Pierre Bélanger
Encyclopedia
Pierre Bélanger is a lawyer and politician in the Canadian
province of Quebec
. He was a Parti Québécois
(PQ) member of the National Assembly of Quebec
from 1992 to 1998 and was a cabinet minister in the government of Lucien Bouchard
.
. He received a law degree from the Université de Montréal
in 1982, was admitted to the Bar of Quebec the following year, and has practised commercial and civil law with the firm Bélanger and Bélanger.
Bélanger was first elected to the Quebec legislature in a by-election
held in the Montreal division of Anjou on January 20, 1992. The seat had previously been held by the Quebec Liberal Party, and Bélanger's election was regarded as demonstrating increased support for Quebec sovereignty.
The Liberal Party held a majority in the legislature
during this period; Bélanger served with the official opposition and was his party's justice critic. He promised that the PQ, if elected, would appoint more members of minority communities to Quebec's judiciary.
Government member and junior cabinet minister
Bélanger was re-elected by a narrow margin in the 1994 provincial election
. The PQ won a majority government in the election, and Bélanger served as a deputy speaker of the assembly for the next two years. When Lucien Bouchard
became premier of Quebec
on January 29, 1996, he promoted Bélanger to government house leader
and minister responsible for electoral and parliamentary reform.
In August 1996, Bélanger complained that English
/French
bilingual signs were proliferating in both the English and French areas of Montreal. (The PQ has historically supported French-only signs as a means of promoting the French language in Quebec.) The following year, he announced that the Bouchard government would appeal a Quebec Superior Court
ruling that the province had no jurisdiction over acts committed by people based outside Quebec in the 1995 referendum on sovereignty. This ruling pertained to four persons and groups based in Ontario
who transported people to a Canadian federalist rally in Montreal shortly before election day.
Bélanger defended the harsh austerity measures in the Bouchard government's 1997 budget, saying that the government's credibility would be judged by its fiscal management.
Minister of Public Security
Bélanger was promoted to a full cabinet position on August 25, 1997, as minister of public security. Shortly after his appointment, he resolved a labour dispute with Quebec's jail guards by permitting the guards to wear bulletproof vest
s and carry weapons when transporting prisoners. Later in the year, he criticized other Canadian provinces for not doing enough to combat biker gangs.
In response to the North American ice storm of 1998
, Bélanger requested and received permission from the Canadian government for Canadian Forces
to act as police officers to prevent looting in Montreal
. This was the first time that Canadian soldiers had patrolled the streets of Montreal since the 1970 FLQ crisis, and some journalists noted the irony that this would take place under a sovereigntist government. Bélanger also served on an emergency response committee during the ice storm and later introduced legislation to create auxiliary reserve teams to deal with future natural disasters.
In April 1998, Bélanger outlined a strategy for dealing with Quebec's contraband cigarette trade. The plan included both a crackdown on the illicit trade and negotiated tax collection agreements with the province's indigenous communities.
Bélanger also concluded an agreement with the Kahnawake Mohawk
community to permit legal mixed boxing
events; the government had previously banned extreme fighting events in Kahnawake on the grounds that the competition was too brutal. In June 1998, he concluded a tripartate policing agreement with the Canadian government and the Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation.
One of Bélanger's last actions in cabinet was to approve the appointment of Michel Sarrazin as Montreal's police chief.
Defeat
Bélanger was defeated in the 1998 provincial election
, losing to Liberal candidate Jean-Sébastien Lamoureux
by 143 votes. He was the only PQ cabinet minister to be defeated in this election and stood down from cabinet on December 15, 1998. (Lamoureux would late resign from the legislature in 2001, after a former campaign workers was convicted of bribing people to vote several times in the 1998 election using false names. Lamoureux himself was not implicated in the scandal. Bélanger did not contest the by-election that followed, though at one stage he complained that it was "easier to vote twice in Quebec than to rent a video at a video store without a membership card.")
Canadian federal politics
Bélanger voted for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
in the 1988 federal election
. In the 1993 election
, he campaigned with Bloc Québécois
(BQ) candidate Roger Pomerleau
.
During the 1997 federal election
, Bélanger criticized BQ leader Gilles Duceppe
statement's that a vote in favour of Quebec sovereignty would not necessarily finalize Quebec's status as an independent country. He responded to Duceppe's remark by saying, "Once we have a Yes vote on the sovereignty issue in the next referendum, I think the question of Quebec will be settled and that we will be a sovereign state."
in the 2005 Montreal municipal election
as a candidate of the Montreal mayor
Gérald Tremblay
's Montreal Island Citizens Union, but was defeated.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
province of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. He was a Parti Québécois
Parti Québécois
The Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...
