View source for Michel Chartrand

{{Short description|Canadian trade union leader (1916–2010)}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Michel Chartrand
| image       = MICHEL CHARTRAND-07.jpg
| alt         = 
| caption     = Chartrand in 2007 
| birth_name  = 
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1916|12|20|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Outremont, Quebec|Outremont]], [[Quebec]], Canada
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|2010|04|12|1916|12|20|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Montérégie]], [[Quebec]], Canada
| other_names = 
| known_for   = 
| occupation  = [[Trade union]]ist
| spouse      = {{marriage|[[Simonne Monet-Chartrand]]|1942}}
| children    = [[Alain Chartrand]]
}}

{{Syndicalism sidebar |Leaders}}

'''Michel Chartrand''' (20 December 1916 – 12 April 2010) was a Canadian [[trade union]] leader from [[Quebec]].

Born in [[Outremont, Quebec|Outremont]] and trained as a [[typography]] and print worker, Chartrand became involved in union activism in the 1940s. During the ''[[Grande Noirceur]]'', he took part in major [[strike action]]s such as the [[Asbestos strike]] in 1949, the {{ill|Louiseville Strike|fr|Grève de Louiseville}} in 1952 and the [[Murdochville strike]] in 1957. In 1968, he became president of the Montreal central council of the [[Confédération des syndicats nationaux]] (CSN). In 1970, during the [[October crisis]], he was arrested without a warrant and put in jail for four months. He was president of the CSN Montreal central council until 1978.

During the 1980s, he took action for the rights of injured workers; he created the ''Fondation pour l’aide aux travailleuses et travailleurs accidentés'' (FATA) in 1984. He promoted progressive values and [[syndicalism]] in the media until the end of his life.  He endorsed [[Québec solidaire]].

Chartrand is considered to have been a promoter of [[socialism]], a severe [[Criticism of capitalism|critic of capitalism]],<ref name="EC">Diane Cailhier, [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/michel-chartrand ''Chartrand, Michel''], in The Canadian Encyclopedia online [Retrieved 23 July 2011].</ref> and a leading figure of syndicalism in Quebec.<ref name="Bilandusiecle">[http://bilan.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/pages/evenements/23921.html ''Décès du syndicaliste Michel Chartrand''], in Bilan du siècle online [Retrieved 23 July 2011].</ref> He was married to [[feminist]] writer and union activist [[Simonne Monet-Chartrand]].

==Education==
Born on 20 December 1916 in the [[Montreal]] neighbourhood of [[Outremont, Quebec|Outremont]], he studied at [[Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf]] [[secondary school]] and [[Collège Lionel-Groulx|collège Sainte-Thérèse]]. In 1933, he trained to be a [[Trappists|Trappist monk]], but left after two years and worked with a [[Roman Catholic Church]] youth movement. In the [[1939 Quebec general election|1939 Quebec election]], he campaigned for the [[Action libérale nationale]] (ALN) party. In 1940, he enrolled in a history course at the [[Université de Montréal]] taught by [[Lionel Groulx]], a [[Quebec nationalism|Quebec nationalist]] Roman Catholic priest.

Chartrand is reported to have joined the Canadian Officer Training Corps in 1941 following the outbreak of [[World War II]] in September 1939. This program, conducted across Canada, allowed university students to be credited with military service while continuing their studies without being posted to active duty. Chartrand protested that the [[Canadian Army]] documents were only in the English language and returned to the Trappists' monastery in the village of [[Oka, Quebec|Oka]], [[Quebec]].

In a 1994 interview, [[Suzette Rouleau]], [[Pierre Trudeau]]'s sister, described engaging in a fist fight with Chartrand, to prevent him bullying her baby brother, when they were all teenagers.<ref name=MontrealGazette2008-02-14>
{{cite news
 |url         = http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=198c4d1e-0f70-4a98-a079-c3b060fdfe83
 |title       = Suzette Rouleau
 |publisher   = [[Montreal Gazette]]
 |date        = 14 February 2008
 |quote       = In Brian McKenna's 1994 television biography, Memoirs of Pierre Trudeau: The Making of a Leader, the Outremont aristocrat told of getting into a fist fight in her teens with Michel Chartrand, the future Quebec labour leader, when Chartrand tried to bully her brother.
 |url-status     = dead
 |archiveurl  = https://web.archive.org/web/20160324224116/http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=198c4d1e-0f70-4a98-a079-c3b060fdfe83
 |archivedate = 24 March 2016
}}
</ref>

==Opponent of conscription==
Following the federal government's 1942 announcement of a national plebiscite on military [[conscription]], Michel Chartrand became an outspoken opponent and joined the [[Bloc populaire canadien]] movement to campaign against conscription.

