| 1930 | February
13 | Yves Michaud
was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec. |
| 1959 | | Michaud
received a Canada Council bursary to study journalism at the Université de Strasbourg. |
| 1962-1966 | | Editor
and director of the newspaper La Patrie. |
| 1966 | June
16 | Elected
to the National Assembly as the Liberal candidate for the riding of Gouin. |
| 1969 | | Formed,
with René Levesque and Jérome Proulx, the Ad Hoc group (l’opposition circonstantielle)
opposing bill 63. This bill granted freedom of choice in the language of instruction
to all Quebecers, including to immigrants. The Ad Hoc group wished to end the
regime of freedom of choice and channel immigrants to the French school sector. |
| 1970 | May
12 | Michaud
was defeated as a Liberal candidate in the riding of Gouin. |
| 1970-1973 | | Michaud
was High-Commissioner for Cooperation at the provincial Ministry of Intergovernmental
Affairs. |
| 1973 | | Michaud
was defeated by Lise Bacon as a Parti Québécois candidate in the riding of Bourassa. |
| 1973-1976 | | Michaud
was editor of the newspaper Le Jour. This newspaper was established by
the Parti Québécois. René Lévesque was one of its regular contributor. |
| 1977 | February
6 | At night,
a car driven by René Lévesque, Premier of Quebec, struck and killed Edgar Trottier.
He had been lying down in the middle of the road. Lévesque had spent the previous
evening and night at the apartment of Yves Michaud. As a breathalyser test was
not performed by the police, the testimony of Michaud at the coroner's inquest
was crucial in determining that Lévesque was not under the influence of alcohol
while driving. |
| 1977 | | Michaud
was appointed Delegate of Quebec to various international organisations. |
| 1978-1979 | | Michaud
was made advisor to René Lévesque in international affairs. |
| 1979-1984 | | Appointed
Delegate-General of Québec to France. |
| 1980-1984 | | There
were reports that Michaud and Lévesque had a falling out following the failed
referendum of 1980. Lévesque considered that the people had spoken in rejecting
sovereignty-association and that it was his duty to attempt to bring about reforms
of Canadian federalism (this was the period of le beau risque). Michaud,
along with some others, opposed the softening of the position of the Parti québécois.
This led Lévesque to abandon politics in 1984. |
| 1984-1987 | | Director
of the Palais des Congrès de Montréal. |
| 1987-1993 | | Involved
in a wine importing business. |
| 1993-2000 | | Michaud,
along with a number of other investors, lost a good deal of money as the National
Bank took over from the failed General Trusco of Canada, Inc. Henceforth, Michaud
campaigned strongly to bring about various bank reforms. He became known as the
Robin des banques (the bank Robin Hood), insisting that the powers and
privileges of the boards of directors of financial institutions be limited and
their they be made more accountable to the shareholders. |
| 1995 | October
30 | In his
acknowledgement speech of the close defeat of sovereignty in the referendum held
on this day, Jacques Parizeau attributed the defeat of the yes side to "money
and ethnic votes". The controversy that broke out was so intense, and the
unacceptability of targeting "ethnic votes" as the cause for defeat
was so clear that Parizeau had to announce his resignation in a matter of hours.
He denied that his resignation was linked to the comments made. He was replaced
as leader of the PQ by Lucien Bouchard. |
| 1996 | March
11 | In a speech
at the Centaur theatre in Montreal to address members of the anglophone community,
Lucien Bouchard declared that it was "perfectly legitimate" for many
anglophones to have voted against sovereignty at last october’s referendum
since they had done so out of conviction. He pledged to continue working to convince
them to join the sovereignty movement. |
| 1997-1999 | | On
several occasions, Lucien Bouchard intervened to soften positions taken by hardliners
within the PQ party on the questions of sovereignty and language. |
| 2000 | December
5 | In an interview
with Paul Arcand of CKAC radio, Michaud stated that Jews feel that they are the
only people to have suffered in the history of humanity. He pointed out that other
people, such as Palestinians, Armenians and Rwandans have suffered as well. |
| 2000 | December
12 | At the
age of 70, Michaud announced that he would seek the PQ nomination in the riding
of Mercier. He indicated that he did not expect to join the cabinet as such a
position would force him to show cabinet solidarity. Instead, he declared that "he wished to safeguard his freedom of speech so as to be in the position,
if necessary, to express dissenting views". |
| 2000 | December
13 | Yves Michaud
presented a memorandum to the Estates-General on language. Moving away from the
prepared text, he argued that 12 sections of voting in Côte-Saint-Luc, a predominantly
Jewish district on the Island of Montreal, had not given a single vote for sovereignty
at the referendum of 1995. He concluded from this that these were "ethnic
votes against the sovereignty of Quebec". He reiterated the views on Jews
he had expressed on radio on December 5. He also accused the B’Nai Brith
organisation of being extremist, anti-Quebec and anti-sovereignist. He uttered
these words while Robert Libman, mayor of Côte-Saint-Luc and member of B’Nai
Brith, was present in the audience, awaiting to present a brief of his own. |
| 2000 | December
13 | Robert
Libman called on Lucien Bouchard to disavow Michaud as the PQ candidate in Mercier.
