by David Fennario

I met Madeleine Parent three times

First time during the Oka Crisis
It was the night the troops moved in on the barricades at Kanewake with armed intent
When the news flashed hundreds of us sat down on the street in front of the Hydro-Quebec building,expecting the riot squad to arrest us at any minute
Madeleine was sitting quite close by me,a woman then in her seventies
People were scared,I was scared
Madeleine's face didn't even change

PHOTO :: Madeleine Parent and Clémence Desrochers at the launch :: by Renaude Grégoire

Second time in 2005 at a lancement of Anna Kruzynski's book on community organizing in the Pointe
As an invited speaker I later met with Madeleine and we spoke for the first time
Told her I was a maudit bloke de souche like Kent Rowley and she laughed
She was far from being some kind of uptight doctrinaire,humourless and puritanical
It was her love of life that made her such a good fighter

PHOTO :: David Fennario doing a reading from the book with Diane-Marie Racicot from La Marie conteuse :: by Renaude Grégoire

Third time in late winter of 2011 when Martin Duckworth took me to see her in her nursing home
Single room simple with bed table,computer and photos of comrades and union mates on the walls along with souvenir posters of past struggles
She had just about lost all long term memory but still clear in her mind in the moment
One good look into her eyes and you knew that this woman with her serene smile was still that woman that backed down Maurice Duplessis himself
Just a few years before at the age of 87 she had organized the patients in the home against an All Lights Out At 10:00 O'clock restriction
She won

She went out fighting

Salut Madeleine salut comarade

Solidarité,
David Fennario