His political career derailed in 2000 over comments he made about Jewish people and ethnic groups.
Author of the article: Published Mar 20, 2024 • 4 minute read
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Yves Michaud in 2002.
Yves Michaud, a journalist, politician and tireless defender of small shareholders, died on Tuesday. He was 94. Le Devoir reported in May 2022 that Michaud was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
He will be remembered for his outspokenness, his love of the French language and his passion for Quebec. Born on Feb. 13, 1930, in St-Hyacinthe, Michaud graduated from the Séminaire de St-Hyacinthe and the University of Strasbourg’s School of Journalism in France.
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In January 1954, when he was 23 years old, he was named editor-in-chief of Clairon maskoutain, a weekly in St-Hyacinthe. He became its director in 1960 then, in 1962, became editor-in-chief of La Patrie.
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In 1966, Michaud made a leap into politics and was elected Liberal MNA for Montreal’s Gouin riding. But in October 1969, due to a disagreement with the party over Bill 63 on the French language — which he considered insufficiently restrictive — he sat as an independent Liberal. In the 1970 elections, he ran as a Liberal candidate but was defeated.
The government of Robert Bourassa quickly named him Quebec’s high commissioner for cooperation, a position he held until 1973. The same year, he failed in his attempt to be elected as a PQ MNA in the Bourassa riding. Also in 1973, he founded, with René Lévesque and Jacques Parizeau, the pro-independence daily newspaper Le Jour, of which he was editor-in-chief until it folded in 1976.
The first edition of Le Jour newspaper, dated Feb. 28, 1974, with Yves Michaud as editor-in-chief. Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec
Michaud was subsequently entrusted with several important positions in the government. He was notably agent-general of Quebec in Paris from 1979 to 1984 and, later, CEO of the Palais des congrès de Montréal from 1984 to 1987.
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In December of 2000, Michaud attempted a return to politics by running for the PQ nomination in the Montreal riding of Mercier. But his campaign derailed when he said in a radio interview that Jewish people consider themselves the only people to have “suffered in the history of humanity,” in addition to repeating the words of Parizeau on the role of money and the “ethnic vote” during the 1995 referendum on the future of Quebec.
A few days later, the National Assembly unanimously adopted, without debate, a motion of censure against Michaud, which divided PQ supporters. According to some, the unwavering support given to Michaud by several PQ activists played an important role in Premier Lucien Bouchard’s decision to resign in January 2001. Michaud remained upset about the motion for a long time.
In 2022, he was awarded the National Assembly medal to highlight his exceptional contribution to Quebec society. Québec solidaire MNA Ruba Ghazal, who presented him with the medal, said she contacted Michaud’s daughter on Wednesday morning to express her condolences. “I spoke with his daughter to send her my sympathies,” she told journalists in a corridor of the National Assembly.
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Robin Hood of the banks Michaud was known for defending small investors in large companies. In 1993, scandalized by the sinking of Trustco Général, a subsidiary of Industrielle Alliance, in which thousands of people lost money, he founded the Association de protection des épargnants et investisseurs du Québec, which would become the Mouvement d’éducation et de défense des actionnaires (MÉDAC).
In 1997, Michaud became the first Canadian to be recognized by a court as having the right to present proposals to shareholder meetings of public companies under federal jurisdiction. Quickly nicknamed “Robin Hood of the banks,” Michaud succeeded in having at least eight different proposals from MÉDAC adopted between 1997 and 2009. The best received were one ordering the disclosure of external auditors’ fees, which was adopted by six companies in 2000, and one providing for an advisory vote of shareholders on the remuneration policy of senior executives, approved by major Canadian banks in 2009.
Despite this enviable record, Michaud remained dissatisfied. In 2007, asked to sum up his first 10 years of shareholder activism, he first spoke of a “disarming” and “disheartening” assessment, before admitting that things had “changed” as a result of his pressure. A sign of MÉDAC’s relevance and avant-garde, companies sometimes put the organization’s recommendations into practice after having initially rejected them.
Tributes from politicians Several politicians paid tribute to Michaud upon the announcement of his death. “Yves Michaud was a real fighter. Throughout his career, he fought to protect the French language and Quebec culture,” Premier François Legault said on X (formerly Twitter). PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon added: “Yves Michaud was a great defender of the French language and a tireless campaigner for the independence of our nation.” The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, for his part described Michaud as “the very incarnation of the pugnacious activist, uncompromising, rigorous, impatient and with a heavy heart in the hope of achieving the country of Quebec, a country that he wanted to serve the people rather than high finance.” On X, MÉDAC said that the movement had become an orphan. “(We’ve died) a little ourselves, too.”
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