Pierre Vallières

Pierre Vallières
Pierre Vallières in Ottawa (1989)
Born	(1938-02-22)22 February 1938 Montreal,Quebec, Canada
Died	23 December 1998(1998-12-23)(aged 60) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Occupation	Journalist, writer, publisher

Pierre Vallières((1938-02-22)22 February 1938 –(1998-12-23)23 December 1998) was aQuébécoisjournalist and writer, known as an intellectual leader of theFront de libération du Québec(FLQ). He was the author of the essayNègres blancs d'Amérique,translated asWhite Niggers of America,which likened the struggles of French-Canadians to those of African-Americans.

Biography

Early life

Pierre Vallières was born on 22 February 1938, inMontreal,Quebec into aFrench-Canadianfamily. Vallières grew up inVille Jacques-Cartier(now part ofLongueuil) in theSouth Shoreregion, considered one of the most deprived areas of theMontreal metropolitan area.He entered the Franciscan Order, but left after a couple of years.He worked in abookstorebefore becoming a journalist, first forLe Devoir,and then forCité Libre,for which he later became the director.He then went to cover international news forLa Presse.

FLQ andWhite Niggers of America

Vallières had been working forLa Pressefor two years when he was fired for taking part in "subversive activities", having become a left-wing political activist at a young age. In September 1964, Vallières andCharles Gagnonpublished of the first issue of left-wingRévolution québécoisemagazine. In July 1965, Vallières and Gagnon led the "Fourth Wave" of theFront de libération du Québec(FLQ), a separatist andMarxist-Leninistparamilitary group in Quebec, when they combined the remains of the "Third Wave" with their Popular Liberation Movement. Vallières published the group's newspaper,La Cognée( "The Hit" ), and was involved inmilitantactivities. The FLQ'sbombingcampaign prompted a quick clampdown by Canadian authorities, and by August 1966, theRoyal Canadian Mounted Police(RCMP) had arrested many FLQ members.

Vallières escaped the arrests and fled to the United States with Gagnon, where they conducted ahunger strikeat the United Nations headquarters in New York City to protest what was considered to be Quebec's plight in Canada. While in New York, Vallières was held in theManhattan House of Detention for Menbefore beingextraditedback to Canada, where he was immediately arrested in connection with the robbery of a Montreal cinema on 27 August 1966.Vallières, along with Charles Gagnon and five other people, was convicted of themanslaughterof Thérèse Morin, a 64-year-old secretary who died in the explosion of a bomb that was delivered to the H.B. La Grenade shoe manufacturer in Montreal on 5 May 1966, and of Jean Corbo, a 16-year-old FLQ member who died on 14 July 1966 in the explosion of the bomb he had placed himself at the Dominion Textile factory in Montreal.Vallières received alife sentencefor the deaths but the conviction was overturnedby thecourt of appeal,and in a second trial held in 1969, he was convicted again and this time sentenced to 30 months in prison. He was paroled on 26 May 1970 after spending 44 months in prison.

Vallières wrote a number of works during his four-month imprisonment in New York in 1967, the most famous of which wasNègres blancs d'Amérique(1968), translated into English asWhite Niggers of America.The book compared the historical situation of French-Canadians to that of African-Americans at the height of the latter'scivil rightsstruggles, where Vallières argued the parallels between the two peoples as an exploited lower class, and called forarmed struggleof liberation against their commonaristocraticoppressors.

Later life and death

In 1970, during theOctober Crisis,the FLQ abducted and murderedPierre Laporte,the Vice-Premier of Quebec. The following year, Vallières renounced violence as a means to achieve Quebec independence, and on 4 October 1972, under aplea bargainagreement, received a one-yearsuspended sentenceon three charges of counselling kidnapping for political purposes. Vallières then resumed his career as a journalist, writer, and publisher.

Vallières died from heart failure on 23 December 1998, at the Jacques-Viger Hospital in Montreal.

Works

• Nègres blancs d'Amérique, autobiographie précoce d'un "terroriste" québécois.Montréal: Éditions Parti pris, 1967 (translated asWhite Niggers of America: The Precocious Autobiography of a Quebec Terroristby Joan Pinkham, Monthly Review Press, 1971 and McClelland & Stewart, 1972)
• Vivre sans temps morts, jouir sans entraves!Paris, 1970
• L'urgence de choisir.Montréal Parti-Pris, 1971; (translated asChoose!,New Press, 1972 )
• Pour un front commun multinational de libération.with Charles Gagnon. S.l.: Front de libération du Québec, 1971
• Un Québec impossible.Montréal: Éditions Québec/Amérique, 1977 (translated asThe Impossible Quebec: Illusions of Sovereignty Association,1980)
• L'exécution de Pierre Laporte: les dessous de l'Opération.Montréal: Éditions Québec/Amérique, 1977 (translated asThe Assassination of Pierre Laporteby Ralph Wells, Lorimer, 1977)
• Les scorpions associés.with René Lévesque. Montréal: Éditions Québec-Amérique, 1978
• La démocratie ingouvernable.Montréal: Québec/Amérique, 1979
• La liberté en friche.Montréal: Éditions Québec/Amérique, 1979
• Changer de société.with Serge Proulx. Montréal: Québec/Amérique, 1982
• Les héritiers de Papineau: itinéraire politique d'un "nègre blanc" (1960–1985).Montréal, Québec: Québec/Amérique, 1986
• Noces obscures.Montréal: L'Hexagone, 1986
• Le devoir de résistance.Montréal: VLB, 1994
• Paroles d'un nègre blanc.with Jacques Jourdain and Mélanie Mailhot. Montréal: VLB éditeur, 2002

Film

• Freedom OutragedVallières plays himself in a documentary by theNational Film Board of Canadadirected byJean-Daniel Lafond.A 16-mm medium length, color, 1994.

Bibliography

• Antaya, Felipe,Pierre Vallières ou le danger d'occulter le passé,master's thesis, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, 2011, 108 p.
• Baillargeon, Constantin,Pierre Vallières vu par son "professeur de philosophie",Médiaspaul, Montréal, 2002, 128 p.ISBN978-2-8942-0503-7
• Binamé, Charles, and Thériault, Normand,Pierre Vallières,television broadcast, Radio-Québec, 1974, 60 minutes
• Gignac, Benoit,Québec 68: l'année révolution,Éditions La Presse, Montréal, 2008, 272 p.ISBN978-2-9231-9481-3
• Jourdain, Jacques,DeCité LibreàL'urgence de choisir:Pierre Vallières et les palinodies de la gauche québécoise,master's thesis, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, 1995, 115 p.
• Jourdain, Jacques, and Mailhot, Mélanie,Vallières: Paroles d'un nègre blanc,VLB éditeur, Montréal, 2002, 286 p.ISBN978-2-8900-5735-7
• Samson-Legault, Daniel,Dissident: Pierre Vallières (1938–1998),Éditions Québec Amérique, Montréal, 2018, 497 p.,ISBN978-2-7644-3641-7
• Tétreault, Paul,A suggested framework for the study of perceptions of violence and its application to the writings of Pierre Trudeau and Pierre Vallières,master's thesis, McGill University, Montréal, 1971, 106 p.

External links

• "Does the FLQ Exist?" by Pierre Vallières
• A brief essay onThe Execution of Pierre Laporte