The unusual life of Yves Bélair

Until Sunday, our columnist tells you about the life of Yves Bélair, from his childhood to his death. Suffering from cerebral palsy, he fought for his freedom and inspired everyone who crossed his path, until his last breath.

On this day in February 2016, Yves Bélair is radiant. On that day, UQAM will award, as it does every year, the scholarship that bears its name, the Yves-Bélair scholarship in management science reserved for a student with a disability.

Him, the child born with cerebral palsy in 1954.

Him, who has always had to fight to make his way and his happiness.

Him, the ugly duckling of rue Louis-Veuillot, in the east end of Montreal; he, Yves Bélair, whom nothing intended for studies, but who nevertheless did two baccalaureates at UQAM by typing his work with a single finger on the typist, in addition to getting a job there…

Well, he, Yves Bélair, that day, was celebrating the unthinkable: the 25^e anniversary of scholarships bearing his name AND the 100th scholarship awarded since 1991.

In the photos of this ceremony, a lady with white hair. Henriette, his mother. When her little Yves was born, the doctor said to Henriette: “He will never do any good. You should place it. It would be surprising if he turns 40…”

And there, 62 years later, his little Yves awarded the 100^e scholarship bearing his name, for students like him who are less and less now thought that they will “do no good”…

Did Henriette have a thought for this doctor?

I don’t know, she died in 2018. I couldn’t interview her. But I like to think that Henriette silently dismissed that doctor who had suggested placing her son.

Today, tomorrow and Sunday, I tell you about the unusual life of Yves Bélair.

Imagine an alley full of children, early 1960s. The alley between rue Louis-Veuillot and rue Boileau, in the East, in this corner of the Mercier district where the Cadillac metro station will be inaugurated 15 years later.

In the alley, little Yves Bélair has just fallen. Yves fell all the time, walking, running, pedaling on his adapted tricycle…

One of his friends, his best friend and protector, Pierre, runs to help him get up: it was his mother, Fernande, who had told her four sons: when Yves falls, you help him get up…

But Henriette, from the balcony of a second floor, forbids Pierre to help her son to get up: “Are you correct, Yves? Well yes, you are able to get up. Come on, get up! »

Henriette must have known that to make her way in life, her little Yves would have to learn to get up.

In the alley, everyone loves Yves. The child has an ability to make friends, an asset that will never leave him. In the alley, several of them take this endearing ugly duckling under their wing. Pierre’s mother welcomes Yves to her table. Fernande calls her “my dear treasure”, like everyone she loves.

Today, we would speak of “integration”. But in 1962-1963, in the alley, integration, it was this boy, Pierre, who imposed little Yves on the others in ball hockey games.

Of course, Yves can’t hold a stick and slap the ball.

But he can stand in front of goal and act as a keeper, right?

Yes, Yves can do that.

So Yves is the goalkeeper, integrated into the game.

Remember this first name, Pierre, I will come back to it on Sunday.

Yves Bélair has an unusual ability to make friends, I said. Take Olivier Bédard. In 2006, a student at UQAM and poor like Job, Olivier needed a little job.

“Go see Yves, suggests his sister, Julie.

“Ives?”

“Yves Bélair, he’s the one who hired me to supervise the exams at the School of Management…”

When Olivier found Yves Bélair’s office, he recognized this little gentleman whom he had seen a hundred times in the Judith-Jasmin pavilion without really noticing him, this man in a suit and tie, briefcase in hand, walking very very quickly, like a Terry Fox plugged into the 220.

” How can I help you ?

“I need a job…”

An hour later, Olivier was hired as an exam supervisor in Yves Bélair’s team. They would become friends.

And 17 years later, in 2023, they still are.

Imagine a life where every minute an obstacle arises.

That’s the life of a disabled person like Yves Bélair. The stairs, the bus, the metro, making yourself understood by others, being looked at by others, being seen only as “handicapped” or even “retarded”, getting hired, getting dressed, tying your shoes, going to the bathroom, ordering a sandwich at the restaurant…

Everything, absolutely everything is complicated, because of cerebral palsy, a motor disorder that affects movement, posture, coordination. Everything was complicated in the life of Yves Bélair.

Brigitte Groulx, who was Yves Bélair’s boss at UQAM before becoming his friend: “You have to have the head of a mule. And Yves has the head of a mule…”

I ask her what charmed her, in Yves, so that she is still his friend, 37 years after their meeting, in 1986.

Yves Bélair never accepted “no” as an answer, his friends Olivier and Brigitte explained to me. He always refused to take paratransit – “It’s for the disabled”! — and he always insisted on taking public transportation. He even forced the STM to move a stop to bring him closer to his home, to this condo building where he lived with Henriette…

Olivier Bédard: “Yves, he has the face of a pig. But at the same time, to have the life he had, to have the autonomy he had… You have to be stubborn. And above all… he is so endearing, my Yves! It attracts people. »

Before UQAM, Olivier explains to me, he had never rubbed shoulders with a disabled person in his life. “There just weren’t any in my area. Often they have their own schools. So at first, I was uncomfortable with Yves… It was very confrontational. But 17 years after our meeting, it’s one of the best things in my life…”

The Yves-Bélair scholarship in management science reserved for a student with a disability, we must come back to this. Throughout his life as a fighter, Yves found the strength to give, to give back.

It was in 1991, it was before the major inclusion policies, Brigitte Groulx reminds me, it was before a culture of integration began to take root in society: “He’s the first, who knocked on every door. Who asked everyone around him to donate. In addition to being the most generous donor for scholarships, from his salary from UQAM…”

At all the doors? To finance the scholarships, Yves Bélair was very insistent, asking everyone around him, almost to the point of harassment. He put a lot of money, his money, into the kitty, too. He was keen on these scholarships.

Sylvain LeMay, UQAM employee, recipient of two Yves-Bélair scholarships, now university employee: “Think about this: Yves had a good salary, good conditions, at a time when very few people lived in disabilities were integrated into the labor market. And he said to himself that he was going to help his fellow men. In a context where people like us are always wondering if they will have enough for their old age, for special care. It is a gesture from the heart. »

Brigitte Groulx, again, on this scholarship soap opera: “Her generosity was incredible. Giving back is in him. »

And in 2023, 22 years later, if you have to score the races, the Yves-Bélair scholarship has been awarded 134 times, for a total of $142,100. Yves Bélair has therefore spent his life falling and getting up again. And as he got up, he found the strength to reach out to his fellow human beings more than 142,000 times…

I write these words and I think of Yves who, in one of the photos of the scholarship awards in 2016, hugs a young woman in a wheelchair.

Her name is Julie from L’Étoile Lapointe, she also lives with cerebral palsy, she is the daughter of a friend, Alain Lapointe. In Julie’s name, Yves Bélair created another scholarship for handicapped children at the Victor-Doré elementary school.

Today, I told you a small part of the unusual life of Yves Bélair, a man prisoner of his body, who always fought for his freedom.

Saturday and Sunday, in The PressI tell you the last months, the last weeks, the last days and the last hour on Earth of Yves Bélair.