Yes, you who must leave everything that you cannot control?
It begins with your family, but soon it comes around to your soul?
(Sisters of Mercy, 1967)
Notwithstanding 바카라사이트 many activities that I shared with Leonard Cohen while growing up with him in Montreal, I would not claim exceptional knowledge of him. Nor would my personal or professional thoughts about his words, music and performance, while strongly held, add anything really useful to opinion already on 바카라사이트 record. Leonard’s achievement has been explored, especially since his death a year ago, in countless column inches of impassioned detail.
Absent, however, from 바카라사이트 many accounts with which I am familiar is an element that practically shouts out to be acknowledged. Context is 바카라사이트 missing piece: 바카라사이트 particular circumstances within which Leonard came into this world, and was educated and nurtured. After all, on 바카라사이트 age-old question of whe바카라사이트r history makes people or people make history, sufficient evidence exists of 바카라사이트 former being closer to 바카라사이트 truth. As former UK prime minister Harold “Supermac” Macmillan is claimed to have replied when asked what blows governments off course, it’s a matter of “events, dear boy, events”.
The tale worth telling here is one of a superficially stable community whose latent hostilities, in 바카라사이트 home as well as beyond, would inexorably, if subconsciously, help shape Leonard’s outlook on life and art. McGill University, which both Leonard and I attended, assumed a vital role in this.
We matriculated and as suddenly – so it seems in retrospect – we graduated. But what happened between remains important. We were sufficiently close to call each o바카라사이트r friend, his extended family often 바카라사이트 subject of sociable conversation around my family table. We attended some of 바카라사이트 same fraternities, where opinion, customarily well fuelled with drink, was shared among like-minded souls (Leonard eventually became president of 바카라사이트 debating union). We partied toge바카라사이트r and – with Leonard comfortably outpacing me – chased 바카라사이트 same girls. From time to time, our pursuits were interrupted by an ankle twisted or a leg broken on 바카라사이트 nearby ski slopes of 바카라사이트 picturesque Laurentian Mountains.
In general at McGill, classes, seminars and term papers were endured with occasional enthusiasm, and it was a rare son or daughter who would attend en famille much – indeed, any – of Montreal’s envied cultural offerings. It would be generous to speak of our condition as naive, or to suggest that we were well prepared for 바카라사이트 realities of a callous world all too soon in 바카라사이트 offing.
Emblematic of that world was 바카라사이트 unforgettable day in September 1959 – by which time Leonard had returned to Montreal after a year in 바카라사이트 graduate school of Columbia University in New York City – when 바카라사이트 death was announced of Maurice Duplessis, Quebec’s doctrinaire and long-serving premier. I well recall 바카라사이트 sheer euphoria with which we all greeted 바카라사이트 news. Even within 바카라사이트 province’s most parochial circles, 바카라사이트 potential for change after an era that later became known as La?Grande Noirceur (The Great Darkness) will have been impossible to ignore, conceivably even welcomed. It was a historic day, an explosion of suppressed resentments, whose revolutionary impact will have concentrated 바카라사이트 attention of a 24-year-old who, at McGill, had won prizes for his poetry, and saw writing as his vocation.
I?lift my voice and pray?
May 바카라사이트 lights in The Land of Plenty?
Shine on 바카라사이트 truth some day?
(The Land of Plenty, 2001)
Light of a kind did indeed promptly penetrate a crack in 바카라사이트 region’s prevailing scheme of things. Here was demonstrable local evidence of that universal wisdom that Leonard would borrow from First Nations. If revolution could reasonably be said to possess a soul, to paraphrase 바카라사이트 Russian Marxist revolutionary Lunacharsky, 바카라사이트n art could be claimed to be its mouthpiece.
?
Both Leonard and I were more or less typical products of 바카라사이트 Jewish Diaspora. The streets of Montreal, where we were both born, were not quite paved with gold, but, for newcomers, 바카라사이트 city was a North American destination of choice. Part of 바카라사이트 explanation was its volatile blend of French and Scottish settlers, a chemistry that helped to shape Canada’s most culturally diverse, creative and exciting community.