He called Michaud a "sovereignist dinosaur". |
| 2000 | December
14 | The National
Assembly of Quebec unanimously condemned the sentiments and ideas expressed by
Michaud at the Estates-General.
See the debate and the vote in the National Assembly. [en français]
On the same
day, Yves Michaud demanded to be heard by the National Assembly. |
| 2000 | December
15 | Controversy
broke out within the Parti Québécois. It centred on the suitability of Michaud
to carry the party banner in Mercier and on the advisability of the National Assembly
to have condemned him. |
| 2000 | December
17 |
Michaud
sent an open letter to the 125 members of the National Assembly. In it, he defended
his position. He also announced that he would not withdraw from the Mercier race. [en français] |
| 2000 | December
18 | A few dozen
prominent péquistes signed an open letter of support for Michaud that was
published in several newspapers. They condemned the National Assembly for violating
the freedom of speech of Michaud. Among the signers to the letter was Jacques
Parizeau, the former leader of the Parti Québécois.
In an open letter sent to the provincial newspapers, Jacques
Brossard, parliamentary leader of the government, defended the motion of censure
of the National Assembly. [en français] |
| 2000 | December
19 | At a press
conference, Premier Lucien Bouchard indicated that he did not want Yves Michaud
as the PQ candidate in Mercier riding. |
| 2000 | December
20 | Bouchard
was adamant that the PQ had to choose between Yves Michaud and him. He stated
that he could not defend the position of the Parti Québécois if Michaud was allowed
to stand for the party in Mercier.
Yves Michaud declared that Bouchard should apologise
to him so as to "prevent what might very well be an irreparable break within
the PQ party". In his open letter, Michaud demanded that Bouchard repair
the harm he had inflicted on him. |
| 2000 | December
21 | Jean Charest,
leader of the provincial Liberal Party, blamed Lucien Bouchard for the whole controversy.
According to Charest, Bouchard had failed to close the door to Michaud’s
candidacy in the riding of Mercier. |
| 2000 | December
31 |
Yves Michaud
wrote a long letter to Lucien Bouchard. Essentially, he reiterated his views,
defended himself and demanded that Bouchard take steps to have the motion of censure
of the National Assembly withdrawn. This letter was published in La Presse
on January 13, 2001. [en français] |
| 2001 | January
9 | Rumours
circulated that Bernard Landry, finance minister, and Fernand Daoust, union leader,
were hard at work trying to work out a compromise. |
| 2001 | January
10 | Le Devoir published a full page ad by supporters of Michaud. The ad focused on the issue
of freedom of expression and condemned the motion of censure adopted by the National
Assembly. Some people whose name appeared as supporting the ad denied that they
had given permission for their name to be used. This was the case for Guy Bouthiller
of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste and Réjean Lalancette, president of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
PQ association.
In the evening, rumours broke out that Lucien Bouchard
was about to resign. |
| 2001 | January
11 |
Lucien
Bouchard announced that he was leaving politics. In his speech, he gave two reasons
for his resignation: the fact he had been unable to bring about sovereignty, indeed
to advance significantly the cause and his desire to spend more time with his
family. In his speech, he spent a good deal of time to discuss the Michaud affair
although he was clear that this had not been a reason for his resignation. [en français] |
| 2001 | January
12-14 |
A poll
conducted in Quebec showed that 72% of Quebecers approved of the position taken
by Lucien Bouchard in the Michaud affair. [en français] |
| 2001 | January
14 |
In an open
letter sent to the provincial newspapers, Yves Michaud announced that he was withdrawing
his candidacy for the PQ nomination in Mercier riding. [en français] |
| 2001 | January
16 |
A petition
of support for the views of Lucien Bouchard, initiated some weeks before and sponsored
by 14 young péquistes, was printed in Le Devoir. This petition was
signed by 1,000 ordinary citizens. [en français] |
| 2001 | January
16 |
At a press
conference called to discuss his candidacy to the leadership of the Parti Québécois, Bernard Landry reiterated his view that Quebec constitutes a political nation
that includes all Quebecers. [en français]
|
