A Gatineau area man has found himself unemployed after appearing in a televised interview in which he unabashedly described his love for happy hardcore music, Rave News has learned. Louis St-Ecstase, a 36-year-old Public Relations Agent, was let go from his 5 year position this past Monday, several days after he appeared in a segment on TVA focusing on rave culture in Quebec.

Mr. St-Ecstase was approached by a camera crew and reporter as he was leaving the scene of a rave that was being thrown in an abandoned Best Buy store. When asked about his motivations for attending the event and his feelings towards electronic dance music and the rave scene, he replied, “You know, not a lot of people understand raves, or ravers. There’s a lot of misconceptions that we’re only out here because we hate our lives, and we just want to get fucked up on drugs and drink ourselves to death one weekend at a time, and that’s just simply not true. Most of us are here because we love the music. We love to just feel the energy and good vibes around us, and we don’t all need drugs for that. I get my vibes from happy hardcore. It’s just the most uplifting thing for me - to me, happy hardcore is love. Happy hardcore is life.” The segment in question aired the following night and was seen by an estimated several dozen people.

When Mr. St-Ecstase arrived at work the following Monday, he was immediately pulled into a meeting room with his manager and a representative from the human resources department. “They told me, basically, that I had embarrassed the company and damaged their public image.” St-Ecstase said. “They informed me that I was being let go, with a standard severance package, and asked me to pack up my things and leave. There was absolutely no room for negotiation. In their eyes, the damage had already been done, and they had no choice but to distance themselves from me. I’m pretty sure if I had said I was at the rave to get high, everything would have been OK. I’m used to being treated poorly because of my love for happy hardcore, but this is a little ridiculous.”

We contacted Hydro-Quebec and asked them about the incident. In response, they released the following statement:

“As many of you are now aware, a Hydro-Quebec employee was recently terminated over controversial remarks he made on camera in the past few days. We would like to make it undoubtedly clear that the opinions expressed by Mr. St-Ecstase do not represent those of Hydro-Quebec, and that publically supporting such a blatantly offensive and distasteful style of music will not be tolerated by any of our employees, especially one tasked with improving the public image of the company. By openly associating himself with the happy hardcore movement, Mr. St-Ecstase has clearly demonstrated a shocking level of ineptitude regarding his role and responsibilities as a public relations agent. Not only have we terminated Louis, but an internal investigation has been launched to determine how such a deeply disturbed individual was ever employed by us for so long. We understand that it might take some time, but we hope that the public’s faith in us can be restored eventually. Although technically, it’s not like you have a choice in where you get your electricity from anyway.”