The entartistes were a Canadian satirical political group, active in the late 1990s and early 2000s, whose members threw cream pies at political and cultural figures whom the group deemed to be in need of public embarrassment. A member of the group, who identified himself only as Pope-Tart, told the Montreal Gazette in 1999 that the group's core philosophy was "You work for us. You can't be too big for your britches or you'll get a pie in the face." Mario Dumont, Allan Rock, Pierre Pettigrew, Jacques Parizeau, Chrétien was successfully pied in 2000 by Evan Brown, a member of an offshoot group in Prince Edward Island which called itself the PEI Pie Brigade.

Criminal charges

While some figures pied by the group accepted the embarrassment in good humour, several others filed charges of assault against the pie-throwers.

Bruno Caron, who had pied Parizeau, faced criminal charges in 1999. He pleaded guilty in 2000, and was sentenced to 60 hours of community service.

Stéphane Dion also pressed charges against the group after his pieing, resulting in convictions of assault against group members Patrick Robert and Benoit Foisy. Both were sentenced to 60 hours of community service. The Globe and Mail subsequently identified Robert as the formerly anonymous group spokesman "Pope-Tart". The shame from the experience led Brown to quit his acting career and move to Halifax, Nova Scotia to become a theater technician, later writing a one-man show about the experience.

References

  • Les Entartistes