• In this section you will find various public interventions in 2003-4:

 

• 
  May 2003: The senator published an in-depth study of the Senate of Canada at McGill-Queen’s University Press and with the support of the Canadian Center for Management Development.
  Three years ago, Senator Joyal took the initiative of forming a non-partisan group of 7 noted Canadian scholars in order to reflect on the sober second thought institution. This book contains texts from Prof. David Smith (University of Saskatchewan), Prof. Paul Thomas (University of Manitoba), Prof. Ronald Watts and C.E.S. Franks (Queens University), Prof. Janet Ajzenstat (MacMaster University), Dr Jack Stilborn (Library of Parliament), Prof. Gil Rémillard (Ecole Nationale d'Administration Publique)- and 2 seasoned senators, Michael Pitfield and Lowell Murray
  
  A book that sheds overdue light on one of the best kept secrets on Parliament Hill.  There is much life to the underused Senate and Canadians are ignoring its potential to their own detriment.  An essential contribution to the nascent debate on Canada’s democratic deficit."
  Chantal Hébert
  National Affairs writer/Toronto Star
  
  (Read the Introduction)

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• 2002-2004: A new "visage" shape for the Francophonie room of the Senate
  
  The portraits of five French kings who governed over Canada during the French colonial regime (1534 - 1760) hang in the Salon de la Francophonie in the Senate wing of Parliament, thanks to the donations by Senator Serge Joyal to the Canadiana Fund of Official Residences of the Government of Canada.
  
  Moreover, due to the initiative of Senator Joyal, a bilingual pamphlet is now available to parliament's visitors and on the website of the Senate.
  This pamphlet presents all of the 14 kings portraits that are hung in the Senate Foyer, and reminds us how Canada evolved under each of them since 1534, to become today a Parliamentary democracy.
  
  Canada is a constitutional monarchy.  Since 1534, when the King of France claimed possession of what is now Canada, the history of our country has been marked by the reigns of an uninterrupted succession of monarchs, both French and British, who have had a sustained influence on our country’s development. Under the Crown, Canada developed first as a colony of two empires, first the French and then the British, then as an independent Dominion, and now as an entirely sovereign nation.  The Crown occupies a central place in our Parliament and our democracy, which is founded on the rule of law and respect for rights and freedoms.
  
  
  
  
  (click on the link above to
  access the electronic version)

 

• June 23, 2004: Senator Joyal is made a member of the Order of Quebec, at the Officer level.
  

Excerpts of Prime Minister J. Charest's speech on the occasion of the Order of Quebec ceremony:
" Serge Joyal a joué un rôle important dans le renouvellement du système d'éducation québécois pendant qu'il était à la tête du mouvement étudiant. Par la suite, il a été député du Parti libéral du Canada, secrétaire parlementaire, ministre et secrétaire d'État. Monsieur Joyal est sénateur depuis 1997. Généreux mécène, son engagement envers la protection et la mise en valeur du patrimoine artistique, historique et culturel du Québec est exemplaire. Il s'est aussi investi dans plusieurs causes liées à la sauvegarde de la langue et de la culture d'expression française."

 

 

• 2004: Celebrating the first French settlement in North America, founded 400 years ago!
  
  - The week before (June 21^st, 2004),  the Senator has presented to the Société nationale de l'Acadie  a similar bronze bust of Samuel Champlain by Alfred Laliberté, to be permanently installed at Port-Royal, (Nova Scotia), the original place of settlement of the first French immigrants to Canada, and now under the management of Parks Canada.
  
  - At the end of June, Senator Joyal went to Brouages in France, to participate in the inauguration of "La Maison Champlain" (a University Center of Study on the origins of the early French Canadian settlers in the XVIII^th century, and to present a Bronze Bust of Samuel Champlain, the first immigrant and governor of New-France  / Canada.
  
   

( on the picture with the Senator: Mr. Richard St-Cyr, President of S.N.A.), Mr. Jean Léger Director of F.A.N.E.)

For more media information
Please Click Here

 

- On October 29, 2004,  Senator Joyal was in Paris, France, to inaugurate a similar bronze bust of Samuel Champlain located in "Place du Canada", along with Premier Bernard Lord and Minister Claudette Bradshaw. The monument was sponsored by Power Corporation of Canada.

Read the speech made by Senator Joyal on this occasion  (French version only!)

- November 17, 2004,  Senator Joyal donates a similar life size bronze bust of Samuel Champlain to be permanently displayed in the Salon de la Francophonie of the Senate wing of Parliament (263-S, Centre Block).

 

• March 25, 2004:  Senator Joyal signs the foreword of the most recent book of Ottawa University Professor of History Michael D. Behiels: "Canada Francophone minority communities".
  
  The book, published by McGill-Queen's University Press provides an in-depth account of the struggle to obtain education rights, and how the French-speaking minorities won the right to full and unfettered school governance with the backing of the Charter, the Supreme Court, and the Canadian government.