Canada: True North; No. 103; A Song for Quebec

<v Speaker>Major funding for Canada. True, North is provided by the Corporation for <v Speaker>Public Broadcasting, this station and other public television stations. <v Speaker>And the William H. Donner Foundation. <v Speaker>New York. New York. <v Robert McNeil>I'm Robert McNeil and this is Montreal, Quebec, Canada. <v Robert McNeil>The city where I was born. <v Robert McNeil>People who live here would just say Montreal, Quebec, though Quebec <v Robert McNeil>were a separate nation and not a province of Canada. <v Robert McNeil>Well, it came very close to that about 10 years ago. <v narrator>And that is our story tonight. <v narrator>Montreal is the largest French speaking city in the world after Paris. <v narrator>But when I was a child, we English Canadians could almost ignore that, forgetting <v narrator>that French culture and language were guaranteed equal rights when Canada became

<v narrator>a nation, treating the French very much as second class citizens. <v narrator>In the 1960s, one European writer called them the white negroes of North America. <v narrator>It wasn't all due to the arrogance of English Canada, French politicians and clergy <v narrator>connived in their economic subjugation. <v narrator>But after World War 2, a new generation rebelled and Quebec nationalism <v narrator>became a powerful force. Suddenly there was a party. <v narrator>The Parti Quebecois, that wanted to separate Quebec from the rest of Canada. <v narrator>Their revolution failed. A majority of the people of Quebec chose to stay inside <v narrator>Canada, but it also succeeded. <v narrator>It gave an enormous boost to French confidence and pride. <v narrator>And it forced English Canada to recognize that Canadianism means <v narrator>duality two languages, two cultures, and that Canada is <v narrator>richer, if less tidy because of it. <v narrator>Tonight's program tells the story through the lives of two people who played important <v narrator>roles in the struggle. A poet and a popular singer both passionately

<v narrator>engaged in the separatist movement. <v narrator>Gerald Godin is one of Quebec's most popular figures, a statesman who's spent <v narrator>his life fighting for a separate French nation, but he doesn't <v narrator>use the dull prose of the politician. <v narrator>He speaks to his people in poetry. <v Gerald Godin>Il n'est pas donné souvant a un pays de refaire sa vie. <v Gerald Godin>Il vous regardera comme s'il n'avait rien a vous dire. <v Gerald Godin>Mais il n'attende adroit un signe de vous, qu'un signe de vous, <v Gerald Godin>pour vous sauter au cou. [French song] <v narrator>Pauline Julien is another powerful voice from Quebec. <v narrator>Her song celebrate her people's French Identity and sound a warning to protect <v narrator>it before it's too late.

<v narrator>There's so much. <v Pauline Julien>Tell me why it's too late, too late, <v Pauline Julien>much too late. <v Pauline Julien>Mommy, Mommy, I love you dearly, please <v Pauline Julien>sing the song you sang when I was a baby. <v Pauline Julien>Doo doo doo doo <v Pauline Julien>doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. <v Pauline Julien>Mommy, mommy, I remember the song, oh mommy, mommy <v Pauline Julien>Some things seem to be wrong. Oh mommy <v Pauline Julien>tell me why its too late, <v Pauline Julien>too late, much too late. <v Speaker>[speaking in French].

<v narrator>Gerald and Pauline lived together. <v narrator>Perhaps the best known couple in this French speaking province. <v Speaker>Oh oui. <v Speaker>[speakng French]. <v Speaker>Gerald is one of Quebec's most famous writers. <v Speaker>His poems are rooted in the daily language of his people. <v Speaker>Pauline, songs are a cry from Quebec's heart. <v Speaker>[speaks french: How'd he ever catch her?] <v Gerald Godin>[speaks french: I gave her a lift to Montreal. <v Gerald Godin>Madame Julien had been singing in Trois-Rivières. <v Gerald Godin>She had a commitment in Montreal. <v Gerald Godin>She said to me, "I have to get to Montreal tomorrow, I am without a car. <v Gerald Godin>I said I'd drop her off, but.... <v Gerald Godin>She dropped me off at her place. <v Gerald Godin>I looked through her bookshelves. You had none of my books Madame Julien!] <v Speaker>They met in 1962 and fell in love. <v Speaker>Gerald will never forget the first time he set eyes on Pauline.

<v Speaker>He was a young, small town poet and she was a star. <v Gerald Godin>What I saw on TV, she was singing ?inaudible? <v Gerald Godin>First time I saw her in Trois-Rivières. <v Gerald Godin>And one day I was chosen to be the first of these young boys <v Gerald Godin>to be launched in Montreal. <v Gerald Godin>And I came and I was in a cocktail. <v Gerald Godin>And then I saw the lady. <v narrator>The lady and the poet have been together ever since. <v narrator>They're celebrating their 25th anniversary with a group of friends at an old farmhouse <v narrator>packed with memories. <v Speaker>[Speaks French: To another 25 years of faithfulness! Or unfaithfulness...]. <v Speaker>[Speaks French: To our 50 years together Pauline]

<v Gerald Godin>She was new all the time- every day of our life she was a new person. <v Gerald Godin>Either mad or glad or uh, something like but changing all the time, <v Gerald Godin>everyday. <v narrator>Like all couples, they share personal memories of their years together, <v narrator>but their memorabilia are the home movies of a nation. <v narrator>For they were at the forefront of a turbulent struggle to make Quebec an independent <v narrator>country. <v narrator>Gerald was a young reporter from the town of Three Rivers. <v narrator>In 1962, he came to the big city, Montreal. <v narrator>He made his reputation as a critic, arguing that Quebec needed its own distinct <v narrator>culture, separate from France and America.

