Marcel Chaput
Marcel Chaput | |
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Born | MNQ in 1983 | October 14, 1918
Marcel Chaput (October 14, 1918 – January 19, 1991
Biography
Family and education
Marcel Chaput was born in Hull, Quebec on October 14, 1918.[A 2] His mother was Lucia Nantel, and his father, Narcisse Chaput, was a proofreader at Her Majesty's Printer in Ottawa.[A 3] He was the youngest child and sole boy in a family of seven children. He did not know three of his sisters, who died at a young age. The three sisters he knew were Rolande, Gabrielle and Madeleine.[A 3] He was ten years old when his sister Rolande, 16, died of sepsis.[A 4]
After doing his primary schooling at École Lecomte, he entered the Collège Notre-Dame de Hull. He was enrolled in the cadet corps of his college. One of his teachers, Brother Ernest, led him to an interest in science. From that time he cherished the dream of being a chemist.[A 4] In 1934, he joined the Groupe Reboul[B 1] of the Association catholique de la jeunesse canadienne-française.
In September 1933, he left his college in Hull and registered at the High School of the University of Ottawa, an institution which he left only two years later to enter, in September 1935, the École technique de Hull which trained chemistry laboratory technicians at the time. He stayed there until graduation in 1939.
Chaput claims to have become a partisan of the independence of Quebec as part of the Groupe Reboul while preparing for a public debate on the subject of separatism. He and his team member Jacques Boulay had to argue for separatism in a debating contest against two comrades, Roland Dompierre
Technician
He had been working at the
Marriage
On September 15, 1945, he married Madeleine Dompierre, daughter of Odias Dompierre and Marie-Méa Marquis, at the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Catholic Church in Hull. The couple spent six days cruising on the
Doctorate
In September 1946, he moved to Peterson Residence, a disaffected aviation camp acquired by
Return to NRC
After receiving his Ph.D., he returned to Hull and began working for the NRC in Ottawa again. He initially resumed the same work he had been doing during the war, then transferred to the department of chemical research in
In October 1958, he signed a secret study entitled The Proportion of French-Canadian Soldiers in the Canadian Army.
From 1953 to 1959, in parallel to his lab work, he completed the studies of a masters in psychology at the Institute of Psychology of the University of Ottawa.[A 7]
Foundation of the RIN
After reading "Où va le Canada français? L'exercice de la pleine souveraineté est essentiel à l'épanouissement du Québec"[B 4] by Raymond Barbeau, interviewed by Jean-Marc Léger in Le Devoir, Chaput was determined to enter into contact with Barbeau, founder of the Alliance laurentienne. Chaput invited Barbeau to hold a conference in Hull on August 28, 1959, in an old parish room of the Notre-Dame Church. Some twenty people were present. Chaput met André D'Allemagne at this time. Barbeau invited Chaput to give a short speech in the Saint-Stanislas room of Montréal on September 13, 1959 as part of a soirée organized to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.[A 9]
During that period, although his patriotic and charitable activities were numerous,
On May 7, 1960, Chaput presided a meeting that received Raymond Barbeau as speaker at the Le Grenier theatre in Hull. Following the meeting, there were discussions on the possibility to form a Club Laurentie in Hull, but after reflecting on the matter for a while the small group of independence supporters in Hull decided to remain autonomous.[A 9]
On September 10, 1960, he took part with 20 other people to the foundation of the Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale (RIN) which took place at the Auberge Le Châtelet in
After having participated in the organizing of a parade for independence in the streets of Montreal which took place on February 11, 1961, he gave a conference entitled Le Canada français à l'heure de la décision[B 6] as part of a public meeting held at the Gesù on April 4, 1961, during a Stanley Cup semi-final.[B 7] The RIN rejoiced at being able to fill up a room under such circumstances. Pierre Bourgault also gave a speech that night.[A 10]
On May 23, 1961, he again spoke as part of a public meeting organized by the RIN, this time at the Ermitage in Montreal. His conference was entitled Quand deux nationalismes s'affrontent.[A 10][B 8]
Suspension
Chaput's increasingly active involvement in public affairs did not fail to grab the attention of his employer, the federal government in Ottawa. In the
He took three weeks of vacation during the summer and dedicated his free time to the writing of a book. On September 18, 1961, he launched the political essay Pourquoi je suis séparatiste at the Cercle universitaire de Montréal.[A 13] His book was published by Jacques Hébert of Éditions du Jour. It was translated into English as Why I Am a Separatist some months later.