(PQ) member of the National Assembly of Quebec
National Assembly of Quebec
The National Assembly of Quebec is the legislative body of the Province of Quebec. The Lieutenant Governor and the National Assembly compose the Parliament of Quebec, which operates in a fashion similar to those of other British-style parliamentary systems.The National Assembly was formerly the...
from 1992 to 1998 and was a cabinet minister in the government of Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard, is a Canadian lawyer, diplomat, politician and former Minister of the Environment of the Canadian Federal Government. He was the Leader of Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 1996, and the 27th Premier of Quebec from January 29, 1996 to March 8, 2001...
.
Early life and career
Bélanger was born in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. He received a law degree from the Université de Montréal
Université de Montréal
The Université de Montréal is a public francophone research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal...
in 1982, was admitted to the Bar of Quebec the following year, and has practised commercial and civil law with the firm Bélanger and Bélanger.
Legislator
Opposition memberBélanger was first elected to the Quebec legislature in a by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
held in the Montreal division of Anjou on January 20, 1992. The seat had previously been held by the Quebec Liberal Party, and Bélanger's election was regarded as demonstrating increased support for Quebec sovereignty.
The Liberal Party held a majority in the legislature
Majority government
A majority government is when the governing party has an absolute majority of seats in the legislature or parliament in a parliamentary system. This is as opposed to a minority government, where even the largest party wins only a plurality of seats and thus must constantly bargain for support from...
during this period; Bélanger served with the official opposition and was his party's justice critic. He promised that the PQ, if elected, would appoint more members of minority communities to Quebec's judiciary.
Government member and junior cabinet minister
Bélanger was re-elected by a narrow margin in the 1994 provincial election
Quebec general election, 1994
The Quebec general election of 1994 was held on September 12, 1994, to elect members of the National Assembly of Quebec, Canada. The Parti Québécois, led by Jacques Parizeau, defeated the incumbent Quebec Liberal Party, led by Daniel Johnson, Jr.....
. The PQ won a majority government in the election, and Bélanger served as a deputy speaker of the assembly for the next two years. When Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard, is a Canadian lawyer, diplomat, politician and former Minister of the Environment of the Canadian Federal Government. He was the Leader of Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 1996, and the 27th Premier of Quebec from January 29, 1996 to March 8, 2001...
became premier of Quebec
Premier of Quebec
The Premier of Quebec is the first minister of the Canadian province of Quebec. The Premier is the province's head of government and his title is Premier and President of the Executive Council....
on January 29, 1996, he promoted Bélanger to government house leader
Government House Leader (Quebec)
The Government House Leader is responsible for being leader of the National Assembly of Quebec from the government side....
and minister responsible for electoral and parliamentary reform.
In August 1996, Bélanger complained that English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
/French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
bilingual signs were proliferating in both the English and French areas of Montreal. (The PQ has historically supported French-only signs as a means of promoting the French language in Quebec.) The following year, he announced that the Bouchard government would appeal a Quebec Superior Court
Quebec Superior Court
Quebec Superior Court is the highest trial Court in the Province of Quebec, Canada. It consists of 144 judges who are appointed by the federal government.Chief Justices : [partial listing]* Edward Bowen...
ruling that the province had no jurisdiction over acts committed by people based outside Quebec in the 1995 referendum on sovereignty. This ruling pertained to four persons and groups based in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
who transported people to a Canadian federalist rally in Montreal shortly before election day.
Bélanger defended the harsh austerity measures in the Bouchard government's 1997 budget, saying that the government's credibility would be judged by its fiscal management.
Minister of Public Security
Bélanger was promoted to a full cabinet position on August 25, 1997, as minister of public security. Shortly after his appointment, he resolved a labour dispute with Quebec's jail guards by permitting the guards to wear bulletproof vest
Bulletproof vest
A ballistic vest, bulletproof vest or bullet-resistant vest is an item of personal armor that helps absorb the impact from firearm-fired projectiles and shrapnel from explosions, and is worn on the torso...
s and carry weapons when transporting prisoners. Later in the year, he criticized other Canadian provinces for not doing enough to combat biker gangs.
In response to the North American ice storm of 1998
North American ice storm of 1998
The North American ice storm of 1998 was a massive combination of five smaller successive ice storms which combined to strike a relatively narrow swath of land from eastern Ontario to southern Quebec to Nova Scotia in Canada, and bordering areas from northern New York to central Maine in the...
, Bélanger requested and received permission from the Canadian government for Canadian Forces
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
to act as police officers to prevent looting in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. This was the first time that Canadian soldiers had patrolled the streets of Montreal since the 1970 FLQ crisis, and some journalists noted the irony that this would take place under a sovereigntist government. Bélanger also served on an emergency response committee during the ice storm and later introduced legislation to create auxiliary reserve teams to deal with future natural disasters.
