an immigration route.

Whether it was three weeks ago, a year ago, five years ago, or even more than twenty years ago, everyone chose the Yukon. They left France, Belgium, Quebec or elsewhere to settle here, and their testimonies will respond to each other for more than two hours and feed the acting of the actors. In the front row, Pamela’s words set the tone.

” We are not sure that the country in which we want to live wants us. »

Behind these words, there is the request for permanent residence for her and her companion. This task, strewn with complications of administrative meanderings and often drowned in uncertainty, can seem insurmountable and generates many frustrations. When we travel, we make the choice to leave, but afterwards we are no longer sure of anything. We live in the uncertainty of being able to stay, she adds. His testimony resonates in the rows, because many are those who experience the same anguish or have gone through it.

” There is a huge difference between rhetoric and the reality behind it. »

Florian, he sympathizes. If he says he passed between the cracks arriving at a period when it was easier to obtain permanent residence, he saw the same nets close later in Quebec. The government changes and decides to put a spoke in our wheels, he said, in reference to the Legault government’s 2018 measures blocking immigration. He sees it as a form of contempt. As the testimonies progress, the basic question emerges: why does a country that seeks so much to welcome immigrants persist in erecting so many barriers?

A few seats further back, Davie explains that she cannot obtain the equivalence of diploma necessary for her studies to be recognized in Canada and for her to be able to practice her profession. A little further on, Steve is in the same situation and must fight to assert his experience and be paid at his fair value.

From testimony to improvisation

Between the testimonies, the improv players play. They alternate between interpretations of feelings, emotions, and little sketches that are alternately moving, funny, often satirical. When it comes to representing this accumulation of constraints of the immigration process that weigh on newcomers, actor Philippe Lo Bianco creates the character of a government agent and surrounds his colleague, Alexandre Guérette, with scarves tied at the to each other who gradually suffocate him to the rhythm of trick questions.

It’s peculiar, it’s a lot out of our comfort zoneconfides improv player Alexandre Guérette. Improv is still improv so you never really know what’s going to happen, but this is improv with people’s stories so you have to respect what they say, their words, their emotions, and find balance.

Nor should we try to interpret what people say.adds the other player Marie-Claude Desroches-Maheux.When we do classical improv, we have almost infinite freedom, there we have a framework to respect.

Fights of which Canadians are not always aware

For their performance, the actors had to listen carefully to the testimonies, and beyond the work of their improvisation, these Canadians discovered an unknown facet of their country.

It opened my eyes to this, recognizes Marie-Claude Desroches-Maheux. I realized that maybe I was underestimating the obstacles that Europeans could experience in Canada.

” It broke my heart a bit to know that people came here to experience something new, something beautiful, and then in the end they had so many pitfalls that some ended up leaving. »

Christophe, a Canadian, takes the floor. I’m sorry for everyone. By discovering these fighting immigrants, noting their resilience in front of injusticehe thinks of the government of his country and launches You are cellars to make them toffer [endurer] that.

To lead this exchange and the theatrical creation that accompanies it, the small improv troupe is accompanied by Lydia Desjardins-Duchesne, an artist and social worker.

” I felt there were a lot of systemic issues in the migration journey. »

This workshop made it possible to open up a space for discussion and to bring the community together around this common issue. It makes it possible to collectivize the problems and to have a pooling effect on what is felt or experienced. This is very important, because it reminds us that we are not necessarily alone in the processes, the obstacles, or the joys that we can experience.

For the people who are here, and for those who will follow

In the audience, the testimonies particularly affect the one who is at the origin of the project. Grégory Torres is one of those who have come up against the harsh reality of immigration. Arrived a year ago from France with for life project to settle in the Yukon permanentlyhe and his family will finally be making the trip the other way in a few weeks.

” This project, for me, was the small stone that I wanted to leave, for the people who are here, and for those who will follow. »

The dream has become a hassle. Despite the joys encountered, there were nevertheless great sufferings which take well to the gutshe confides. I don’t think anyone deserves that, so before leaving, I wanted to do something constructive with it.

Seeing the emotion, the laughter and the common reflection born of this project, he hopes that it will not stop there. All these stories they detonatehe said and that’s what we have to move on, relying on all the other things which are positive. The community now needs to take hold of what exists to change services, mentalities he concludes.