Born in Montreal, Quebec, he originally studied medicine at the Université de Montréal, but gave it up to pursue acting. After travelling and performing in New York City and Paris he returned to Montreal and helped create the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde and became a frequent actor in and director of its productions for the next several years. He also turned to writing and wrote successful plays, radio dramas, and television shows.
A staunch federalist, Jean-Louis Roux was appointed to the Senate by his longtime friend Jean Chrétien in 1994. During the 1995 Quebec referendum campaign, Roux was arguably the best-known personality in the area of art and culture to campaign for the "no". His public statement that Quebec intellectuals should not remain passively on the sideline as German intellectuals had done during the rise of Nazism in their country provoked an uproar.
The following year, Prime Minister Chrétien appointed him as the new lieutenant governor of Quebec, a move that was seen as a provocation by many since it was customary to appoint to that ceremonial function uncontroversial figures who had never, or long ceased to be politically active. He resigned abruptly and spectacularly barely two months into his five-year mandate shortly after the publication of a cover story titled L'Affaire Jean-Louis Roux in the magazine L'Actualité on 1 November 1996. Adding to what former federal cabinet minister Gérard Pelletier had already disclosed to L'Actualité journalist Luc Chartrand regarding his longtime friend Jean-Louis Roux having drawn a swastika on the sleeve of this lab coat during his World War II medical school days, Roux revealed during his pre-publication interview with Chartrand that he had taken part, and had even been once in the front-line of anti-conscription protests in 1942 during which the windows of Jewish-owned stores had been smashed, and that he had even held pro-Mussolini, pro-Franco and pro-Pétain sympathies during those years. [Note 1][4][5] There were rapidly increasing calls coming from all quarters that he resign as lieutenant governor,[6] which he did on 5 November.[7] Jean Chrétien angrily accused "the separatists" of having engineered the whole thing in order to discredit a man of honour but Roux himself did not support that accusation and there was general agreement that it was Gérard Pelletier’s swastika leak during the L’Actualité interview that was at the origin of the scandal.
Roux tearfully told a news conference the day after his resignation that "the carefree attitude of youth may be an explanation, but it can't in any way serve as an excuse and especially not as a justification; I committed a mistake by yielding to the anti-Semitic feelings that poisoned our minds at the time."[8]
Chair of the Canada Council
On May 31, 1997 Roux returned to public life when the federal government appointed him to be chair of the Canada Council.
A secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius) proper holding in its dexter claw an open book Argent bound Gules, standing on a rock set with grass proper.
Escutcheon
Gules in chief the masks of comedy and tragedy, in base a neutral mask Argent.
Supporters
Two grey wolves howling.
Compartment
A grassy compartment set with snow-capped mountains and pine trees proper.
^Wondering why Roux had come up with embarrassing details about his medical student past at the very beginning of the interview and without being asked, Chartrand speculated that by making these revelations himself he was hoping to nip in the bud any potential revelations by others with the aim of damaging his reputation. It was a course of action that Chartrand thought might have been decided during a private soirée given a few days earlier in honour of the new lieutenant-governor by old friends, including Gérard Pelletier and former Prime Minister Pierre-Elliot Trudeau. (Chartrand, p. 20)
