Hon. René Cormier: Colleagues, I wish to extend my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Honourable Claudette Bradshaw, an Acadian and Canadian politician who inspired us all.

Honourable senators, as Francophonie Month wraps up, and knowing that artists play a more important role than ever in our uncertain world, I would like to pay tribute to an Acadian filmmaker and screenwriter who is using her formidable talent to do good work.

Renée Blanchar was the first Canadian woman to attend the famous Fémis school in France, and in 1989, she was the youngest-ever jury member at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

She could have pursued her career in the big city, but after completing her studies, Renée Blanchar returned to her hometown of Caraquet in Acadia, founded a production company and began to produce numerous documentaries and fiction films. Her two latest projects are particularly important to Canadian cinematography.

Driven by her search for truth, Renée Blanchar made The Silence, a National Film Board of Canada production that sheds light on the abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests against young boys in many francophone towns in New Brunswick from the 1950s to the 1980s. In this shattering documentary, men who are now in their fifties offer emotional accounts of the harms done to them by Catholic priests over decades of abuse.

The NFB describes it as follows:

With The Silence, she takes us as close as she can to the humanity of these broken men, revealing the forces that, today as in the past, have the power to unite or divide Acadian communities.

This film lifts the veil of secrecy on unspeakable abuse and suggests that only a national inquiry could truly break the silence surrounding these events that continue to mark our communities.

This remarkable director’s second recent project work is a television series on the life of the fascinating and prolific Franco‑Manitoban author Gabrielle Roy. Inspired by and adapted from the author’s writings, Le monde de Gabrielle Roy unfolds in eight episodes that tell, and I quote:

The coming-of-age story of celebrated novelist Gabrielle Roy, growing up in the family home on Deschambault Street in Saint-Boniface.

This series was shot entirely in Manitoba with a talented cast and crew from Acadia, Quebec and Manitoba.

Gabrielle Roy’s literary output, consisting of roughly 30 novels, collections, short stories and novellas that are at once imaginative, intimate and autobiographical, is now a cornerstone of Canadian literature. To our delight, the talented director Renée Blanchar has brought Gabrielle Roy back to life right before our eyes.

With these two works, Renée Blanchar has offered us something to think about and celebrate during these difficult times. She has given us two invaluable gifts that do us good and help us better understand the country we call home.

Thank you, Renée Blanchar, for contributing so much passion and talent to Canadian film. Keep making films that provoke and move us.

Thank you.