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Vive le Québec libre speech

Vive le Québec libre! (Long live free Quebec!) was a famous and controversial phrase uttered in a speech given by French President Charles de Gaulle in Montreal on July 24, 1967.

De Gaulle was in Canada on an official state visit under the pretext of attending Expo 67. While giving an address to a large crowd from a balcony at Montreal city hall, he uttered Vive le Québec (Long live Quebec!) then added, Vive le Québec libre! (Long live free Quebec!). Vive le Québec libre! was a popular slogan for people wishing to show their support for Quebec sovereignty.


Contents

Background

Even before his arrival in Canada, the Federal Government was worried about de Gaulle's visit. Earlier that year the French Government snubbed the funeral service for Governor General Georges Vanier. Vanier and his wife Pauline had been personal friends of de Gaulle since 1940, when he was in exile in London. Pauline Vanier is said to have sent de Gaulle a note saying simply "1940". So worried was the Lester B. Pearson Government about the meddling of France in domestic affairs that cabinet minister Paul Joseph James Martin was dispatched to visit de Gaulle in Paris to smooth over ties.

De Gaulle had been invited by Québec premier Daniel Johnson. Although a visiting head of state, he didn't arrive in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, instead taking a whole week to cross the Atlantic on the warship Colbert so he could arrive in Québec City. (He didn't land at the airport in Montreal because it was too jumbled to make an impressive arrival, and neither did he want to land at the military airport in Ottawa.) The pretext of his visit was to attend Expo 67.

In Quebec City, de Gaulle was cheered enthusiastically, whereas the new Governor General Roland Michener was booed by the same crowd. In his speech, de Gaulle spoke of his country’s “evolving” ties with Quebec, hinting at his support for Quebec separatism.

The following day de Gaulle arrived in Montreal and was driven up Chemin du Roy to the Hôtel de Ville (where Mayor Jean Drapeau and Premier Johnson waited). The crowd was electrified - excited to see in person the legendary French leader. De Gaulle would tell the crowds that his procession in Montreal reminded him of his return to Paris after it was freed from the Nazis during World War II.

The incident

He was not scheduled to speak that evening, but the crowd chanted for him; he told Mayor Jean Drapeau, “I have to speak to those people who are calling for me”. According to a number of personal interviews with high-ranking French officials as well as documents he uncovered, prominent scholar Dale C. Thomson wrote that De Gaulle's statement was premeditated and that he used it when the opportunity presented itself. [1]

De Gaulle stepped out onto the balcony and gave a short address. The speech appeared to conclude with the words "Vive Montréal! Vive le Québec!" (Long live Montreal! Long live Quebec!), but he then added, "Vive le Québec libre"! Vive le Canada Français! Et vive la France!" (Long live free Quebec! Long live French Canada! And long live France!). The speech was broadcast live on radio.

Coming from the French head of state, this was a serious breach of diplomatic protocol. It certainly emboldened the Quebec sovereignty movement, and it created a serious rift between the leadership of the two countries.

After his statement a media and diplomatic uproar ensued, which resulted in de Gaulle cutting his visit to Canada short. He flew back to Paris from Montreal the following morning, instead of continuing his visit on to Ottawa, leaving the Warship Colbert to return to France without him on board.

In repeating the slogan of a Quebec sovereigntist party, De Gaulle provoked "a large diplomatic incident which forced the cancellation of his visit, initiated an incredible campaign of French interference in the domestic affairs of Canada and, above all, lent his worldwide prestige to the Québec independence movement."[1]

The reaction

The crowd's reaction to de Gaulle's phrase was powerful, and has been described as a "frenzy"[2]. Federalist Canadians, on the other hand, were outraged at the implied threat to Canada's territorial integrity and saw the words as an insult to the thousands of Canadians who fought and died on the battlefields of France during two World Wars. There was much criticism in the Canadian media, and the Prime Minister of Canada, Lester B. Pearson, a soldier who had fought in World War I and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, stated that "Canadians do not need to be liberated."[3]

The newly appointed Minister of Justice, Pierre Trudeau, publicly wondered what the French reaction would be if a Canadian Prime Minister shouted “Brittany to the Bretons.”[4] From then on, De Gaulle remained unimpressed by Trudeau, saying "Nous n'avons aucune concession, ni même aucune amabilité, à faire à M. Trudeau, qui est l'adversaire de la chose française au Canada". (We have no concessions to make, nor even any friendliness towards Mr. Trudeau, who is the adversary of French matters in Canada.)[5]

De Gaulle was also heavily criticized by a large part of the French media for his serious breach of international protocol. [2]

However, the event was seen as a watershed moment by members of the Quebec sovereignty movement and is frequently mentioned to this day. Coming soon after the quiet revolution, and taking into account the low economic and political state of French Canadians at the time, the support of a foreign head of state took on a very different meaning than it would today. The event occurred 2 years before the FLQ incidents.

The decision to use the slogan

In his book, Dr. Thomson wrote that before boarding the Colbert, de Gaulle told Xavier Deniau: "They will hear me over there, it will make waves!" A week earlier, he confided to his son-in-law General Alain de Boissieu that "I will hit hard. Hell will happen, but it has to be done. It's the last occasion to repent for France's cowardice," referring to what he claimed was its abandonment of 60,000 French colonists to the British after France was defeated in the French and Indian War in 1763.

On the trip back home, he told Bernard Dorin "What happened was a historical phenomenon that may have been foreseeable, but which took a shape that only the event could provide. Of course, I could, like many others, get away from it by uttering some courtesies or diplomatic sidesteps, but when one is Général de Gaulle, one does not get away with those kind of expedients. What I did, I had to do it."

Excerpts

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Thomson, Dale C., Vive le Québec Libre, p.199. (1988) Deneau Publishers ISBN 0888791518
  2. ^ Alain Peyrefitte, C'était de Gaulle III, p.391 to 496. (2000) éditions de Fallois/Fayard

Categories


Charles de Gaulle | Political history of Canada | History of Quebec | Speeches | 1967 in Canada | French phrases | Quebec political phrases

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