<v Gerald Godin>[Speaks French: We get a kick out of hearing our own swearwords in films. <v Gerald Godin>A nation recognizes itself at the movies. <v Gerald Godin>We didn't... not watching The Wild Bunch and westerns. <v Gerald Godin>Now we can see ourselves... that's great!]. <v Speaker>[Speaks French: There's been an evolution in cinema]. <v narrator>When Gerald met Pauline. <v narrator>She was a good example of what he was criticizing. <v narrator>She had to go to France for her training as an entertainer because Quebec offered few <v narrator>opportunities. <v Pauline Julien>In the 50s there were no theater schools in Quebec, so my mother <v Pauline Julien>encouraged me and I went to Paris. <v Pauline Julien>I learned theater and mime and dance and then I began to sing. <v Speaker>[singing in French] <v narrator> <v narrator>Quebec's Struggle for identity has a long history.

<v narrator>Like other French Quebeckers, Gerald and Pauline trace their roots back to early French <v narrator>settlers who had landed on the banks of the St. Lawrence River in the 15 Hundreds. <v narrator>But 200 years ago, the French colony was conquered by England. <v narrator>When General James Wolfe scaled the walls of Quebec City. <v narrator>Generations of Quebeckers remember it as a conquest, a humiliating <v narrator>defeat that almost destroyed the French Quebec nation. <v Gerald Godin>I think that Quebec survived because of Ben Franklin, who came to <v Gerald Godin>Montreal in 1776. <v Gerald Godin>And proposed in French to Quebeckers to join with <v Gerald Godin>the United States of America to become a 13th colony. <v Gerald Godin>And then in the House of Lords in London, they had speeches saying <v Gerald Godin>the winds of freedom are blowing from the south to the north. <v Gerald Godin>So we have to give them some rights and some responsibilities.

<v Gerald Godin>And this is how we got our first parliament. <v narrator>They may have gotten parliament, but after the conquest, Quebec was run like the rest <v narrator>of Canada, in English. <v narrator>The English minority in Montreal controlled most of Quebec as wealth. <v narrator>If you wanted to work, you had to speak their language. <v narrator>Most French Quebeckers felt excluded from the big city world of English commerce. <v narrator>They remained in the countryside, finding solace in the Roman Catholic Church. <v narrator>As Mark Twain once observed, Quebec was a place where you couldn't throw a stone without <v narrator>breaking a church window. <v narrator>The priest stood guard. <v narrator>They were determined to keep Quebecers French and faithful and far removed <v narrator>from the modern world. <v narrator>Like many youngsters, Gerald was expected to become a priest or a doctor, <v narrator>but he rebelled and became a journalist and eventually a successful poet. <v narrator>A complete collection of Gerald's poetry has just been published, but his poems

<v narrator>weren't always respectable. <v narrator>They're written in joual, a rough slang used by working people in Quebec. <v narrator>When Gerald started writing, joual was a second class language scorned by <v narrator>just about everyone else. <v Gerald Godin>One day I was sitting in the park next to 2 elder workmen <v Gerald Godin>in Trois-Rivières. <v Gerald Godin>On the bench next to me and I was reading and then they told me. <v Gerald Godin>On parle mal eh? which meant we're not speaking French correctly, <v Gerald Godin>we make mistakes. <v Gerald Godin>And then I felt deeply I saw a sense of injustice <v Gerald Godin>that these guys were not talking because they felt they were making mistakes, <v Gerald Godin>which was which is I think, the worst work being in life. <v Gerald Godin>And then I felt I had a mission to do, which was that the mission of the job to do, which

<v Gerald Godin>was to. <v Gerald Godin>Major redemption of the language. <v Gerald Godin>Used their words and make it part of the poetry, their re- <v Gerald Godin>language of our people is what they feel in their... in their plexus <v Gerald Godin>and their skin. That was the start of my campaign <v Gerald Godin>for the spoken language of this country. <v Gerald Godin>And I've been using these words and collecting them as precious stones <v Gerald Godin>ever since. <v Gerald Godin>The grubby guys, the shorties, the [french], those that got <v Gerald Godin>French fries with their Coke. <v Gerald Godin>The [french] that spit those who are timid and broke <v Gerald Godin>the guys who deliver beer on bicycle's from the corner grocers. <v Gerald Godin>All those day to day lives stuck with payments to meet, mortgage to perpetuity. <v Gerald Godin>They don't have a knife between their teeth, just a bus ticket. <v Gerald Godin>My brothers. My brothers.

