U.S. Président D. Trump is far more Corrupt and Dangerous than Some Corporate Media Portray Him

By Rodrigue Tremblay

"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will."

Donald Trump (1946- ), American President (2017-2021 and 2025- ), (in an infamous statement on the morning of Tuesday, April 7, 2026)

"The first time (first term), I had two things to do - run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys. And the second time (second term), I run the country and the world." 

Donald Trump (1946- ),American President (2017-2021 and 2025- ), (in the interview in the Atlantic, "I run the country and the world", published on April 28, 2025)

"If he thinks he's going down, he's going to try to take the rest of us down with him."

Mary Trump  (1965- ), American psychologist and Donald Trump's niece, author of the book 'Too Much - Never Enough: How my family created the world's most dangerous man'. (in a YouTube interview, on November 6, 2020)

Since taking the oath of office of U.S. president for the second time, on January 20, 2025, real estate magnate Donald Trump (1946- ) has demonstrated to anybody who is moderately informed, that he is not your ordinary politician. It is well documented that he is, by far, the most corrupt and the most incompetent American president that the United States has ever had.

This is beyond the fact that he has serious character flaws and vices, such as his dictatorial, confrontational, bullying and manipulative temperament, which should normally have disqualified him to occupy a high public function.

Moreover, for Donald Trump, lying has become a sick obsession. He is a politician who lies, not just occasionally, but constantly, in his daily rants. This allows him to live in a childish fantasy world. In his mind, rejections are acceptances, failures are successes, and disasters are achievements. That makes him untrustworthy, to say the least.

For a head of government, or any leader for that matter, who loses touch with reality, this is a major flaw that can only have tragic consequences. In his case, what makes it very dangerous is when he distorts reality and invents serious accusations and claims, which are nothing but pure allegations or fabrications, and that are, for the most part, devoid of any logic, justification, or proof.

Because intellectual corruption often precedes financial corruption, this may explain why D. Trump does not have much respect for the U.S. Constitution, and why he is allegedly perceived as violating often his oath of office, which he took in 2017 and in 2021: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" (Article II, Section One, Clause 8).

Therefore, by now, a majority of Americans know that real estate magnate and authoritarian politician D. Trump is lacking in intellectuel honesty and in financial integrity. He is a bare-knuckled extortionist, who is ruthless in pursuing his private and family interests by relying openly on the old trick of "pay to play".

Moreover, D. Trump has used various deflection tactics to refuse to abide by a law passed nearly unanimously by Congress, in December 2025, (the Epstein Files Transparency Act), to make public all the so-called un-redacted Epstein files and the scandals they contain, (despite his 2024 election campaign promises to do so!)

Trump's cover-up means to keep secret his long involvement with the scandalous J. Epstein international pedophile sex ring, which made more than 1000 teen-aged girls, from many countries, victims of such a racket. This could possibly include other alleged examples of sexual misconduct, on his part.

I- A new book reveals the portrait of Donald Trump and his authoritarian and dysfunctional administration 2.0

On June 23, 2026, two experienced New York Times reporters, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, published a blockbuster book about Trump's many horrors and insanities in his second term imperial presidency. Entitled 'Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump', it is a book that every American voter should read before the coming November 3 midterm election.

Indeed, the 496-page book 'Regime Change', published by Simon & Schuster, depicts in detail Donald Trump's second term in power. This is a book that will be read by future historians, as describing a period "unprecedented-in-our-lifetime", in the use of authoritarian and corrupt power, "and how he and a small group of people prepared for it, and the events that drove it".

II- Donald Trump's staggering corruption is without limits

The list of D. Trump's egregious acts of corruption is limitless.

One of Trump's first corrupt decisions during and immediately after the 2024 election, was to accept hundreds of millions of dollars from super billionaires like Elon Musk, the Las Vegas Adelson family, and from many other super-wealthy donors.

Then D. Trump filled his administration and public agencies with oligarchs and people who had made large contributions to his Super Political Action Committees (PACS). For example, Trump appointed Howard Lutnick Secretary of Commerce, after the later gave $9 million to a pro-Trump super PAC.

