Montreal puppeteer suing anti-racism group director after blackface controversy

A Black puppeteer based in Montreal has launched a defamation lawsuit against one of the heads of an anti-racism group, a little less than a year after he was accused of depicting a racist character in his children's puppet show.

Last year, during Black History Month, Franck Sylvestre was scheduled to perform L'incroyable secret de barbe noire in several Montreal-area municipalities, including the West Island suburbs of Beaconsfield and Pointe-Claire.

Groups like the Red Coalition and the West Island Black Community Association (WIBCA) called on those municipalities to cancel the performances, stating that Sylvestre's puppet was a caricature of blackface. Blackface is the practice of white performers painting their faces black to portray racial stereotypes of African Americans during 19th century minstrel shows.

Beaconsfield eventually cancelled the show. Pointe-Claire removed it from its official Black History Month programming, but the performance went ahead as planned.

Sylvestre, born in France to parents from Martinique, specializes in telling stories out of Africa and the Antilles. He has maintained that the puppet is a caricature of himself and had nothing to do with blackface.

Last September, Sylvestre sent a formal notice to Alain Babineau, a retired RCMP officer who now serves as the Red Coalition's director of racial profiling and public safety. The artist demanded Babineau publicly retract some of the comments he made about him.

On Wednesday, he filed a civil defamation lawsuit against Babineau seeking $26,000 in damages.

"I thought it would blow over, but there was something inside of me that felt unresolved," Sylvestre told CBC News.

"This is bigger than me. This is something that affects all artists and freedom of expression that we are entitled to and need to have to be able to create."

He said the outcry over the show was "blown out of proportion," by people who had never seen it.

"They never got to see what the purpose was, what message it brought, and they decided that the image was associated to something negative," Sylvestre said. "That's very reductive and I don't do reductive things."

Sylvestre has been putting on the show since 2010. He said last year's backlash has made show organizers reticent about booking him.

Alain Babineau, the director of racial profiling and public safety for the Red Coalition, right, criticized Franck Sylvestre's puppet show last year. Sylvestre now claims Babineau's comments were diffamatory. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

Social media comments at heart of lawsuit

In the court documents filed Wednesday, Sylvestre accuses Babineau of "falsely and deliberately" conflating the puppet with the controversial practice of blackface and doing so "for political reasons."

The lawsuit also said Babineau made defamatory statements during a news conference and on social media that linked Sylvestre to "the submissiveness of Black people to white people, white supremacy and the dehumanization of Black people."

One of Babineau's statements mentioned in the court documents was posted last February on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The message, written in French, described Sylvestre as a "bon noir," an expression that describes a Black person that is deemed acceptable to white people. The court documents state that the expression implies the artist is subservient to white people.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Red Coalition acknowledged the defamation suit and said it stands by Babineau. It also reiterated its belief that Sylvestre's puppet depicts racist imagery that is harmful to the Black community.

"Despite the lawsuit brought against him by Mr. Sylvestre, Mr. Babineau has the full support of the Red Coalition," the statement reads.

"The organization remains steadfast, refusing to be swayed or intimidated by Mr. Sylvestre's actions and the Red Coalition's legal team is prepared to vigorously defend against the lawsuit, which they deem frivolous."

Allison Saunders, a resident who voiced her concerns about the play to Pointe-Claire's mayor last year, said she's disappointed that a lawsuit is the latest step in this saga.

She says artistic freedom doesn't give someone an excuse to use their voice irresponsibly.

"If you're going to bring something to the community, at least listen to what that community has to say about it," Saunders said.

"I can appreciate that this is the first time he's heard this [complaint but]... Never underestimate the wisdom in a room and the things that you haven't heard before."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

(CBC)