In February 1942, he was married to [[Simonne Monet]] by [[Lionel Groulx]] at the [[Notre-Dame Basilica (Montreal)|Notre-Dame Basilica]]. By the time the [[Parliament of Canada]] put conscription in place in November 1944, Chartrand was the father of three children.

In the [[1945 Canadian federal election|1945 federal election]], he was the [[Bloc Populaire]] candidate in the [[Chambly-Rouville]] riding. He lost in a landslide to his [[Liberal Party of Canada]] opponent.

==Seeking elected office==
In 1948, his fifth child was born, and the following year he went to the [[Asbestos Regional County Municipality, Quebec|Asbestos Region]] to participate in the [[Asbestos strike]] by local mine workers. In 1950, he became active with the executive committee of the [[CNTU|Catholic Workers Confederation of Canada]] (CTCC). Involved with a number of union operations, in 1953 Chartrand became a salaried member of the union's executive committee. After internal disputes, he was fired from his job. However, after appealing the decision, a tribunal under [[Pierre Trudeau]] reinstated him.

In 1954, Chartrand stood for election to the post of secretary-general of the union but was defeated by [[Jean Marchand]]. In 1956, he joined the [[Cooperative Commonwealth Federation]] (CCF), a [[social democracy|social democratic]] federal political party headed in Quebec by [[Thérèse Casgrain]]. Chartrand was appointed a Quebec delegate to the party's convention in [[Winnipeg]], [[Manitoba]]. As a result, a Quebec branch of the party was organized under the name [[Parti social démocratique du Québec]]. Chartrand was the party's candidate in the Chambly riding in the [[1956 Quebec general election|1956 provincial election]], but was badly defeated. His union duties involved numerous high-profile strikes, and he was seen by some as a future leader of the movement and was leader of the party from 1957 until 1960.

Chartrand ran for the [[Co-operative Commonwealth Federation|CCF]] in the [[Longueuil—Saint-Hubert|Longueuil]] district in the [[1953 Canadian federal election|1953]] and [[1957 Canadian federal election|1957]] federal elections.  He finished third with 11.1% and 5.4% of the vote.  He also ran for the same party in the [[Lapointe (electoral district)|Lapointe]] district (town of [[Jonquière, Quebec|Arvida, Quebec]]) in the [[1958 Canadian federal election|1958 federal election]]. Despite a strong union base, he nevertheless finished third with 24.3% of the vote. In 1959, Chartrand tried again for public office, running in a Quebec provincial [[by-election]] in [[Lac Saint-Jean, Quebec]] for the [[Parti social démocratique du Québec|Social Democratic Party]], but once again finished third with 21.8% of the vote.<ref>[http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/patrimoine/resultatselec/l1.html Les résultats électoraux depuis 1867, Labelle à La Prairie]</ref> His frustration became evident through his increasingly extremist statements, and in 1959, the union forced him to resign from its executive committee. He was then hired to work at the printing office of the Parti social-démocratique, and was again a delegate to the CCF's convention in Winnipeg.

==Peace advocacy and socialism==
In 1960, the Confederation of Catholic Workers of Canada changed its name to the [[Confédération des syndicats nationaux]] (CSN). Chartrand took part in the [[peace movement]], participating in demonstrations and marches against [[nuclear weapon|nuclear]]  proliferation and other causes. An admirer of the [[communist]] revolution in [[Cuba]] and its leader [[Fidel Castro]], in 1963 Chartrand accompanied a group on a month-long visit to Cuba. On his return to Quebec, he called Cuba "a paradise" and held it out as a symbol of what Quebec should become. Chartrand then helped found the [[Parti socialiste du Québec]] (Socialist Party of Quebec), and, as its president, soon began supporting the [[Quebec sovereignty movement]], the [[Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale]] (RIN).