<v narrator>Both Pauline and Gerald grew up in the 1940s under Premier Maurice Duplessis. <v narrator>He was a powerful figure who wrapped himself in the banner of French nationalism <v narrator>and Catholicism to get the support of Quebec's rural voters. <v narrator>In the late 1940s, underpaid French workers rose up against their English <v narrator>employers demanding the right to strike. <v narrator>When Duplessis supported their bosses, they felt betrayed. <v narrator>Workers and police clashed again and again as once passive, Quebeckers felt <v narrator>a mounting sense of injustice. <v narrator>Quebec was poised for change, and it came suddenly when Duplessis died <v narrator>in 1959. <v narrator>The era remembered as Quebec's dark ages was over. <v Gerald Godin>I was there when Duplessis died as a journalist, I remember very well. <v Gerald Godin>And uh, there were there in Trois-Rivières that very day was hotter <v Gerald Godin>than anytime before and in Trois-Rivières.

<v Gerald Godin>So the common saying was that the doors of hell had <v Gerald Godin>opened for Duplessis and that <v Gerald Godin>the hot air coming from the air was so strong that everybody was in uh, was <v Gerald Godin>sweating. <v narrator>1960, a new government swept into power, led by Liberal leader Jean <v narrator>Lesage. <v narrator>A quiet revolution began that would catapult Quebec into the 20th century. <v narrator>The slogan of Lesage's government was Masters in our own house. <v narrator>New programs were announced in science, business, arts and education. <v narrator>Breaking the Bonds of the Catholic Church and English Business. <v narrator>One project symbolized the new self-sufficiency. <v narrator>The huge English owned electricity industry was nationalized and christened Hydro-Quebec. <v narrator>Behind the scheme was a young cabinet minister named René Levesque.

<v narrator>He voiced the growing impatience of many Quebeckers. <v René Levesque>As far as future development is concerned. <v René Levesque>I think it would be silly to go on being always spectators, even in those other <v René Levesque>fields. Looking at other guys doing the job and Quebeckers more or less <v René Levesque>being people who look at the trains go by. <v Gerald Godin>[Speaks French: There was an explosion of freedom in every sense. <v Gerald Godin>sexual and intellectual freedom, and a belief that education <v Gerald Godin>should be available to all. <v Gerald Godin>Before, only wealthy families could afford the $700 for a classical college. <v Gerald Godin>The crucial reform was free education. <v Gerald Godin>"No more Mozarts nipped in the bud" .] <v Pauline Julien>[sings in French] <v narrator>Pauline was swept up in the time spraying exciting new Quebec songs to her own people.

<v narrator>A different crowd gathered in 1964 to welcome Queen Elizabeth, the Queen <v narrator>of England and of Canada. <v narrator>Pauline was invited to perform for the Queen, but she refused. <v narrator>Like many French Quebeckers, she saw Elizabeth as a symbol of English rule. <v narrator>Young French nationalists had started to organize, demanding control of <v narrator>their own state. Now they took to the streets with a bold new cry. <v narrator>Quebec libre an independent Quebec. <v narrator>The next morning, police attacked the demonstrators. <v narrator>It was known as the Saturday of the Truncheons. <v narrator>A wave of protests followed. <v narrator>Thousands marched in giant demonstrations that often ended the same way. <v Gerald Godin>I took part in many such events and always <v Gerald Godin>I was always very fearful of anything happening.

<v Gerald Godin>And if my skull had been broken. <v Gerald Godin>Just in a few seconds when you get the truncheon blow in the head. <v Gerald Godin>You understand very fast what's going on and you become more, more radical. <v Pauline Julien>I don't need a truncheon on my head to understand. <v narrator>Gerald's cultural nationalism turned political. <v narrator>He joined other young artists who were at the forefront of the independence movement. <v narrator>He and Pauline took part in shows called Songs and Poetry of Resistance. <v narrator>They were unlike anything Quebec had ever seen. <v narrator>Nationalist fervor erupted into song.

<v narrator>It was led by fiery singer poets, troubadours whose popular music <v narrator>had a political impact. <v Pauline Julien>[Sings in French] <v Pauline Julien> <v narrator> Pauline was the soul of the movement, <v narrator>flaming passionariat the spreading a proud new message to an emerging nation.

<v narrator>1963, three terrorists blew up a monument to general Wolfe, <v narrator>the hero of the English conquest. <v narrator>They call themselves the F.L.Q, the Quebec Liberation Front. <v narrator>Over the next seven years, dozens of bombs went off at the national revenue <v narrator>building. The Queen Victoria Monument. <v narrator>Even the headquarters of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. <v narrator>Some bombs were defuzed in time. <v narrator>Others were not. <v narrator>The attacks terrified English Quebec, but they struck a chord among frustrated <v narrator>young nationalists like Gerald, who felt the English were deaf to their cries. <v Gerald Godin>Only bombs, in fact, were the the ideal <v Gerald Godin>communication process to convince the English that we were