* The dismantling and weaponizing of the independent U.S. Justice department 

One of the most visible of Donald Trump's acts of unprecedented political corruption is his destruction and weaponizing of the American Department of Justice, in naming his own personal lawyer in charge, and in turning that institution into his own instrument of political vindication and revenge.

In so doing, D. Trump put an end to the long tradition of keeping the Justice Department independent of the White House in cases of criminal investigations. He has led devastating attacks against the "rule of law" and against the long established principle that 'nobody is above the law", by indiscriminately firing most of the professional lawyers in the Justice Department, and other watchdogs, who were in charge of prosecuting cases of political corruption and waste. He also disbanded an FBI squad tasked with investigating congressional corruption and misconduct.

* The attempts to create a huge 'slush fund' to help convicted supporters

Another most blatant corruption, among Trump's hundreds of personal acts of political corruption, was his attempts to use taxpayers' money to create a Justice Department's 'slush fund' in the huge amount of $1.776 billion, to be used to help his supporters condemned by the courts, including 2021 Jan. 6 rioters. This was too much even for the most corrupt Republican members of Congress, who revolted.

* The openly selling of Presidential pardons

Moreover, Donald Trump has gone full speed ahead to abuse a previously and sparsely used presidential constitutional prerogative to grant clemency to people convicted for cause.

In fact, he has allegedly engaged in selling multiple pardons to convicted criminals, including murderers, political donors and political allies, turning this process, according to observers, into an 'industrial-scale' corruption business of its own.

Trump has even named one person in the White House who is responsible to pressure rich individuals and companies to collect funds to finance his vanity projects, thus by-passing Congress.

III- D. Trump has violated the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution by accepting huge gifts from foreign organizations and donors

It is doubtful that Donald Trump has ever read or cared about the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Indeed, there are specific constitutional provisions against accepting "bribes" (profits, advantages, payments for service or financial gains) while holding a public office in the United States federal government. The purpose is to prevent corruption, limit foreign influence on federal officers, and preserve a sitting president's independence:

Foreign Emoluments Clause (art. I, Sec. 9, Par. 8): "No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

Further, there are reports that indicate that President Donald Trump is much more involved in unconstitutional conflicts of interest and much more corrupt than the corporate medias usually depict him. Donald Trump's list of conflicts of interest and of corruption profits is incredibly long.

One example, and not the least, is D. Trump's blatant use of the complex cryptocurrencies financial industry, which he has nearly completely deregulated, to enrich himself, his family and some close friendly 'deal-makers', with billions of dollars of profits yearly, at the expense of credulous speculators. Buyers of his cryptocurrencies were even invited to the White House.

Indeed, on June 30, 2026, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics released a 927-page report that provides the most detailed look yet at Trump's finances during his first year back in the White House. His crypto-related income dwarfed earnings reported by his traditional businesses and marked a sharp increase from past disclosures.

The report details how President Donald Trump cashed-in $1.4 billion in income, mostly tied to his family's cryptocurrency ventures, in 2025.

Donald Trump's 'activities' in the cryptocurrency sector are the main reason for the near tripling of his personal wealth, which increased from $2,3 billion to $5,6 billion between 2024 and 2026, according to Forbes magazine.  

According to the Financial Times, Donald Trump declared that he made more than 22,000 stock transactions in 2025, as reported by the Financial Times analysis. His immediate predecessor, Joe Biden, made only 13 transactions, over a period of four years.

According to the Wall Street Journal, D. Trump is even about to sell a fast access to his public posts on his platform Truth Social, for $100,000 a month, to Wall Street speculators who are anxious to get privileged information about his upcoming decisions! And this comes after D. Trump has enriched himself through insider trading.

World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture Trump helped launch in 2024, is also planning to launch a so-called digital dollar (USD1) that will be, in reality, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. large public debt.

This will create the illusion that such a cryptocurrency is 'tied' to the U.S. dollar, while creating an artificial demand for Treasury bonds. One goal is to prevent the yields on Treasury bonds from rising, when foreign central banks sell them.

