Le Vote du Conseil
The Council Vote
A Montréal neighborhood council debates whether to save an old cinema from demolition, and the vote's outcome is left open.
- civic life
- community
- differing values
Tap an underlined word to see its meaning.
What you'll encounter
- Grammar
- conditionnel for hypotheticals (coûterait, préférerait)
- imparfait/passé composé contrast
- subjunctive-lite after doubt and bien que
- Vocabulary
- civic and municipal vocabulary
- abstract nouns (l'attachement, le compromis, le règlement)
- Skills
- weighing several equally reasonable perspectives without a stated right answer
- recognizing a deliberately unresolved ending
Le Cinéma Royal projetait des films dans ce quartier de Montréal depuis plus de soixante ans, mais la ville avait annoncé, le mois précédent, un projet de démolition pour construire, à sa place, des logements abordables.
Show English
For more than sixty years, the Cinéma Royal had been showing films in this Montréal neighborhood, but the city had announced, the month before, a demolition project to build affordable housing in its place.
Ce mardi soir-là, la salle du conseil de quartier était pleine à craquer, bien plus que d’habitude, et Monsieur Tremblay, qui présidait les réunions depuis des années, savait déjà que le débat serait long.
Show English
That Tuesday evening, the neighborhood council room was packed, far more than usual, and Monsieur Tremblay, who had chaired the meetings for years, already knew the debate would be a long one.
Le conseil de quartier se réunissait dans cette même salle depuis plus de trente ans, d’habitude pour des sujets plus modestes, comme l’entretien des parcs ou les horaires de collecte des déchets, jamais pour une décision qui touchait autant à la mémoire collective du quartier.
Show English
The neighborhood council had been meeting in this very room for more than thirty years, usually for more modest matters, like park maintenance or garbage collection schedules, never for a decision that touched the neighborhood's collective memory this deeply.
Gisèle, qui habitait le quartier depuis sa naissance, a pris la parole en premier, la voix tremblante : elle avait vu son premier film dans cette salle à sept ans, et c’était aussi là, trente ans plus tôt, que son mari, aujourd’hui décédé, lui avait demandé de l’épouser, juste avant le générique.
Show English
Gisèle, who had lived in the neighborhood since birth, spoke first, her voice trembling: she had seen her first film in that theater at age seven, and it was also there, thirty years earlier, that her husband, now deceased, had proposed to her, just before the credits rolled.
Patrick, qui habitait à deux rues du cinéma, a répondu calmement qu’il comprenait l’attachement de Gisèle, mais que le bâtiment coûterait, selon les experts de la ville, plus de deux millions de dollars à rénover correctement, alors que son fils, comme beaucoup de jeunes familles du quartier, cherchait un logement abordable depuis des mois sans en trouver un seul.
Show English
Patrick, who lived two streets from the cinema, answered calmly that he understood Gisèle's attachment, but that the building would cost, according to the city's experts, more than two million dollars to properly renovate, while his son, like many young families in the neighborhood, had been looking for affordable housing for months without finding a single one.
Océane, la plus jeune du groupe à prendre la parole ce soir-là, a avoué qu’elle ne savait pas vraiment de quel côté se ranger : elle aimait l’idée de garder un lieu chargé d’histoire, mais elle connaissait aussi deux amis qui dormaient encore chez leurs parents parce qu’ils ne trouvaient rien à louer dans le quartier.
Show English
Océane, the youngest person to speak that evening, admitted she didn't really know which side to take: she liked the idea of keeping a place full of history, but she also knew two friends who were still sleeping at their parents' house because they couldn't find anything to rent in the neighborhood.
Elle a proposé, timidement, une solution intermédiaire : garder la façade historique du cinéma, par la ville il y a vingt ans, tout en construisant les logements derrière et au-dessus, mais personne, pour le moment, ne semblait sûr que ce soit techniquement possible.
Show English
She shyly suggested a middle-ground solution: keep the cinema's historic facade, which the city had listed as a heritage site twenty years earlier, while building the housing behind and above it, but for the moment, no one seemed sure it was even technically possible.
Un jeune couple assis au deuxième rang, récemment installé dans le quartier, a hoché la tête à la proposition d’Océane, visiblement soulagé qu’une troisième option existe enfin, autre que le choix brutal entre tout garder et tout détruire.