<v Gerald Godin>after something important. <v Gerald Godin>And since that, they had simply showed us some either contempt or what <v Gerald Godin>do you want? Or we love you or we will put some French word <v Gerald Godin>over the toilet doors in airports and things like that. <v Gerald Godin>It was not enough. <v narrator>Nineteen sixty seven. <v narrator>The visit of French President Charles de Gaulle. <v narrator>France was the mother country, de Gaulle a legend. <v narrator>When he arrived, he was mobbed by separatists looking for some sign of his support. <v narrator>Their banners proclaim Quebec Libre, an independent Quebec. <v narrator>And to their astonishment, the French president echoed their cry. <v Charles de Gaulle>Vive Montreal. <v Charles de Gaulle>Vive le Quebec. <v Charles de Gaulle>Vive le Quebec Libre. <v Pauline Julien>I think is one of the most impressioning

<v Pauline Julien>[Godin: important] important and um <v Pauline Julien>vigorous moment in the life of the of Quebec, <v Pauline Julien>because it's not because we think that France are <v Pauline Julien>going to help us, but it the way we are. <v Pauline Julien>It's a very de Gaulle was very important in all the politics <v Pauline Julien>in our country. And it's the fact that he recognized <v Pauline Julien>our, the cause. <v Gerald Godin>And then came the man René Levesque. <v Gerald Godin>And he was really a sort of a dynamo. <v Gerald Godin>And he had ideas on everything and he wanted to redo Quebec <v Gerald Godin>from head to toe from A to Z. From wall to wall. <v Gerald Godin>And it was very similar thing for us, younger generation, younger Quebeckers <v Gerald Godin>to watch this guy going. <v Gerald Godin>And when he uh finish a job of a great thing, hydro- Quebec. <v Gerald Godin>His speeches were so stimulating that we we thought we

<v Gerald Godin>had a place in that political process. <v narrator> That process was now red hot, largely because of Levesque. <v narrator>The popular young minister had stormed <v narrator>out of the Quebec government to spearhead a growing separatist movement, attracting <v narrator>the best and the brightest of a generation. <v narrator>In 1968, they held an historic convention and voted to found <v narrator>a new political party called the Partie Quebecois, the PQ. <v narrator>It had one goal an independent Quebec nation that would break away from Canada. <v narrator>Levesque was their leader and their inspiration. <v narrator>Though the English saw him only as a menace. <v interviewer>Sorry to keep at this Rene but-. <v René Levesque>You're sure as hell harping on it. <v interviewer>Well, let's put it this way. Would you fight if you had to? <v René Levesque>Would you what? <v interviewer>Fight. <v René Levesque>You mean fight with arms? [interviewer: Yes.] Would the rest of Canada fight to keep <v René Levesque>Quebec in [interviewer: I don't know.] Against its own will.

<v René Levesque>I know it won't. Because I think the rest of Canada. <v René Levesque>First of all, has no illusions on that score and second is civilized. <v René Levesque>Next question. <v Pauline Julien>Like René Levesque said, we are not to be a frontier. <v Pauline Julien>We are not to be wars and everything like that, it will just be our place. <v Pauline Julien>Be free. <v narrator>A living symbol of separatism. Pauline was soon on national television arguing <v narrator>Quebec's cause to a bewildered Canadian public. <v Pauline Julien>We are not at home at all, and leave it we go in the bank. <v Pauline Julien>At leave we look for a job in Quebec, we have to know English, we have to speak English. <v Pauline Julien>And a lot of people refuse to speak French. <v Pauline Julien>Do you imagine such a thing in Toronto? <v Pauline Julien>So that's why- [interviewer: it's changing Pauline, it's changing] No! <v Pauline Julien>Everywhere, you know, in the every, why do you. <v Pauline Julien>So you have a spirit colonialiste or what? <v interviewer>No, we don't want to lose you. <v Pauline Julien>I don't want to lose you either. <v Pauline Julien>[interviewer: All right. Why not?] But we have to be changed. Like, really be free. <v Pauline Julien>Both you and me. And every people in, in the world just want that.

<v narrator>But many people did not share Pauline's vision, as René Levesque discovered <v narrator>when he took his cause to the rest of Canada. <v René Levesque>We firmly believe that we can do it in a sovereign. <v René Levesque>As we say it. Which means a politically independent Quebec. <v René Levesque>Another three minutes, two minutes. <v René Levesque>And we also believe that we should and we can do it together. <v René Levesque>Not with him, but together. <v Speaker>French Canadian people can't get along within Canada exactly <v Speaker>the same as german Canadians, Italian Canadians or Ukrainian Canadians <v Speaker>without crying all the time, without asking for more, without having another government <v Speaker>for themselves. Right. <v René Levesque>Can I answer you? Take a German Canadian or an I-, <v René Levesque>as you say, an Italian Canadian.

<v René Levesque>When they come here, they come as immigrants. <v René Levesque>What you're calling for is that French Canadians also <v René Levesque>accept the Canadian melting pot situation. <v René Levesque>But we are not going to be any kind. <v René Levesque>I'm sorry. Of group of new Canadians melting into <v René Levesque>a melting pot. <v Speaker>That's fine. I accept that sir, why do you have to have a government by yourselves? <v Speaker>Why do you have a second government? <v René Levesque>Well, that's what I was taught. <v René Levesque>As best I could, I gave you a summons. <v Speaker>No answer. I thank you for trying but you failed. <v Gerald Godin>In their views. You should disappear as a different group, a linguistic group, <v Gerald Godin>and we should all speak English. <v Gerald Godin>The point is that we were the first one to be established in <v Gerald Godin>the history of Canada. We are the oldest settlement in North America, in Quebec here, <v Gerald Godin>1534. <v narrator>In the 1970 Quebec election, Levesque PQ stunned Canadians.