Conclusion

Numerous reports, investigations and court decisions have clearly established that mogul and politician Donald Trump is not very honest intellectually and is, in fact, an untrustworthy, self-serving, corrupt, extortionist and a malicious individual, who has no empathy and no morality whatsoever, both in his personal life and in his functions as President of the U.S. Government, since January 20, 2025.

He projects the image of someone who believes, in his own mind, that it is impossible for him to lose any election, even when more than 60% of Americans disapprove currently of his job performance, with below 35% of Americans approving. That is why he continues to repeat in public that he did not lose the 2020 election, even though court decisions, in over sixty court cases and state audits, have again and again shown that his claims were false.

Therefore, Americans have every reason to be worried and to be on their guard. Indeed, President Donald Trump could attempt to use federal powers to cheat and steal the coming November U.S. midterms election.

American voters and rich donors, domestic and foreign, who support such a dangerous politician are either misinformed or are willfully complicit in his frequent violations of the U.S. Constitution and other misdeeds and crimes.

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International economist Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay is the author of the book about morals "The code for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles" of the book about geopolitics "The New American Empire", and of his recent book, in French, "La régression tranquille du Québec, 1980-2018". 

He holds a Ph.D. in international finance from Stanford University.

Please visit Dr. Tremblay's site or email to a friend here.

Posted Monday, August 3, 2026.

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© 2026 Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Heralds a Post-human Era of Economic, Social and even Moral Upheavals

By Rodrigue Tremblay

"Artificial Intelligence (AI) will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have."

Eric Schmidt (1955- ), former Google CEO, in a keynote address to University of Arizona graduates, that was booed by students, Friday, May 15, 2026.

"Artificial Intelligence (AI) is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire."

Sundar Pichai (1972- ), Chief executive officer (CEO) of Alphabet Inc. and of its subsidiary Google. (Statement made in 2018, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland).

"The development of full Artificial Intelligence (AI) could spell the end of the human race... it would take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete and would be superseded."

Stephen Hawking (1942- 2018),British physicist, in an interview with the BBC, December 2, 2014.

"Any technology that facilitates attacks without seeing the face of human beings lowers the moral threshold of conflict." 

Pope Leo XIV (1955- ), in his first encyclical 'Magnifica Humanitas' (or Magnificent Humanity), May 25, 2026.

The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and of work-automation is progressing rapidly with many potential applications and benefits in many areas. It is going to define the economic future.

However, there are important risks, threats and disruptions that could result from a blind and too-rapid adoption of all the features of the new technology. Its 'creative destruction' could become increasingly powerful and detrimental, especially for workers, but also for writers and artists, for businesses and, finally, for the entire economy and society.

In the emerging post-human world, humanity could face unprecedented challenges in an economic context where humans are no longer the primary focus. (There is already a growing market for NEO humanoid robots to be used in a variety of ways!)

The world could see some economic sectors where humans are relegated to a secondary role and even completely sidelined. For this reason, AI brings about technological transformations, but a number of these will drastically alter living standards and influence how humans perceive work, income, and life in society.

For the present, the fast-growing robotic technology is making work more productive and more complex in many industries, which could increase economic growth. Furthermore, a surge in investment in data centers and electric power plants is also likely to stimulate economic growth.

For workers, however, AI is replacing more routine white-collar low-skill and freelance work in numerous sectors, although there are other areas where special skill work would be more AI-proof.

Therefore, the question must be raised: In this post-work world, when many jobs are disappearing because of increasing uses of AI, where will future effective demand and incomes come from to maintain living standards? Indeed, if work and earnings for many categories of workers disappear, this does not bode well for the future macro economy.

That is why governments will have to think about how to deal with the coming phenomenon of AI-driven unemployment and possibly of sub-employment, especially for young workers who may face a future of dead-end jobs. Governments will also have to establish the levels of taxation and regulation required to avoid the worst excesses.

I- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the economy

On the one hand, we are already experiencing the effects of the futuristic generative Artificial Intelligence AI technology and software engineering on the economy, in terms of a rise in business profitability for some firms and individuals and organizations.

In this brave new world of the future, important disruptions in labor markets and in the overall macro economies can be expected.

