Denise Bombardier is a personality who is often criticized and controversial, and who has never stopped defending our French language. During our interview, I discovered a woman who, contrary to what people think, was not brought up in a bourgeois family. Moreover, one day she said to the author Michel Tremblay in order to illustrate the social class of the family where she lived in the Villeray district: “The sisters-in-law in your room are bourgeois compared to my aunts”. This woman’s sense of humor pleasantly surprised me.
Ms. Denise Bombardier is a proud Quebecer who convinced me that you don’t have to live in France or in a middle-class neighborhood to speak French well. She would like young Quebecers and immigrants to be proud of mastering our French language.
Where did you live in your youth?
Contrary to what people believe, I lived in a working-class environment on rue de Gaspé near Guizot in the same neighborhood as René Angélil. We were not bourgeois, but quite simply, a family that loved and appreciated everyone.
Your father threatened to kill you.
Every evening, when he was sharpening the knives in the cellar, I waited for his threats. He said he was for cutting us with his knives. Fortunately, his anxiety to kill us never overflowed his anxiety to do so.
You believed that all men were superior to your father.
My father was contemptuous. He didn’t buy furniture and we had the family’s used furniture. Besides, I slept in a huge hollow mattress, because previously my uncle who was very heavy slept on this mattress. Fortunately, I believed that other men were superior to my father.
What was your mother’s influence on you?
She wanted me to educate myself to allow me to get away from this lifestyle that felt like a psychiatric home. On the other hand, without the love of my maternal grandmother whom I adored and of my three aunts, I would not have survived my childhood. My father was afraid of them.
Your mother enrolled you in Madame Audet’s school.
It started at the age of 3 and a half with a monstrous Madame, then, at the age of 5, I found myself at Madame Audet on rue Saint-Hubert. For decades, she gave diction lessons to artists, politicians, athletes and ordinary people like me.
You went to the same diction school as Maurice Richard.
The Canadian had sent Maurice Richard, my sporting idol, to take diction lessons. I hear him say in his deep voice: “I AM MAURICE RICHARD”.
You liked hockey.
I will surprise many, but I played hockey and broomball in the streets and alleys of the neighborhood, and dodgeball in the schoolyard.
You were doing interviews with the Rocket and Jean Béliveau.
I was barely 12 years old when I did these radio interviews with them at the edge of the band, during the practices of the Canadian, at the Forum.
Your mother had to take your father’s money without him knowing.
My mother had to steal money from my father’s pockets to buy groceries or, using a knife, take out the money he had hidden between the wall and the “wooden rails”.
The English were defending you in your snowball fights.
I learned to speak English in the neighborhood, and the French-Canadian children didn’t accept that. It’s simple, the English defended me once morest the French [avec son rire communicatif, elle me confie que les temps ont changé depuis cette époque].
Did you play the role of Saint Bernadette?
To play this part in a school play, I had to go to mass every morning to find out who she was. It was so cold, because we were in winter.
The Sisters of Holy Cross have played an important role in your life.
I admired the nuns of Sainte-Croix, because they taught me new words and especially to master the French language. However, I was not afraid to give my opinion, because I was intellectually curious.
Reading was your fantasy world.
In primary school, my imaginary world of reading allowed me to travel to castles, visit different cities around the world and read regarding the French resistance in World War II.
Did you go on vacation with your family?
The fact that my father worked at Trans-Canada Air Lines, which later became Air Canada, allowed him to have free plane tickets for his family. He used this privilege only once. However, he scared me so much.
Why were you afraid?
Every time someone boarded the plane, I was apprehensive, because my father had advised us that if a seat was missing for a passenger, we had to give up our seats. There was no problem, which allowed me to visit New York City.
You were going on vacation to Saint-Martin.
Not in Saint-Martin in the Caribbean Sea, but rather in Saint-Martin, which has now become Boulevard Saint-Martin in Laval. My uncle drove his car, because my father didn’t have a car. The adults were bar-hopping and we waited for them in the car while they got drunk.
You tell me your father was ashamed of you.
One day, I’m on the same bus as him when my own father decides to get away from me. At our stop, he takes an exit and he makes sure it’s not the same as mine. He quickly walks home alone, completely ignoring me.
The worst thing in your life is that your father never called you by your first name.
I chose a job where everyone knows my first name. It’s a victory for me, because I didn’t exist in my father’s eyes.
Your granddaughter made you live an unforgettable moment.
She was barely 4 years old when she said: “You know Grandma, I love the beautiful French language”.
