Just Watch Me

by John English

  8. On Liberal support, ibid.; interview with Marc Lalonde, Aug. 2007. On the offer to Lévesque, see Duchesne, Le Croisé, 599–605, and Bothwell, Alliance and Illusion, 301.

  9. The quotation and the election results are found in Saywell, Quebec 70, 22–23.

  10. Ibid., 26.

  11. Meren, “Les Sanglots longs,” describes the memorandum to French foreign minister Maurice Schumann, in which the divisions in the Bourassa government are discussed, 627–68.

  12. Trudeau, Memoirs, 134.

  13. Trudeau, Memoirs, 128–44; Canada, House of Commons Debates (6 Oct. 1970). There is a vast literature on the so-called October Crisis. On the FLQ see especially Louis Fournier, FLQ: Histoire d’un mouvement clandestin, 2nd ed. (Montréal: Éditions Lanctôt, 1998). A most recent valuable study based on a contemporary diary is William Tetley, The October Crisis: An Insider’s View (Montreal and Kingston: McGill–Queen’s University Press, 2006). Tetley offers a valuable bibliography and commentary on the crisis. He has also placed much of his research and relevant documents on the Internet. Included is a dispute between him and prominent journalist Lysiane Gagnon over an article she published in the Beaver on the October Crisis. The journal would not let Tetley publish the full reply that he makes available on the Internet at http://www.mcgill.ca/maritimelaw/crisis/.

  14. The translation of the manifesto is from Saywell, Quebec 70, 46. On Trudeau’s disagreement with Sharp, see Trudeau, Memoirs, 135. Sharp confirmed Trudeau’s continuing dismay in an interview with me, July 2002.

  15. Gérard Pelletier, quoted in Anthony Westell, Paradox: Trudeau as Prime Minister (Scarborough: Prentice-Hall, 1972), 239. Gérard Pelletier, The October Crisis, trans. Joyce Marshall (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1971), 23.

  16. Trudeau, Memoirs, 136.

  17. See Carole de Vault and William Johnson, Toute Ma Vérité: Les Confessions de l’agent S.A.T. 945–171 (Montréal: Stanké, 1981), 102ff.; Duchesne, Le Croisé, 546–51; and (for the shooting) Gordon Robertson, Memoirs of a Very Civil Servant: Mackenzie King to Pierre Trudeau (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), 264. Alastair Gillespie, an MP but not yet a minister, opened his apartment door and immediately confronted a guard who pointed his gun at him and demanded to know his intentions. Gillespie’s neighbour was a minister who had received protection the previous evening. Jean Chrétien recalls that the guards were hidden in his garage. Conversations with Chrétien in March 2009 and Gillespie in Feb. 2009.

  18. This version is taken from Saywell, Quebec 70, 71–73, which includes the entire exchange. It can be seen on http://archives.cbc.ca/politics/civil_unrest/topics/101/. This site has several other clips dealing with the October Crisis.

  19. Tetley, October Crisis, 203. Tetley, now the hardliner, noted that “Trudeau has made an excellent speech on ‘bleeding hearts’ and holding the line. It is taped and is going to be played to us in Cabinet.”

  20. Saywell, Quebec 70, 73–74; Trudeau, Memoirs, 139–41, where he lists all the signatories; and Le Devoir, Oct. 30, 1970, where Ryan describes the circumstances of the case. See also the important account in Newman, Here Be Dragons, chap. 12; and Fernand Dumont, La Vigile du Québec, Octobre 1970: L’Impasse? (Montréal: Hurtubise, 1971), in which Trudeau is accused of treating Quebec francophones as imbeciles (193).

  21. Montreal Gazette, Oct. 16, 1970; Le Devoir, Oct. 16, 1970; Paul Litt, draft biography of John Turner (I am indebted to Dr. Litt for this manuscript, which draws on Turner’s private papers); Tetley, October Crisis; and interview with Allan MacEachen, Oct. 2003. Mr. MacEachen said that Marchand was highly influential and overwrought.

  22. Cabinet Conclusions, RG2, PCO, Series A-5-1, vol. 6359, Oct. 15, 1970, LAC; Eric Kierans with Walter Stewart, Remembering (Toronto: Stoddart, 2001), 181.

  23. Drapeau’s biographers Brian McKenna and Susan Purcell argue that Drapeau played “only an indirect role in the day-to-day decisions during the October Crisis.” He was preoccupied with the municipal elections. He did use the situation to his political advantage, particularly after October 15. Drapeau (Toronto: Clarke Irwin, 1980), 236.

  24. Cabinet Conclusions, RG2, PCO, Series A-5-1, vol. 6359, Oct. 15, 1970, LAC.

  25. Ibid.; Kierans with Stewart, Remembering, 180ff.

  26. Cabinet Conclusions, RG2, PCO, Series A-5-1, vol. 6359, Oct. 15, 1970, LAC. Dr. Litt’s account (see note 21) supports this view of Turner’s role.