This is likely to generate important transfers of wealth between groups of people, as some segments of society get richer while others get poorer. Investors and workers in the new tech sectors will greatly benefit. However, experienced workers hit by tech-driven layoffs are going to suffer a setback in their earnings growth, while young workers entering the labor force may have fewer opportunities. indeed, studies show that young adult graduates have begun finding it more difficult to find entry-level employment.

Since 1750, there have been four industrial revolutions and technological and scientific innovations that transformed economies from predominantly agricultural and artisanal ones into increasingly urbanized and more complex advanced commercial and industrial economies.

II- Past Industrial Revolutions

· 1. (1750-1840) - Mechanization, (the invention of the power loom and textile and clothing factories, of the steam engine for maritime and railway transportation with the use of coal as an energy source, etc.);

· 2. (1870-1914) - Factory mass production (the era of industrialization with the production of steel, chemicals and electricity, automobiles and internal combustion engines based on petroleum-derived fuels, etc.);

· 3. (1970-2000) - Automation and communication (the widespread establishment of radio and television and the advent of the computer and the development of the Internet, computerized telecommunications through satellites and nuclear energy, in the context of lower maritime and air transport costs, economic and financial globalization and the liberalization of international trade, etc.);

· 4. (2010 to today) - Robotization, (the emergence of cyber-physical production systems that rely on data power plants and artificial intelligence models. Robotization involves intelligent machines capable of replicating the flexibility of human work and able to perform increasingly sophisticated repetitive or routine tasks, etc.)

III- The first industrial revolution was difficult for workers, but the second and third ones created enough new industries to incorporate an increased workforce.

The first three major technological breakthroughs significantly increased labor productivity and living standards. Moreover, they also led to the emergence of new industries and new job categories in many economic sectors.

Nevertheless, during the First Industrial Revolution in England, particularly between 1790 and 1840, there was a period of disruptive unemployment for workers. This was known as the Engels Pause, named after the German philosopher and Marxist theorist Friedrich Engels (1820-1895).

However, business owners reaped increased profits from the efficiency gains of new energy sources. This was particularly true of the steam engine, which revolutionized maritime and land transport during the First Industrial Revolution. This led to a boom in industrial production and the transport of raw materials, goods, and people between and within countries.

But for the average worker, real wages remained stable, or even declined, and average life expectancy in some industrial cities plummeted to just 35 years.

The other innovation that fostered increased employment opportunities during the second industrial revolution was the automobile and trucking industry, at the beginning of the 20th century. Several new industries, in addition to assembly plants, emerged with the construction of road networks and garages, and with the rise of the tourism industry, including motels, restaurants, and new resorts. 

IV- The Fourth Industrial Revolution could create permanent unemployment and underemployment

The primary goal of generative AI is to replace lower-skilled jobs and especially white-collar jobs and repetitive service employment, where feasible, with intelligent robotic machines or computer-run algorithms, in order to lower labor costs and to increase the profitability of companies. 

Unlike other technological innovations, however, it is uncertain that AI—due to its very nature and the shock of the increasing automation of many jobs—can generate many new industries and many new jobs in the rest of the economy, sufficiently to support economic growth.

Therefore, depending on where an economy is during the business cycle, we could observe a persistent rise in unemployment or underemployment for entire categories of workers left behind, young or old, men or women. These individuals would then find themselves deprived of their livelihoods and personal dignity, and this would negatively impact their living standards and prospects.

Furthermore, significant wage and income reductions among lower- and middle-income members are likely to slow overall consumer demand and spending, and this would hurt overall economic prosperity. Indeed, in the largest advanced economies, namely the G7 countries, income and wealth inequality is greater today than it was some forty years ago, in the mid-1980s. It remains to be seen whether the displacement of human labor by automation and artificial intelligence will exacerbate these inequalities.

One might think that governments could compensate for such inequalities through new social welfare programs.

However, two situations make this option unlikely. First, most governments are currently heavily indebted and will face fiscal crises in the coming years. Second, in some democracies, ultra-wealthy citizens and billionaires have been granted the right to spend unlimited sums of money to install people in power who defend their private interests.

This could mark a return to the era of the 'Robber Barons', in the 19th century, when governments were under the control of super rich oligarchs.