In April 1998, Bélanger outlined a strategy for dealing with Quebec's contraband cigarette trade. The plan included both a crackdown on the illicit trade and negotiated tax collection agreements with the province's indigenous communities.
Bélanger also concluded an agreement with the Kahnawake Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
community to permit legal mixed boxing
Mixed Boxing
Mixed Boxing is a term that refers to a boxing match that features a male boxer vs a female boxer. These fights are rarely sanctioned by any legitimate governing body, and are almost always intended to be a display in erotic exhibitionism. They are usually staged, well-rehearsed or otherwise...
events; the government had previously banned extreme fighting events in Kahnawake on the grounds that the competition was too brutal. In June 1998, he concluded a tripartate policing agreement with the Canadian government and the Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation.
One of Bélanger's last actions in cabinet was to approve the appointment of Michel Sarrazin as Montreal's police chief.
Defeat
Bélanger was defeated in the 1998 provincial election
Quebec general election, 1998
The Quebec general election of 1998 was held on November 30, 1998, to elect members of the National Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada. The incumbent Parti Québécois, led by Lucien Bouchard, won re-election, defeating the Quebec Liberal Party, led by Jean Charest.After the narrow defeat of...
, losing to Liberal candidate Jean-Sébastien Lamoureux
Jean-Sébastien Lamoureux
Jean-Sébastien Lamoureux is a politician and manager in the Canadian province of Quebec. He served in the National Assembly of Quebec as a Liberal from 1998 until his resignation in 2001.-Early life and career:...
by 143 votes. He was the only PQ cabinet minister to be defeated in this election and stood down from cabinet on December 15, 1998. (Lamoureux would late resign from the legislature in 2001, after a former campaign workers was convicted of bribing people to vote several times in the 1998 election using false names. Lamoureux himself was not implicated in the scandal. Bélanger did not contest the by-election that followed, though at one stage he complained that it was "easier to vote twice in Quebec than to rent a video at a video store without a membership card.")
Canadian federal politics
Bélanger voted for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
in the 1988 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1988
The Canadian federal election of 1988 was held November 21, 1988, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 34th Parliament of Canada. It was an election largely fought on a single issue: the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement ....
. In the 1993 election
Canadian federal election, 1993
The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time...
, he campaigned with Bloc Québécois
Bloc Québécois
The Bloc Québécois is a federal political party in Canada devoted to the protection of Quebec's interests in the House of Commons of Canada, and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty. The Bloc was originally a party made of Quebec nationalists who defected from the federal Progressive Conservative...
(BQ) candidate Roger Pomerleau
Roger Pomerleau
Roger Pomerleau is a Canadian politician and carpenter. He served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 1997 and again from 2008 to 2011....
.
During the 1997 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1997
The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government...
, Bélanger criticized BQ leader Gilles Duceppe
Gilles Duceppe
Gilles Duceppe is a Canadian politician, and proponent of the Québec sovereignty movement. He was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons for over 20 years and was the leader of the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois for almost 15 years. He is the son of a well-known Quebec actor, Jean...
statement's that a vote in favour of Quebec sovereignty would not necessarily finalize Quebec's status as an independent country. He responded to Duceppe's remark by saying, "Once we have a Yes vote on the sovereignty issue in the next referendum, I think the question of Quebec will be settled and that we will be a sovereign state."
Subsequent career
Bélanger returned to his legal practice after leaving the legislature and served as president of the Commission des services juridiques from 1999 to 2004. He ran for mayor of the east-end borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-MaisonneuveMercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is a borough of Montreal, Quebec.-History:In 1860, Hochelaga developed as a village counting a little more than 1000 inhabitants. In 1874, Hudon — a cotton factory- moved in...
in the 2005 Montreal municipal election
Montreal municipal election, 2005
The 2005 Montreal municipal election was held on November 6, 2005, to elect a city mayor, borough mayors, city councillors, and borough councillors in Montreal, Quebec, Canada...
as a candidate of the Montreal mayor
Mayor of Montreal
The Mayor of Montreal is head of the executive branch of Montreal City Council.The Mayor's office administers all city services, public property, police and fire protection, most public agencies, and enforces all city and provincial laws within Montreal....
Gérald Tremblay
Gérald Tremblay
Gérald Tremblay is a Canadian politician and businessman currently serving his third term as mayor of Montreal and as president of the Montreal Metropolitan Community...
's Montreal Island Citizens Union, but was defeated.
Electoral record
External links
- National Assembly Biography (in French)