Bado: the Francophonie Through Pencil Strokes (Documentary)

Description: An animated slideshow appears on the screen. It features illustrated caricatures on a white background. There is a smiling man wearing a green and white Franco-Ontarian t-shirt. The Vanier Museopark logo appears in the center.

[Text on screen : Muséoparc Patrimoine]

Description: The page turns, revealing a black and white comic-strip-style layout composed of several thumbnails. These feature past caricatures, the names of newspapers Bado has worked on, and a photo of the artist. This thumbnail gives way to a video showing the artist sitting at his desk in a bright room and speaking to the camera.

When I was a kid, Tintin was all the rage. I just wanted to draw comic strips. I ended up studying applied arts, and worked on a youth perspectives project, so I did things like an animations and a comic strip. Caricature came later. I spent a year in Europe, because I really wanted to see Paris. My grandparents always had a map of Paris and lots of other things, and they told me all sorts of stories. It was when I returned from Europe that the opportunity presented itself to do caricatures for the Gazette. I would go to interviews with the journalist and sketch the person they were interviewing.

Description: Article from The Gazette with a cartoon by Bado.

[On-screen text: Hedlund: happy to be back in Canada, The Gazette, October 4, 1972.]

Description: Cartoon of Bernard Lavigne.

[On-screen text: Bernard Lavigne, Filling the gap between schools, industry, The Gazette, January 10, 1973.]

Description: Article from The Gazette with a cartoon by Bado.

[On-screen text: Mahaffy: 35 years in Salt mines, The Gazette, October 18, 1972.]

Description: Caricature of Pierre-Eliott Trudeau in front of his bathroom mirror, brushing his teeth.

[Text on screen: Will Trudeau lose his by-elections…? (Translation) Le Jour newspaper.]

Description: Caricature of Justin Trudeau with his wardrobe of suits in his arms.

[Text on screen: Phew! I saved the day! (Translation) Le Droit, October 21, 2019.]

Description: Back to Bado sitting in his office.

Politics

As a rule, politicians are happy the first time they get caricatured, but less so when it happens too often. In the end, you get very little positive feedback.

Description: Cartoon of Claude Ryan holding a newspaper with the words “Vive Desmarais” written on it, and Paul Desmarais holding a newspaper with the words “Vive Ryan” written on it.

[Text on screen: Ryan and Desmarais, Le Droit, May 13, 1977.]

Description: Cartoon of Pierre-Eliott Trudeau and Robert Bourassa in the confessional.

[Text on screen: Bourassa and Trudeau; “He’s not a clerk yet. Father, I accuse myself of having chatted to St. Pierre. That’s fine, but don’t talk to him about October.” (translation) Le Droit, October 28, 1977.]

Description: Cut back to Bado sitting in his office.

The only strongly negative one was from John Baird, during the Mike Harris Government. I have to say, I wasn’t even hard on Baird. In fact, it was a positive drawing. I had drawn every member of the Harris Government at the time, depicting them all as members of the KKK. All except Baird, who had a paper bag over his head. And the caption could have been worse.

Description: Cartoon of John Baird, with a bag over his head, sitting at the ministers’ table between two KKK members.

[Text on screen: Minister of Francophone Affairs. It could be worse! (Translation) Le Droit, December 8, 1999.]

Description: Cut back to Bado sitting in his office.

It could have been worse since he could have been a member of the KKK as well, but it was labelled Minister responsible for Francophone Affairs. I think the only reason he was appointed Minister responsible for Francophone Affairs was because he was the only one who spoke French. You might say okay, but normally an anglophone minister who speaks French is still an anglophile, rather a francophile, but as we saw with Montfort that was not the case here, because he didn’t really defend it. He never defended francophones.

Description: Caricature of Gisèle Lalonde, holding a Franco-Ontarian flag, guiding the way for the Franco-Ontarian revolution. A pastiche of a painting from the French Revolution.

[Text on screen: Le Droit, July 30, 1998.]

Description: Bado turns over the caricatures one by one, forming a pile.

Description: Cut back to Bado sitting in his office.

The art of caricature

We’re always looking for reference points in the physiognomy of a person’s face.  The corner of the mouth is the middle of the eye, the width of the head is around five eyes. One eye, 2 3 4 5, that’s the width, the length of the nose, in any case, there’s always several reference points like that. I think there are several elements in a good caricature.

Description: Cartoon of the Saguine, mopping a floor.

[Text on screen: Reciprocity, Saccordjé! I think there’s a lot we could talk about together… (Translation) Le Jour Hebdo, August 5, 1977.]

Description: Cartoon of Robert Bourassa.

[Text on screen: Bourassa clarifies his position. (Translation) Le Droit, November 25, 1991.]

Description: Cartoon of two Smurfs arguing in front of a stop sign that says Smurf.

[Text on screen: Le Devoir, February 1, 1979.]

Description: Cut back to Bado sitting in his office.

First comes the drawing, the resemblance, then the statement, the relevance, whether the drawing really hits home, and then there’s the humour, whether it makes you laugh. Every artist embodies these three qualities: resemblance, accuracy of the statement, and irony, but all three in different proportions.

Description: Caricature of the characters Mix and Remix, two simple silhouettes representing a police interrogation.

[Text on screen: Where were you on the… On Facebook! (Translation)]

Description: Caricature of the characters Mix and Remix, two simple silhouettes talking at a table.

[Text on screen: The USA is spying on us…at least Obama listens to me… (Translation)]

Description: Caricature of the characters Mix and Remix, two simple silhouettes leaving a work meeting to enter a group therapy room.

[Text on screen: Work meeting, group therapy (Translation)]

Description: Cut back to Bado sitting in his office.

