Flashback Friday: Charles de Gaulle declares 'Vive le Quebec libre!'

Former French president Charles de Gaulle is shown saluting a crowd in Montreal on July 24, 1967. (Chuck Mitchell / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

French President Charles de Gaulle famously kicked the hornet’s nest of Quebec sovereignty on this day in 1967, shouting “Vive le Quebec libre!” to a raucous crowd of pro-France supporters during a visit to Montreal.

De Gaulle delivered the inflammatory line, which translates to “Long live a free Quebec,” on the second day of a visit to Canada on July 24, 1967. The declaration helped rile up sovereigntist tensions in the predominantly French-speaking province, while sparking an international incident between de Gaulle and Lester B. Pearson, Canada’s prime minister at the time.

Footage from the CTV News archives captures that pivotal moment, as de Gaulle wrapped up a seven-minute speech from the balcony of Montreal City Hall, overlooking a crowd of about 20,000 energetic supporters.

In his unscheduled speech, de Gaulle compared the joyous Expo 67 atmosphere in Montreal to what he saw in France after its liberation from Nazi rule. He then called Montreal a “French city,” before finishing his speech with a series of emphatic, deliberate statements, pausing in between each.

“Vive le Quebec,” de Gaulle said. “Vive le Quebec libre! Vive, vive, vive le Canada francais, et vive la France.”

Meanwhile, Canadian officials escorting de Gaulle were thunderstruck.

The next day, an infuriated Lester B. Pearson hit back at de Gaulle, saying Canadians and Quebecers have no need to be set “free.”

De Gaulle left Canada shortly thereafter, without paying a visit to Ottawa.

One year later, the Quebec sovereigntist movement coalesced with the founding of the Parti Quebecois.

De Gaulle’s speech was characterized as spontaneous at the time. However, in the decades since that day, a few individuals close to de Gaulle have said he planned to stir up Quebec's sovereigntist sentiment.

Former Quebec politician Claude Morin, who helped orchestrate de Gaulle’s tour, said years afterward that French officials had told him to expect something “of substance” from the president during his Expo 67 visit.

“I asked, ‘What will de Gaulle say?’” he recalled in a Canadian Press interview in 2007. “They told me, ‘We don’t know what he’ll say, but one thing is certain: he won’t be speaking in generalities.’”

Morin said de Gaulle’s words were profoundly inspiring for Quebec’s sovereigntist movement. “It was very important as a moment where people in Quebec realized they were forming a nation,” Morin said. “This was told to them by one of the most important heads of state in the world. This had an impact that was very considerable at the time.”

Morin later became a Parti Quebecois MNA.

Morin’s recollection is in keeping with the words of Alain Peyrefitte, a former French cabinet minister who discussed de Gaulle’s visit in a 2000 book. Peyrefitte recalled one conversation with de Gaulle in which the French president told him, “One day or another, Quebec will be independent.”

In his book, Peyrefitte said de Gaulle’s outburst in Montreal was “the result of a long reflection transformed into unshakable resolution.”

De Gaulle's declaration remains a famous moment in Quebec and Canadian history, 48 years after he uttered the words.

France has historically shied away from supporting the idea of an independent Quebec.The country assumed a policy of neutrality and non-interference on the issue during the 1970s, and has stayed largely true to that stance ever since.

Former President Nicolas Sarkozy was the only French leader to break that stance, and he did so to push for Quebec to develop closer ties with the rest of Canada.

His successor, Francois Hollande, moved France back to a neutral policy when he took over in 2012.

Parti Quebecois leaders have actively campaigned for years to get more support from France.