The resignation of Mr. Venne as communications advisor to the Water Department of the City of Montreal from last fallbut the former artist chose to interfere in another heated public exchange between Léa Clermont-Dion with the political class to “set the facts straight”. “As I wish to speak freely […] I HAD to be able to express myself, so I had to resign,” he wrote on X.
Mr. Venne continues to think that the author “slanderously” distorted his remarks when she stood against him publicly. He had commented on a photo of Ms. Clermont-Dion that had surfaced, accusing her of having her mouth open in the said photo – a “very well-known sexual code”, according to his words at the time.
Mr. Venne also accuses the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, of having joined “the horde”. According to him, she “allowed – or allowed – her photo to be used in a photomontage intended to trigger a slanderous (in the sense of deceitful and misleading) smear campaign against me, in accordance with the cowardly process woke habitual consisting of making statements or innuendoes without there being any possibility of reply and even less of a rational and adult debate.”
In other words, the former City employee did not like that Mayor Plante also denounced Mr. Venne's comments by participating in the #BoucheOuverte movement on social networks, also posing in support of Ms. Clermont-Dion. Ms. Plante had also warned that Mr. Venne would have to meet with the human resources of his administration in this matter.
“It would have been more decent if the mayor, before taking part in this dirty maneuver, had summoned me to hear my point of view,” Mr. Venne said today. “She didn’t. At any event, seeing myself let down by the highest authorities, my choice to resign became inevitable. I didn’t avoid it.”
However, the lyricist behind the song And it's not over of Star Academy is once again the target of a strong reaction from Ms. Clermont-Dion. “Stéphane Venne took a photo of a young author with an open mouth, me, and interpreted it as a sexual invitation,” she wrote in a message published on Instagram on Tuesday. “This type of unedifying rhetoric has a name: slut-shaming. […] So, no, the voices that were raised are not slanderous.”
“Merry Christmas, Mr. Venne. But make no mistake: you won't make us cry today. You are solely responsible for your departure.”
– Excerpt from a publication by Léa Clermont-Dion on Instagram
These are the new developments in this confrontation which will have caused a lot of talk in 2024. Before these events, Léa Clermont-Dion considered Stéphane Venne as a “great lyricist whom I esteem”, but his remarks were, according to her, “pure misogyny and simple.
These new exchanges start from a another public confrontation involving Ms. Clermont-Dionwho addressed the Parti Québécois (PQ) on social networks to condemn comments made by an employee of the office which she considers “defamatory and misleading”.
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