| Le déserteur | |
| Director: | Simon Lavoie |
| Producer: | Simon Lavoie |
| Starring: | Émile Proulx-Cloutier Raymond Cloutier Danielle Proulx Viviane Audet Benoît Gouin Gilles Renaud |
| Runtime: | 90 min |
| Country: | Canada |
| Language: | French |
Le déserteur is a 2008 Quebec feature film directed by Simon Lavoie. The film stars Émile Proulx-Cloutier, Raymond Cloutier, Danielle Proulx, Viviane Audet, Benoît Gouin and Gilles Renaud.[1] [2]
It tells the story of Georges Guénette, a deserter from the Canadian Army during World War II, who was shot and killed by members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Georges Guénette was a deserter from the Canadian Army and, like many French Canadians during World War II, an opponent of the war and conscription.
In May 1944, a few months after Guénette deserted from the army, four Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers found Guenette in his father's farmhouse, in St-Lambert-de-Lévis (near Quebec City). He jumped out of a window and ran across the fields. Guénette fell, wounded "by a ricocheting bullet," and died without the last rites of the church.[3]
Two RCMP officers were later charged with manslaughter in Guénette's death, and the shooting was an issue in the 1944 Quebec general election.[4]