<v narrator>One in four Quebeckers voted for the new party dedicated to leaving Canada. <v narrator>Liberal Party leader Robert Bourassa defeated Levesque to become the new premier <v narrator>and the PQ own only a handful of seats in the parliament. <v narrator>But it was hard to tell at PQ headquarters. <v Robert Bourassa>Dear friends, don't forget that this is a defeat <v Robert Bourassa>which feels like a victory. <v narrator>Quebec's Young had voted massively for the PQ and party leaders were ecstatic. <v narrator>Every day a federalist dies, and a separatist is born. <v narrator>Tomorrow belongs to us, was the PKU slogan. <v narrator>But some people couldn't wait. <v narrator>On October 5th, 1970, Quebec heard a chilling newscast. <v radio announcer>The senior British trade commissioner in Montreal, James Richard Cross, is reported to

<v radio announcer>have been kidnaped a short while ago from his Redpath Crescent home by as many as four <v radio announcer>armed men believed to be F.L.Q terrorists. <v radio announcer>Mr. Cross was forced at gunpoint to enter the waiting taxi and it sped away from the <v radio announcer>scene. An intensive police search is underway for the kidnap victim and his abductors. <v narrator>The kidnaping of Britain's trade commissioner set off an electrifying chain of events. <v narrator>It was known as the October crisis. <v narrator>Within days FLQ terrorists struck again, snatching a politician <v narrator>from his own front lawn. <v narrator>Quebec Cabinet Minister Pierre La Porte. <v narrator>Police dragnets paralyzed the province, but found nothing. <v narrator>Under pressure, the government agreed to broadcast the FLQ manifesto. <v narrator>That night Quebeckers tuned into an unusual newscast. <v News anchor>May all those throughout Quebec who have been contemptuously referred to as the lousy <v News anchor>French and the alcoholics join ranks and fight against the enemies of justice and liberty

<v News anchor>and stop the professional thieves and gangsters, the bankers, businessmen, <v News anchor>judges and corrupt politicians. <v News anchor>We are the workers of Quebec and we will fight to the bitter end. <v narrator>Days later, thousands of people gathered in Montreal in sympathy with the <v narrator>FLQ message. They didn't know that Quebec was about to become an armed <v narrator>camp. <v narrator>Early that morning, the Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, invoked <v narrator>an emergency law called the War Measures Act, claiming that Quebec faced <v narrator>an apprehended insurrection. <v narrator>Some people felt the insurrection existed only in Trudeau's mind. <v Gerald Godin>You had about ten or twelve youngsters, in fact, <v Gerald Godin>kidnaping two people working without any money. <v Gerald Godin>They had to borrow money from their own kidnaped victim pierre la porte <v Gerald Godin>to pay for the, the St. Hubert roasted chicken

<v Gerald Godin>that they ordered. <v Gerald Godin>So this was not an org- an organization with any strength <v Gerald Godin>to threaten the state, either Canadian <v Gerald Godin>or Quebec state. <v Robert Bourassa>A small group of people but even if this [interviewer: how small a group?] perhaps <v Robert Bourassa>a few of the people, but they were strong enough to create a lot of trouble. <v narrator>Canadian troops moved into Quebec overnight, placing Montreal under military <v narrator>occupation. Under a state of emergency, the FLQ was outlawed <v narrator>and civil liberties suspended. <v narrator>Close to 500 people were arrested without warrant. <v Pierre Elliot Trudeau>Long as there is a power in here which is challenging the elected representative of the <v Pierre Elliot Trudeau>people, I think that power must be stopped. And I think it's only, I <v Pierre Elliot Trudeau>repeat, weak kneed, bleeding hearts who are afraid to take these measures. <v narrator>Words were the only weapons Pauline and Gerald had ever used. <v narrator>Yet they were pulled naked from bed and jailed for 10 days. <v Gerald Godin>They followed me. They taped me.

<v Gerald Godin>They spied on me. They tripped me, they broke in on me. <v Gerald Godin>They fell down on me. They hooked me. <v Gerald Godin>They trapped me. They arrested me without a warrant. <v Gerald Godin>Without a reason. Without a word. <v Gerald Godin>Without a look and they frisked my brain. <v Pauline Julien>With a country of 3 million peoples on arrest, it was. <v Pauline Julien>It was like that. You know, because the army was everywhere and <v Pauline Julien>every people was afraid to maybe, my neighbor is arrested, why not me? <v Gerald Godin>And I still have that shiver when I think about these, these days. <v Gerald Godin>I'm still mad at them like hell because it was supposed to be a free country, <v Gerald Godin>a democratic country. And this about Canada. <v narrator>Despite the show of force, no evidence of an insurrection was ever found, <v narrator>and no one jailed was ever sent to trial. <v narrator>But police made a grim discovery about the missing cabinet ministers. <v radio announcer>At 11:10 p.m. exactly close to St. Hubert airport that the <v radio announcer>car, which was used one week ago to kidnap Pierre La Porte in front of his home