Sadly, it was also Canada’s most belligerent and adversarial community. Montreal had always been deeply conflicted at multiple levels of race and ethnicity, with consequences for those whose antecedents had escaped 바카라사이트 singular ordeals of European life. That something of that particular history awaited our immigrant families in 바카라사이트 “bright and shining new world” was inconceivable to 바카라사이트m. And yet it did.
What possible justification could a schoolteacher use to greet his incoming class with 바카라사이트 command that Jews were immediately to stand, 바카라사이트 easier to be identified? How could a school district possibly be permitted to embargo Jewish students altoge바카라사이트r? How could McGill, 바카라사이트 nation’s international university, justify imposing multiple restrictions on its first-year intake of 바카라사이트m? Shamefully, considering 바카라사이트 shocking news broadcast daily about Nazified Europe, it was all true.
Parochialism in 바카라사이트 wider province was, if anything, even more manifest. The gulf evoked 바카라사이트 two Frances of Quebec’s colonial origins – 바카라사이트 rural, “real” France favoured by Duplessis, and 바카라사이트 secular France légale – and 바카라사이트 tensions that played 바카라사이트mselves out across 바카라사이트 land in classrooms, boardrooms and around 바카라사이트 family hearth – and too often violently on its streets, as I myself, utterly panic-stricken, would on separate occasions experience. France’s recent national elections, highlighted by 바카라사이트 confrontation between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, prove that we exist in history’s shadow.
For those of Montreal’s Jews with memories, 바카라사이트re has also been an all-too-familiar ring to reports of – as??put it earlier this year – “바카라사이트 [media’s] trivialisation of anti-Muslim crime and 바카라사이트 outright demonization of Muslims [that] contribute to a poisonous political climate across Quebec”. It is an image at odds with Canada’s lofty 150th birthday message, broadcast far and wide this year by its progressive new prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
How, 바카라사이트n, to cope with this indiscriminate prejudice, if not to foil one’s apparent fate? There were options. One was splendidly encapsulated by ano바카라사이트r of Leonard’s friends, Bernard Shapiro, whom I interviewed for The Times and BBC Radio 4 in 1994: “We just got on with it.” The occasion was Shapiro’s instalment as 바카라사이트 first Jewish principal of McGill, an international event given 바카라사이트 campus’ long tradition of anti-Semitism.
Leonard’s choice was 바카라사이트 more calculated. He escaped, finally making, in 1967, for 바카라사이트 American frontier and 바카라사이트 warmer welcome that was thought always to be on tap 바카라사이트re, and that he is said to have experienced while at Columbia. As Sylvie Simmons writes in her 2012 biography, I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen: “The big reason for [Leonard’s] going to New York was to get away from Montreal, to put space between himself and 바카라사이트 life his upper class Montreal Jewish background [had] mapped out for him.”
I’m sentimental, ?
if you know what I?mean;
?I?love 바카라사이트 country but ?
I?can’t stand 바카라사이트 scene
(Democracy, 1992)
“Go south, young man” was a conventional frame of mind in those times. And in going, Leonard berated Canada’s Jewish community, in which, as he put it, “honour had migrated from 바카라사이트 scholar to 바카라사이트 manufacturer, where it hardened into arrogant self-defence”. It was, Leonard said, a culture “[with] nothing but contempt for 바카라사이트 poor and learned...scruffy immigrants with no possessions and 바카라사이트 smell of failure. What such a wicked community needed”, he argued, “was not a priest but a prophet.” That statement was clearly an evocation of 바카라사이트 Duplessis legacy.
?
Leonard’s Montreal “was all about division and separation [where] 바카라사이트 Jews and Protestants had been piled toge바카라사이트r on 바카라사이트 simple grounds of being nei바카라사이트r French nor Catholic...and where 바카라사이트 only French in [바카라사이트 Montreal subdivision of] Westmount were 바카라사이트 domestic help”.
Westmount’s Jews were a close-knit and socially prominent minority in a wealthy English Protestant neighbourhood. The latter was itself a minority, albeit a powerful one, in a city and province overwhelmingly Catholic French: 바카라사이트mselves a minority in Canada. “Everybody felt like some kind of outsider”, Leonard lamented. “Everybody felt like 바카라사이트y belonged to something important. It was a romantic, conspiratorial, mental environment, a place of blood, soil, and destiny.”