The general student association of Université Laval invited him to participate to the Canadian Affairs Conference, an event conducted under the honorary patronage of the Governor General of Canada. Several political figures gave speeches during the conference, among them Jean Lesage, Davie Fulton and René Lévesque. The talk Chaput was scheduled to give was on Friday November 17, a working day. He asked for a day off without pay, but Keyston, still his superior, refused. He was suspended from his research functions for two weeks – without pay – after he decided to attend the Canadian Affairs Conference anyway. On Monday December 4, 1961, day of his return to work after his suspension, he resigned.[A 12]
President of the RIN
On October 28, 1961, shortly before he resigned his job, he was elected President General of the RIN during the organization's annual congress in Montreal. Under his presidency, the RIN gave itself an emblem, founded the journal L'indépendance and created a political committee which prepared the programme adopted by members during the annual congress of October 1962.[A 13]
On January 7, 1962, he quit Hull and settled in Montreal to maintain basic operations for the RIN. He continued to give talks here and there, usually with Pierre Bourgault. Although it never missed a chance to attack Premier Jean Lesage and all federalists in Quebec City or in Ottawa, the RIN adopted resolutions as part of a special congress on June 9 and 10 – to support the government of Quebec in its project to nationalize electricity companies. When during fall Jean Lesage announced there would be general elections on November 14, Chaput thought the time right to present himself as candidate for the RIN in the
On Saturday October 20, during a congress held in the gymnasium of the Collège Mont-Saint-Louis, Guy Pouliot succeeded Chaput in the presidency of the RIN. Chaput remained an executive, but refused one of the two vice-presidencies he was offered.
On November 14, 3,299 voters of Bourget supported Marcel Chaput, who improvised an electoral campaign with $2,500 CAD and dozens of volunteers. He was not elected Member of Parliament, but judged the experience instructive and useful to the independence movement.
He proposed to the RIN the creation of a position of political organizer, but the council rejected his proposal, still of opinion that the time had not yet come to be active in the political arena. He decided to quit the RIN on December 17, 1962 in order to dedicate all his energies to the foundation of a pro-independence political party.
Foundation of the PRQ
On February 23, 1963, he called a press conference to announce the opening of the office of the Parti républicain du Québec (PRQ). The PRQ gave itself a constitution, a political programme and a journal, Le Républicain. Chaput announced that the first congress of the PRQ would be held on March 16 and 17 at Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.[A 15]
On March 3, 1963, the RIN resolved to become a political party.
On May 7, Raymond Barbeau announced in a press conference that he decided to dissolve the Alliance laurentienne to unite the strength of its members to that of the PRQ. In June, the PRQ permanent office moved from the 2nd floor of the old baseball stadium on rue de Lorimier to 4270, rue Papineau.[A 15]
Hunger strikes
The PRQ rapidly accumulated a debt of $50,000 following the purchase of advertising time on television in April, May and June. To finance the party, Chaput took the decision to go on a hunger strike. He announced it publicly on July 8, 1963.[A 16]
His first hunger strike lasted 33 days, from Monday July 8 to Saturday August 10, 1963. The PRQ's chest filled up with $100,000 CAD. He started a second fast on November 18, 1963. He interrupted it after 63 days, on January 21, 1964, at the insistence of his entourage and sympathizing journalists. The PRQ however only gained $20,000 with his second fast and consequently he resigned his position as party leader. During the period of his two fasts he often made the headlines and continued to be invited to give talks on the subject of independence for Quebec.[A 16]
Seeking employment
After the dissolution of the PRQ on January 21, 1964, Chaput dedicated his time to searching for employment to support his family. Since his resignation as a civil servant in December 1961, he had been living on his own savings and an insufficient public service pension to meet the needs of his wife and children. The task of finding a new job turned out to be difficult and he held various non permanent jobs. His label of "separatist" closed many doors to him. Two insurance companies and one mutual fund company, though interested in him because of his notoriety, refused to hire him in the end because, he was told, the direction feared losing the Anglophone clientele. At the end of the March 1964, his friend Jacques Lamarche suggested he apply for a teaching position with the Fédération des collèges classiques. He never received an answer from the federation. Lamarche therefore invited him to join him at the journal Le Laissez Passer published by the Conseil d'expansion économique (CEE), at the time presided by Sarto Marchand and directed by Bernard Tessier. After much negotiation, the direction of the CEE accepted that Chaput collaborates in the journal, but under a pseudonym. Under the name Gilles Côté, he participated to the publication of two economic dossiers during the summer of 1964, the first on general insurance, the second on life insurance. The direction of the CEE eventually came under a new leadership who learned that Chaput was being employed by the organization. He was fired and never paid for the work he had already performed.[A 17]
A sympathizer of the RIN, José Leroux, principal of the private Collège Valéry, offered him a position as teacher of biology and history. He taught part-time between September 1964 and spring 1965. He continued to search for a more stable employment the whole year but without success.
