Yves Michaud

Yves Michaud (born February 13, 1930, in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec) is a prominent Quebec public figure, a sovereigntist and pur et dur supporter of the Parti Québécois.

Background

In 1959, Michaud received a Canada Council grant to study journalism in France at the Université de Strasbourg. He then began a career as a journalist for the Clairon in Saint-Hyacinthe. He was later chief editor of La Patrie and also had a chronicle for the magazine 7 jours.

Member of the legislature

He joined the ranks of the Liberal Party of Quebec and was elected in the Gouin riding in the 1966 provincial election, which the Liberals lost. He became friends with fellow Liberals René Lévesque and Robert Bourassa, who would both later become Premiers of Quebec.

In 1969, Michaud left the Liberal Party and sat as an Independent to protest against the passage of Bill 63, a controversial language legislation. He ran for re-election as a Liberal candidate in the 1970 election, but was defeated by 12 votes by Parti Québécois candidate Guy Joron.

Parti Québécois supporter

He joined the Parti Québécois in the subsequent years and ran as was a candidate of this party in the district of Bourassa in Quebec general election, 1973. He lost against Liberal Lise Bacon.

He then founded Le Jour, the first daily newspaper promoting Quebec independence. In 1979, he was in charge of the Quebec Government House of Paris.

Robin Hood of the banks

Often called Robin des banques (Robin Hood of the banks), Yves Michaud is known by the people of Quebec for his crusade against the practices of large corporations. In 1993, he founded the Association des petits épargnants et investisseurs du Québec (Association of small savers and investors), and won a number of victories in court.

The Michaud Affair

In December 2000 Yves Michaud announced that he would seek the Parti Québécois nomination for a by-election in the district of Mercier. However, his candidacy was plagued with controversy, after he made sensitive comments about the Jewish community in a radio interview.

One recollection of his comments, amongst other things, was that he stated that the Jewish people had suffered, but that other peoples had also endured great tragedies. ("The Jews weren't the only people to have suffered.") However, as the affair went along, due notably to Michaud's open defence of Quebecker nationalism, he was increasingly portrayed by some as an anti-semite and denier of the Shoah, which he has always categorically said he was not.

It culminated in a motion of censure from the National Assembly of Quebec. Lucien Bouchard is also said to have been influenced by the weight of the affair (which received extremely negative coverage in the international press) to resign as Premier of Quebec in 2001 (although he did not admit it). Michaud still fights to this day for recognition of the motion of censure as an "anti-democratic mistake".

Also, Bouchard announced that he would block Michaud's candidacy. Claudel Toussaint received the nomination. Michaud's faction ran its own candidate: Paul Cliche. Both sovereigntist candidates lost the by-election against Liberal nominee Nathalie Rochefort.

Quotations

The original transcript in French of the radio programme held on December 5, 2000 : http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/docs/michaud/03.htm

a Liberal Senator asked "Yves, are you still a separatist?" I said, I am as much a separatist as you are Jewish. It's taken 2000 years for your People to have your homeland in Israel. So, I don't mind waiting for a further 10, 50 or 100 years. [The Senator] answered, well it is not same thing. So I said: It is not the same? The Armenians did not suffer, the Palestinians do not suffer, the Rwandans do not suffer. It's always just you. You are the only people who suffered in the history of humanity.

After that, I was fed up. And here we are, I am completely indignant... that some suggested to rename the metro station [named after] [Quebec historian and nationalist] Lionel Groulx, who was the spiritual father of two generations of Quebecers and is almost a Quebec idol. It's the B'nai B'rith that did that, which was the extremist phalange... That's world Zionism going on here....

In contrast to these exchanges, during this period, he also cited Lionel Groulx who ironically -having written himself antisemitic statements under various pennanmes- exhorted French-Canadians to emulate the Jewish People in their fierce will for survival, their spirit of solidarity and their unassailable moral core. Or in the original French, "«âpre volonté de survivance», de l’«invincible esprit de solidarité» et de l’«impérissable armature morale» du peuple juif."

Source: http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/309640/mon-execution-parlementaire

See also

• Sovereigntist events and strategies
• Quebec sovereigntism

External links

• "Biography". Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec de 1792 à nos jours (in French). National Assembly of Quebec.