The former Liberal MP for Gouin, who was also nicknamed the “Robin of the banks”, Yves Michaud, died Wednesday at the age of 94 in Montreal.
Born in Saint-Hyacinthe in 1930, Yves Michaud first studied journalism before entering politics. He notably held positions as editor-in-chief at Maskoutain bugle and to The homelanduntil 1966. It was during this same year that he was elected Liberal deputy in Gouin in 1966.
Disagreeing with the party, he sat as an independent Liberal from 1969 to 1970.
Mr. Michaud, former founder and administrator of the Movement for Education and Defense of Shareholders (MÉDAC), was critical of the “Panama Papers”, a document which recounted the tax havens of 140 political leaders, stars and billionaires.
Nicknamed the “Robin of banks” for his fierce defense of small shareholders before financial institutions, he described tax evasion as a “villainous crime” on the air of LCN in 2016.
- Listen to the interview with Willie Gagnon, general director of the Shareholder Education and Defense Movement, via QUB :
He won the special Grand Ambassador prize from the Palais des congrès de Montréal in 2016 and the National Assembly medal in May 2022.
Yves Michaud is also the author of several books, including Wine Madness (1991) and Words of a free man (2000).
“A tireless activist”
“Yves Michaud was a real fighter. Throughout his career, he fought to protect the French language and Quebec culture […]. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones,” declared Quebec Premier François Legault.
“Sad news this morning. Yves Michaud was a great defender of the French language and a tireless campaigner for the independence of our nation. [… ] Journalist, deputy, general delegate of Quebec in Paris, he will have been an essential public figure for many years,” reacted Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in X.
“Yves Michaud will have been the very incarnation of the pugnacious activist, uncompromising, rigorous, impatient and with a heavy heart in the hope of touching the country of Quebec, a country that he wanted to serve the people rather than the high finance”, for his part reacted in X Yves-François Blanchet, leader of the Bloc Québécois.
For her part, solidarity MP Ruba Ghazal remembered a “great Quebecer” to whom she presented a medal two years ago, with supporting photo.