On February 5, 1965, in a moment of discouragement, he addressed a public letter to the media to lament the fate Quebec society reserved to those who advocated independence.[A 17] His letter had some effect. Interesting offers were made to him from outside Quebec, but he did not wish to live in exile. The only serious offer than was made to him from Quebec was that made by Doctor Elliot, one of his teachers at McGill University, who had since then become dean of the Department of Biochemistry, who offered him the direction of a research chair. He refused the job on principles, asserting he did not wish to work in English in Quebec, and also for pragmatic reasons, because he wished for a flexible schedule that would allow him to continue his militancy for independence in his spare time.
In 1966, his wife entered the job market while he started studying naturopathy. It is only in 1968 that he found a permanent job through an association with Eugène Caraghiaur, with whom he founded Pétro-Montréal, a company delivering heating oil. He was shareholder, director and seller for this company until he his retirement in 1983.[A 17]
During the year 1965, he launched J'ai choisi de me battre: petite histoire très personnelle du séparatisme québécois, de Maurice Duplessis à Claude Wagner, a book of 160 pages, published by Club du livre du Québec in Montreal.
Return to RIN
He returned to the RIN in August 1965, at the invitation of
He continued as a simple militant of the party until its dissolution in October 1968.
Parti Québécois
In October 1968, two weeks after the founding congress of the Parti Québécois (PQ), the members of the RIN gathered and voted the dissolution of their party. Most RIN militants became members of the PQ. Marcel Chaput was one of those who made that choice.[citation needed]
He held a weekly editorial column in Le Journal de Montréal from 1968 to 1970.[citation needed]
On December 11, 1969, he took part in the "manif anti-manif"
In the spring of 1970, he presented himself as candidate for nomination by the PQ in the electoral district of Maisonneuve. It was however Robert Burns who won the nomination and was subsequently elected MNA on April 29.[citation needed]
He held a political column entitled "La comédie canadienne" in the weekly Point de mire during the year 1971.[citation needed]
He presented himself as candidate for nomination by the PQ in the electoral district of Terrebonne in 1973, but Guy Mercier was elected. Mercier did not however win a plurality of votes at the election of October 29.[citation needed]
In 1975, he and his wife Madeleine received the first
He was chief editor ofIci Québec magazine in 1977.[citation needed]
Naturopathy
From 1968 to 1970, after receiving a Ph.D. in naturopathy from the Institut de naturopathie du Québec, he was a consultant at the Clinique naturiste de Montréal.[B 11] During that period, he published the book L'école de la santé and in collaboration with chemist Tony Le Sauteur, Dossier pollution. He was editor of La Santé, a paper doing popular education on health matters.[A 9]
Death
He suffered from
Publications
- Essays
- Pourquoi je suis séparatiste (1961)
- Why I Am a Separatist (1962)
- J'ai choisi de me battre: petite histoire très personnelle du séparatisme québécois de Maurice Duplessis à Claude Wagner (1965)
- L'école de la santé (1969)
- Dossier pollution (1971) with Tony LeSauteur
- Les citations de René Lévesque (1977) with Jean Côté
- Référendum de René Lévesque (1979) with Jean Côté
- Periodicals
- L'indépendance (1962–1968)
- Le Républicain (1963)
- Ici Québec (1977–1978)
- Articles
- "La révolution en marche", in L'Homme nouveau (1964)
- "Les indépendantistes doivent-ils quelque chose à Duplessis?", in Ici Québec (1977)
- "Par son génie musical, cet enfant devrait étonner le monde", in Ici Québec (1978)
- "Référendum. Dossier spécial", in Ici Québec (1978)
- Other
- Manifeste du Parti républicain du Québec (1963)
- Mémoire présenté à titre personnel par Marcel Chaput au Comité parlementaire de la constitution (1964)
Distinctions
- 1975 – Patriot of the Year award by the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society of Montreal
- 1983 – Bronze medal of the Mouvement national des Québécoises et Québécoisawarded by the SNQ of Outaouais
- 1995 – A street of the former City of Hull (today Gatineau) was baptized in his honour
Reference notes
- ^ "Marcel Chaput (1918–1991) Homme de science, homme politique Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine", in Bilan du Siècle, Université de Sherbrooke, retrieved June 5, 2008
- ^ Côté 1979, chap. 1.