  27. The website created by William Tetley at McGill contains all the major documents dealing with the crisis. See http://www.mcgill.ca/files/maritimelaw/K.doc.

  28. Montreal Gazette, Oct. 19, 1970.

  29. Duchesne, Le Croisé, 550–52; Douglas in Canada, House of Commons Debates (16 Oct. 1970); and Trudeau, Memoirs, 143. The difficulties Robert Stanfield, the Conservative leader, faced are described well in Geoffrey Stevens, Stanfield (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973), 241. Stanfield received contrary advice from two assistants, one who urged a “civil rights stand” and another who urged a strong stand with Canadians against terrorism. The Trudeau-Douglas debate reflected these differences and the debate persists between these positions. The October Crisis occupies a remarkable twenty-two pages in Trudeau’s memoirs. Trudeau points out, for example, that René Lévesque had said, “One day the police and the army will be gone and Trudeau’s stupidity will not have prevented more kidnappings.” But Trudeau asserts correctly that the kidnappings did stop and that even Pierre Vallières urged separatists to abandon violence soon after 1970. Trudeau dismisses the diary entries of Cabinet minister Don Jamieson, which are often cited by critics as proof that Trudeau’s invocation of the War Measures Act was an attempt to smash separatism. Those entries, Trudeau insists, are unreliable because Jamieson was absent for much of the time and did not participate in the “crucial exchanges” “during which our reasons for invoking the War Measures Act were put forward and the attitude the government had decided to take was defined.” The Cabinet record appears to bear out Trudeau’s point about Jamieson. That same record does illustrate his personal and political disdain for Lévesque at the time. The impact of those “crucial exchanges” is clear in the declassified Cabinet records, which reveal how those in the Cabinet who, like Douglas, wanted parliamentary approval and special legislation gave way to Marchand’s argument that only the War Measures Act would permit the actions necessary to blunt the “deterioration.”

  30. For an interview with Cross on his experiences in Montreal, see www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/collections/BDOHP/Cross.pdf.

  31. Robertson, Civil Servant, 264.

  32. Kierans with Stewart, Remembering, 180.

  33. Turner, quoted in Litt’s Turner draft biography (see note 21). The remark by Otto Lang was made to me in a personal conversation in 2005. Robertson’s argument is found in Robertson, Civil Servant, 256.

  34. The controversy over the October 15 petition is covered well in William Tetley, who presents both sides of the issue, although he is critical of Ryan and Lévesque. Peter C. Newman describes how Lalonde and Trudeau himself leaked the information about Ryan’s “provisional government” to him, and he indicates that he feels he was betrayed and used by them. Tetley, October Crisis, 121–27; Newman, Here Be Dragons, chap. 12.

  35. Tetley, October Crisis, 120–31. René Lévesque, Memoirs, trans. Philip Stratford (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986), 245.

  36. See Tetley, October Crisis, chap. 13, for Ryan’s arguments, an examination of the debate, and a presentation of the evidence. This section owes a considerable debt to his account. See also Lévesque, Memoirs, 245. Separately, this interpretation depends on a discussion of the October Crisis by several leading Liberal senators and Liberal MPs from the period, held at the University Club, Toronto, May 24, 2007, and interviews with several others close to Trudeau at the time, notably Marc Lalonde, Tim Porteous, Margaret Trudeau, Carroll Guérin, Otto Lang, Ramsay Cook, Albert Breton, and John Turner. Paul Litt’s draft biography of John Turner (see note 21) clearly disputes the view ad
vanced by journalist Doug Fisher and, in passing, by Peter C. Newman in his memoirs, Here Be Dragons, that Turner dissented from the path taken and that his differences would become apparent when his papers were released. His biographer had full access to his papers.

  37. Duchesne, Le Croisé, 561, based on an interview with Louise Harel, Sept. 26, 2000; and Trudeau in “Entrevue entre M. Trudeau et M. Lépine, [M. Lépine interview], April 29, 1992.” TP, MG 26 03, vol. 23, file 5, LAC. The later comments of Lalonde and Pelletier are reported in L. Ian MacDonald, From Bourassa to Bourassa: Wilderness to Restoration, 2nd ed. (Montreal and Kingston: McGill–Queen’s University Press, 2002), 154–56.

  38. Based on an interview with Parizeau and the interview with Harel (see note 37); Parizeau, quoted in Duchesne, Le Croisé, 561.

  39. Ramsay Cook, The Teeth of Time: Remembering Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Montreal and Kingston: McGill–Queen’s University Press, 2006), chap. 4; and J.L. Granatstein, “Changing Positions,” in Andrew Cohen and J.L. Granatstein, eds., Trudeau’s Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Toronto: Random House, 1998), 298–305.

