Michel Chartrand 1916 – 2010 Canada had Trudeau. We had a real man.

February 16th 1971. Union leader Michel Chartrand, imprisoned without cause like hundreds of other innocents during the October Crisis, gets out of Parthenais Jail.

Written by angryfrenchguy

April 13, 2010 at 11:19 am

Posted in AngryFrenchGuy Speaks!

25 Responses

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Chartrand was a real hero and a great speaker. I had the chance to see him about 10 years ago, he was talking about the idea “revenu minimum garanti” at HEC. He got a standing ovation. For a socialist speaking in a business school, that’s quite extraordinary.

From Le Devoir:
http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/actualites-en-societe/286875/le-syndicaliste-michel-chartrand-nous-quitte-a-l-age-de-93-ans

Peter Fork

April 13, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Peter:

…don’t know what year Chartrand spoke about a minimum guaranteed income but Richard Nixon was speaking about it when he president in the late ’60s, early ’70s.

Not such a radical thing.

Indeed, if you think about it, it’s quite a cost-saving measure: everyone is guaranteed a minimum income to pay for the basics of life and, as such, there is no need for a myriad of expensive-to-administer social programs, including Canadian pension, welfare, unemployment insurance, etc.

Tony Kondaks

April 13, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Question:

Chartrand speaks of someone owing him four months of his life.

Yet during the October crisis, it is my understanding that most if not all of the folks rounded up spent no more than 3 or 4 days in jail.

How and why was Chartrand in jail for four months, way longer than anyone else?

Tony Kondaks

April 13, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Question: Do not get me wrong the death of Michel Chartrand ends an interesting and engaged life. He life was already constantly documented and was a media darling.How come we never hear a word about Chartrands brother Gabriel.Who during WWII was tasked to help downed airmen get out of Belgium. He would have been tortured and executed if captured.When the world was confronting Fascism why did he fight? While his brother and Trudeau played Bloc Pop. politics.

John C

April 14, 2010 at 6:36 am
Is it necessary to trash-talk another dead guy in your obit. for Chartrand? Low class.

Carlos

April 14, 2010 at 9:29 am
It is good to know Chartrand had a brother that was a hero in WWII. My father was in Sicily, so where a lot of French-Canadians, this is often forgotten.

Ehbin!

April 14, 2010 at 7:50 pm
yes, it seems that he knew that unions and government weren’t necessary to have the trains run on time.

johnnyonline

April 14, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Tony:

I think the minimum guaranteed income it a very interesting idea to. If it’s not that radical, how come nobody had to courage to make it happen?

What was extraordinary is somebody saying he likes Socialists and Marxists getting a standing ovation from hundreds of students in a business school.

In 1970 most people stayed in jailed for more than 3-4 days. They could be held in jail for up to 90 days without charges. You make it sound like it was no big deal. For us Québécois it was like the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, except that in our cases the “enemy combatants” were poets, artists and politicians.

“In the regulations issued under the War Measures Act, the Front de Libération du Québec was declared an unlawful association. A person who was a member to this group, acted or supported it in some fashion became liable to a jail term not to exceed five years [s. 4]. A person arrested for such a purpose could be held without bail for up to ninety days [s. 6]. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, proof that you are a member of the unlawful association is shown by attending a meeting of the FLQ, to speak publicly “in advocacy” of the unlawful association or to communicate statements on behalf of the FLQ.”

http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/chronos/october.htm

“Each individual arrested under the War Measures Act was denied their basic rights to due process. Habeas corpus was suspended and individuals were detained without notifying their families. Most were not permitted to consult legal counsel while others were held incommunicado. The regulations passed under the War Measures Act made membership in the FLQ a crime and, most importantly, the crime was made retroactive. A person who had attended a single FLQ meeting in the early 1960s was, by the wording of the regulations, criminally liable.”

http://www.historyofrights.com/events/flq.html

Peter Fork

April 15, 2010 at 10:12 am
peter,

the measures were draconian – there is no debate on that subject. most will pose a question regarding the necessity which enjoys the luxury of hindsight and consequently in grand fashion, denigrate trudeau’s action as heavy-handed or “draconian” – or in the infamous vernacular _ just watch me_

that’s nice but carries very little weight in the face of armed insurrection involving murder and mayhem whose participants ignoring ALL the political processes available in a country founded on law and order would tear up civilised protocols in a poltical struggle.

the primary goal of any and all institutions is self – preservation. can anyone be surprised by the turn of events?

when sanctioned violence of the state comes face-to-face with deviants – the rule of law (already broken) will crush anything in its path. let us refer to machiavelli.

comparisons with guantanamo are specious at best. and while we’re on the subject how would you deal with hostiles that are not covered by the geneva convention?

johnnyonline

April 15, 2010 at 8:13 pm
johnnyonline: Next time a minister, president or prime minister is kidnapped and murdered, let’s suspend the rule of law for a couple of months and put a bunch of inconvenient citizens in jail for two or three weeks just in case. Next time a bomb explodes in an Air India flight, killing 329 people, let’s put 500 Sikhs in prison for a month just in case. We’ll find out if we can accuse them of some crime later. Next time an Arab tries to cross the American border with a van filled with explosives, let’s put a thousand Algerians in jail just in case. Then tell the CSIS to plant a couple of bombs in their name to keep the investigation going for a while.

Who knows, with “the luxury of hindsight”, we may realize we’ve been right to suspend the rule of law to make justice prevail (sic)!

