Raynald Fréchette

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Raynald Fréchette (October 13, 1933 – March 20, 2007) was a Quebec lawyer, judge and political figure. He represented Sherbrooke in the Quebec National Assembly as a member of the Union Nationale from 1961 to 1970 and as a member of the Parti Québécois from 1981 to 1985. He served as President of the National Assembly of Quebec from February to June 1970.

He was born in Asbestos, Quebec, the son of a miner, and studied at the Collège Saint-Aimé there and the Université de Sherbrooke. He was admitted to the Quebec bar in 1961 and set up practice in Sherbrooke. Fréchette was Finance Minister in the cabinet of René Lévesque from April 1981 to September 1982, then Minister of Labour until October 1985. He was Minister of Justice and Minister of Labour in the cabinet of Pierre-Marc Johnson from October to December 1985.

After his defeat in 1985, he returned to the practice of law and also hosted an open line show on a Sherbrooke radio station. In 1988, he was named a judge in the Quebec Superior Court at Montreal and was assigned to Saint-François district in 1991.

He died of cancer, aged 73, in 2007.