<v radio announcer>on robotized Street at St. Lambert was formally identified. <v radio announcer>At exactly 12:25 or other 025. <v radio announcer>The trunk of the car was finally opened and the body of Mr. La Porte was discovered, <v radio announcer>covered in blood. <v Gerald Godin>I was in jail when all this happened. <v Gerald Godin>And all we could see from the from the jail window was the half mast <v Gerald Godin>flag of Quebec on the roof an official building, <v Gerald Godin>that was visible from the 13th floor of the jail. <v Gerald Godin>The Partenaire, Hilton they called it. <v Gerald Godin>And in fact, it was that day that I had that very deep <v Gerald Godin>thinking about violence and terrorism for Quebec. <v Gerald Godin>And I came to the conclusion that it was a dead end and that that La Porte was <v Gerald Godin>not... <v Gerald Godin>responsible for all that had happened and <v Gerald Godin>that he shouldn't have died, in fact.

<v narrator>Le Porte's murder horrified Quebeckers and support for the FLQ faded away. <v narrator>Soon after, the kidnappers released the British trade commissioner and went into exile. <v narrator>The October crisis was over, but its impact would live on. <v narrator>Gerald's arrest strengthened his commitment to a separate Quebec. <v narrator>He decided that a new nation would not be won by bullets, but by ballots. <v narrator>He joined Rene Levesque PQ and began to organize for separatism. <v narrator>The poet was now a politician. <v Gerald Godin>[Speks French: without you, I am nothing. <v Gerald Godin>With you, we can do anything.] <v narrator>Enthusiastic party members nominated Gerald as a candidate in the coming provincial <v narrator>election. He would run head to head in the same district as the man who put him behind

<v narrator>bars. Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa. <v Gerald Godin>I said to myself, that man Bourassa, is one of the guy who put me in <v Gerald Godin>jail. Let's go and do the job and try and beat him. <v Pauline Julien>[Singing in French]. <v narrator>Voters soon found out that Gerald Godin was not a run of the mill politician.

<v narrator>One morning they woke up to find a message from him in their mail slot. <v narrator>It wasn't a pamphlet. It was a poem. <v Gerald Godin>[Speaks in French: The cockroaches of Parliament, the fancy dancers. <v Gerald Godin>The trashcans of Canada, my profit, my free ride. <v Gerald Godin>The conmen in the nation's pawn shops, honesty is trampled, <v Gerald Godin>dignity is violated, the shady operators.] <v narrator> Separatism swept across Quebec like a crusade. <v narrator>Gathering converts from federalism in its wake. <v narrator>November 15th, 1976 a hushed Quebec witnessed <v narrator>history. <v Speaker>[Speks French: Bourassa's out! Hurrah Godin!] <v narrator>Gerald Godin had defeated the Quebec premier in his own district.

<v narrator>Incredibly, separatist leader Rene Levesque was the new premier of Quebec. <v René Levesque>[Speaks French: I never... I never imagined I'd be so proud to be a Quebecer. <v René Levesque>We're not a small people, we're something like a great people]. <v narrator>For Levesque, it was only the first step. <v narrator>During the election, he pledged that Quebec would remain in Canada until he held <v narrator>a referendum on independence. <v narrator>But Canada could no longer take Quebec for granted. <v Gerald Godin>It was that night a coitus noninterruptus for hours and hours and hours and

<v Gerald Godin>I would say for 10 years it's been like that because politics is so <v Gerald Godin>stimulating, interesting and full of challenges every <v Gerald Godin>day. <v narrator>Gerald Godin, poet, publisher and journalist was now an elected member <v narrator>of parliament. The man who'd been behind bars was in the seat of power. <v narrator>One day, as a minister in the government he would ride in a limousine shauffered by the <v narrator>same policemen who'd arrested him. <v narrator>Gerald faced an unusual challenge. <v narrator>He represented a French district that included a heavily ethnic neighborhood. <v narrator>And the irony was soon clear. <v narrator>After years of fighting for the French language and a French country, Gerald would now <v narrator>have to sell separatism to the Portuguese and the Greeks. <v Gerald Godin> [Speaks French: He's a Godin. <v Gerald Godin>Godinho's shoe repair, a Portuguese relative.]