The applications of generative AI and the weakening of some job markets are occurring at a difficult time, namely when the economic policies of the current U.S. administration threaten international trade and while some heavily indebted economies are on the verge of an economic recession.

V- Could Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) pose a risk to humanity?

In the not-too-distant future, advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), such as the algorithms of Anthropic—which would be capable of equaling or even surpassing human intelligence and overriding human judgment and common sense—could pose a serious threat to humanity. This could certainly be the case, especially if these technologies were to fall into the wrong hands, both within and outside governments.

Indeed, unlike past technological advancements, from the printing press and steam engines to electricity and computers, humans have always maintained control over such innovations. This would not necessarily be the case with GAI, because decision-making with GAI could one day be autonomous, and no longer be in human hands.

Artists are already complaining that unscrupulous generative AI operators are perfectly imitating their physical appearance and style, and copying their works, without giving them credit or payment. Indeed, AI makes forgery and fraud easy.

Governments will have to legislate to protect copyright before the piracy of public figures, artists, and existing works becomes commonplace. We must also be wary of warlike and predatory governments rushing to adapt artificial intelligence to their war plans.

Some impersonal and totally amoral AI models playing wargames can go as far as to simulate the launching of nuclear weapons on another country, when nuclear-armed countries are involved in a war standoff. This could be cause for alarm when only 'efficiency' outcomes are considered by such models, irrespective of any lawful and moral considerations. This could lead to human disasters and atrocities.

The same applies to the risk that terrorists could one day use AI and want to develop biochemical weapons.

The mere fact that such possibilities exist should dictate a cautious approach to advanced developments in generative AI and AGI. Before we truly enter an era of human obsolescence and the domination of autonomous artificial intelligence agents, it would be wise to consider the consequences for humanity and how to manage them.

Conclusion

A new age of 'Robber Barons' is unfolding under our very eyes, where important private companies make large-scale layoffs and increasingly rely on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to partially offload their social responsibility to recruit, to hire and train people, while raking in large profits.

In the medium and longer run, entire categories of workers could become economically unemployable in the eyes of employers, and this will affect the entire population and the overall economy. The replacement of humans by intelligent robots in many fields of activity will be a factor of alienation for a large part of the population.

A serious labor crisis is looming on the horizon, and income and wealth disparities between rich and poor can be expected to increase.

Indeed, in the Orwellian post-human future that is unfolding, the owners of intelligent robots powered by generative Artificial Intelligence will be like the slave owners of centuries past. They will be super rich, and the rest of the population could be super poor.

For now, however, some optimistic and ultra rich oligarchs are arguing for an 'open-source approach', and they are going full speed ahead in implementing the Artificial Intelligence industrial revolution. They are not worrying too much about the consequences of the fundamental transformation that is likely to hit labor markets and the entire economy and society, in the short and medium-term.

But once irreparable economic and social damage is done to large segments of the population, this could herald decades of dramatic economic decline and social unrest.

It is therefore incumbent upon governments and international organizations to take appropriate fiscal measures and to establish regulatory criteria and guidelines concerning the riskiest developments in Artificial Intelligence, in order to respect human dignity and liberty.

They should also prepare themselves to face higher rates of unemployment in some economic sectors and more under-employment, especially for younger workers and also for writers and artists, on top of all the economic, financial, fiscal and social consequences that may also arise in this new industrial environment.

Educational institutions, and especially universities, should be prepared to review their teaching programs and adapt them to the new realities of the labor market.

Furthermore, there is a moral risk. Indeed, the world should be concerned that governments with totalitarian and malevolent instincts might be tempted to use AI for disinformation and to better control the population.

It is not inconceivable that belligerent, imperialist, and predatory governments could exploit generative AI to make current and future wars even more frequent, deadly, and destructive. For example, they could entrust generative artificial intelligence algorithms with the task of developing new, inexpensive weapons, such as biological, chemical, or radiological weapons, which would make wars of agression even easier and less costly.

Consequently, basic caution should guide policymakers in the face of the economic, social, industrial, and even military upheavals that are about to hit industrialized societies hard in the coming years.

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P. S.: A sign of the times, in the United States, white-collar employment contracted for several consecutive months, in 2025-2026.

