Death and state funeral of Pierre Trudeau
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The death and state funeral of Pierre Trudeau took place in September 2000. Pierre Trudeau was the 15th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1968 to 1984, with a brief interruption in 1979–1980. Trudeau died on September 28. His casket, which was draped in the Maple Leaf throughout its journey, was on display on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on September 30 and October 1, and on October 2 at City Hall in Montreal. On October 3, a state funeral was held at Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal.
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[edit] Death and tributes
Trudeau died on September 28 at 3:00 p.m. at his home in Montreal with his surviving sons, Justin and Sacha, and his former wife, Margaret at his side. He suffered from Parkinson's disease and prostate cancer.
[edit] Tributes
Flags on the Peace Tower, across Canada, and around the world were ordered flown at half-staff until sunset the day of the funeral. People started to arrive at Trudeau's home and set up a makeshift memorial there. There were tributes from world leaders, including U.S. President Bill Clinton.
The Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill, which marks Canada's centennial, became the place to mark Trudeau's death. People came with messages of condolence and tribute to Trudeau. Most of them brought roses, Trudeau's symbol. The Queen paid her tributes to her former prime minister, and in the House of Commons, Canada's political leaders paid tribute, beginning with Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who, at the time of Trudeau's death, was on his way to Jamaica and immediately returned to Ottawa. Opposition Leader Stockwell Day, Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark (a former prime minister), New Democratic Party leader Alexa McDonough, and Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe followed, as did Commons Speaker Gilbert Parent. MP's paid tribute to Trudeau and would continue to do so in different ways during the days ahead. Many of them, including Chrétien, on this sitting, wore roses to pay tribute.
After the tributes were paid, the House of Commons adjourned out of respect.
[edit] Parliament Hill events
On September 30, the state funeral events began. Trudeau's body was flown to Ottawa on a Canadian Forces jet. On arrival, it was removed from the plane, driven by hearse in a simple procession through the nation's capital, and onto Parliament Hill.
As his casket arrived on the hill, the Peace Tower bell tolled 81 times, one for each year of Trudeau's life (Trudeau was 80 when he died, but the bell tolled 81 times because he died three weeks short of his 81st birthday).
[edit] Lying in state
Trudeau was carried by an honour guard from the RCMP into the Hall of Honour to lie in state. His family spent about 15 minutes alone at the casket and out of sight of the cameras. Then Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and her husband, John Ralston Saul, and Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and his wife, Aline, paid their respects.
Then it was the turn of the dignitaries, which included senators, MP's, and the diplomatic corps, to pay their respects to Trudeau. They would do this during the next hour.
[edit] Public viewing
After the dignitaries paid their respects, the doors of Parliament Hill were open to those who were outside when the hearse containing Trudeau's body arrived on the hill. The public came in a steady stream to pay their respects to the former prime minister in the Hall of Honour. At florists, people stopped to buy roses to place on the Centennial Flame. At one point, Trudeau's ex-wife, Margaret, paid a visit to the Hall of Honour.
In all, about 60,000 people paid their respects over 2 days while Trudeau lay in state.
[edit] Final tributes
The final tributes in Ottawa happened on October 2. The prime minister and other dignitaries paid their final respects. A 19-gun salute was fired when Trudeau's body was brought out. At the same time, the Canadian Forces Central Band played the national anthem.
In the cortege were the Trudeau sons, the prime minister and his wife, and close friends. The band played "Auld Lang Syne" as the cortege began the journey off the hill.
[edit] Journey to Montreal
Crowds lined the route of the cortege as it made its way to the Ottawa train station, where the coffin was placed aboard a VIA train that would take it from Ottawa to Montreal. The Trudeau sons and close associates, among them former governor general Romeo LeBlanc, Marc Lalonde, and Roy Heenan.
[edit] Train ride
The rails that had brought Trudeau to Ottawa 35 years earlier to elected office, now served to take him home. Prime Minister Chretien and his wife watched the train as it left the train station. Many people in the crowd applauded. Trudeau's sons asked that the train be slowed so that the many crowds along the tracks could pay their respects to the former Prime Minister as the cortege passed through the many rural towns and farmlands along the way.
[edit] Montreal
On arrival in Montreal, the casket was taken to City Hall where crowds were waiting so that they could pay their respects to Trudeau as he lay in repose at City Hall. In all, about 15,000 paid their respects in Montreal. One person who paid his respects was former Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard.
