French Conversation – Real-life Example 4 From Quebec – Part 1

Ear training for Québécois French conversation

Continuing our series of case studies of real-life examples, here is a real gem from Quebec. This is an unusual recording in which we will hear very different kinds of spoken Québécois French including some raw and rather foul language.

The events are told in the recording. Briefly put, we witness a very rough arrest by the Montreal police. There is lots of shoving, shouting and loud language. At the end, a police officer, unaware that she is being recorded, launches into a foul tirade about what took place and the people arrested. The contents and the language used are very unflattering for the police officer and for the police department. A spokesman for the police department later speaks to the television station.

Why this recording

This recording is a perfect example of different speaking styles in Québécois French. We hear the scripted and impeccable French of the Radio-Canada news anchor in the studio. Followed by the well-articulated French of the journalist covering the story. Then we hear the colloquial French of various of ordinary citizens telling their version of the events. Finally, the little gem is the outstanding real-life example of raw and unscripted street or slang Quebec French mixed with police jargon in the clear voice of a female police officer.

How to use

This part 1 contains the recording, a transcription and a translation. The next blog post, part 2, will have some general comments and then a detailed look at the language. Also, don’t forget to read the post on getting the most out of the real-life examples.

The rate of speaking is very fast. Using the transcript, you will probably have to listen a number of times in small doses and consult the translation.

This excerpt ends at 4:25 of the original recording.

Transcription

-Mais vous vous souvenez peut-être de la policière (1) matricule 728, une policière du SPVM (2) qui était vite devenue – on le (3) voit sur ces images – la tête de turc des étudiants – le printemps dernier (4) en raison de son agressivité, disons, envers les manifestants. Et bien, Stéfanie Trudeau – c’est son nom – est à nouveau impliquée dans une opération controversée. Voici ce qu’a obtenu Normand Grondin. (5)
– Arrêtez de l’étrangler! C’est mon ami. Arrêtez!
– Une arrestation musclée. Quatre personnes arrêtées pour des motifs nébuleux et dans des conditions très pénibles.
– Dégage !
– Ça s’est passé ici rue Papineau le 2 octobre dernier. Rudy Orchietti, un artiste qui habite le Plateau Mont-Royal tenait la porte pour qu’un de ses amis musiciens y entre son matériel audio. Quelques secondes avant, il avait une bière en main. La policière Stéfanie Trudeau arrive sur l’entrefaite. (6)
– Là, (7) elle m’a crié après (8) tout de suite. Elle me dit, ” Toé!” (9) euh…je fais, “Oui, madame.” Elle dit, “Papiers de…papiers de…papiers de…”(10), elle dit “permis de conduire, assurances.”
– M. Orchietti demande pourquoi à la policière. C’est une question de trop. Il est plaqué au sol, menotté.
– Là, elle me pousse. Là, (11) je pense que je tombe ici. Là, elle me pousse encore. Je retombe là. Là, elle me saute dessus, c’est ça.
– Whoa! Calme-toi, la grosse !(12)
– Son ami Serge Lavoie intervient et invective la policière.
– Je suis hors de moi. Là, elle se retourne, elle dit, “Toi, débarrasse ou dégage.” Je sais pas quoi…pis (13) c’est ça que j’ai fait.
– Le reste de la scène est surréaliste. La policière poursuit Serge Lavoie dans la maison et lui enserre le cou.
– Arrêtez !
– Laisse-toi aller. Ça va ben aller.
– Sors dehors.
– Vous n’avez pas le droit de faire ça. Non !
– Non !
– Rassemblées aujourd’hui pour parler de l’événement, les quatre personnes arrêtées sont encore sous le choc. Quant à Serge Lavoie, il dit qu’il a eu la peur de sa vie.
– Là elle commence à me faire la prise du commando, l’étranglement, et ça vient jusqu’en bas, elle me descend là pis plus ça descend, plus elle m’étrangle, plus je…(14) je suis convaincu qu’elle est en train de me tuer.
– Mais ce n’est pas tout. Après l’intervention la policière saisit les téléphones des prévenus mais déclenche involontairement l’un d’entre eux.
– (tabarnak, (15) vous êtes en train de le tuer, tabarnak)
– Voici un extrait de la conversation qu’elle a eue dans son véhicule avec son supérieur.
– Là on a réussi à le menotter, mais là pendant ce temps-là, toute (16) les rats qui étaient en haut dans… les gratteux de guitares, c’toute des ostie (17) de carrés rouges (18) là, toute des artistes astie de, en tous cas de, en tous cas, des mangeux de marde, ben là, y-z ont (19) comme toute commencé à sortir de l’appartement, tsé. (20)
– La policière poursuit en parlant de l’arrestation de Serge Lavoie.
– Là, on… on..(21). je saute sur l’ostie de trou de cul. Là, évidemment, y s’laisse pas faire, là l’encolure ostie, chu (22) en train de l’étouffer, là je me bats avec dins (23) escaliers, on se bat avec dins escaliers. Là tout le monde nous encercle. Tout le monde nous filme, Tout le monde nous crie après. Là, finalement a fallu (24) que j’lève le ton pis j’commence à sauter ma coche pour qu’y (25) sa, se dispersent ou qu’y rentrent vers le haut, tsé.
– Finalement, rendue au poste, Stéfanie Trudeau revient sur l’intervention.
-Même si j’aurais pas été 728, ostie c’est des caves pareil, (26) tsé c’est juste qu’à…y m’ont reconnu c’est ben sûr qu’il m’a reconnue ostie, c’est ben sûr je suis facilement reconnaissable, une fille qui brasse y en a (27) pas 12 000. Je les ai pas poivrés, (28)…ben non mais j’étais sur le bord (29) en tabarnak (30) par exemple, j’étais sur le bord, ça me tentait en crisse, (31) ben je me suis dit là si je le poivre, ça va se retrouver dans les manchettes.
-En tout une vingtaine de véhicules policiers ont participé à l’intervention du 2 octobre dernier. Les quatre personnes, elles, devront comparaître pour intimidation, voies de fait et entrave à un agent de la paix. Et tout ça pour une bière, Normand Grondin, Radio-Canada, Montréal.
– Avec nous en direct, Ian Lafrenière, vous êtes porte-parole du Service de police de Montréal. Monsieur Lafrenière, est-ce que c’est le genre de police qu’on veut (32) à Montréal ?
-Écoutez, (33) ce que je peux vous dire c’est qu’aujourd’hui on a été contactés par votre journaliste et il nous a résumé un peu les propos de la policière à l’intérieur de son véhicule et bien que cette discussion-là ait eu lieu en privé, je peux vous dire que c’est à ce point préoccupant qu’on a décidé à partir de maintenant que cette policière serait retirée des opérations. Donc, elle n’est plus en lien avec la population. Et on a demandé rapidement (34)…la direction a demandé rapidement a ce qu’une enquête interne soit faite pour rencontrer les témoins. Vous savez les gens que vous avez rencontrés en rapp…(35) dans le reportage n’ont pas rencontré les policiers ici. Il n’y a pas eu de plainte en déontologie. (36) Alors, on a demandé rapidement de les rencontrer pour vraiment faire la lumière sur ce qui s’est passé. Mais je peux vous rassurer là que présentement elle (37) est retirée des opérations.