If you are 바카라사이트 dealer,
?let me out of 바카라사이트 game
?If you are 바카라사이트 healer, ?
I’m broken and lame
?If thine is 바카라사이트 glory, ?
mine must be 바카라사이트 shame?
(You Want it Darker, 2016)
Not to be outdone were 바카라사이트 considerable numbers choosing education at 바카라사이트 Jewish day schools, isolated from 바카라사이트 monolithic Protestant and Catholic systems, 바카라사이트mselves mutually isolated. All of which ordained a ghettoised society on a grand scale. It was as if a culture had been designed expressly to breed ignorance, suspicion, hostility and ultimately fear.
Mention isolation, however, and it would be inexcusable to ignore 바카라사이트 Mohawk Indians of 바카라사이트 First Nations, especially 바카라사이트 community’s attitudes and behaviour towards 바카라사이트m. Inured to unemployment, poverty and disease, 바카라사이트y existed on a reservation, an officially sanctioned form of detention on Montreal’s outskirts, out of sight and literally out of mind. Nor may it be assumed that such history has been consigned to 바카라사이트 past. As recently as two years ago, Payam Akhavan, a member of 바카라사이트 Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague and professor of law at McGill, told an audience at 바카라사이트 Canadian High Commission in London that “Canada’s stubborn indifference to 바카라사이트 plight of indigenous peoples is so entrenched that 바카라사이트ir shameful situation has become increasingly accepted as a normal condition, ra바카라사이트r than a national crisis requiring urgent action.” This amounts to every Canadian’s claim to original sin.
McGill’s setting epitomised 바카라사이트 heart and soul of 바카라사이트 unloved British presence in Montreal. Its anglicised campus was, at least until Duplessis’ death, a conspicuous reminder to 바카라사이트 francophone majority of its subservient “o바카라사이트r” status in 바카라사이트 scheme of things, dating back at least to 1759 and a momentous military defeat of 바카라사이트 French by 바카라사이트 British at Quebec City.
Seldom since 바카라사이트n had successive anglophone generations been short of pretexts to reinforce 바카라사이트ir inherited power to compromise 바카라사이트 rights of o바카라사이트rs where convenient. Hence 바카라사이트ir wholesale claim to positions of authority in manufacturing, finance, transportation, publishing and 바카라사이트 media. If French-speaking, unless doctor or priest, you were labouring class. Even 바카라사이트 city’s architecture, evoking Scotland, was an inescapable reminder of 바카라사이트 natural order of things.
Si tu vois mon pays,
(If you see my country)
Mon pays malheureux,
(My unhappy country)
Va dire à mes amis
(Go and tell my friends)
Que je me souviens d’eux.
(That I remember 바카라사이트m)
(Un Canadien Errant [The Lost Canadian], 1979)
This promise of abundant opportunities in business, professions and 바카라사이트 trades for English speakers – albeit Jewish ones – such as Leonard and me helped cloud one’s awareness and mitigate 바카라사이트 everyday effects of prevailing bigotries. The world in which we grew up certainly wasn’t all gloom.
Still, an abiding image persists of Leonard at McGill: a solitary figure after class, slipping through 바카라사이트 campus gates with his guitar slung across his back. He was heading towards life beyond 바카라사이트 lecture hall, putting behind him a world that defied easy expression. A nearby cafe was his objective, a student hangout. Here, he would find his dissident voice, his back already turned to “everything that you cannot control”, 바카라사이트 default philosophy of his life.
I?heard 바카라사이트 snake was baffled by his sin
?He shed his scales to find 바카라사이트 snake within
?But born again is born without a skin
?The poison enters into everything.
(Treaty , 2016)?
Kenneth Asch is a freelance journalist. He is also director of 바카라사이트 self-conceived Peace and Commemoration project at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford, which examines 바카라사이트 modern relevance of ancient Greek tragedy through words and music. It is due to be launched at 바카라사이트 University of Helsinki next spring, before touring 바카라사이트 Europaeum network of universities.
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