One artist, who goes by the name Mix and Remix, uses only curves and then sticks for limbs. At first you think wow does he ever not know how to draw, except he’s so freaking funny! My main audience is me, I’ve gotta be happy with my own work to be able to, first, defend it, and second, present to the editors.

Description: Caricature of an Indigenous woman with her baby in front of a clear-cut forest.

[Text on screen: One day, my son, all this will be yours! (Translation) September 22, 1988]

Description: Caricature of the Earth in the image of an apple core.

[Text on screen: July 4, 1988]

Description: Cut back to Bado sitting in his office.

If I like the drawing, there’s a chance others will too. When I first started out, I was able to make literary references. I could depict Alice in Wonderland. You use both characters. Just try and use the Gordian knot today: nobody would know what you’re talking about. Once upon a time you could use Roman legends and mythology, the road to Damascus, but not so much any more. At some point, there was a shift towards movies, and everyone could connect with a popular movie. I remember being at the salon of cartoons in Montréal one year, when every drawing exhibited was a variation on Jaws, with characters or whatever. But the problem is that now, we have so many movies or TV series, you can’t assume everyone has seen a particular one. You can refer to Unit 9, District 31 or things like that, but as soon as you get into more specialty channels, or Netflix series, etc., you’re likely to lose a lot of people. There are fewer common references. That’s why I try to avoid things like that.

Description: Two superimposed caricatures of two bus crashes.

[On-screen text: Swift Current’ Broncos, 1986. Humboldt’ Broncos, 2018. I really don’t get it. Ark, bad taste. Not cool at all. Wow. Angry emoji (Translation)]

Description: Cut back to Bado sitting in his office.

The scandal

Ah, the bus. That infamous bus. My God, that was scary. I remembered the Bataclan. Among the interviewees,  I think it was a police officer, he reported that they walked into the hall, and there were bodies everywhere, and everyone’s cell phone was ringing because people were trying to reach their partner or child who had gone to the Bataclan that night, and now they weren’t answering. They were all trying to find out if they had made it out. A lot of people died. The police talked about all the phones ringing. So, I think it was, I can’t remember the name of the event now, it was the hockey team… the Broncos; so a bus full of hockey players getting rammed by a truck, and again there were so many, I think around 30, dead, I don’t know. The whole team was decimated. So, I thought about the Bataclan, with all the cell phones ringing. As it happened, a team, also called the Broncos, had been in another accident 20 years before, but not as many people had died. So, I found a photo of the former one and a photo of the recent incident, and drew them to show the difference between the two, to show that 20 years before, there were no cell phones, there was no ringing.

Description: A cartoon of a bus crash.

[Text on screen: Swift Current’ Broncos, 1986.]

Description: A cartoon of a bus crash.

[Text on screen: Humboldt’ Broncos, 2018. A multitude of beeps and dings. Francopresse, April 11, 2018.]

Description: Cut back to Bado sitting in his office.

And the more recent one…Well, someone took it the wrong way, saying I was mocking the young people. I really don’t see how I was mocking them. I had to explain that the cell phones…, I don’t know. But the fact remains that it was just a commentary on the times to say that the phones were ringing, and indeed, I had the exact number of victims.

Description: A caricature of Pope John Paul II disguised as an Indigenous chief.

[On-screen text: Pope’s Visit to Canada… It’s Gonna Smoke, (Translation), 1984, Éditions Croc. Cartoon censored by Le Droit]

Description: Cut back to Bado sitting in his office.

Censorship

Another time, in the 80s, it was announced that the Pope was coming to Ottawa. Everywhere he went, there was something [a caricature]. In Mexico, it was a sombrero. So, I decided, okay, if he’s coming to Canada, I’ll give him something Indigenous. I thought of feathers, and a belt with arrows, and then there was the cross. Only for the cross, I covered it in black tape, as in hockey. But someone saw it. In the newsroom, everyone thought my drawing was funny, everyone laughed, it was definitely going to be in the next day’s newspaper. Only thing is, the secretary in editing, who was a former nun, was offended, and she called the big boss to complain that it was shocking, that readers… that it was‘nt right for Le Droit to publish an irreverent drawing like that. So, my boss came to see me, and he said ahhh Bado, the drawing planned for the following day wasn’t going in. I asked why, and he told me the big boss put a big X on it. So, I head over to the big boss’ office, I won’t mention his name, and walk into his office and ask him what’s going on. At that point, I think I had been at Le Droit for barely a year. I asked him what the problem was and he said “Mr Bado,  Le Droit does not publish caricatures of the Pope dressed like a savage.” Well, you can imagine how I felt…I thought the ground was going to collapse under me. I said Oh my God, how is that what you…how do you even being to tackle that, and besides, it’s Indigenous. I said OK then…anyhow I swallowed my words. Because the next thing he told me was that if I wasn’t happy, I could just quit. I’d been there for a year, I’d moved, I sure didn’t feel like quitting over a drawing. Still, my boss, who had agreed, decided we’d take the hit, and there would be no caricature. They just squeezed in one more editorial, and there was no drawing. In any case, if anyone wanted to call me, I’d explain what happened. A few months later, maybe a year later because these things are announced well ahead of time, I decided if they didn’t want me to draw the Pope, I would just take my vacation while he was visiting. So, I left on vacation in 1984. I missed the Pope’s visit. I wasn’t there. But I went to Rome, and in the Vatican gift shop, I bought a postcard to let everyone know I was in Rome, and the Pope wasn’t.

Music: Ending credits

Description: We see Bado in the office of the newspaper Le Droit, at his drawing table, at the computer, in the mail room, and outside the newspaper offices.

[On-screen text: Thanks to Guy Badeaux, Aurélie Marié, Yanick Labossière, Sophia Conradie. Music: Cotton Club Electric, Dresden, The Flamingo. Production: Stunik Médias. Muséoparc Patrimoine]