Vive le Québec libre

"Vive le Québec libre !" (French: [viv lə 'ke.bɛk 'libʁ], "Long live free Quebec!") was a controversial phrase in a speech delivered by French president Charles de Gaulle in Montreal on July 24, 1967.

De Gaulle was in Canada on an official 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 Montreal; Vive le Québec !" ("Long live Montreal, Long live Quebec!") and then added, almost drowned out by the crowd, "Vive le Québec libre !" ("Long live free Quebec!") with particular emphasis on the word 'libre'. The phrase was seen as a slogan amongst Quebecers who favoured Quebec sovereignty, and de Gaulle's use of it was seen as him lending his tacit support to the movement.

Background

Even before his arrival, the Canadian federal government had been worried about President de Gaulle's visit. Earlier that year, the French government had not sent a representative to the funeral service for Governor General Georges Vanier. This attracted notice in Canada, as Vanier and his wife, Pauline, had been personal friends of de Gaulle since 1940, when the latter was in exile in London, United Kingdom. So worried was the Lester B. Pearson government about potential interference of France in domestic affairs that Secretary of State for External Affairs Paul Joseph James Martin was dispatched to visit de Gaulle in Paris to smooth over ties. Pearson knew that de Gaulle held a grudge against him for his objection to France's military position in the Suez Crisis and predicted correctly that something might happen.^{[citation needed]}

De Gaulle had been invited by Quebec premier Daniel Johnson. Although a visiting head of state, the president did not arrive in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, as would be conventional protocol. Instead, he took the time to sail on the French navy's Mediterranean flagship, the cruiser Colbert, so that he could arrive in Quebec City, the capital of Quebec. There, de Gaulle was cheered enthusiastically, while 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 speech

On July 24, de Gaulle arrived in Montreal and was driven up the Chemin du Roy to Montreal City Hall, where Mayor Jean Drapeau and Premier Johnson waited. De Gaulle was not scheduled to speak that evening, but the crowd chanted for him; he told 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 planned, and that he used it when the opportunity presented itself.

De Gaulle stepped out onto the balcony to give a short address to the assembled masses which was also broadcast live on radio. In his speech he commented that his drive down the banks of the St. Lawrence River, lined as it had been with cheering crowds, reminded him of his triumphant return to Paris after the liberation from Germany. 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!"). De Gaulle particularly emphasised the use of the word 'libre', as he leaned into the microphones in front of him and enunciated it slower and louder than other elements of his speech.

Reaction

This statement, coming from the French head of state, was considered a serious breach of diplomatic protocol. It emboldened the Quebec sovereignty movement^{[citation needed]} and produced tensions between the leadership of the two countries.

A media and diplomatic uproar ensued thereafter, which resulted in de Gaulle cutting his visit to Canada short. The day after the speech de Gaulle visited Expo 67, before flying back to Paris the following morning, instead of continuing his visit on to Ottawa where he was to have met with Prime Minister of Canada, Lester B. Pearson. The Colbert returned to France without de Gaulle aboard.

In repeating the slogan of a Quebec sovereigntist party, De Gaulle, in the words of The Canadian Encyclopedia, 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."

The crowd's reaction to de Gaulle's phrase was emotional, and has been described as frenzied. Federalist Canadians, on the other hand, were outraged at the implied threat to Canada's territorial integrity and took the words to be an insult to the thousands of Canadians who had fought and died on the battlefields of France during two world wars. The federalist Canadian media harshly criticized the statement, and in a brief speech broadcast the following evening, Prime Minister Pearson, a World War I veteran and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said, "The people of Canada are free. Every province of Canada is free. Canadians do not need to be liberated. Indeed, many thousands of Canadians gave their lives in two world wars in the liberation of France and other European countries."

The newly appointed Canadian minister of justice, Pierre Trudeau, publicly wondered what the French reaction would have been if a Canadian Prime Minister shouted, "Brittany to the Bretons". 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 not one concession, nor even any courtesy, to extend to Mr Trudeau, who is the enemy of the French entity in Canada.")

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

To members of the Quebec sovereignty movement, meanwhile, the speech was viewed as a watershed moment and has been commonly referenced ever since.^{[citation needed]} Occurring 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 seemed to add credibility to the movement in the eyes of many.^{[citation needed]} The event occurred three years before the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) terrorist attacks, and nine years before the Parti Québécois gained control of the Quebec National Assembly.

The following year, De Gaulle visited Brittany, where he declaimed a poem written by his uncle (also called Charles de Gaulle) in the Breton language, expressing devotion to Breton culture. The speech followed a series of crackdowns on Breton nationalism. De Gaulle was drowned out by the cat-calls from the crowd when he spoke his uncle's words. He was accused of double standards for, on the one hand demanding a "free" Quebec because of its linguistic differences from English-speaking Canada, while on the other oppressing the movement in Brittany.

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 betrayal", referring to what he viewed as France's abandonment of 60,000 French colonists to the British after France was defeated in the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War in 1763. This worldwide multinational conflict is often known as the French and Indian War in the United States, and the War of Conquest in Quebec.

On the trip home, he told Bernard Dorin, "What happened was a historical phenomenon that may have been foreseable, 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 kinds of expedients. What I did, I had to do it."

Excerpts

• Video of the whole speech on SRC.ca
• Video Recording
• Longer video of the visit, starting with the arrival of the "Colbert"

See also

• List of speeches
• History of Quebec
• Quiet Revolution
• Rassemblement pour l'Indépendance Nationale
• Gaullism

External links

• De Gaulle and Quebec (French)