==Involvement for Quebec independence==
In 1968, Michel Chartrand was elected president of the Montreal Central Council of the [[Confédération des syndicats nationaux]], serving in that position until 1978. By the end of the 1960s, his views became more resolved. As a member of the Quebec Independence movement, Chartrand staunchly supported the [[Front de libération du Québec]] (FLQ).

During the [[October Crisis]], when asked by a reporter about the ordeal the family of kidnapped British trade commissioner [[James Cross]] was being put through, Chartrand stated: "I have no more sympathy for Mrs. Cross than for the wives of thousands of men without jobs in Quebec at the present time." Even after the murder of Quebec vice-premier [[Pierre Laporte]], Chartrand remained steadfast in his beliefs, and proved it by bailing FLQ leader Charles Gagnon out of jail, paying nearly three thousand dollars of his own money. On 15 October 1975, five years after the October Crisis, FLQ and [[Front de rassemblement d'action populaire]] members and supporters met at the Paul-Sauvé Centre in [[Montreal]] where Michel Chartrand addressed the crowd.

In the [[1998 Quebec general election|1998 Quebec election]], he again ran for political office. He represented the [[Rassemblement pour l'alternative progressiste]] (now [[Québec solidaire]]) against [[Lucien Bouchard]] in Jonquière, finishing third with 14 per cent of the votes.

==In film==
Michel Chartrand and [[Simonne Monet-Chartrand|Simonne Monet]]'s lives were the subject of a television mini-series entitled ''[[Chartrand et Simonne]]''. Chartrand was also the subject of a 1991 [[National Film Board of Canada]] documentary ''Un homme de parole''.<ref name="ONF">{{cite web|url=http://www.onf.ca/film/homme_de_parole/|title=Un homme de parole|year=1991|work=Documentary film|publisher=[[National Film Board of Canada]]|language=French|accessdate=8 February 2010|location=Montreal}}</ref> Earlier, in 1994, Michel Chartrand appeared besides former FLQ members Charles Gagnon and [[Pierre Vallieres]], in a documentary directed by Jean Daniel Lafond, ''La liberté en colère''.

He also had a small acting role in the 1970 comedy film ''[[Two Women in Gold]] (Deux femmes en or)''.

==Death==
Chartrand died on 12 April 2010 from kidney cancer.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/long-time-labour-leader-michel-chartrand-dies-at-93-1.502018|title=Long-time labour leader Michel Chartrand has died|year=2010|publisher=CTA Montreal|language=|accessdate=12 April 2010|location=Montreal}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://lcn.canoe.ca/lcn/infos/national/archives/2010/04/20100413-130210.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120719023621/http://lcn.canoe.ca/lcn/infos/national/archives/2010/04/20100413-130210.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=19 July 2012|title=Un homme sans compromis|publisher=LCN|language=french|accessdate=13 April 2010}}</ref><ref>[http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20100417.OBCHARTRAND17ATL/BDAStory/BDA/deaths Fiery Quebec union leader fought for social justice] Globe and Mail, Toronto. Retrieved 19 April 2010.</ref> The Parc régional de Longueuil was renamed [[Parc Michel-Chartrand]] by the city of Longueuil in June 2010.<ref name="Rive-Sud Express">{{cite web|url=http://www.rivesudexpress.ca/Societe/Vie-communautaire/2011-07-05/article-2623686/Le-parc-Michel-Chartrand,-un-parc-%26laquo%3Bpleine-nature%26raquo%3B-dans-le-Vieux-Longueuil/1|title=Le parc Michel-Chartrand, un parc "pleine nature" dans le Vieux-Longueuil|last=Lapointe|first=Diane|publisher=[[Rive-Sud Express]]|language=French|accessdate=23 November 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110829032753/http://www.rivesudexpress.ca/Societe/Vie-communautaire/2011-07-05/article-2623686/Le-parc-Michel-Chartrand%2C-un-parc-%26laquo%3Bpleine-nature%26raquo%3B-dans-le-Vieux-Longueuil/1|archivedate=29 August 2011}}</ref>

