Jean-Yves Duthel (born 31 May 1950) is an administrator and political spokesperson in the Canadian province of Quebec.
Early career Jean-Yves Duthel was born in Alsace (France). He was the last of four children for his mother, Magdalena Duthel (died 13 January 2012 at the age of 103). He came from a long standing military family within the German Empire up to 1918. On his father, Jean Albert Duthel's side (died 25 May 1999 at the age of 89) his fore-parents were farmers. In 1968 he became a Boursier ACADEMIE FRANCAISE-ZELLIDJA and travelled through Africa for 6 months. The following year the same foundation sponsored his journey to the USA. During his studies at the University of Strasbourg he was also active on different pirate radios, at this time the radio system in France was not open. He was very active in the 1968 student strike.
Duthel obtained a degree in political science and journalism and began his career as a journalist in Alsace. He left to settle in Quebec in 1972. He was a journalist at Radio-Canada and Canadian Press. He joined the Parti Québécois officers in 1976. He successively acted as a councillor to the President of the PQ, Prime Minister René Levesque, Press Secretary to State minister for economic development, Bernard Landry, Deputy Chief of the staff of the same as Minister for Foreign Relations."BIOCHEM PHARMA INC.; APPOINTMENTS," Montreal Gazette, 8 October 1992, p. 3. A supporter of Quebec sovereignty, he became active in the Parti Québécois and held press attaché positions for various members of René Lévesque's government. When the PQ chose to de-emphasize its focus on Quebec sovereignty in the mid-1980s, he joined and served on the advisory board of the more hardline Rassemblement démocratique pour l'indépendance."Hardliner quits PQ, others decide to stay until election," Montreal Gazette, 29 January 1985, p. 1; "Hardliners seek way to halt Johnson; Some in PQ think Garon can fill the bill," Montreal Gazette, 13 July 1985, p. 1.
Union des producteurs agricoles After the Quebec Liberal Party was returned to power in the 1985 provincial election, Duthel became the public relations director for the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA)."Apple growers offer to pay pickers more," Montreal Gazette, 10 September 1986, p. 4. In 1988, he organized an international conference against acid rain and fought to prevent Quebec's Steinberg supermarket chain from being sold to an Ontario consortium."Farmers say acid rain will kill maple industry," Montreal Gazette, 10 December 1987, p. 4; "Federal ministers shunning forum on acid rain," Montreal Gazette, 26 January 1988, p. 6; "Farmers fear period of instability if Oxdon acquires Steinberg," Montreal Gazette, 27 January 1988, p. 1. In the same period, he supported a shift away from food aid policies, which he described as colonialist, in favour of promoting domestic agriculture in under-developed countries.Harvey Shepherd, "Reduce food aid, organization urges," Montreal Gazette, 19 March 1988, p. 8.
Like other UPA leaders, Duthel opposed the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement; he also criticized Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney for suggesting that the UPA was biased in favour of the opposition New Democratic Party.Richard Cleroux, "PM faces fight with Quebec farmers over free-trade deal," Globe and Mail, 30 August 1988, p. 8. In the 1988 Canadian federal election, he organized a party leaders debate on agriculture and free trade that Mulroney declined to attend.Patricia Poirier, "Agriculture debate set," Globe and Mail, 25 October 1988, p. 10. Duthel later accused the federal government of undermining Quebec's farm marketing boards and called on the Quebec government to take on more oversight powers.Barry Wilson, "Farmers fear Tory embrace of free trade will kill them; Market boards that stabilize rural incomes are under fire," Montreal Gazette, 6 January 1990, p. 6.
In 1989, Duthel criticized the Quebec government's approach to land speculation and farmland rezoning."Quebec Farmers Union pulls out of rezoning talks," Globe and Mail, 3 June 1989, p. 8; "Liberals freeze farmland rezoning pending report," Montreal Gazette, 17 June 1989, p. 7; "Developers have field day with farmland," Montreal Gazette, 17 June 1989, p. 1. He was in charge for UPA of the international conference on Rural World, hold in Montréal in January 1989. The conclusions of this conference are still today the main bases of the UPA.
MUCTC and Biochem Duthel became a spokesperson for the Montreal Urban Community Transit Corp. (MUCTC) in 1991.Kate Dunn, "Transit cuts more severe than revealed: union; They claim there are 117 bus routes undergoing reductions in service," Montreal Gazette, 9 September 1991, p. 3. He promoted public transit over car use and, during labour difficulties in the winter of 1991-92, accused the corporation's maintenance workers union of inappropriate pressure tactics.Mike King, "Union, transit authority take shots at each other as buses await repairs," Montreal Gazette, 15 January 1992, p. 3; Elizabeth Thompson, "Transit maintenance union postpones strike," Montreal Gazette, 2 March 1992, p. 3; Katherine Wilton, "Industrial park gets 5 new bus routes; MUCTC aims at 15,000 new customers in St. Laurent," Montreal Gazette, 19 March 1992, p. 5.
In October 1992, he was hired as Vice-President, Public Affairs and Communications of Biochem Pharma Inc."BIOCHEM PHARMA INC.; APPOINTMENTS," Montreal Gazette, 8 October 1992, p. 3; Suzanne McGee, "BioChem hires detective to find source of negative report," Montreal Gazette, 14 January 1993, p. 1. In this capacity, he announced the company's Montreal research tests with the anti-AIDS compound 3TC.Ronald Lebel, "BioChem's AIDS drug to begin final trials," Montreal Gazette, 24 March 1993, p. 1; Michael McHugh, "AIDS sector iffy prospect for investors," Financial Post, 12 June 1993, p. 12; Kevin Dougherty, "Wellcome gets option for BioChem AIDS drug," Financial Post, 14 March 1994, p. 4. He subsequently accused rival company Connaught of seeking to undercut its competition by dumping an American flu vaccine in Canada at a discounted price. Connaught denied the allegation.Linda Drouin, "Ottawa studies allegations vaccines are to be dumped; Bio- Vac complaint targets Connaught," Montreal Gazette, 26 March 1994, p. 3; Ann Gibbon, "Connaught denies vaccine claim Rival's charge that tender price amounts to dumping called misleading," Montreal Gazette, 29 March 1994, p. 6.
