Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada, 1919-1944
Encyclopedia
Young Trudeau: 1919-1944: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada (short title: Young Trudeau) is the intellectual biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of the former Prime Minister of Canada
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
, Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...
that deals with his parents, childhood, and education in the 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....
from his birth in 1919 until November 1944 when he left to study at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
Published in 2006 by Douglas Gibson Books
McClelland and Stewart
McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is partially owned by Random House of Canada, now a subsidiary of Bertelsmann....
(ISBN 0-7710-6749-6), the book was written by retired professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
s Max and Monique Nemni, friends and admirers of Pierre Trudeau whom he had convinced to take over as editors of Cité Libre
Cité Libre
Cité Libre was an influential political journal published in Quebec, Canada, through the 1950s and 1960s. Co-founded in 1950 by editor and future Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau, the publication served as an organ of opposition to the conservative and authoritarian government of Maurice...
. Max and Monique Nemni spent most of their working lives in the province of Quebec. The authors have both had numerous writings published in academic publications in both the 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...
and French language
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...
s.
Young Trudeau is based on the large collection of private papers and personal diaries of Pierre Trudeau which he gave the authors in 1995 to write his intellectual biography and which had never before been made public. The book's back cover states that what Trudeau was taught at College Jean-de-Brebeuf
Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf
Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf is a private French-language educational institution offering secondary school and CEGEP college-level instruction in Montreal, Quebec. It is a co-ed establishment for students in their final year of secondary school and in college. It is boys-only in the first four years...
and the University of Montreal, was that:
- "democracyDemocracyDemocracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
was bad and that fascismFascismFascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
-- as represented by MussoliniBenito MussoliniBenito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
and PétainPhilippe PétainHenri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
-- was good. Thus, even as a young man of twenty-three, Trudeau was ignoring the war in EuropeWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and plotting a revolution to take Quebec out of Canada. The picture that emerges is of a Quebec elite that was raised to be pro-fascist, and where Nazi atrocities were dismissed as EnglishEnglish CanadaEnglish Canada is a term used to describe one of the following:# English-speaking Canadians, as opposed to French-speaking Canadians. It is employed when comparing English- and French-language literature, media, or art...
(Canadian) propagandaPropagandaPropaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
."
Studies at College Jean-de-Brebeuf
The Quebec government abolished the Ministry of Education in 1875 to submit to the ultramontaneUltramontanism
Ultramontanism is a religious philosophy within the Roman Catholic community that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope...
Roman Catholic clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
which considered education the domain of the family and the Church, not the state. (p. 31) The result was that only private secondary schools gave access to French colleges and universities
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
and the Catholic Church controlled the French universities, and ran the orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
s, hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
s, and shelters for the aged
Old age
Old age consists of ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human beings, and thus the end of the human life cycle...
. (p. 31)
The book recounts the influences of Trudeau's Roman Catholic upbringing and education at the Jesuit owned and run College Jean-de-Brebeuf
Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf
Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf is a private French-language educational institution offering secondary school and CEGEP college-level instruction in Montreal, Quebec. It is a co-ed establishment for students in their final year of secondary school and in college. It is boys-only in the first four years...
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...
where students were taught that French-Canadians enjoyed a moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
superiority
Superior (hierarchy)
In a hierarchy or tree structure of any kind, a superior is an individual or position at a higher level in the hierarchy than another , and thus closer to the apex. It is often used in business terminology to refer to people who are supervisors and in the military to people who are higher in the...
. (p. 16 – Quote from: ). The writings of the revered priest Lionel Groulx
Lionel Groulx
Lionel-Adolphe Groulx was a Roman Catholic priest, historian and Quebec nationalist. -Early life and ordination:Groulx was born at Chenaux, Quebec, Canada, the son of a farmer and lumberjack, and died in Vaudreuil, Quebec. After his seminary training and studies in Europe, he taught at Valleyfield...
also espoused this idea of ethnic superiority. His pedagogical novel, L'Appel de la race (The Call of Race) taught that "the children of ethnically mixed marriage
Interracial marriage
Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...
s suffer from a form of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
because they are inhabited by two different souls." A character in Father Groulx's book exclaims: "So it is really true that the mixing of races produces cerebral disorders." (p. 15)
The book shows through Trudeau's own written words that what he was taught was unquestioned obedience to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. Through priests in local churches and those in charge of the French language
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...
education system, the Church played an unparalleled role in creating Quebec's French elite. (p. 33) In 2000, René Latourelle, a priest who taught at College Jean-de Brebeuf, published Quel avenir pour le Christianisme? in which he said (p. 16/17) that "The church acted as a true dictatorship over consciences."
At College Jean-de Brebeuf, "Nationalism and religion together constituted the combined fundamental values that infused all the life of the college." (p. 46) Antisemitism was a part of college teachings and the august priest Lionel Groulx
Lionel Groulx
Lionel-Adolphe Groulx was a Roman Catholic priest, historian and Quebec nationalist. -Early life and ordination:Groulx was born at Chenaux, Quebec, Canada, the son of a farmer and lumberjack, and died in Vaudreuil, Quebec. After his seminary training and studies in Europe, he taught at Valleyfield...
espoused his l'achat chez nous policy that warned French Canadians not to shop at Jewish-owned stores. (p. 58). Pierre Trudeau himself fully subscribed to these theories and wrote a vehemently anti-Semitic play titled Dupés (meaning "We've been had!"). His diary records that the seven-character play was "performed on May 16, 1938 at College Jean-de-Brebeuf before students and parents with great success." (p. 58)