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Richard Bugs Burnett 🇨🇦

@bugsburnett

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⚾ Writer, journalist, editor, columnist ★ “Mr. Montreal.” – CBC Arts 👠 Divas, baseball & cocktails🍸

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Join us at @paragraphebookstore for the launch of the funny, endearing, queer, witty, surprising, sweet, soaring
IT'S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW
by @jeanmifortier
translated by Jonathan Kaplansky

#queerfiction #translation #montreal #quebecfiction

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#TBT — remember when we did these?

Richard unearthed this photo of a gaggle of Montréal queer troublemakers: ACT UP Montréal stalwarts Michael Hendricks and Paula Sypnowich, Michael’s beloved René LeBoeuf, Richard — Mr. Montréal himself, as christened by the late, great R.M. Vaughan — and apparently… me.

Richard thinks late ’90s.

I’ve been looking at the man-boy behind the shades. And no, this is not a post about the shirtlessness. Behave.

What gets me is remembering everything that kid was already up to. AIDS activism. Community organizing. Pride. Politics. Radio. Comedy. Theatre. Publicity. Making things happen, getting people together, getting into rooms he probably had no business being in, then sitting quietly at the back, listening and studying the room.

Or causing trouble. Often causing trouble.

He had no idea how much life was still coming at him.

Illness slowed me down for a considerable stretch, and lately I’ve found myself getting reacquainted with that guy.

Turns out he never really left.

Still a man-boy. The shades now readers. And he’s still got a hell of a lot to say and give.

And apparently, there’s more trouble to come. Stay tuned.

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This weekend I checked out the superb bilingual exhibition “Active Grieving: The Aesthetic Activism of ACT UP Montréal” (Deuil actif Le militantisme esthétique d’ACT UP Montréal) @memmtl.

The exhibition was developed by the @archivesgaiesduquebec with the MEM Museum’s support, and co-curated by ACT UP Montréal’s official photographer, René LeBoeuf, and queer historian Mark Andrew Hamilton.

Through photographs, activist archives, artefacts and firsthand accounts, the exhibition traces the history of ACT UP Montréal which lasted from 1990 to 1993.

Mark and René (husband of late legendary activist Michael Hendricks) are pictured in Photo 3, at their Saturday panel during The MEM’s 2-day symposium “Community Spatialities, Activism and Politics of Memory: Historicizing and Spatializing HIV/AIDS and the Struggle of Marginalized Groups” that launched the exhibition.

Many ACT UP Montréal co-founders and original members took part in and attended the symposium, including NYC-based design consultant Blane Charles (formerly Mosely). I got goosebumps catching up with Blane on Saturday! (cover photo)

Other pics here of Blane and I date back to Divers/Cité (DVC, Montreal’s original Pride organization) in 1994 on the cover of @fugues.mag with much of the DVC organizing team, in 1995 at Le Boudoir DVC fundraiser, as well as in NYC in March 2010 when I attended my friend & colleague @MichaelMusto’s 25th anniversary Village Voice party co-hosted by Joan Rivers and Michael Urie at the 230 Fifth Avenue rooftop event space which is where I last saw Blane, until this weekend in Montreal!

I’m also pictured at DVC 1996 with late CBC journalist and ACT UP Montréal co-founder David Shannon, and there is a fab group shot at a 1990s DVC Community Day with (L to R) DVC co-founder Puelo Deir, Michael Hendricks, René LeBoeuf, me and my old friend Paula Sypnowich (C) who was a key figure and organizer in ACT UP Montreal.

The must-see ACT UP Montreal exhibition runs at The MEM to February 14, 2027. Free admission.

While there no longer is an ACT UP chapter in Montreal, ACT UP today remains dedicated to their original 1987 slogan: ACT UP! FIGHT BACK! FIGHT AIDS!

#ACTUP #Montreal

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Inauguration of the new naming of the First Nations Garden at the botanical gardens @espacepourlavie

Grandmother Nina Segalowitz @atsak_thrasher opened the press conference.

Went with @bugsburnett ❤️

#espacepourlavie #montreal #bonjourmontreal

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Lunch at Winnie’s Pub with some of my dearest friends, circa February 2026 🥰 @sirwinstonchurchillpub

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🏳️‍🌈 Hudson Pride.

Spent the day at Hudson’s second Pride festival and came away impressed. Small town. Big heart. Exactly the kind of community event that reminds you Pride doesn’t have to be measured in city blocks.

Richard, meanwhile, keeps putting me in front of television cameras. At this point, I’m beginning to think he has a publicist fetish. 😜 Thanks, Global News.