  40. Margaret Trudeau, Beyond Reason (New York and London: Paddington Press, 1979), 64. Margaret confirmed this story in a conversation with me in February 2006. British prime minister Edward Heath reported to senior ministers after meeting Trudeau in December 1970 that Mr. Trudeau “had struck him as being considerably older and more subdued. The kidnapping experiences had clearly told on him; and he was greatly relieved that Mr. Cross had been freed.” “The Prime Minister’s Visits to Ottawa and Washington: Note of a meeting held at 10 Downing Street on 21 December 1970 at 3 p.m.,” PREM 15/7/1 22808, National Archives of the United Kingdom.

  CHAPTER FOUR: REASON AND PASSION

  1. Snow’s comments are in Nancy Southam, ed., Pierre: Colleagues and Friends Talk about the Trudeau They Knew (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2005), 124–25, and Leclerc’s were made for the CBC and are at http://www.cbc.ca/arts/photoessay/that60s-show/index2.html. Wieland herself comments on Reason over Passion in an interview: Kristy Holmes-Moss, “Interview and Notes on Reason over Passion and Pierre Vallières,” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 15 (fall 2006): 114–17.

  2. Holmes-Moss, “Interview and Notes.”

  3. Ryan, in Le Devoir, May 1, 1971.

  4. Denis Smith, Bleeding Hearts, Bleeding Country (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1971). The interview with Trudeau is found in George Radwanski, Trudeau (Toronto: Macmillan, 1978), 329–30.

  5. I would like to thank Dr. Cook for giving me his private memorandum on the evening’s discussions and for drawing my attention to Eli Mandel’s poem. See his full account of the meeting in his Teeth of Time: Remembering Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Montreal and Kingston: McGill–Queen’s University Press, 2006), 110–22. Mandel’s verse is an excerpt from “Political Speech (for PET)” and appeared in Dreaming Backwards: The Selected Poetry of Eli Mandel (Don Mills, Ont.: General, 1981), 79. The quotation about the need to be strong is found in Pierre Trudeau, Memoirs (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1993), 151. Dr. Donald Wright kindly gave me the Lower letter to fellow historian George Stanley (Arthur Lower to George Stanley, Nov. 10, 1970, QUA, Collection 5072, ALoP, box 5, A75). This description of the meeting is also influenced by the recollections of the distinguished economist Albert Breton, who told me about it shortly after it occurred. We have discussed the meeting since, but I vividly remember Breton’s anger concerning the comments of some of the participants. He claimed then that Trudeau shared that anger.

  6. Trudeau, Memoirs, 150–51.

  7. Geoff Pevere and Greig Dymond, Mondo Canuck: A Canadian Pop Culture Odyssey (Toronto: Prentice-Hall, 1996), 221.

  8. William Tetley, The October Crisis, 1970: An Insider’s View (Montreal and Kingston: McGill–Queen’s University Press, 2006), 217–18. After the October Crisis, Tetley encountered Trudeau at a reception in Trudeau’s riding, where according to Tetley, Trudeau did suffer fools gladly. He thanked Tetley for his help. Tetley wrote: “Actually I think we did the good work and he helped, but he is charming and fair.” Tetley, October Crisis, 220.

  9. Pierre Vallières, L’Urgence de choisir: essai (Montréal: Éditions Parti-pris, 1971).

  10. The cartoon was published in the Ottawa Citizen on November 2, 1970, and is found in John Saywell, Quebec 70: A Documentary Narrative (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), 95.

  11. Quoted in Anne Carney, “Trudeau Unveiled: Growing Up Private with Mama, the Jesuits, and the Conscience of the Rich,” Maclean’s, Feb. 1972, 68.

  12. The interviews with Lundrigan, Alexander, and Trudeau may be viewed on the CBC Digital Archives, and the quotations used are taken from my viewing of these at http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/02/16/. See also Globe and Mail and Montreal Star, Feb. 17, 1971. Many Liberals thought that Trudeau came out of the incident well, but Trudeau did not see “much humour in it himself.” Richard Stanbury Diary, privately held, March 4, 1971.

  13. The best recent treatment of the law and its context is Ross Lambertson, Repression and Resistance: Canadian Human Rights Activists (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), chap. 1. There is also a good collection of writings on the Padlock Law at http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/docs/Laloiducadenas-Duplessisetlefascisme.html.

  14. Wright to Smith, May 20, 1939, quoted in Philip Girard, Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life (Toronto: University of Toronto Press for the Osgoode Society, 2005), 106.

  15. The quotations and interpretation draw directly from James Walker, “Race,” Rights, and the Law in the Supreme Court of Canada: Historical Case Studies (Toronto: The Osgoode Society, 1997), 278.

