Michel Chartrand

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Michel Chartrand
Chartrand in 2007
Born(1916-12-20)20 December 1916
Outremont, Quebec, Canada
Died12 April 2010(2010-04-12) (aged 93)
Montérégie, Quebec, Canada
OccupationTrade unionist
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1942)​
ChildrenAlain Chartrand
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Michel Chartrand (20 December 1916 – 12 April 2010) was a Canadian trade union leader from Quebec.

Born in

October crisis
, he was arrested without a warrant and put in jail for four months. He was president of the CSN Montreal central council until 1978.

During the 1980s, he took action for the rights of injured workers; he created the Fondation pour l’aide aux travailleuses et travailleurs accidentés (FATA) in 1984. He promoted progressive values and syndicalism in the media until the end of his life. He endorsed Québec solidaire.

Chartrand is considered to have been a promoter of

feminist writer and union activist Simonne Monet-Chartrand
.

Education

Born on 20 December 1916 in the

Roman Catholic Church youth movement. In the 1939 Quebec election, he campaigned for the Action libérale nationale (ALN) party. In 1940, he enrolled in a history course at the Université de Montréal taught by Lionel Groulx, a Quebec nationalist
Roman Catholic priest.

Chartrand is reported to have joined the Canadian Officer Training Corps in 1941 following the outbreak of World War II in September 1939. This program, conducted across Canada, allowed university students to be credited with military service while continuing their studies without being posted to active duty. Chartrand protested that the Canadian Army documents were only in the English language and returned to the Trappists' monastery in the village of Oka, Quebec.

In a 1994 interview, Suzette Rouleau, Pierre Trudeau's sister, described engaging in a fist fight with Chartrand, to prevent him bullying her baby brother, when they were all teenagers.[3]

Opponent of conscription

Following the federal government's 1942 announcement of a national plebiscite on military

Bloc populaire canadien
movement to campaign against conscription.

In February 1942, he was married to

Simonne Monet by Lionel Groulx at the Notre-Dame Basilica. By the time the Parliament of Canada
put conscription in place in November 1944, Chartrand was the father of three children.

In the

Chambly-Rouville riding. He lost in a landslide to his Liberal Party of Canada
opponent.

Seeking elected office

In 1948, his fifth child was born, and the following year he went to the

Catholic Workers Confederation of Canada (CTCC). Involved with a number of union operations, in 1953 Chartrand became a salaried member of the union's executive committee. After internal disputes, he was fired from his job. However, after appealing the decision, a tribunal under Pierre Trudeau
reinstated him.

In 1954, Chartrand stood for election to the post of secretary-general of the union but was defeated by

Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), a social democratic federal political party headed in Quebec by Thérèse Casgrain. Chartrand was appointed a Quebec delegate to the party's convention in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As a result, a Quebec branch of the party was organized under the name Parti social démocratique du Québec. Chartrand was the party's candidate in the Chambly riding in the 1956 provincial election
, but was badly defeated. His union duties involved numerous high-profile strikes, and he was seen by some as a future leader of the movement and was leader of the party from 1957 until 1960.

Chartrand ran for the

Lac Saint-Jean, Quebec for the Social Democratic Party, but once again finished third with 21.8% of the vote.[4]
His frustration became evident through his increasingly extremist statements, and in 1959, the union forced him to resign from its executive committee. He was then hired to work at the printing office of the Parti social-démocratique, and was again a delegate to the CCF's convention in Winnipeg.

Peace advocacy and socialism

In 1960, the Confederation of Catholic Workers of Canada changed its name to the

Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale
(RIN).

Involvement for Quebec independence

In 1968, Michel Chartrand was elected president of the Montreal Central Council of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux, serving in that position until 1978. By the end of the 1960s, his views became more resolved. As a member of the Quebec Independence movement, Chartrand staunchly supported the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ).

During the October Crisis, when asked by a reporter about the ordeal the family of kidnapped British trade commissioner James Cross was being put through, Chartrand stated: "I have no more sympathy for Mrs. Cross than for the wives of thousands of men without jobs in Quebec at the present time." Even after the murder of Quebec vice-premier Pierre Laporte, Chartrand remained steadfast in his beliefs, and proved it by bailing FLQ leader Charles Gagnon out of jail, paying nearly three thousand dollars of his own money. On 15 October 1975, five years after the October Crisis, FLQ and Front de rassemblement d'action populaire members and supporters met at the Paul-Sauvé Centre in Montreal where Michel Chartrand addressed the crowd.