Peter Fork

April 15, 2010 at 8:51 pm
peter,

i hope there never is a “next time” – but you can rest assured if such a thing ever happens ( kidnapping or murder of of head of state) – the agents of the state will be extremely active.

you would be better to caution perpetrators of violence to exercise restraint rather than lecture me on the effects of such behaviour.

johnnyonline

April 15, 2010 at 10:19 pm
Poor province with bad management. It is time to get rid of these angryfrenchguys and invite canadians to improve economy of this miserable province

geck

April 17, 2010 at 8:02 am
Quebec will get this year $8.5 billion in equalization payments — more than half of the $14 billion in the program.
“Let’s be frank: many people in the rest of the country perceive Quebeckers as a bunch of spoiled children who are never satisfied and always ask for more,”
Maxime Bernie- Quebecer

geck

April 17, 2010 at 8:07 am
geck: unless you’re from BC, Alberta or Ontario, you probably received 10 to 20 times more money from the federal government than a Québécois according to Statistics Canada:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-010-x/00207/9586-eng.htm

Equalization payments to Québec barely makes up for the taxes we pay for services and investments we don’t receive from Ottawa.

“I gave up my political independence and all I got was 281$ a year.”

Peter Fork

April 17, 2010 at 1:09 pm
To give up yours political independance is not enough. must be the next steps
– to be not a distinct person and start to work hard
– rid of 101 and all separatists parties and their allies
– recognize international diplomas
– give a fair chance to conservatives ( not ADQ )
– give up welfare (BS)
– work, work and stop discussians who is more humiliated in Canada: anglos or francos.

geck

April 17, 2010 at 4:38 pm
geck: Last time I checked, the unemployment rate in Quebec (8.0%) was below the Canadian average (8.2%), and below Ontario’s rate (8.8%).

You’re a worst troll than Tony Kondaks.

Peter Fork

April 18, 2010 at 7:54 am
Moments difficiles pour les détracteurs du modele québecois, disait Jean-Francois Lisée, a propos du taux de chomage..

midnightjack

April 19, 2010 at 5:08 am
“Moments difficiles pour les détracteurs du modele québecois, disait Jean-Francois Lisée, a propos du taux de chomage..”

Va juste falloir qu’ils trouvent autre chose!

Acajack

April 19, 2010 at 10:26 am
“Last time I checked, the unemployment rate in Quebec (8.0%) was below the Canadian average (8.2%), and below Ontario’s rate (8.8%).”

Yes, and it also reached a 30-year low in 2007 (or 2008). The PLQ has definitely been horrible for the province.

Anonymous

April 19, 2010 at 6:33 pm
“Yes, and it also reached a 30-year low in 2007 (or 2008). The PLQ has definitely been horrible for the province.”

The unemployment rate was 12.3% in 1994 when Parizeau became prime minister. It was 8.6% in 2003 when the PLQ won the election. Seven years later it’s 8.0%. Great work Jean Charest!

Peter Fork

April 19, 2010 at 7:50 pm
“The unemployment rate was 12.3% in 1994 when Parizeau became prime minister. It was 8.6% in 2003 when the PLQ won the election. Seven years later it’s 8.0%. Great work Jean Charest!”

Peter, I must say you have exacting standards. So the world economy is going through through great turmoil and Quebec has an unemployment rate lower than the US, the Canadian average and the OECD average and probably lower than its historical average and you are not happy. I am not sure what would make you happy.

But don’t get me wrong, I am not too keen on Charest. He has really disappointed me, I had such high hopes for him when he first came to power. It’s just that given what has been happening in the world, Quebec is doing quite all right economically.

Anonymous

April 20, 2010 at 9:00 pm
I think you’ll agree with me that saying the economy in Quebec goes well or bad because of the current or past governments and ignoring the American situation is wrong.

But saying sarcastically that “The PLQ has definitely been horrible for the province” doesn’t mean much. Quebec was less affected because of many factors, including the fact that subsidized car factories left for Ontario a decade ago (we’re both stockholder of GM and Chrysler now, and we keep subsidizing Ontario’s disproportionate car industry), and that Charest has been lucky enough to be forced to invest billions in infrastructure after the Concorde bridge collapsed in September 2006 (or was it the construction lobby who finances the PLQ with brown paper bags that pushed him?).

Sincerely, I don’t see anything else the PLQ did that was good for our economy, except to leave in place programs that were already there before. Please help me and tell me what I’m missing.

Peter Fork

April 21, 2010 at 11:37 am
To Tony Kondaks:

“[…] everyone is guaranteed a minimum income to pay for the basics of life and, as such, there is no need for a myriad of expensive-to-administer social programs, including Canadian pension, welfare, unemployment insurance, etc.”

That may be your view, but maybe the point of having a guaranteed minimum income is more so that everyone has the means to pay for those same social programs. Even with guaranteed minimum revenue, there will still be people who don’t have a job and those people still need to eat. So, that guaranteed minimum revenue ensures that those who have it can use it to help those who don’t have it. Ever think about that? Next time you flash your sun card, maybe you will…

AngryFrenchGirl

April 22, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Those who were imprisoned in 1970 were mostly Trudeau’s political ennemies.

Not for a single second the canadian government ever feared an “apprehended uprising”; they knew very well that the most infiltrated “terrorist” organization had no teeth at all… The war measures act invocation was just the cherry on the sundæ for the liberals, both in the City that Fun Forgot and Québec.

Let’s not forget that Pierre Laporte was kidnapped mere hours before he was to be arrested on racketeering charges; Laporte was the mafia minister of the newly-elected Bourassa goverment (you see, the organized crime and liberals connection go quite far back) and it would not have looked too good to have a new minister indicted…

And it also helped solve the thorny problem of the minister who’s more popular than the prime minister, too.

Jəan Naimard

April 26, 2010 at 10:53 pm
Canada had Trudeau? The only reason we got stuck with that asshole was because of the French-tribal vote.

Andy

August 2, 2010 at 11:50 pm