  16. Christopher MacLennan, Towards the Charter: Canadians and the Demand for a National Bill of Rights, 1929–1960 (Montreal and Kingston: McGill–Queen’s University Press, 2003).

  17. For example, Scott gained his reputation in Roncarelli v. Duplessis, where a Jehovah’s Witness restaurant owner lost his liquor licence because of Duplessis’s Padlock Law, and the Lady Chatterley’s Lover case, in which censorship of D.H. Lawrence’s celebration of illicit love was overturned.

  18. Pierre Trudeau, Federalism and the French Canadians (Toronto: Macmillan, 1968), xxi–xxii.

  19. See Mark MacGuigan, “The Political Freedom of Catholics,” in Brief to the Bishops: Canadian Catholic Laymen Speak Their Minds, ed. Paul Harris (Toronto: Longmans Canada, 1965), 18–25. Later, MacGuigan published a controversial study, Abortion, Conscience, and Democracy (Toronto: Hounslow, 1994), which Trudeau read closely and with approval. It is thoroughly consistent with MacGuigan’s 1965 brief, which attacked the role of ecclesiastical authorities in public debates. In conversations with MacGuigan—I am his literary executor—he reported on Trudeau’s numerous conversations that revealed the former prime minister’s agreement with MacGuigan’s liberal views on the abortion question. A strong attack on the role of these prominent Catholics in the abortion debate is found in Alphonse de Valk, Lang, Lalonde, Trudeau, Turner: Abortion (Battleford, Sask.: Marian Press, 1975). De Valk argued prophetically that “as long as one party is convinced that abortion is a criminal act which must be publicly condemned because it is the termination of human life innocent of any crime and is, therefore, against both reason and God, the other side must attempt to silence that view. It cannot rest until it has succeeded in doing so, for the simple reason that human beings cannot live in the same society over any length of time with views which are contradictory in matters of life and death” (de Valk, Abortion, 18). MacGuigan, not surprisingly, fundamentally disagreed.

  20. Richard Gwyn, “Prologue,” in John English, Richard Gwyn, and P. Whitney Lackenbauer, eds., The Hidden Pierre Elliott Trudeau: The Faith behind the Politics (Ottawa: Novalis, 2004), 11; Margaret Trudeau, Beyond Reason (New York and London: Paddington Press, 1979), 55.

  21. Le Devoir indicated on September 11, 1968, that many MPs would find it difficult to have the omnibus bill broken up because it would require them to vote a sin
gle “yes” or “no” on such diverse issues as homosexuality, abortion, and gun control. However, the Cabinet discussions of July and August contained no references to the omnibus bill. Trudeau’s comments are in Cabinet Conclusions, RG2, PCO, Series A-5-a, vol. 6368, Sept. 5, 1968, LAC.

  22. For both sides of the abortion debate, see John Turner, “Faith and Politics,” in English, Gwyn, and Lackenbauer, Hidden Pierre, 111–16, and Bernard Daly, “Trudeau and the Bedrooms of the Nation: The Canadian Bishops’ Involvement,” in ibid., 135–40. Humanae Vitae is found at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html. The Canadian ecclesiastical reaction is described in Le Devoir, Sept. 26, 1968.

  23. Turner, “Faith and Politics,” 115–16; Daly, “Trudeau and the Bedrooms of the Nation,” 135–40.

  24. Turner, “Faith and Politics,” 113; J.A. Scollin, Director, Criminal Law Section, Department of Justice, to J.W. Goodwin, May 15, 1969, Department of Justice, RG13, vol. 2965, file 185300-149-1, LAC. Trudeau’s comments on divorce are found in Canada, House of Commons Debates (4 Dec. 1967). I would like to thank Paul Litt, Turner’s biographer, for these references. The concern about the Pope is found in Ambassador Crean (Rome) to Marcel Cadieux, Jan. 20, 1969, External Affairs RG25, box 10104, file 20-CDa-9-Trudeau, Part 1, LAC.

  25. Ian Coates to John Turner, May 13, 1969, Department of Justice, RG13, vol. 2965, file 185300-149-1, LAC. Turner’s comments are found in Canada, House of Commons Debates (17 April 1969), and Diefenbaker and Caouette are quoted in Turner, “Faith and Politics,” 116.

  26. Andrew Thompson, “Slow to Leave the Bedrooms of the Nation: Trudeau and the Modernizing of Canadian Law, 1967–1968,” in English, Gwyn, and Lackenbauer, Hidden Pierre, 125. The conference upon which this book was based included an extended debate on the true nature of the abortion reform, with most Catholics emphasizing it was revolutionary and others less convinced it was so revolutionary. Although I am not a Catholic, I tend to agree with their argument on this point: the change was significant.