some thoughts on Michel Labrecque’s press conference.
I wanted to just leave a few quick thoughts, or general impressions, from today’s press conference by Michel Labrecque. I will try my best to be generous, fair and objective but in doing so it will be impossible to avoid at least a little bit of criticism.
First, I find it somewhat shocking that Michel Labrecque decided to invite the press to hear his plans for our beloved green space, but he didn’t think to invite, or at least inform, the Mile-End Citizens Committee.
Perhaps he is unaware that the Committee continues to work on documenting a citizen-led vision on the preferred future of the field? If so, the Committee will need to clarify that soon.
He did, however, reference repeatedly that his plans are influenced by the consultative process initiated and carried out by the Mile-End Citizens Committee. But again, his reference is a bit out of date since the committee has done quite a bit more work since the Citizens Forum of April 26th, 2009.
Regardless of the possible lapses in communication, it does seem incongruent to talk so much about working with the community, but to fail to invite them to an important announcement. Or, knowing that there exists so much interest in a place, to not ensure in a more open and collaborative way that his message is clearly communicated with those who are most interested (i.e., the citizens who live here). And, especially since much of what he said would probably please many of these citizens (see videos below, here, here, here and here).
Second, there was a strange “tone” to the press conference with respects to the presence of citizens. Marc Garneau (I believe his name was), Michel Labrecque’s public relations person, made it clear that they would accept questions from the press first, and only after the press was done would citizens be permitted to ask questions of Union Montréal’s candidate for mayor.
Now, I know this was a “press” conference, but this way of approaching things, and the manner in which it was communicated, was quite off-putting.
More than simply being unaware that even citizens are part of today’s media, what disappointed me the most was the apparent lack of respect on the part of Michel Labrecque and his team for the questions of the citizens who live here.
Why would the media have better questions then we do, for example? His policies will affect us the most, so why wouldn’t our questions be at least equally important to hear and diffuse to the public at large? Why wouldn’t the questions of citizens be the better place to start, in fact, followed by the professional sagesse of the media to tie up any loose ends?
I can easily imagine the responses to these questions, so I only pose them rhetorically. Personally, I would have chosen a different way to approach the press conference, or at least a nicer way of explaining how things would work.
And lastly, I found Michel Labrecque’s way of responding to questions posed by citizens rather brusque. Perhaps I was the only person to feel this way, but I didn’t find he was listening to the questions posed by citizens closely — he often cut people off before they had finished. I had the feeling that as citizens we needed to hurry to get our questions out or we would lose our chance.
It seemed to be implied that we didn’t understand such complex questions as decontamination, urban design, the life cycle of trees, etc. I felt like reminding him that citizens include biologists, engineers and other professionals. And, artists have incredibly pertinent and intelligent concerns to raise, and important insights to bring to questions of urban design and municipal governance.
Again, maybe I am off-base. It could be that Michel Labrecque is open to all we have to say, and understands intuitively that citizens have a great deal of knowledge and insight to share with their elected officials and public servants.
I am sure he will have many more opportunities to prove me wrong, and set the record straight.
…that being said, what a wonderful press conference. There were more citizens (and citizen journalists!) than journalists!
But what do you expect when you host a party in our much loved backyard?