Translation

As always, the translation is not too idiomatic in order to let some of the French phrasing remain. As for translating the Québécois slang, that was a real challenge.

– But you might remember police officer 728, an officer of the SPVM who had become – you can see by these images – the whipping boy of the students, last spring. because of her agressiveness towards, let’s say, the demonstrators. Well, Stéfanie Trudeau – that’s her name – is once again embroiled in a controversial operation. This is what Norman Grondin has to say.
– Stop strangling him. He’s my friend. Stop!
– A rough arrest. Four persons detained for very vague reasons and under difficult circumstances.
– Get away.
– This took place here on Papieau street October 2 past. Rudy Orchietti, an artist living in the Pleateay Mont-Royal was holding the door for one of his musician friends who was moving some sound equipment. A few seconds before he had a beer in his hand. Officer Stéfanie Trudeau arrives in the meantime.
– Then she screams at me right away. She says, “You!” So, I say, ‘Yes, madam.” She says “papers,,, papers…papers.., driver’s licence, insurance papers.
– Mr Orchietti asks the officer why. This was one question too much. He is made to lie down and is handcuffed.
– So, she pushes me. So, I think I fell here. So, she pushes me some more. I fall down here. So, he jumps on me, that’s it.
– Whoa, Calm down fatso.
– His friend Serge Lavoie intervenes and calls the officer names.
– I lost it. So, she turns around. She says, “You, move,” I don’t know,,,so that’s what I did.
– The rest of the events is surreal. The officer chases Serge Lavoie into the house and grabs him by the neck.
– Stop.
– Relax. It will be alright.
– Get out.
– You don’t have to right to do that. No!
– No.
– Gathered together to talk about what happened, the four people who were arrested are still under the shock. As for Serge Lavoie, he says he had the fright of his life.
– So, she starts to put me into the commando hold, strangling me, and we go downstairs , she takes me down and the more we go down the more she is strangling me, ..the more I’m convinced she is trying to kill me.
– But that’s not all. After the operation, the officer confiscates the mobile phones of the detainees but unwittingly turns on one of the phones.
– (goddammit, you’re killing him, goddammit)
– Here is an excerpt from the conversation that the officer has in her squad car with her commanding officer.
– “So, we were able to handcuff him, but then at the same time, all the rats that were upstairs, the guitar scratchers, all a bunch of f**king red squares, all artists,,,all a bunch of shit eaters, then they all started to come out of the apartment, you know.”
– The officer continues talking about the arrest of Serge Lavoie.
– “Then, …I jump on the f**king a**hole. Then, of course, he resists, so, the choke-hold, I’m choking him. I fight with him in the staircase, we fight in the staircase. There, everybody is around us. Everybody is filming us. Everybody is shouting at us. Then, finally I had to shout a bit and lose my temper for people to go away and go back upstairs.
– Finally, back in the police station, Stéfanie Trudeau talks about the operation.
-“Even if I wasn’t officer 728, they are still a bunch of idiots..you know, it’s just that they recognized me..for sure they recognized me…I’m easy to recognize… there are not 12,000 women like me. I didn’t pepper-spray them. ..but I nearly did, f**k, I really wanted to, I was about to. I really f**king wanted to. But I said to myself that if I spray them it will be all over the newspapers.”
-About twenty patrol cars were involved in the October 2 operation. The four persons arrested will have to appear in court on charges of threatening an officer, assault and interferring with an officer. And all that because of one beer.
-Live with us, Ian Lafrenière, you are the spokesperson of the Montreal police department. Mr Lafrenière, is this the kind of police department that people in Montreal want ?
– Well, what I can say is that today we were contacted by your reporter who summarized what the officer had said in her patrol car. And although the conversation was private, I can say that we were so concerned that it was decided that this officer would be removed from police operations. Therefore, she no longer has any contact with the public. And we requested…management requested that an internal inquiry be undertaken to meet the witnesses, You know, the people that you spoke to in your story have not met our officers. There have not been any complaints before the ethics board. So, we want to meet them to shed some light on what really happened. But I can assure you that she (the officer) has been removed from police operations.

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