Chantal St-Cyr Hébert (born 1954) is a Canadian journalist and

political commentator A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

Life and career

Hébert was born on April 24, 1954, in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, the oldest of five children of Micheline (Forest) and journalist Jean-Raymond St-Cyr. In 1966, her family moved to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

; while in the city, the then-12-year-old was enrolled in École secondaire catholique Monseigneur-de-Charbonnel. She then attended Toronto's first public francophone high school, École secondaire Étienne-Brûlé.CBC News, Chantal Hébert
/span>, The National, Retrieved November 22, 2012 After high school, Hébert obtained a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in 1976 in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

from the

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

Glendon College of

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

.Book Lounge Canada, Author Spotlight – Chantal Hébert
Biography, Retrieved November 22, 2012 She is a Senior Fellow of

Massey College Massey College is the postgraduate University of Toronto#Colleges, college of the University of Toronto located at the University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The college was established, built and ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. Hébert began her media career in 1975 at the regional television and radio newsroom of the French-language

Radio-Canada Radio-Canada may refer to: * CBC/Radio-Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation *Ici Radio-Canada Télé, the CBC's main French-language television network *Ici Radio-Canada Première Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) i ...

facility in Toronto. She eventually became their reporter covering provincial politics at Queen's Park. After Radio-Canada appointed Hébert to cover federal politics on

Parliament Hill Parliament Hill (), colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern bank of the Ottawa River that houses the Parliament of Canada in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. It accommodates a suite of Gothic revival buildings whose ...

, she worked as bureau chief for

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

's ''

Le Devoir (, ) is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and throughout Canada. It was founded by journalist and politician Henri Bourassa in 1910. is one of few independent large-circulation newspapers in Quebec ...

'' and '' La Presse''. She has written columns appearing in ''

The London Free Press ''The London Free Press'' is a daily newspaper based in London, Ontario, Canada. It has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Southwestern Ontario. History ''The London Free Press'' began as the ''Canadian Free Press'', founded by Willi ...

'', the ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as the Bytown ''Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the ''Ci ...

'', the ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

'', and ''Metro'', and currently in ''Le Devoir'' and the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

''. Hébert has two sons. The boys' father lives in Toronto, while Hébert lives in Montreal.

The "Lobster Pot" story

In the summer of 1995, Hébert broke the story in ''La Presse'' that the

1995 Quebec referendum The 1995 Quebec referendum was the second referendum to ask voters in the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec whether Quebec should proclaim sovereignty and become an independent country, with the condition precedent of ...

question's guarantee of an offer of partnership with the rest of Canada before declaring sovereignty following a "Yes" vote was a sham. Hébert wrote that in a June 13 meeting with fifteen foreign diplomats,

Quebec Premier The premier of Quebec ( (masculine) or eminine is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of the Coalition Avenir Québec, sworn in on October 18, 2018, following that ...

Jacques Parizeau had stated that what mattered most was to get a majority vote from Quebec citizens for the proposal to secede from Canada because with that, Quebecers would be trapped "like lobsters thrown in boiling water" (in French: "''comme des homards dans l'eau bouillante''"). At the time, Parizeau was in France and in his place Quebec's deputy premier,

Bernard Landry Bernard Landry (; March 9, 1937 – November 6, 2018) was a Canadian politician who served as the 28th premier of Quebec from 2001 to 2003. A member of the Parti Québécois (PQ), he led the party from 2001 to 2005, also serving as the leader ...

, who was not present at the meeting, declared categorically that the report was false. However, Hébert clarified her sources, stating that the information had been given to Foreign Affairs Canada in an official briefing by Jan Fietelaars, the Ambassador from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

who had been a participant at the meeting; in addition, she had backed up the claim by having it confirmed by three others: Ambassador Christian Fellens of

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, who was also present, and two other diplomatic attendees who spoke off the record. The remark hampered support for the "Yes" side as a result.

Pundit and author

Currently, Hébert is a national affairs writer with the ''

'' as well as a guest columnist for ''

'' and '' L'actualite''. She appears frequently on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

's '' The National'' as a member of the ''At Issue'' political panel hosted by Rosemary Barton alongside fellow panelists

Andrew Coyne James Andrew Coyne (born December 23, 1960) is a Canadian columnist with ''The Globe and Mail'' and a member of the ''At Issue'' panel on CBC's '' The National''. Previously, he has been national editor for ''Maclean's'' and a columnist with ''Nat ...

and Althia Raj. Hébert is also a regular participant in various other French and English-language television and radio current affairs programs. Hébert received the 2005 Public Service Citation of the Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service of Canada (APEX). In February 2006, the Public Policy Forum voted her the Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism. She delivered the Michener Lecture at Queen's University in 2008. In June 2006, Hébert took two months' leave of absence from the ''Toronto Star'' to write her first book, '' French Kiss: Stephen Harper's Blind Date with Quebec'' ( Knopf Canada, February 2007, ). ''French Kiss'' received shortlist honours for the 2008 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. In September 2014, her second book was released, ''The Morning After: The 1995 Quebec Referendum and the Day that Almost Was'' (in French, ''Confessions post-référendaires: Les acteurs politiques de 1995 et le scénario d'un oui''). The book, cowritten with Jean Lapierre, was a shortlisted nominee for the 2015 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

Honours and awards

She was invested as an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

on 23 November 2012. ;Honorary degrees

References

External links

*Speakers Spotlight, Chantal Hébert – Political Raconteur & Columnist
/span>, biography, Retrieved November 22, 2012 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hebert, Chantal 1954 births 20th-century Canadian journalists 21st-century Canadian journalists 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian columnists Canadian political commentators Canadian political journalists Canadian women non-fiction writers Franco-Ontarian people Glendon College alumni Living people Officers of the Order of Canada Toronto Star people University of Toronto people Canadian women columnists Writers from Ottawa Journalists from Ottawa Journalists from Toronto 20th-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian women journalists 21st-century Canadian women journalists