___________________________________________________________

International economist Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay is the author of the book about morals "The code for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles" of the book about geopolitics "The New American Empire", and of his recent book, in French, "La régression tranquille du Québec, 1980-2018". 

He holds a Ph.D. in international finance from Stanford University.

Please visit Dr. Tremblay's site or email to a friend here.

Posted Monday, June 1, 2026, updated July 27, 2026.

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© 2026 Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay

Reflections on the political book 'Destination Autonomy', by the Leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ), Mr. Éric Duhaime, April 2026

By Rodrigue Tremblay, emeritus professor of Economics, Université de Montréal and former minister

"Teachers are teaching nationalism in schools. They tell their their students that Quebec is a state [État], and that's false. Quebec is a province, a township, indistinct."

Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1919-2000), Liberal Prime minister of the Canadian federal government, (remarks made in 1994, as reported by Michel David in Le Devoir, October 29, 2016).

It is not easy to relive history.

In essence, the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Éric Duhaime, is right in adopting a Quebec autonomy platform for his party. (1) 

In so doing, he wants to return to an ad hoc approach in the relations between the government of Quebec and the Canadian federal government. This method has yielded positive results in the past, such as the repatriation of income tax in 1954 and the adoption of the Quebec Pension Plan, separate from the federal tax system in other Canadian provinces, in 1964.

Éric Duhaime is doing what PQ leaders could have done after their two referendum defeats, in 1980 and 1995, if they had conducted a proper analysis of the geopolitical reasons forf their losses. Indeed, these two successive defeats contributed to the loss of significant powers of the Quebec Parliament, powers which were transferred to federal judges appointed and paid by the federal government. Politically, this has sent Quebec back to the pre-1867 era.

Without saying so explicitly, the leader of the PCQ would undoubtedly like the Canadian federal government to redress the enormous wrongs done to Quebec with the passage of the Constitution Act of 1982, adopted without the consent of the Quebec government and without having been approved in a public referendum.

It is true that Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1919-2000), and other politicians in Ottawa, knowingly or unknowingly misled the electorate during the May 20,1980 referendum, by subtly leading Quebecers to believe that a "No" vote was "not a vote for the status quo". In fact, many voters understood that a "No" vote would be a vote in favor of the "No" camp's explanatory Beige Paper, a manifesto entitled "A New Canadian Federation". This manifesto proposed seven constitutional amendments as an alternative to the 'Yes' camp's White Paper, a manifesto entitled "On Equal Terms", which proposed bilateral negotiations to grant Quebec the status of Sovereignty-Association. (2)

The seven constitutional proposals in the Beige Paper were:

̣̣̣̣̣1- Adoption of a Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the integration of the French and English languages into the Canadian Constitution (in addition to extending it to the provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick).

2- Guarantee of the right of every individual to allow their child to study in English or French "where numbers warrant it".

3- Abolition of the Senate.

4- Creation of a Federal Council composed of delegations from the provinces (with 25% of delegates from Quebec) whose mandate would be to oversee federal government initiatives that could "alter the fundamental balance of the federation". The Council would also establish a joint committee (French-speaking and English-speaking) focusing specifically on language issues.

5- Creation of a dual bench (equal representation of Canada and Quebec) on the Supreme Court for all constitutional cases.

6- Transfer of residual powers to the provinces.

7- Transfer to the provinces of powers over education, subsidies and scholarships, radio and television programming, social reintegration programs, workforce training, and the reception and integration of immigrants.

The Beige Paper was the work of Claude Ryan, leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) and head of the "No" side.

On May 20, 1980, the "No" side garnered 59,56% of the votes cast, partly because its Beige Paper of proposals of federal decentralization was popular.

But PQ leaders said that the population had "said No to itself", which was an anti-democratic interpretation.

Indeed, in the 1980 and 1995 referendums, the only constitutional option on the ballot was the proposition advanced by the government: negotiating sovereignty-association for Quebec (1980) or Quebec independence (1995). In both instances, this was therefore a plebiscite, not a genuine referendum, and not a choice between a few constitutional options.