During this period, Duthel also worked as director of communications for the Montreal Citizens' Movement, a municipal political party.Elizabeth Thompson, "City officials enjoy free lunch at mayor's speech," Montreal Gazette, 23 March 1994, p. 1.
Société générale de financement The Parti Québécois was returned to office in the 1994 general election. Shortly thereafter, Duthel became director of communications at the Ministry of International Relations under minister Bernard Landry, a longtime friend. In May 1995, he announced that Quebec diplomats would soon receive the same perks and privileges as representatives of sovereign countries.Philip Authier, "PQ begins planning perks for diplomats," Montreal Gazette, 12 May 1995, p. 8. He became a spokesperson for the Fonds de Solidarité des Travailleurs du Québec in 1996.
In 1998, Duthel became Vice President, Communications, Public and International Relations for Quebec's Société générale de financement (SGF).Ann Gibbon, "Solidarite involvement proudly interventionist; Quebec Labour fund's investment goes beyond mere money," Globe and Mail, 18 March 1996, p. 1; Francois Shalom, "Tax `a hit' on credit unions, union funds: Government expects to reap $53 million over four years," Montreal Gazette, 11 May 1996, p. 3; Robert Gibbens, "Intrawest pulls out of $500M resort project in Quebec: Door isn't closed: Club Resorts turns back to original partner for deal," National Post, 10 November 1998, C3. He indicated in December 1999 that the SGF was attempting to persuade Nasdaq to extend its electronic trading to Montreal; Nasdaq agreed to the plan the following year.Kathryn Leger, "Another Quebec agency joins call for Montreal Nasdaq: Meeting held: Exchange known to want international connections," National Post, 29 December 1999, C3; Edward Alden, "Quebec claws back some pride with Nasdaq deal: Montreal move embarrasses Toronto," Financial Times, 2 May 2000, p. 30. Duthel also promoted plans to construct a Technodome theme park in Montreal and to have Taiwanese chip maker Mosel Vitelic Inc. establish a plant in Quebec; neither plan was ultimately successful.Michael Mainville, "Project not dead: backers: Awaiting port decision," Montreal Gazette, 3 June 2000, p. 3; Bertrand Marotte, "Montreal Port authority shuts out theme park," Globe and Mail, 15 June 2000, p. 6; Linda Gyulai, "Project for pier may still have life," Montreal Gazette, 20 June 2000, p. 1; Jeff Jedras, "The Mosel saga: the bid to lure chip maker Mosel Vitelic to Canada was an exercise in futility," SVN Canada, March 2001, p. 1. In 2002, he wrote that the SGF had invested $7.5 billion and created 43,000 jobs in the past four years."The SGF: Four Years of Investment and Job Creation - $7.5 billion invested in four years, 43,000 jobs created" [press release], Canada NewsWire, 23 May 2002. See also "Report on development activities in 2002 - A positive year for Societe generale de financement du Quebec" [press release], Canada NewsWire, 27 December 2002. Duthel became, on a contractual basis Deputy Secretarial General of the Government of Québec under Bernard Landry Prime minister. He was in charge of all governmental communications. He went back to SGF in January 2003 after having fulfilled his mandate at the Quebec government.
Duthel left the SGF in 2003 after the Quebec Liberal Party was again returned to office. Some criticisms later surfaced about the expenses of Duthel and his superior officer, SGF leader Claude Blanchet. Duthel attacked Michel Morin, a journalist at the French sector of Radio-Canada at the Conseil de Presse du Québec about a topo on TV about the story of large expenses. In November 2003, the Conseil de Presse AND the Radio-Canada Ombudsam blamed severely the topo and the decision chain of the News direction at Radio-Canada. They officially excused themselves on the air on December 4 th 2003.Don MacDonald, "5 years of throwing away our money" [editorial], Montreal Gazette, 19 December 2003, p. 1.
Since 2003 Duthel ran for election to the Ville-Marie borough council in the 2005 Montreal municipal election as a candidate of Montreal mayor Gérald Tremblay's Montreal Island Citizens Union (MICU). He lost to Pierre Mainville of the opposition Vision Montreal party. MICU won four of the borough council's five seats, and borough mayor Benoît Labonté subsequently hired Duthel as Ville-Marie's director of public affairs. Duthel was an organizer for the 2006 Montreal Outgames and specifically in charge of the First LGBT Human rights international conference which gathered in Montréal, in June 2006, around 2000 participants under the endorsement of Louise Arbour at that time Commissioner for Human Rights at the UN. ."Gay games organizers land major sponsor: Financial backing removes hurdle," Montreal Gazette, 30 January 2004, p. 8; Canada NewsWire Daybook for Friday, September 3, 2004; Mike King, "Gay competitors prefer Outgames," Montreal Gazette, 12 October 2004, p. 7; Ann Carroll, "Flowers might help," Montreal Gazette, 21 January 2005, p. 5; James Mennie, "Others already looking at how we've done these games," Montreal Gazette, 22 July 2005, p. 6.