On November 2, the Quebec-based television channel, Historia, will be featuring Saint-Anicet on its program, Secrets de villages. In a press release, Historia relays that “Everywhere in Quebec, in the depths of the villages, mysteries are hidden: unsolved mysteries, legendary characters, surprising rumours, and unusual places.” The channel goes on to say, “With Secrets de villages, the host, Luis Oliva, invites you to visit regions of the province to delve into these ancient or more recent stories that feed the collective imagination.”
In each episode, local people will tell the tales of their regions. In the episode Sarcophage, croix gammée, et village fantôme, Oliva will be talking about the abandoned village of La Guerre, as well as underwater attractions in Saint-Anicet. Underwater videos made by Ormstown’s Serge Tremblay will be featured in this episode.
Tremblay has been taking underwater videos for about three years, which is around the time he started scuba diving seriously. He had previously taken a scuba class in CEGEP, but three years ago he became a certified diver and immediately bought a camera to film what he saw while diving. “I wanted to show people, since not everyone does scuba diving. People are always surprised at what’s in the St. Lawrence River.” He says that there is much that can be seen underwater in Quebec, from airplanes to parks to unique kinds of fish.
Underwater at Saint-Anicet there is an airplane from the Second World War. Tremblay explains: “The man who owned the plane before asked to have his ashes underwater, so under the plane there’s cement with his ashes and a cross.” The episode of Historia will feature a 10 to 15-second clip from Tremblay’s YouTube channel, and based on the episode description, the clip will be highlighting this cross.
It was the producers of the show who reached out to Tremblay when they saw his videos online; they asked if they could have the rights to use his videos. This was not something he was expecting. “I’m more surprised than anything … I don’t have any professional material to make videos!” He was shocked, considering the much more professional videos he has seen made with equipment that costs thousands of dollars. He says, “It’ll still be really cool to see my videos on TV.”
