Nearly 10 years after rail disaster, Lac-Mégantic residents watch new series but some say it's 'too soon'

Emerging from a school auditorium on Monday evening, Yvette Cellard stood in the exact same spot she did nearly 10 years ago.

Cellard awoke to the sounds of explosions on July 6, 2013 and showed up at the local school to volunteer when she heard the news.

That's when a train carrying crude oil crashed into the centre of Lac-Mégantic, Que. killing 47 people in what went down as one of the worst rail disasters in Canadian history.

"I was writing the names of people missing … I was one of the first arriving and we were at the table, right there," said Cellard, pointing to the doors of the school.

On Monday night, she was back in the school and among the group of residents to see the first episode in a limited TV series titled Mégantic for its first public viewing.

Released by Club Illico, the eight-episode series follows the community that was shaken, the lives lost and the people who volunteered to help pick up the pieces. Part of it is based on true stories, while other parts are fiction.

Like many other residents of Lac-Mégantic and surrounding towns, Cellard says she had mixed feelings about the series at first, which has received a significant amount of pushback from residents since its announcement.

Series was 'big issue in town'

Although Cellard was emotional before the film, she says she was glad she saw it.

"Something told me not to go and other things told me I had to go. So I just followed my instinct … I wanted to know if I was able to look at this," said Cellard.

Resident André Tanguay says the series was "a big issue in town," making him and his wife, Diane Boulet, wonder if they should attend in the first place.

"We decided that the best way to do it [was] to go, look at it and then make your own decision on that. We know some people who said 'we don't want to go, we don't want to hear about it' but I think that we have to cope with what happened, we have to look forward and the [way] to look forward is [to] make peace with the past," said Tanguay.

"It's not about making the best movie in town or getting an award, it's about how simple people, working people cope with something that's bigger than them. We are resilient and that's what the whole series is going to be about."

Boulet says she "adored" the humanity that was portrayed in the series, and how it followed individuals' lives — adding that she hopes to recommend it to her group of friends who didn't attend.

But some residents won't be convinced to look at it.

'It's too soon' say some residents

Yolande Boulet-Boulanger is among the group who was against the creation of the series from the start.

Sitting in her home located on the border of Frontenac and Lac-Mégantic, she recalled losing her grandson, Frédéric Boutin, in the tragedy in 2013.

"I have a difficult time talking about him. He was 19 years old… in the peak of his youth," said Boulet-Boulanger.

Her grandson was sleeping in his apartment when the explosion happened. She says he was a "prisoner" in his apartment, trying to get out through the fire escape — his body being discovered outside the building in the alley.

When she heard about the creation of this series, Boulet-Boulanger says her family didn't want Boutin's story to be included.

"It's too soon. It's a bit cruel," said Boulet-Boulanger with a pause. She notes that she didn't appreciate how it is fictitious and questioned the creators' motives.

Donald Stewart, her neighbour and a resident of Frontenac, Que. says he can appreciate the effort put into the series but doesn't see "the sense in it."

"Why don't they just leave it as it is? They are commemorating the 10th anniversary but in 25 years the feelings are still going to be there. I don't see anything good coming out of this," said Stewart.

Five-year project incorporated locals' testimonies

Sylvain Guy, the writer of the series, says he understands residents' apprehension.

"If it were me, well it's hard to say, but I don't think I would have liked to watch it," said Guy, putting himself in the shoes of families who lost loved ones.

Although some will never want to see it, he says he has received positive feedback on how this type of storytelling could benefit families.

"For many people … They wanted people to remember, they wanted to tell their story. That was very important for them," said Guy.

"For instance, I met the mother of a firefighter who committed suicide three months after the tragedy and each time people were talking about Mégantic, it was always the 47 people that died and her son was always left out so she wanted to tell her story."

The project, which took five years from start to finish, incorporated testimonies from families and friends, said Alexis Durand-Brault, the director. He says he heard 40 different stories from people who lost loved ones.

"I could have done 30 episodes," said Durand-Brault, adding that they could only use about 10-15 per cent of what they heard.

"We had to chop some of this stuff up, we couldn't show everything that we wanted but also it would have been irresponsible if we were to have put everything that we heard on the screen because it's very very overwhelming," said Sophie Lorain, one of the producers.

'Trauma-burdened town' supported by social workers

It's part of why public health got involved and deployed social workers to be in attendance on Monday's first screening.

Isabelle Samson, the director of public health for the Eastern Townships, says her team created pamphlets and did research about how best to support residents.

"These things don't happen everyday that a series comes out in a trauma-burdened town," said Samson.

"What the literature tells us is that there's no reason to put a warning and for people not to watch it but we have to give them information to make a clear choice. So that's what we did."

Outside the auditorium, social workers created a welcome space for those needing counselling.

She notes that they expect people to have "strong emotions" watching the show, but should be wary of "red flags" that may be warning signs of mental health stress.

"If you start getting more anxious, stressed and this anxiety lasts way beyond the episode and to the next day and they prevent you from doing the things you are usually able to do, that's another red flag," said Samson, adding that people should be encouraged to view the show surrounded by people who support them and remember that the characters are fictitious.

"Yes, there's a lot of true bits to it clearly, but there's a lot of fictional aspects to it as well so we have to keep that in mind. And that's going to be a challenge to decipher the reality from the fiction."