After the festivities, we stopped by my friend Julia’s POP Culture Gourmet Pops. Julia serves up artisanal fruit pops, adult alcohol-infused pops (like Bailey’s or blueberry margarita), dog popsicles, baked goods, and quirky toys. The plan was one popsicle.

I had two.

They’re that good.

One thought for next year: Hudson Pride has all the ingredients to become a full-day destination. I’d love to see the festival spill into the early evening with a concert, drag show or community celebration before everyone heads home.

We tried to catch the reggae concert at Martin Luther King Park afterwards, but after circling endlessly for parking, La Maison du Cari des Caraïbes won. Zero regrets.

Always good to spend the day with Louis-Michel, Buck, Vince , Julia and, of course, Richard… who apparently now doubles as my booking agent.

🏳️‍🌈❤️🍦

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🏳️‍🌈 Rest well, Michael Hendricks. You moved the machinery.
*
I first met Michael at an ACT UP Montréal meeting in 1989. For three decades, our paths crossed, overlapped, and occasionally collided.
*
Michael possessed a formidable political mind. He understood institutions, strategy, and how to turn demands into rights. He also had a habit of deciding you were capable of something before consulting you—like the time he ambushed me in 1993, engineering a vote to make me Executive Director of the Table de concertation. He gave me no choice but to step up, and it changed the course of my life.
*
Our shared history is the history of the movement: AIDS activism, ACT UP, Sex Garage, resistance to police violence, and the struggle for legal recognition.
*
Michael and René fought battles many now have the luxury of forgetting. Rights did not arrive through a natural evolution; people like Michael dragged society forward, kicking and screaming.
*
At Canada Pride in 2017, I was one of the parade’s Grand Marshals. Riding in a golf cart along the route, I spotted Michael standing on the sidelines. I swerved right over, sidled up beside him, and told him to hop on. And he did.
*
It felt only right. Michael had fought for so much of what we were celebrating. There was no leaving a man like him on the sidelines. I’ve always said: you gotta be part of the parade. Michael certainly was.
*
He was brilliant, irascible, strategic, and courageous. An old warhorse: scarred by battles, impatient with cowardice, and always prepared for the next one.
*
You changed the law. You changed Quebec. And you changed those of us who had the privilege of serving beside you. 🕯️
*
Read the unedited tribute on Facebook.

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MONTREAL! Last night’s book signing and Q&A at De Stiil Booksellers was a complete joy. THANK YOU to store owner (and dancing queen!) Aude Le Dubé for celebrating A NIGHT AT THE DISCO and welcoming me to my first book signing in Canada!! Her store is a treasure in the city. I’m so honored that Montreal-based author Christopher DiRaddo led the conversation. THANK YOU Christopher for asking such thought-provoking questions, giving the space for the audience to participate, and promoting the event through The Violet Hour literary series. I’m truly grateful for your support.

Thank you to all the new friends who attended: Gregg, Sabrina, Richard, Aude’s delightful husband Michel, and Tom & Shawn, who were visiting from New Orleans where they’ve enjoyed several of @djsoulsister’s parties! And then there’s Frederick, who walked in because he was curious about the book from seeing it displayed in the store window! A few of us continued the conversation afterwards at @josephine.mtl down the block where Max and Louis took good care of us. In fact, I’d stopped by there before the signing where I met a couple visiting from Ft. Lauderdale. They’re ordering A NIGHT AT THE DISCO from Books & Books where I had my signing back in March! I’m still smiling from all of these conversations and connections …

Next stop: Toronto. See you Thursday!

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@fringemtl vs #dragqueens

#supportlocaldrag #fringemtl
#montreal #bonjourmontreal

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Soirée mémorable au bal du Musée McCord hier soir 🥂✨

@museemccordstewart #mtl #mtlmoments #bal #friends

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A warm thank you to @bugsburnett for sharing this photo with us!

How wonderful it is to see Lucky in his @ziggymarley t-shirt with his arms around the people who made his career possible - the fans! #luckydube #reggaemusic #reggaemusicforever

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The Burnetts!

Bugs, Carol and Diamond Lil backstage at Theatre St-Denis in November 2017.

The pop icon (born April 26, 1933) turns 93 today. Happy Birthday Ms. B!

When I interviewed Ms. Burnett (“Call me Carol”) a couple weeks earlier, I explained to her that when people ask me how to spell my family name (which happens often in Quebec where people commonly mistake “Burnett” for “Brunet” or “Brunette”) I always reply, “Burnett, like Carol.”

Whereupon, without missing a beat, Ms. Burnett cracked, “From now on, when people ask me that question, I’ll tell them ‘Burnett, like Richard!’”

#CarolBurnett @itscarolburnett @espace_st_denis #Montreal

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