Show English
A young couple sitting in the second row, recently moved into the neighborhood, nodded at Océane's suggestion, visibly relieved that a third option finally existed, other than the brutal choice between keeping everything and destroying everything.
Gisèle a rétorqué que cette idée risquait de détruire le charme du lieu de toute façon, puisqu’un cinéma sans salle de projection n’était plus, pour elle, qu’une coquille vide, bonne à devenir n’importe quoi.
Show English
Gisèle retorted that this idea risked destroying the place's charm anyway, since a cinema without a screening room was, to her, nothing but an empty shell, good for becoming anything at all.
Patrick, agacé, a répondu qu’il préférait une coquille vide utile à une salle vide qui ne servait plus à personne depuis que le dernier film y avait été projeté, il y a presque trois ans.
Show English
Patrick, annoyed, replied that he preferred a useful empty shell to an empty theater that had served no one since the last film had been shown there, almost three years ago.
Monsieur Tremblay, sentant que la discussion tournait en rond, a rappelé que le conseil devrait voter avant la fin de la soirée, comme prévu par le règlement, pour transmettre une recommandation officielle à la mairie avant la date limite du vendredi suivant.
Show English
Monsieur Tremblay, sensing the discussion was going in circles, reminded everyone that the council needed to vote before the end of the evening, as required by the rules, in order to send an official recommendation to the city before the following Friday's deadline.
Avant le vote, pourtant, un homme assis au fond de la salle, que personne ne semblait connaître, s’est levé pour dire qu’il travaillait justement pour l’entreprise qui avait restauré, l’an dernier, un cinéma historique similaire dans un autre quartier, en gardant exactement la façade et en construisant des logements derrière, et que cela avait coûté bien moins cher que prévu.
Show English
Before the vote, though, a man sitting at the back of the room, whom no one seemed to know, stood up to say that he worked for the company that had restored, the year before, a similar historic cinema in another neighborhood, keeping exactly the facade and building housing behind it, and that it had cost far less than expected.
Il a précisé que les travaux avaient duré dix-huit mois, et que les nouveaux logements, une fois terminés, avaient rapidement trouvé des locataires grâce à leur emplacement, juste derrière une façade que les habitants du quartier continuaient de reconnaître avec fierté.
Show English
He specified that the work had taken eighteen months, and that the new housing units, once finished, had quickly found tenants thanks to their location, right behind a facade the neighborhood's residents still recognized with pride.
Cette information a changé l’ambiance de la salle, bien que Gisèle et Patrick continuent chacun de douter, pour des raisons différentes, que la solution soit vraiment adaptée à leur propre quartier.
Show English
This information changed the mood in the room, even though Gisèle and Patrick each kept doubting, for different reasons, that the solution would really suit their own neighborhood.
Monsieur Tremblay a distribué les bulletins de vote, et chacun a inscrit, en silence, son choix entre les trois options désormais sur la table : démolir entièrement, garder le cinéma tel quel, ou tenter le compromis proposé par l’inconnu du fond de la salle.
Show English
Monsieur Tremblay handed out the ballots, and everyone silently wrote down their choice among the three options now on the table: demolish entirely, keep the cinema as it was, or try the compromise suggested by the stranger at the back of the room.
Pendant que les bulletins étaient comptés à voix basse par deux bénévoles, Gisèle et Patrick, assis maintenant côte à côte par manque de chaises, ont échangé un regard qui n’était plus tout à fait hostile, sans pour autant être devenu amical.
Show English
While the ballots were being counted quietly by two volunteers, Gisèle and Patrick, now sitting side by side for lack of chairs, exchanged a look that was no longer quite hostile, without yet being friendly either.
Au moment où les bénévoles allaient annoncer le résultat, Monsieur Tremblay a remarqué qu’il manquait un bulletin par rapport au nombre de votants inscrits, et il a dû, à contrecœur, ajourner la réunion pour vérifier le compte avant de publier quoi que ce soit.
Show English
Just as the volunteers were about to announce the result, Monsieur Tremblay noticed that one ballot was missing compared to the number of registered voters, and he had to reluctantly adjourn the meeting to check the count before publishing anything.
Monsieur Tremblay a promis de convoquer une nouvelle réunion dans la semaine, une fois le bulletin manquant retrouvé ou le vote repris depuis le début, selon ce que le règlement exigerait exactement dans un cas pareil.