==Electoral record==
{{Canadian election result/top|QC|1998|Jonquière (provincial electoral district)|Jonquière|percent=yes|change=yes}}
{{CANelec|QC|PQ|[[Lucien Bouchard]]|20,475|60.48|-34.34}}
{{CANelec|QC|Liberal|Guylaine Caron|6,552|19.35|&ndash;}}
{{CANelec|QC|[[Rassemblement pour l'alternative progressiste]]|Michel Chartrand|5,023|14.84|&ndash;}}
{{CANelec|QC|ADQ|Hélène Vigneault|1,686|4.98|&ndash;}}
{{CANelec|QC|Natural Law|Sylvain Bergeron|120|0.35|-0.50}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|33,856|99.12|+0.40}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total  rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots|302|0.88|-0.40}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Turnout|34,158|76.91|+15.92}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Eligible voters|44,415}}
{{end}}
{{Canadian election result/top|QC|1959|Lac-Saint-Jean (provincial electoral district)|Lac Saint-Jean|percent=yes|change=yes|by=yes}}
{{CANelec|QC|UN|Jean-Paul Levasseur|8,469|56.16|+12.81}}
{{CANelec|XX|Independent|Raymond Lapointe|3,324|22.04|&ndash;}}
{{CANelec|QC|Social démocratique|Michel Chartrand|3,286|21.79|&ndash;}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|15,079|98.40|-1.51}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total  rejected ballots|341|2.21|+1.51}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Turnout|15,420|62.10|-29.65}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Electors on the lists|24,831|&ndash;}}
{{end}}
{{Canadian election result/top|CA|1958|Lapointe (electoral district)|Lapointe|percent=yes|change=yes}}
{{CANelec|CA|Liberal|[[Augustin Brassard]]|12,113|41.74|-10.77}}
{{CANelec|CA|PC|Bernard Wilshire|9,864|33.99|&ndash;}}
{{CANelec|CA|CCF|Michel Chartrand|7,042|24.27|&ndash;}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|29,019}}
{{end}}
{{Canadian election result/top|CA|1957|Longueuil—Saint-Hubert|Longueuil|percent=yes|change=yes}}
{{CANelec|CA|Liberal|[[Auguste Vincent]]|19,314|58.87|-8.71}}
{{CANelec|CA|PC|Pierre Sévigny|10,942|33.35|+13.46}}
{{CANelec|CA|CCF|Michel Chartrand|1,768|5.39|-5.71}}
{{CANelec|CA|Independent Conservative|Oliva Bédard|782|2.38|&ndash;}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|32,806}}
{{end}}
{{Canadian election result/top|CA|1953|Longueuil—Saint-Hubert|Longueuil|percent=yes}}
{{CANelec|CA|Liberal|[[Auguste Vincent]]|16,688|67.58}}
{{CANelec|CA|PC|Georges-Joseph Valade|4,912|19.89}}
{{CANelec|CA|CCF|Michel Chartrand|2,742|11.10}}
{{CANelec|CA|Labor-Progressive|Yvonne Bourget|352|1.43}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|24,694}}
{{end}}
{{Canadian election result/top|CA|1945|Chambly—Rouville|percent=yes|change=yes}}
{{CANelec|CA|Liberal|[[Roch Pinard]]|12,723|50.38|-15.03}}
{{CANelec|CA|Independent|Paul Pratt|9,158|36.26|&ndash;}}
{{CANelec|CA|Bloc populaire|Michel Chartrand|2,333|9.24|&ndash;}}
{{CANelec|CA|CCF|Joseph-Charles Patenaude|1,041|4.12|&ndash;}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|25,255}}
{{end}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category-inline}}
*Books on Michel Chartrand by Fernand Foisy available in French, full text, in [http://classiques.uqac.ca/contemporains/foisy_fernand/foisy_fernand.html Les Classiques des sciences sociales]

{{Quebec NDP leaders}}

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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2019}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chartrand, Michel}}
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[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:Canadian anti-capitalists]]
[[Category:Canadian anti-fascists]]
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[[Category:Canadian military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Candidates in Quebec provincial elections]]
[[Category:Catholic socialists]]
[[Category:Christian humanists]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Quebec]]
[[Category:Deaths from kidney cancer in Canada]]
[[Category:People from Outremont, Quebec]]
[[Category:Quebec candidates for Member of Parliament]]
[[Category:Leaders of the Quebec CCF/NDP]]
[[Category:Trade unionists from Quebec]]
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