Marcel Chaput

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Marcel Chaput (October 14, 1918 - January 19, 1991)[1] was a scientist and a political activist in Quebec, Canada. He was one of the early leaders of the Quebec sovereignist movement.

Chaput worked as a civil servant (chemist) for the Government of Canada. In 1960, he wrote a series of articles for Le Devoir newspaper protesting the lack of use of French in the Department of National Defence where he worked. He attracted public notoriety for his activism in favour of Quebec sovereignty. He participated in the founding of the Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale in September 1960, and became its vice-president.

Chaput wrote a book entitled Pourquoi je suis séparatiste (Why I am a Separatist), which was published in September 1961. In October 1961, he became president of the RIN. In November 1961, he was suspended without pay from his federal government job for violating employment laws that forbid civil servants from holding political office. As such, in December Chaput resigned from his job.

Since the RIN was not yet a political party, he decided to run as an independent in the 1962 election, failing to win a seat. He was replaced as president of the RIN by Guy Pouliot, and founded the Parti républicain du Québec, which, however, met with no success at all. In 1965, he rejoined the RIN, which had by then become a political party under the leadership of Pierre Bourgault, and ran unsuccessfully as a candidate in the 1966 election.

He later became a member of the Parti Québécois, and wanted to run as a candidate in Maisonneuve riding for the 1970 election but lost the party's nomination to Robert Burns. In the 1973 election, he again failed to win nomination as a PQ candidate, this time in Terrebonne riding.

Contents

[edit] Writings

[edit] Translated to English

  • Why I Am a Separatist (1962) - translated from the French by Robert A. Taylor
  • Quotations from René Lévesque (1977) - edited by Jean Coté and Marcel Chaput; translated by Robert Guy Scully and Jacqueline Perrault.

[edit] In French

[edit] Essays

  • Pourquoi je suis séparatiste (1961)
  • Mémoire présenté à titre personnel par Marcel Chaput au Comité parlementaire de la constitution (1964)
  • J'ai choisi de me battre: petite histoire très personnelle du séparatisme québécois de Maurice Duplessis à Claude Wagner (1965)
  • L'école de la santé (1969)
  • Dossier pollution (1971) with Tony LeSauteur
  • Les citations de René Lévesque (1977) with Jean Côté
  • Référendum de René Lévesque (1979) with Jean Côté

[edit] Articles

  • "La révolution en marche" in L'Homme nouveau (1964)
  • "Les indépendantistes doivent-ils quelque chose à Duplessis?" in Ici Québec (1977)
  • "Par son génie musical, cet enfant devrait étonner le monde" in Ici Québec (1978)
  • "Référendum. Dossier spécial" dans Ici Québec (1978)

[edit] Other

  • Manifeste du Parti républicain du Québec (1963)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Marcel Chaput (1918-1991) Homme de science, homme politique", in Bilan du Siècle, Université de Sherbrooke, retrieved June 5, 2008

[edit] References

  • Brunet, Jean-Marc and Jean Côté (2006). Le patriote : Marcel Chaput et son époque, Montréal : Éditions de l'Ordre naturiste social de Saint-Marc l'Évangéliste, 606 pages ISBN 2-9806551-1-2
  • Côté, Jean (1979). Marcel Chaput, pionnier de l'indépendance, Montréal : Québécor, 169 pages ISBN 2890890112 (extraits)
  • Chaput, Julien. "Marcel Chaput, 1918-1991", in the site Harfang Québec (series of short video clips of Marcel Chaput's life by his own grandson Julien)
  • Deshaies, Bruno. "Marcel Chaput ou Le pari de la dignité", in Vigile.net, October 17, 2002
  • Le Sauteur, Tony. "Tout sur Marcel Chaput", in the author's own Web site

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Languages