Why the president of Shopify is moving to Montreal, why he thinks it’s one of the most entrepreneurial cities in the world and why he believes it has a unique opportunity to become the most important cultural hub in North America.
An interview with the Quebec comedy star ahead of his one-off English-language show at Just for Laughs on July 26.
“One can and should criticize the protocol itself, but this was never a story about an English hospital refusing to serve a patient in French, no matter how irresistibly sexy those headlines might be for the Journal de Montréal.”
“Watching the Netflix documentary was deeply satisfying, but it was also a jumble of so many other things: nostalgic, joyful, entertaining, painful, tugging at my heartstrings and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. Was there really ever a time when all that neon, hairspray and tiny shorts were considered sexy?”
From Florida doctors gaining the right to refuse treatment to LGBTQ+ people to Canadian columnists expressing outrageous anti-trans views and residential-school denial, conservative “moral panic” has set in, to the detriment of minorities and marginalized communities.
“Mass drownings at sea are to the EU what mass shootings are to the U.S. Every time it happens, politicians pretend to be concerned, yet keep in place the policies at the root of the problem. So, people keep dying.”
“We’re here, we’re people with disabilities. And we’re part of this city, too.”
“For a theatre buff like me, the Fringe creates incredible amounts of joyous stress. The adrenaline rush of 90+ bilingual shows at my fingertips, coupled with a very tiny window in which to see them all, is enough to make my poor brain short circuit. I don’t like the angst, but also, I kind of do?”
“Travel done right, with a genuine interest in the local culture, different ways of life, different choices made, can help you re-examine your implicit biases and blind spots, your assumptions, your singular stories. Travel done right expands your world.”
“What Sugar Sammy’s harshest critics resent about him, a poster child for Bill 101, is that his ability to speak impeccable French hasn’t automatically translated into his miraculous transformation into a version of a Quebecer they want to see materialize.”