[edit] State funeral
October 3 was an overcast day in Montreal and Notre-Dame Basilica was the site of the state funeral for Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
The events of the day began at City Hall, when Trudeau's casket was taken out and driven by hearse to the Basilica. Trudeau's family paid their respects in City Hall before the casket was removed from there by an RCMP honour guard. As it was driven, 10 RCMP officers, 5 on each side, marched beside the hearse. As the hearse made its way to the cathedral, people along the route applauded, waved Canadian flags, as Trudeau made a final journey through his native Montreal.
[edit] Funeral service
About 3,000 people gathered at the basilica for the service, including His Royal Highness Prince Andrew, Duke of York (representing his mother, the Queen of Canada, Elizabeth II), Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and her husband, John Ralston Saul, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and his wife, Aline, and other Canadian leaders, one of them, Joe Clark, and his wife, Maureen. MPs, senators, past and present, provincial premiers, two other former prime ministers and their spouses (John Turner and Geills, and Brian Mulroney and Mila; Kim Campbell was overseas and was not in attendance), and members of the general public also attended. Foreign dignitaries who were present included Cuban President Fidel Castro, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, and the Aga Khan, who were also among the pallbearers, together with the poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen and Trudeau's Cabinet colleague Marc Lalonde, all of them friends of Trudeau. Some members of the public also congregated outside the basilica and watched the funeral on giant screens. Before going into the basilica, some of the dignitaries, including Clarkson and Chrétien, gave their thoughts about Trudeau.
As the casket entered the basilica, the choir sang J.S. Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring." Then, the archbishop of Montreal, Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, who presided over the service, gave the invocation. Sacha Trudeau gave a reading. Gounod's "Ave Maria" was then sung.
After the readings came the eulogies. Delivering the eulogies were two family friends, Roy Heenan and former senator Jacques Hébert and Justin Trudeau [1]. Heenan gave in English, Hébert gave in French, and Trudeau gave in both English and French. The entire congregation applauded when Trudeau concluded his eulogy. He then broke down into tears on his father's casket.
After the service, which concluded with the singing of the national anthem both inside and outside, as the casket was brought out of the basilica and placed in the hearse for the ride to the St-Remi-de-Napierville Cemetery, for burial in the family plot. Just the family witnessed the burial. They requested that the service be private.
[edit] Reactions to funeral
Many regard Justin Trudeau's eulogy as the most moving part of those six days, although Mordecai Richler pointed out that the opening quotation from the funeral oration in Julius Caesar was inapt. At sunset, the flag on the Peace Tower was raised back to the top.
[edit] The effects felt during the Olympics
The effects of the death of Pierre Trudeau on the Canadian team at the 2000 Summer Olympics and the Canadian broadcasting of the Games, were as follows:
- Perhaps, the most poignant part of the media coverage of the games came in Canada. On September 28, the CBC was airing the Olympics when the network's chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge interrupted it and said:
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- "Hello, from Toronto, I'm Peter Mansbridge. Sad news to report from Montreal...former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau...has passed away."
- People in Canada who wanted to see the Olympics between then and the closing ceremonies had to turn to TSN because the CBC was broadcasting news coverage related to the passing and state funeral of the former prime minister.
- For Canadian athletes, they were well aware that former prime minister Pierre Trudeau was lying in state. As the closing ceremonies were taking place, Canadians were traveling to Ottawa to pay their last respects.
[edit] Newsmaker of the Year
The overwhelming reaction to Trudeau's death was the minds of many Canadian newspaper editors and it made Trudeau "Newsmaker of the Year" in the year 2000. It was the 10th time he received the honor by the Canadian news agency, Canadian Press (CP), surpassing his predecessor, Lester B. Pearson.
Like their father after he was named "Newsmaker of the 20th Century" a year earlier, The Trudeau sons declined to give interviews with the CP, but they said that they were "very honored" by the choice.
[edit] External links
- CBC Coverage of the Passing of Pierre Trudeau
- CTV Coverage of the Passing of Pierre Trudeau
- Coverage in The Globe and Mail
- Detailed account of the funeral liturgy at the Basilica of Our Lady, Montréal in Ship of Fools
[edit] References
- "Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1919–2000," a video by the CBC
