Bibliographies

Pelletier, Jacques-Yvon (1915-2000)

*Jacques-Yvon Pelletier, the chief translator in the House of Commons under five prime ministers, died of complications from pneumonia last week in a retirement home in Vanier, Ont. He was 85. Although he was born into a French-speaking family, his future began to take shape on the streets of Hull, which is, as much as Ottawa, a city of public servants. He picked up his first English words from other children and improved his command of the language while attending a bilingual high school in Ottawa. He was, by this time, living with a great-aunt who had taken charge of his upbringing after his parents died when he was a boy. ** He earned a BA in translation at the University of Ottawa and joined the federal office of translations in 1942. He had also been trained as a librarian at university and helped update the parliamentary library. "There wasn't much there prior to 1942," his son Bernard said. His father, he said, was discreet about his political views but did tell his eight children that he admired Pierre Trudeau. He was a federalist but had strong ties to Quebec, dating his family's history in Canada back almost as far as Champlain, who founded what is now Quebec early in the l7th century. He was "saddened" by the FLQ crisis in the early 1970s, his son Pierre said, and he told his children not to get involved because it could embarrass him. The job was stressful. During the 1965 debate on the Canadian flag, for instance, the Commons sometimes sat until 2 a.m. Translators would then have to provide transcripts of the proceedings and have them in the hands of MPs by 8 a.m. that day. ** On occasion, Mr. Pelletier found reasons not to provide word-by-word translations, his son Pierre said. Sometimes, the members were "not eloquent," and he would improve on the spoken word. The members usually noticed the improvement and would thank Mr. Pelletier. Former NDP leader T. C. Douglas presented a different sort of problem. He reigned as possibly the most eloquent voice in the Commons but he spoke in English. Mr. Pelletier would work for hours on his speeches, trying to do justice to them in translation. He retired as chief of translations of the debates in the Commons and the Senate on Feb. 1, 1973. In retirement, he indulged his passion for Canadian history, particularly the history of the Ottawa-Hull area. He researched and contributed to several books and was the co-founder of the Historical Society of Western Quebec.(Donn Downey, "Commons translator worked under five PMs", in "The Globe and Mail", January 21, 2000, p. R6)