<v Gerald Godin>It's a cousin, probably the same root, uh someone in Portugal <v Gerald Godin>came here and his name is Godinho. <v Gerald Godin>It's the same Adam and Eve. <v Gerald Godin>The first Godin maybe in Europe. <v Gerald Godin>So he's a member of the family. <v Gerald Godin>I wonder if he votes for me. <v Pauline Julien>[Sings in French] <v narrator>The separatist government feared that a tidal wave of English would one day engulf the

<v narrator>French culture in Quebec. <v narrator>It was determined to protect the French language before it was too late. <v Gerald Godin>The language you learn on your mother's knees is the only <v Gerald Godin>language in your life you will totally control and make other people understand <v Gerald Godin>what you have in your heart and your mind and your brain. <v Gerald Godin>This is the natural resource you have. <v Gerald Godin>Its the most precious one because you've learned it on <v Gerald Godin>the knees of your mother, and on the streets of your cities and <v Gerald Godin>with your neighbor. So it is deep tool you have to express yourself. <v Gerald Godin>And if you lose it, you're dead. <v narrator>Gerald played a major role in promoting a new French language law Bill 1 0 1. <v narrator>Its purpose was to make Quebec a strong French speaking state. <v narrator>In the past, immigrants had sent their children to English schools. <v narrator>Now they would have to enroll them in French schools so that they would grow up speaking <v narrator>French. The new language law also required that commercial signs

<v narrator>be written in French, once the only language of business, English was <v narrator>now blotted out. <v narrator>It was controversial legislation and put Gerald in a difficult position. <v narrator>He was a writer asked to defend what amounted to the censoring of another language. <v Peter Gzowski>I mean, you were g- you didn't agree with the principles of this bill and then again, you <v Peter Gzowski>had to defend it all the time. <v Gerald Godin>Well because I knew- <v Peter Gzowski>Did you change your mind or did you lie? <v Gerald Godin>Both [Gzowski: yeah?] both yes, both, both. <v Gerald Godin>I did both. <v Peter Gzowski>You changed your mind and you lied. <v Gerald Godin>Yeah. <v Gerald Godin>I lied to myself a little bit, but when I was considering like a good Jesuit <v Gerald Godin>the, the overall effects of what I was doing. <v Gerald Godin>I couldn't, I couldn't say otherwise than those who did were right, because <v Gerald Godin>you always choose between two evils in life. <v Gerald Godin>That's one things I learned in politics and being a minister and deputy and member of <v Gerald Godin>parliament. <v Speaker>[Speaks in French: The snakes on the grass of Parliament,

<v Speaker>the fossils of our learned societies, <v Speaker>the stench of the ministerial chambers. the diddlers of equality and independence. <v Speaker>Those who accept gifts, the slathering millionaires, <v Speaker>cheaters for the highest bid, the peddles of federalism up our ass. <v Speaker>and the cesspool of bribes. <v Speaker>the fat-cats of CB-Sleaze TV] <v Gerald Godin> [Speaks French: That was after the October crisis. <v Gerald Godin>It was the cry of an angry young man.] Of an angry young man, in fact. <v Gerald Godin>And then when I think I want to become myself a minister, and a member <v Gerald Godin>of the assemble nacional and to run. <v Gerald Godin>I was wondering if the youngsters my age at that time will use the <v Gerald Godin>same words about me. That always remain in my mind. <v Gerald Godin>What do they say now about me? <v Gerald Godin>Do they say also that my action de ministre stinks

<v Gerald Godin>one way or the other? <v Gerald Godin>Do they think I am a co- cockroach of parliament cockroach? <v Gerald Godin>Because I don't do the right job. <v Gerald Godin>So it was my conscience. In fact, I wrote my own confession <v Gerald Godin>before being guilty in that poem. <v narrator>In 1979, Premier Levesque made a historic announcement. <v narrator>He would hold a province-wide referendum to seek the right to separate from Canada. <v narrator>It was the start of a huge campaign asking Quebeckers to vote "oui" yes <v narrator>to negotiations for independence. <v narrator>Pro-Canada Federalist urged Quebec to vote no and the French speaking province split in <v narrator>two. <v narrator>The United States had decided its future in a civil war, but Quebec would do it more <v narrator>politely at the ballot box. <v narrator>A sea of banners soon festoon the province and the political fervor rose. <v narrator>The Canadian prime minister entered the fray, fighting for the survival of his country,

<v narrator>warning Quebeckers that independence could mean disaster. <v Pierre Elliot Trudeau>[Speaks French: If the majority of Quebecers voted yes, would the laws of democracy <v Pierre Elliot Trudeau>require us to negotiate? <v Pierre Elliot Trudeau>Of course not!]. <v narrator>For the separatist leaders, everything was at stake. <v Pierre Bourgault>[Speaks French: The law is in English, business is in English, Life is in English. <v Pierre Bourgault>We have to gather our courage simply to survive]. <v narrator>Gerald and Pauline went out on the hustings urging Quebeckers to take the beautiful risk <v narrator>of a new country. <v Pauline Julien>[Speaks French: I believe in a strong, autonomous, independent Quebec]. <v narrator>May 20th, 1980, referendum day. <v announcer>[Speaks French: "Oui" 1,350,385

<v announcer>votes. <v announcer>"Non" 1,956,734 <v announcer>votes. <v announcer>40.8% voted yes. <v announcer>and 59.2% voted no.] <v narrator>Four out of 10 Quebeckers had voted yes. <v narrator>It was not enough. <v narrator>Pauline tried to rally the crowd. <v Pauline Julien>[Speaks French: Tonight, for all our supporters, <v Pauline Julien>The Dance at St. Dillon.] <v Pauline Julien>[Sings in French] <v René Levesque>[Speaks French: If I've understood you you're saying "until next time".

