Former journalist at Duty from 1985 to 1999, the author now publishes The course of history, his Memoirs, where he recounts his passion for international affairs for half a century. We publish here an extract on his work as a military affairs journalist.
Military affairs had never interested me. I had no fascination with weapons. […] The Latin American revolutionaries and caudillos frightened me with their cartridge belts slung over their shoulders or their caps and black glasses which made them look like psychopaths. And what about the Soviet marshals drowning under the medals stitched on their uniforms? I didn’t dwell on it.
However, reality quickly caught up with me. States pointed their conventional and, sometimes, nuclear arsenals towards their real or imaginary enemies. Thanks to the Euromissile crisis between 1979 and 1983, I discovered how weapons, more particularly the enormous nuclear arsenals of the great powers, were, oh so much, at the heart of East-West relations and one of the symbols of their status. on the international scene.
During the 1980s and 1990s, I became the leading French-speaking journalist on Canadian and international conflicts and military issues. I never sought to be one, because the international system was for me the place of great diplomacy and conferences. So it was by chance that I came across this potion. She was going to propel me to the forefront. […]
I entered the University of Montreal to pursue studies in political science. The University Students’ Association had a newspaper, The Continuum, which appeared every week. It was the most serious leaf on campus. I introduced myself to the director and offered to write articles on international affairs. In a few weeks, I became responsible for the World pages and I was going to direct them for two years. I had finally found a space to express myself and I met friends there who still are today.
Almost every week, I wrote articles on conflicts — the Middle East, Central America, Africa — and East-West tensions. The great debate of the time focused on the evil power of the Soviet Union in the world. The communist world seemed to be gaining ground as the dominoes fell into Moscow’s hands. It began with Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the mid-seventies and continued with Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Angola and Ethiopia. The dominant discourse broadcast from Washington described Soviet strategy in these small countries as an attempt to encircle the Western world.
But that wasn’t all. Moscow was also active in Europe, where it was strengthening its military power and installing short and medium range missiles in Eastern Europe. The Pentagon published glossy pamphlets describing the Soviet “threat” in apocalyptic terms. It was time, they said, to react.
I did not believe in this Soviet threat, even if the missiles deployed in Eastern Europe raised questions for Western security. These weapons represented an additional asset for the Soviet Union, but they did not really change the balance of terror between East and West. Washington cried out for imbalance, which had its effect. Public opinion began to worry. Western governments, divided on the issue, then decided to respond to Soviet deployments by applying countermeasures in the form of missiles of the same nature while offering to begin disarmament negotiations on these same missiles. The Euromissile crisis lasted for a few years, until an agreement was signed in 1987 to eliminate them.
As for the threat, Washington intentionally oversized it in order to hide the setbacks and weaknesses of the Soviet camp and thus convince the Americans to support massive budget increases for the intelligence services and the military. It’s an old trick of the military-industrial complex so rightly denounced a few decades ago by none other than former President General Dwight Eisenhower and which, unfortunately, still works today. […]
I entered the newspaper The duty in 1985 for a replacement of a few months. I had barely arrived when management already had a new plan for me. The director, Jean-Louis Roy, offered me one of the two parliamentary correspondent positions in Ottawa. I wasn’t very keen on the idea of leaving Montreal and the international section, but he made me understand that it was that or the end of my contract. There are proposals that we cannot refuse.
I moved to Ottawa with my partner in the summer of 1985. Died in 2024, Bernard Descôteaux, future director of the newspaper, was the head and only journalist of the bureau in the capital. I had no experience in daily journalism, and he was going to show me the ropes of a job made more difficult by the immensity of the task: covering all of the activities of the Canadian government. And what’s more, covering a new government, that of Conservative Brian Mulroney, which marked the return of this party to power after the long reign of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The scandals were already shaking him.
I had a broad mandate, but where should I start? Bernard defined my field: I had to look into question period in the House of Commons, the activities of political parties, the work of certain parliamentary and senatorial committees, and the life of parapublic organizations. National defense, foreign affairs and international cooperation were on the menu, provided that other issues were not neglected.
The task seemed impossible as there were so many activities and I had to negotiate every day to cover my areas of interest. I quickly learned that the best way to win at this game was to find a way to place my articles on military and international affairs at the appropriate time.
I therefore implemented a stratagem to convince my bosses of the usefulness of providing sustained coverage of these areas of government activity. During the week, I would find a military or foreign policy topic that wasn’t a hot topic and document it. In the evening, I read reports, articles and fleshed out the question. Then, on Saturday, at home, I began to write a first draft of an article. On Sunday, I returned to the office and offered the desk manager in Montreal my paper.
Anyone who has worked in a newsroom knows that desk editors are desperate for news to fill the pages of the Monday edition. In addition, I could count on the complicity of Guy Deshaies, the head of the desk, passionate about military issues. I was hoping for a front page publication, I got the inside pages. As the days and weeks pass, The duty has become the reference journal on Canadian military and foreign policy issues. It wouldn’t be long before I was on the front page, and more often than not.