[Definition of a plebiscite: "A consultation by which a government asks all citizens to express their confidence by voting yes or no on a proposal."]

After the referendum defeats of 1980 and 1995, it might have been possible to demand that the harm done to Quebec by the Constitution Act of 1982 be redressed, because the elected Quebec Parliament was placed under the arbitrary authority of unelected federal judges, named and paid by the federal government, for many of its democratically adopted laws. This was done against its will and against the will of the Quebec population, which was never consulted on such a political regression for Quebec.

The Conservative governments of Brian Mulroney (1939-2024) and Stephen Harper (1959- ) in Ottawa might have been more open to the demands of a more autonomist Quebec government to protect its language and culture.

However, we should't be too optimistic.

Indeed, we shouldn't be too optimistic, because the failure of the Meech Lake Accord on June 23, 1990, and the defeat of the Charlottetown Accord in the October 26,1992 federal referendum—which was rejected in both Quebec and in the rest of Canada—clearly demonstrated that constitutional changes in Canada are not easy. Indeed, under the terms of the Constitution Act of 1982, a constitutional amendment requires the approval either of unanimity of the federal government and of provincial governments, for a short list of institutional issues, or an approval by the federal government and 2/3 of Canadian provinces for most other amendments. But ad hoc agreements between Quebec and Ottawa are still possible.

As I explain in my 2018 book, "Quebec's Regression, 2980-2018", published by Éditions Fides, for an autonomist approach to have been adopted, the Parti Québécois (PQ) would have had to prioritize the nation over partisanship, and the government would have had to resign after the lost plebiscite of May 20, 1980.This could have stopped the Trudeau government's strategy of going ahead with unilateral constitutional changes to increase federal centralization, without approval by the Quebec government.

Indeed, there was a strong likelihood, then, that Claude Ryan, leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) and the winning leader of the No side in the referendum, could have been elected Premier of Quebec, and he was opposed to federal centralization.

If this had been the case, Pierre Elliott Trudeau could not have claimed that his option of a more centralized Canadian federation had prevailed in the Quebec referendum. The entire narrative would have been altered.

But that didn't happen, essentially because Premier René Levesque (1922-1987) chose not to respect the unequivocal vote of the Quebec electorate and clung to power for another full year.

Prime Minister Trudeau was then able to proceed, without Quebec's consent, with the repatriation of the British North America Act (BNAA 1867) from London, with the assistance of the Supreme Court of Canada, then presided over by Bora Laskin (1912-1984), and the governments of the provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick.

After what became known as the Night of the Long Knives, on November 4-5, 1981, Pierre Elliott Trudeau succeeded in having a Charter of Rights included in what became the Constitutional Act of 1982, after conceding to the insertion of a notwithstanding clause, at the request of the recalcitrant English-speaking provinces.

The Constitution Act of 1982 forcibly removed significant prerogatives and legislative powers from the Quebec Parliament and Quebec government, subjecting them to the judgements of federal courts, particularly in matters of language and culture.

Conclusion

I once wrote that the 1982 constitutional changes— imposed by force upon 

Quebec—made the province of Quebec a de facto domestic colony of English-speaking Canada. That situation is threatening Quebec's long-term survival as the only political entity in North America with a French-speaking majority.

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1. Mario Dumont, Éric Duhaime, Autonomist and Serious , Journal de Montréal, April 18, 2026

2. On June 12, 1978, Pierre Elliott Trudeau introduced Bill C-60 in the House of Commons, along with a white paper entitled "Time to Act", in which he proposed renewing Canadian federalism. He also proposed the adoption of a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the replacement of the Senate with a House of the Federation, and the redefinition of the roles of the Governor General, the Prime Minister, and the Cabinet.

See, Claude-V. Marsolais, The Confiscated Referendum, Montréal, VLB Éditeur, 1992,

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International economist Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay is the author of the book about morals "The code for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles" of the book about geopolitics "The New American Empire", and of his recent book, in French, "La régression tranquille du Québec, 1980-2018". 

He holds a Ph.D. in international finance from Stanford University.

Please visit Dr. Tremblay's site or email to a friend here.

Posted Friday, May 1, 2026.

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© 2026 Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay