Quebec separatist from the start, fiery tribune, formidable polemicist, professor, radio host, columnist, Pierre Bourgault died twenty years ago, on June 16, 2003, a victim of his addiction to tobacco.
“As a speaker at the National Assembly, my role model has always been Pierre Bourgault,” says Parti Québécois (PQ) veteran Pascal Bérubé without hesitation.
The member for Matane regrets never having met him. “As much as I admire René Lévesque, I recognize myself more in the rebel that was Pierre Bourgault. Yes, I understand that it was Bourgault who was the most influential for me. More than Lévesque. Bourgault is my reference. His speech at the 1971 convention [du Parti québécois], I am always inspired by it for my speeches, which I never write. »
Pascal Bérubé says he was awakened to the question of independence by reading Pierre Bourgault. Like others, he admired her ardor, her quick-wittedness.
A pioneering role
After having played a pioneering role as president of the National Independence Rally (RIN), Pierre Bourgault had to resolve, in 1968, to scuttle this formation to leave the field clear to the nascent Parti Québécois of René Lévesque. Only, Lévesque did not want him, nor so much the militants of the RIN.
In one of his impassioned and carefully prepared speeches of which he had the secret, Bourgault had nevertheless convinced the PQ delegates to trust him. “Until now, at the Parti Québécois,” Bourgault told them, “we have tried by all means, in the face of the population, to give ourselves a reassuring image, sometimes to the detriment of the image of freedom which, I believe, we must embody. »
In Quebec solidaire, the other independence party in Quebec, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois says there are many things about Bourgault that inspire him. “The importance of political courage, first. Nadeau-Dubois was marked, like Pascal Bérubé, by this 1971 speech given in front of the bonzes of the PQ. “His famous speech Security, solidarity and respectability is a fierce criticism of the orientations of his own party and an appeal to the courage of convictions. […] Against the politicians who, yesterday and today, rely on people’s prejudices and certainties, Bourgault calls for a policy that elevates us collectively, that seeks out what is best in us. »
At the age of 16, Pascal Bérubé devours Me, I remembera pamphlet that Bourgault quickly publishes as a reply to Wait until I remember…, the memoirs of René Lévesque. This book has the greatest effect on the member for Matane. “This book was major in my independence commitment, in my political awakening. It was a thunderclap, a realization, ”he says.
In Pascal Bérubé’s family, Pierre Bourgault enjoyed a strong aura. “My grandfather was in Sept-Îles in 1966. He worked for him, for his election campaign. He was telling us how Bourgault was the greatest speaker we had. Bourgault had chosen to represent a part of the country he loved, having discovered it when he was a journalist in The Press.
As editor of the newspaper Independence, Pierre Bourgault took part, in the early 1960s, with young activists like him, in new types of political action. Of the sit in, street demonstrations, stickers and graffiti are some of the tools used. The RIN is closely interested in the condition of workers, the management of natural resources, and life in the regions. He opposes atomic weapons as well as the death penalty. In addition, the RIN fiercely defends the proportional voting system. His models come to him from the observation of international struggles, of groups seeking to assert themselves, to change their condition and their inscription in the history of the world.
beyond the flag
In 1970, when social tensions were erupting, Bourgault claimed to dream of a free Quebec which would be the first country in the world freed from stifling nationalism. “I dream of seeing our only freedom serve as a banner and our only freedom serve as an identification for the human race”, he writes.
“Bourgault is not a separatist out of love of the flag, analyzes Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, but out of a desire to improve people’s lives. What’s the point of a social project if it doesn’t make people freer, happier? Bourgault’s independence is not a simple project of pride, it is a project to change Quebec. It is with this tradition that I identify. »
For Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, the nationalism of Bourgault is very different from that which dominates today. “It is more than a simply ‘inclusive’ nationalism, it is a nationalism deeply imbued with humanism and internationalism. Bourgault’s nationalism often makes me think of Jaurès’ very famous phrase: “A little internationalism takes us away from our country, a lot brings us back to it.” National emancipation, for Bourgault, is a springboard towards a reconciled, more fraternal humanity. It is the opposite of the closed, suspicious, defensive and potentially warlike nationalism that is too popular in 2023.”
A failed actor
After being expelled from the Brébeuf college at the end of 1952, Pierre Bourgault first hoped to become an actor. He plays small roles here and there. He works in teletheatres, on the side of Radio-Canada, while also earning his living through temporary jobs. The political life ? He still has only the faintest idea of what that might mean when he returns from a stay in Europe, at the dawn of the Quiet Revolution. At least he already knows what injustice is. As an artillery officer, he had protested against the bad luck inflicted on the French in His Majesty’s army. He also rails against religion, a straitjacket in which sexuality is notably stifled, he regrets.
One day, he accidentally meets his friend Claude Préfontaine, who introduces him to André from Germany, the intellectual of the RIN. Bourgault is invited to a meeting. He will never come back. His big role, he has it. He will become one of the best spokespersons for this political option, both in French and in English. Although he was never elected, he enjoyed considerable influence over time.
When the Parti Québécois came to power in 1976, Bourgault was left behind. Until then, he managed to survive in part thanks to contracts obtained for him by an adversary, Prime Minister Robert Bourassa. Then, he was offered a professorship in the Department of Communication at UQAM.
The public is used to seeing him on television, to hearing him on the radio, to reading him as a columnist in almost all the newspapers. He also writes songs, including the famous Between two seals popularized by Robert Charlebois. In the cinema, he plays the role of an improbable earthworm breeder in Leolothe film by his former student Jean-Claude Lauzon.
In the 1980 referendum, even if he considered the process convoluted and unwelcome, he had nevertheless taken the collar. Then, in the 1995 referendum, his friend Jacques Parizeau had recruited him as a special adviser, before parting with him with regret. A veritable free spirit, often unpredictable, somewhat infatuated, Pierre Bourgault is basically happy only in the position of the exceptional maverick that he has been all his life. He had written that he wanted to die as one dies everywhere and always has, “because it’s over, because that’s how it is, without a flag, without a gun, without a country, without speech, without tears, naked, finally disarmed, and for all time “.