Yves Michaud defends one of his proposals at the Laurentian Bank annual meeting in Montreal in 1998. Mr. Michaud was a fierce Quebec nationalist whose career included being a journalist, a politician, a diplomat, a wine merchant and a shareholders’ rights activist.Yves Michaud was a fiery Quebec nationalist whose eclectic career included being a journalist, a politician, a diplomat, a wine merchant and a shareholders’ rights activist.
His time in the spotlight ended bitterly. In 2000, he commented on the lack of support for independence among minority voters, especially Jews. In a rare move, the Quebec National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion condemning his remarks. Mr. Michaud was a combative man, someone who, by his own account, had grown a thick skin to handle all the jabs against his uncompromising views, his cultivated way of speaking French, his short stature.
Freelance journalism led him to the editorship of a local weekly, Le Clairon, where he penned biting criticisms of the Union Nationale government of Maurice Duplessis, calling it a “tuberculous regime.” In the pages of the pro-government Courier de Saint-Hyacinthe, he was mocked as “le petit Michaud” .
Mr. Michaud complained to the speaker, asking if the ministers “fed themselves on xenophobia and racism.” The Canadian Jewish Congress praised him for having the “courage to raise the matter and ask the ministers for a retraction.” The evening of Feb. 5, 1977, Mr. Lévesque and his secretary and future wife, Corinne Côté, attended a dinner party hosted by Mr. Michaud. Driving home, the premier fatally struck a homeless man, Edgar Trottier.
He began fighting for better corporate accountability. Representing himself in Superior Court, he won in 1997 a ruling that forced the Royal Bank and National Bank to put to a vote shareholders’ proposals on executive pay and governance rules. During a Dec. 5, 2000, radio interview, he recalled how he ran into Liberal Senator Leo Kolber at a barbershop. “Are you still a separatist, Yves?” Mr. Kolber asked.
This prompted the Jewish organization B’nai Brith to urge Mr. Bouchard to veto the Michaud candidacy. The premier said he disagreed with Mr. Michaud but didn’t plan to intervene.