<v René Levesque>I am confident that one day <v René Levesque>Quebec will move forward to meet its destiny. <v René Levesque>and that we will be there to join in. <v René Levesque>There's just one thing, can we end this evening by singing, all of us <v René Levesque>what's still Quebec's loveliest song for everyone in Quebec, without exception.

<v René Levesque>Would someone start "People of this Land" my voice is almost gone. <v René Levesque>People of this land...]. <v crowd>[Singing in French: ... your turn has come to speak of love. People of this land your turn has come to speak of love.] <v narrator>For Levesque, there would not be a next time in a few years he <v narrator>would be dead. <v Pauline Julien>[Speaks French: He won't be here the next time. <v Pauline Julien>Maybe the question was badly worded.

<v Pauline Julien>The people who weren't able to inform themselves, <v Pauline Julien>through meetings pr the press were taken in by the propaganda <v Pauline Julien>and couldn't see the pros and cons. <v Pauline Julien>They were blinded by federalist propaganda. <v Pauline Julien>It was inevitable. <v Pauline Julien>But it's not over yet. <v Pauline Julien>Mommy, mommy, I love you dearly. <v Pauline Julien>Please tell me once again that beautiful story. <v Pauline Julien>(One day they set sail from France to build a village, a city, a country.). <v Pauline Julien>Mommy, Mommy, how come we lost again? Oh mommy, mommy <v Pauline Julien>are you the one to blame? <v Pauline Julien>Oh mommy tell me why it's too late, too late,

<v Pauline Julien>much too late. <v narrator>Personal tragedy followed the political. <v narrator>In 1984, Gerald had an attack of epilepsy. <v narrator>Doctors discovered a massive brain tumor and rushed him to hospital for surgery. <v Gerald Godin>And that night I thought, I would be dead in a few days, that was <v Gerald Godin>the worst moment. And then I also rediscovered how much <v Gerald Godin>I loved Pauline, how much I was loved by her. <v Gerald Godin>But I didn't die. <v Gerald Godin>Because each interface of each gesture of everyday life has <v Gerald Godin>exploded in his planetarium because he bumps into the doorjams <v Gerald Godin>with his left shoulder, because the neurons that regulate the traffic

<v Gerald Godin>of words are giving him traffic jams, and often his words come out <v Gerald Godin>bumper to bumper like cars at 5:00 when he wants to talk. <v Gerald Godin>Because the left corner of his mouth can't hold in his food because <v Gerald Godin>he spends his days looking for things he hasn't even lost. <v Gerald Godin>I said to myself, I'm caput, finished, terminé. <v Gerald Godin>And then I thought about committing suicide. <v Gerald Godin>But I said to myself, in the <v Gerald Godin>end, it's so long that time that you pass um, <v Gerald Godin>in the cemetery, compared to the short span of life you have standing <v Gerald Godin>on the soil. <v Gerald Godin>That you better be there alive. <v Gerald Godin>Standing on your two feet. <v Speaker>[Speaks in French: Its a pleasure. Your health.] <v narrator>Today Gerald is fully recovered. <v narrator>He still represents the same district in the provincial.

<v narrator>But now he's a member of the opposition. <v narrator>The man he defeated in 1976, Robert Bourassa, is once again the premier <v narrator>of Quebec. Gerald and Pauline have watched Quebec change, grow <v narrator>more confident. A new wave of Quebec entrepreneurs is taking French-run <v narrator>business to the world in ways unimaginable 20 years ago. <v narrator>The economy is booming. <v narrator>French is now the official language of work, allowing Quebeckers to enjoy their recent <v narrator>gains. Politics is on the backburner. <v narrator>Ironically, the PQ's success has reduced Quebec's frustration with Canada <v narrator>and weakened its own support. <v narrator>For now, the passion for independence has melted into the countryside like the snow. <v Gerald Godin>But still we have to stick to our guns. <v Gerald Godin>Keep on laughing and writing and fighting and talking. <v narrator>Gerald and Pauline know that as long as Quebec is surrounded by English North America, <v narrator>its language and culture are vulnerable.

<v narrator>They are convinced that sooner or later, young Quebeckers will take up their struggle <v narrator>and the cycle will begin again. <v Pauline Julien>[Sings in French] <v Pauline Julien> Enough of this narcissism. <v Pauline Julien>Are you crying? <v Gerald Godin>It's beautiful

<v Pauline Julien>This is me! <v Pauline Julien>Cry for me now, not for my past. <v Gerald Godin>It's not you, it's creation. <v Gerald Godin>It moves me when people create beauty that stirs your emotions <v Gerald Godin>and touches you deep inside. <v Gerald Godin>She's such a cold woman. <v Gerald Godin>To think I chose her for her passion. <v Gerald Godin>She observes people like a clinician. <v Pauline Julien>Don't give me that! <v Pauline Julien>The teardrop hangs in your eye like a pearl. <v Pauline Julien>It could be habit-forming. <v Speaker>[Sings in French] <v Speaker>Major funding for Canada: true North is provided by the Corporation for

<v Speaker>Public Broadcasting, this station and other public television stations. <v Speaker>And the William H. Donner Foundation. <v Speaker>New York. New York.