Show English
Monsieur Tremblay promised to call a new meeting within the week, once the missing ballot was found or the vote restarted from scratch, depending on exactly what the rules required in a case like this.
En quittant la salle ce soir-là, personne ne savait encore ce que le conseil allait finalement recommander à la mairie, mais pour la première fois depuis le début du débat, Gisèle et Patrick sont sortis ensemble, en discutant du cinéma de l’autre quartier, presque comme deux voisins plutôt que deux adversaires.
Show English
Leaving the room that evening, no one yet knew what the council would finally recommend to the city, but for the first time since the debate began, Gisèle and Patrick walked out together, talking about the cinema in the other neighborhood, almost like two neighbors rather than two opponents.
Show full English translation
For more than sixty years, the Cinéma Royal had been showing films in this Montréal neighborhood, but the city had announced, the month before, a demolition project to build affordable housing in its place.
That Tuesday evening, the neighborhood council room was packed, far more than usual, and Monsieur Tremblay, who had chaired the meetings for years, already knew the debate would be a long one.
The neighborhood council had been meeting in this very room for more than thirty years, usually for more modest matters, like park maintenance or garbage collection schedules, never for a decision that touched the neighborhood's collective memory this deeply.
Gisèle, who had lived in the neighborhood since birth, spoke first, her voice trembling: she had seen her first film in that theater at age seven, and it was also there, thirty years earlier, that her husband, now deceased, had proposed to her, just before the credits rolled.
Patrick, who lived two streets from the cinema, answered calmly that he understood Gisèle's attachment, but that the building would cost, according to the city's experts, more than two million dollars to properly renovate, while his son, like many young families in the neighborhood, had been looking for affordable housing for months without finding a single one.
Océane, the youngest person to speak that evening, admitted she didn't really know which side to take: she liked the idea of keeping a place full of history, but she also knew two friends who were still sleeping at their parents' house because they couldn't find anything to rent in the neighborhood.
She shyly suggested a middle-ground solution: keep the cinema's historic facade, which the city had listed as a heritage site twenty years earlier, while building the housing behind and above it, but for the moment, no one seemed sure it was even technically possible.
A young couple sitting in the second row, recently moved into the neighborhood, nodded at Océane's suggestion, visibly relieved that a third option finally existed, other than the brutal choice between keeping everything and destroying everything.
Gisèle retorted that this idea risked destroying the place's charm anyway, since a cinema without a screening room was, to her, nothing but an empty shell, good for becoming anything at all.
Patrick, annoyed, replied that he preferred a useful empty shell to an empty theater that had served no one since the last film had been shown there, almost three years ago.
Monsieur Tremblay, sensing the discussion was going in circles, reminded everyone that the council needed to vote before the end of the evening, as required by the rules, in order to send an official recommendation to the city before the following Friday's deadline.
Before the vote, though, a man sitting at the back of the room, whom no one seemed to know, stood up to say that he worked for the company that had restored, the year before, a similar historic cinema in another neighborhood, keeping exactly the facade and building housing behind it, and that it had cost far less than expected.
He specified that the work had taken eighteen months, and that the new housing units, once finished, had quickly found tenants thanks to their location, right behind a facade the neighborhood's residents still recognized with pride.
This information changed the mood in the room, even though Gisèle and Patrick each kept doubting, for different reasons, that the solution would really suit their own neighborhood.
Monsieur Tremblay handed out the ballots, and everyone silently wrote down their choice among the three options now on the table: demolish entirely, keep the cinema as it was, or try the compromise suggested by the stranger at the back of the room.
While the ballots were being counted quietly by two volunteers, Gisèle and Patrick, now sitting side by side for lack of chairs, exchanged a look that was no longer quite hostile, without yet being friendly either.
Just as the volunteers were about to announce the result, Monsieur Tremblay noticed that one ballot was missing compared to the number of registered voters, and he had to reluctantly adjourn the meeting to check the count before publishing anything.
Monsieur Tremblay promised to call a new meeting within the week, once the missing ballot was found or the vote restarted from scratch, depending on exactly what the rules required in a case like this.
Leaving the room that evening, no one yet knew what the council would finally recommend to the city, but for the first time since the debate began, Gisèle and Patrick walked out together, talking about the cinema in the other neighborhood, almost like two neighbors rather than two opponents.
Words to know
- classée
- — listed as a heritage site