Vive le Québec Libre speech
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Vive le Québec libre! (Long live free Quebec!) was a controversial phrase in a speech given by French President Charles de Gaulle in Montreal on July 24, 1967.
De Gaulle was in Canada to visit 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!).
In repeating the slogan of a Quebec separatist 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."[link]
The speech was a clear encouragement of Quebec separatism and, coming from the French head of state, a serious breach of diplomatic protocol. It achieved its goal of emboldening the separatist movement, and it created a serious rift between the two countries.
Standing on the balcony of the Montreal City Hall, near de Gaulle was Pauline Vanier, the wife of the late Governor General Georges Vanier, the de facto Canadian head of state. She pressed a scrap of paper bearing the simple reproach "1940" into de Gaulle's hand, in reference to the fall of France to the Nazis and Canada's considerable role and sacrifice in liberating it.
Response
The crowd's reaction to de Gaulle's phrase was notoriously powerful, and has been described as a "frenzy"[link]English-speaking Canadians 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."[link]
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?” [link]
Pearson said, "Certain statements by President de Gaulle tend to encourage the small minority of our population whose aim is to destroy Canada: and as such, they are unacceptable to the Canadian people and its government."
De Gaulle, claiming that the word "unacceptable" was unacceptable, promptly cancelled the remainder of his visit, and returned to France where he was also heavily criticized by a large part of the French media for his serious breach of international protocol.
However, the event was seen as a watershed moment by members of the Quebec sovereignty movement and is frequently mentioned to this day. The event occurred 2 years before the FLQ incidents.
The decision to use the slogan
It is unclear if the message was premeditated, or if De Gaulle had spoke the slogan out of spontaneity (recent revealed documents seem to suggest that De Gaulle planned the speech beforehand). 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”. De Gaulle had been invited by Québec premier Daniel Johnson. Although a visiting head of state, he avoided the Canadian capital, Ottawa, taking a whole week to cross the Atlantic on the warship Colbert so he could arrive in Québec City instead. Earlier in the visit, de Gaulle had hinted at his support for Quebec separatism, even going so far as to say that his procession in Montreal reminded him of his return to Paris after it was freed from the Nazis during World War II.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 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
- [Audio excerpt of the final part of the speech]
- [Video of the whole speech on SRC.ca]
- [Video Recording]
See also
External link
- [De Gaulle and Quebec] (in French)
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