He began a career as a journalist for the Clairon in Saint-Hyacinthe. He was later chief editor of La Patrie and also had a chronicle for the magazine Sept jour.
He joined the ranks of the Liberal Party of Quebec and was elected in the Goin riding on June 16, 1966. Then in the opposition, he became friends with Réne Lévesque and Robert Bourassa, who will both be premiers of Quebec later.
Defeated during the elections of 1970 and 1973, he will go back to journalism at Le Jour. The newspaper will close in 1976.
In 1979, he will be in Charge of the Délégation générale du Québec in Paris.
Sometime called Robin des banques (Robin of the banks), Yves Michaud is known by the population of Quebec for his cruisade against the practices of big financial holdings. In 1993, he founds the Association des petits épargnants et investisseurs du Québec (Association of small capital owners and investors) and wins a number of victories in court.
What has been called the "Michaud Affair" starts on December 5, 2000, in an interview on the Montreal radio station, CKAC radio. Paul Arcand asks: "Don't you feel that there is a désintérêt of a good part of the population on the question of sovereignty and the national question, people who have had enough, for whom it is all over, (who say) let's move on to something else?".
To which Yves Michaud replied: "Well, I will tell you an anecdote. I was... I went to my hair dresser about a month ago. There was a liberal senator who I will not name who doesn' speak... even though he represents a French-speaking riding and who asked me: are you still a separatist, Yves? I said yes, yes I am separatist just as you are Jewish. It took 2000 years for your people to have its fatherland in Israel. I said: me, wether it takes 10, 50, or a 100 more years it can wait. So he told me: it's not the same.
It's never the same for them. So I said: it is not the same? The Armenians did not suffer, the Palestinians did not suffer, the Rwandese did not suffer. It's always (just) you. You are the only people who suffered in the history of humanity.
After that, I was fed up. And here we are, I am completely made indigant... that some suggested to debaptise the Lionel Groulx metro station, who was the spiritual father of two generations of Quebecers and is almost a Quebec idol.
It's the B'nai Brith that did that, which was the extremist phalange... There has been world Zionism... "
On December 13, Michaud presented a memorandum to Quebec's "Estates-General on the situation of the French language". He abandonned some parts of his text to say this, in front of members of the B'nai B'rith who were waiting their turn to speak:
"Groulx invited us "to have like the Jews their rough will to survive, their invincible spirit of solidarity, their imperishable moral armor". And the historian was giving the example of the Jewish people as model to be followed so that Quebecers affirm their own national identity and fully assume the heritage of their history. This Groulx, who is one of the intellectual guides of two generations of Quebecers and the one that some wanted to see removed from the Lionel-Groulx station a few years ago, to probably replace it by the Mordecai Richler station, the Rene-Lévesque boulevard by the boulevard, probably, Ariel Sharon, the Jacques-Cartier place by the Galganov place, and so on. It is a little satyric, it is a little bit as a joke that I say that, but I think that some others are exaggerating and pushing the "stopper" a little too far. Immigrants, we want some. Yes, as much as possible and pushing until the limit our capacities of reception. Immigrants who will be not only be have rights but also responsibilities with regard to one of the most generous society of the world which accomodates them, arms and wallets opened, immigrants who will have responsibilities towards, i.e. to understand and speak our language, open up to our culture, our way of working, of undertaking, of interpreting the world in the French language and of accompany us on the way which leads us to the control of all the tools for our development (...)
There is an ethnic vote against the sovereignty of the people of Quebec. If we do not integrate our immigrants and assimilate them, eh well, we will enter on the slope of the louisianisation, and folklorisation of our society."
The director of B'nai Brith's Quebec chapter, Robert Libman, who was in the audience then sent a memo to then Premier Lucien Bouchard requesting that he stop Michaud from being the PQ's candidate in the Mercier riding. The next day, the leader of the opposition Liberal Party, Jean Charest, presented to the Quebec National Assembly a motion condemning the sentiments and ideas expressed by Yves Michaud at the Estates-General. The motion was adopted unanimously, without debate and without presentation of an auditive or textual record of the remarks in question.
As a result, former Quebec Premier, Jacques Parizeau, and many others signed an open letter condemning the hasty resolution and supporting Michaud's right to freedom of expression. The letter was published in several newspapers. Later, the full quotes of what Michaud had said were published.
The event, which is said to have been a reason for Lucien Bouchard's resignation on January 11, 2001, was not listed in B'nai Brith's annual compilation of anti-semitic events.
During an interview for Voir magazine for the week of March 1st 2001, Robert Libman stated that he did not think Yves Michaud was an anti-semite and that his remarks had been distorted.
Michaud has been battling in court to defend his honor since that time.
External Links:
Robin of the Banks
Accusation of Antisemtism