- ^ a b Chaput 2007, p. 253.
- ^ a b Côté 1979, chap. 2.
- ^ a b c d Côté 1979, chap. 5.
- ^ a b Côté 1979, chap. 3.
- ^ a b c d Chaput 2007, p. 254.
- ^ a b Chaput 2007, p. 245.
- ^ a b c d e Côté 1979, chap. 6.
- ^ a b Côté 1979, chap. 7.
- ^ Debates of the House of Commons of Canada (Hansard), 24th Parliament, 4th Session, question number 266, p. 3941
- ^ a b Côté 1979, chap. 8.
- ^ a b Chaput 2007, p. 255.
- ^ Côté 1979, chap. 10.
- ^ a b Côté 1979, chap. 11.
- ^ a b Côté 1979, chap. 12.
- ^ a b c Côté 1979, chap. 13.
- ^ "Élections dans Papineau (1923–1973)", in QuébecPolitique.com, retrieved July 13, 2010
- ^ "Dupond v. City of Montreal et al.", in Judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada, LexUM, retrieved July 13, 2010
- ^ Chaput 2007, p. 259.
Explanatory notes
- ^ Named in honour of father Delisle Reboul.
- ^ Father of famous Quebec musician François Dompierre.
- ^ The study is entitled A Study of Promotion Examination Results for French-Speaking and English-Speaking Canadian Army Infantry Officers, Ottawa, MDN, CAORE Report number 110, October 1960
- ^ Where is French Canada going? The exercise of full sovereignty is essential to the blooming of Quebec
- ^ In his native region of Outaouais of which Hull is one of the main towns, he founded or lead several organizations: the Alliance française chapter of the Ottawa-Hull region, the Institut des sciences, the Société des conférences, the Emmaüs Movement, etc. — Chaput 2007, p. 254
- ^ French Canada at the Hour of Decision
- ^ Montreal lost 3 to 0 against Chicago and was taken out of the playoff [1]
- ^ When Two Nationalisms Face Each Other
- ^ Anti-demonstration demo
- ^ A regulation promulgated on November 12, 1969.
- ^ Raymond Barbeau is founder of the Institut de naturopathie du Québec and the Clinique naturiste de Montréal
References
- Monographs
- Chaput, Marcel (2007), Pourquoi je suis séparatiste (in French), Montréal: Bibliothèque québécoise, ISBN 2-89406-271-0
- Brunet, Jean-Marc; Côté, Jean (2006), Le patriote : Marcel Chaput et son époque (in French), Montréal: Éditions de l'Ordre naturiste social de Saint-Marc l'Évangéliste, ISBN 2-9806551-1-2
- Côté, Jean (1979), Marcel Chaput, pionnier de l'indépendance (in French), Montréal: Québécor, ISBN 2-89089-011-2
- Articles, chapters
- Mathieu Bock-Côté, "Marcel Chaput", in Robert Comeau, Charles-Philippe Courtois, Denis Monière (dir.), Histoire intellectuelle de l'indépendantisme québécois. Tome I. 1834–1968, Montréal: VLB éditeur, 2010, p. 187–197.
- Eve Morin Desrosiers, "Marcel Chaput (1918–1991) Homme de science, homme politique", in Bilan du siècle, Université de Sherbrooke
- Serge Gaudreau, "4 décembre 1961 – Démission de Marcel Chaput du Conseil de recherches pour la défense", in Bilan du siècle, Université de Sherbrooke
- Archive funds
- "Fonds du Parti républicain du Québec. (P65)", Division des archives de l'Université de Montréal
- "Fonds Marcel Chaput. 1959–1974 (P96)", BAnQ
- "Fonds Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale. 1960–1968 (P300)", BAnQ
- Boudreau, Lionel (1981). Répertoire numérique détaillé du Fonds du Parti républicain du Québec (P 65). Montréal: Service des archives, Université de Montréal, 17 p.
- Audio-Video
- "Marcel Chaput, chimiste indépendantiste", in Les Archives de Radio-Canada, Société Radio-Canada. updated September 11, 2008.
- "Marcel Chaput, 1918–1991. Le tout raconté par son petit-fils : Julien Chaput", in the site Harfang Québec
- Web site
- Tony Le Sauteur, "Tout sur Marcel Chaput", in the author's own site
External links
- Excerpt of Why I Am a Separatist by Marcel Chaput (alternative translation)