1967
“Vive le Québec Libre”
Every nation has things it does well, and those things it has proven incapable of doing. England, for example, excels at producing talented actors; its cuisine is execrable. Germany gives birth to wonderful musical composers, but it can’t keep its hands off its neighbours’ territory. Canada exports brilliant comedians but our best Shakespearean actor is William Shatner. And there is France — the land of great cheeses, gorgeous actresses, splendid 19th-century novelists, and baguettes — but it cannot follow an ethical foreign policy. The treachery of the French government is legendary. The examples of cooperation with Islamic pirates in the 16th century, Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, the abandonment of Emperor Maximilian in Mexico, Marshal Pétain and Vichy, and the sabotage of The Rainbow Warrior give but a taste of the complete absence of gratitude or principle exhibited by the Quai d’Orsay.
In 1967 Canada celebrated the centenary of its independence, put on the stirring Expo 67 in Montreal, and invited world leaders to pay us a visit. Among those who came was President Charles de Gaulle of France. De Gaulle ignored diplomatic protocol which mandates flying directly to the nation’s capital; instead he arrived in Quebec City on board the French warship Colbert, named after the minister of Louis XIV whose policies saved New France in the 1600s. He then drove to Montreal where he gave a speech, the heart of which was his observation that his reception along the route reminded him of the liberation of France in 1944. He concluded by uttering the infamous phrase: Vive Montréal! Vive le Québec! Vive le Québec libre! Vive, vive, vive le Canada français! Et vive la France!” This backing of Quebec independence was a calculated blow which de Gaulle had planned. Speaking of himself in the third person, he had told an aide, “Of course, like many others I could have got away with a few polite remarks or diplomatic acrobatics, but when one is General De Gaulle, one does not have recourse to such expedients. What I did, I had to do it.”
The mild-mannered Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson furiously announced, “The people of Canada are free. Every province in 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.” De Gaulle did not bother to continue his trip and flew home pleased with his attack on the sovereignty of an ally.
The bodies of 47,500 Canadian servicemen are buried in France where they died fighting for French liberty.
Give him Hell Gerry