In the 1998 Quebec election, he again ran for political office. He represented the Rassemblement pour l'alternative progressiste (now Québec solidaire) against Lucien Bouchard in Jonquière, finishing third with 14 per cent of the votes.

In film

Michel Chartrand and

Pierre Vallieres
, in a documentary directed by Jean Daniel Lafond, La liberté en colère.

He also had a small acting role in the 1970 comedy film Two Women in Gold (Deux femmes en or).

Death

Chartrand died on 12 April 2010 from kidney cancer.[6][7][8] The Parc régional de Longueuil was renamed Parc Michel-Chartrand by the city of Longueuil in June 2010.[9]

Electoral record

1998 Quebec general election: Jonquière
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Parti Québécois Lucien Bouchard 20,475 60.48 -34.34
Liberal Guylaine Caron 6,552 19.35 –
Rassemblement pour l'alternative progressiste Michel Chartrand 5,023 14.84 –
Action démocratique Hélène Vigneault 1,686 4.98 –
Natural Law Sylvain Bergeron 120 0.35 -0.50
Total valid votes 33,856 99.12 +0.40
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots 302 0.88 -0.40
Turnout 34,158 76.91 +15.92
Eligible voters 44,415
Quebec provincial by-election, 1959: Lac Saint-Jean
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Union Nationale Jean-Paul Levasseur 8,469 56.16 +12.81
Independent Raymond Lapointe 3,324 22.04 –
Social Democratic Michel Chartrand 3,286 21.79 –
Total valid votes 15,079 98.40 -1.51
Total rejected ballots 341 2.21 +1.51
Turnout 15,420 62.10 -29.65
Electors on the lists 24,831 –
1958 Canadian federal election: Lapointe
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Augustin Brassard 12,113 41.74 -10.77
Progressive Conservative Bernard Wilshire 9,864 33.99 –
Co-operative Commonwealth Michel Chartrand 7,042 24.27 –
Total valid votes 29,019
1957 Canadian federal election: Longueuil
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Auguste Vincent 19,314 58.87 -8.71
Progressive Conservative Pierre Sévigny 10,942 33.35 +13.46
Co-operative Commonwealth Michel Chartrand 1,768 5.39 -5.71
Independent Conservative Oliva Bédard 782 2.38 –
Total valid votes 32,806
1953 Canadian federal election: Longueuil
Party Candidate Votes %
Liberal Auguste Vincent 16,688 67.58
Progressive Conservative Georges-Joseph Valade 4,912 19.89
Co-operative Commonwealth Michel Chartrand 2,742 11.10
Labor–Progressive Yvonne Bourget 352 1.43
Total valid votes 24,694
1945 Canadian federal election: Chambly—Rouville
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Roch Pinard 12,723 50.38 -15.03
Independent Paul Pratt 9,158 36.26 –
Bloc populaire Michel Chartrand 2,333 9.24 –
Co-operative Commonwealth Joseph-Charles Patenaude 1,041 4.12 –
Total valid votes 25,255

References

  1. ^ Diane Cailhier, Chartrand, Michel, in The Canadian Encyclopedia online [Retrieved 23 July 2011].
  2. ^ Décès du syndicaliste Michel Chartrand, in Bilan du siècle online [Retrieved 23 July 2011].
  3. ^ "Suzette Rouleau".
    Montreal Gazette. 14 February 2008. Archived from the original
    on 24 March 2016. In Brian McKenna's 1994 television biography, Memoirs of Pierre Trudeau: The Making of a Leader, the Outremont aristocrat told of getting into a fist fight in her teens with Michel Chartrand, the future Quebec labour leader, when Chartrand tried to bully her brother.
  4. ^ Les résultats électoraux depuis 1867, Labelle à La Prairie
  5. ^ "Un homme de parole". Documentary film (in French). Montreal: National Film Board of Canada. 1991. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  6. ^ "Long-time labour leader Michel Chartrand has died". Montreal: CTA Montreal. 2010. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  7. ^ "Un homme sans compromis" (in French). LCN. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  8. ^ Fiery Quebec union leader fought for social justice Globe and Mail, Toronto. Retrieved 19 April 2010.
  9. Rive-Sud Express. Archived from the original
    on 29 August 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2012.

External links

Media related to Michel Chartrand at Wikimedia Commons

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