Morning / Afternoon all
Sometime in  the late 1960's Charles de Gaulle paid a state visit to Canada.
Sometime during the visit I believe he shouted to  a somewhat supportive crowd 
"Vive La Quebec Libre" fom a balcony on Quebec's Parliament building.
I have some questions about this interesting incident:
- What were the reactions (at the time) of the French and Canadian Goverments
  and also the French and Canadian media?
- Was DeGaulle's visit cut short as a result of his comment?
- Did countries take any precautions when Charles De Gaulle paid them
  state visits after this incident?
- Did other goverments (esp UK and USA) comment on this incident?
Many Thanks
Mongolia

from
http://www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=111&page=2

Après avoir visité l'Exposition le 25 juillet, l'Université le jour
suivant, le Général rentre à Paris, renonçant à se rendre à Ottawa,
d'autant que le Premier ministre canadien, Lester Pearson juge le
discours inacceptable, y voyant une ingérence dans les affaires
intérieures du Canada. Le chef de l'État fait une mise au point au
Conseil des ministres du 31 juillet : il ne s'agit pas de nier la
souveraineté du Canada sur l'ensemble de son territoire, mais d'aider
les Québécois que des liens historiques attachent à la France.


He was supposed to go to Ottawa after this but he didn't,  the prime
minister thought is was not acceptable and that he was meddling with
internal affair

I do not have the time to do these interesting questions justice, but
here's one snippet that may be useful. You can listen to the speech on
this site, if you have RealMedia installed:

"In a controversial speech on July 24, 1967, French President Charles
de Gaulle declared 'Vive le Quebec libre!' from the balcony of
Montreal's city hall in the Canadian province of Quebec. De Gaulle was
ostensibly in Canada to visit Montreal's Expo '67, an exposition
organized in honor of the Canadian confederation's centennial. He
refused, however, an invitation to visit Ottawa and address the
Canadian parliament, choosing instead to arrive in Quebec by a French
warship that refused to fly the Canadian flag, a violation of
international law. Wearing his general's uniform, he visited Quebec
City and then traveled to Montreal, greeted everywhere by large
adoring crowds of French Canadians.

In Montreal, he spoke to a large and ecstatic crowd of Quebec
separatists and compared his journey through Quebec to the liberation
of France from the Nazis in 1944. De Gaulle's Montreal speech was
condemned by Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson, who called it
'unacceptable' and said 'the people of Canada are free. Every province
of Canada is free. Canadians do not need to be liberated. Indeed, many
thousands of Canadians gave their lives in two world wars in the
liberation of France. Canada will remain united and will reject any
effort to destroy her unity.' De Gaulle ultimately cut short his
Canadian visit, but he succeeded in his ambition of galvanizing Quebec
separatists."

History Channel: Speeches: Charles de Gaulle, president of France
http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_458.html

Quite a bit of info may be found with this search string:

://www.google.com/search?lr=lang_en&cr=&q=%22quebec+OR+qu%C3%A9bec+libre%22+%22de+gaulle%22&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&c2coff=1&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Wow ... Wasn't he a cheeky devil!

No wonder The Jackal was given a contract.

French President DeGaulle (1959-1969) died in 1970 at age 80. He was
thought to be in declining health both physically and mentally in his
final years in office.

The province of Quebec had emerged in 1959 from an era of extreme
political/social/economic isolation. Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis
was the political boss from the 1930's to his death in '59. He was
adept at using the Catholic Church, national and local politicians to
maintain power through complete isolation. The void created by his
death allowed a generation of Progressives led by Pierre Trudeau to
assume office. It also set off a seperatist movement that started with
amateur gestures but led to deadly terrorism by the early '70's.

DeGaulle had little understanding of the forces at work when he made
his gesture. By the late 1970's, disillusionment with France among
Quebec seperatists was common.

Also, as Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau was uniquely positioned to
understand the movement and to defuse the more dangerous elements.
Trudeau was Attorney General in 1967 when DeGaulle visited Quebec.
Within a year he was PM.

Presidents LBJ and Nixon both found DeGaulle difficult and ignored the
incident. The Quebec media reacted vigorously, but the rest of Canada
was indifferent.

Canada had no independent foreign policy, as the Canadian constitution
was under the auspices of the British parliament. Trudeau succeeded in
pursuading the British to allow the Canadian constitution to be
repatriated in 1984. As PM from 1968-1984, Trudeau frequently pursued
an independent foreign policy from Britain, France and the US, which
had largely governed Canadian diplomacy in the past.

Many thanks for some great comments.

I found the comments by Badger75 especially interesting.

Mongolia

PS Apologies to Quebecers for getting the sex of your province wrong 
   (Grin)