OTTAWA (CP)-Following are some of Pierre Elliott Trudeau's more memorable quotes, some thought-provoking, many controversial:

• "La raison avant las passion (Reason before passion)."
  Said to be Trudeau's personal maxim.

• Interviewer: "How badly [do] you want to be prime minister?"
  Trudeau: "Not very badly. But I can give you another quotation, from Plato--that men who want very badly to head the country shouldn't be trusted."
  March, 1967.

• "The state has no place in the nation's bedroom."*
  Trudeau as justice minister, December, 1967.

• "Of course, a bilingual state is more expensive than a unilingual one, but it is a richer state."
  April, 1968.

• "The truth is that I was going to Cuba in a canoe, but this was in 1961 with some friends of mine. This was a sporting event. I should tell you I have canoed down most of the great rivers, not only of Canada but of the world."
  June, 1968.

• "The attainment of a just society is the cherished hope of civilized men."
  September, 1968.

• "My father taught me order and discipline, and my mother, freedom and fantasy."
  July, 1969.

• "Mangez de la merde!" [which translates to English as: "Eat shit!"]
  Trudeau shouts to striking mail truck drivers, April, 1970.

• "Yes, well there are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don't like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is go on and bleed, but it is more important to keep law and order in the society than to be worried about weak-kneed people."
  Interviewer: "At what cost? How far would you go with that?"
  Trudeau: "Well, just watch me."
  The FLQ crisis, October, 1970.

• "Fuddle duddle."
  February, 1971.
  Trudeau tells reporters what he says he told an opposition MP during an angry exchange in the Commons.

• "Inflation has been beaten."
  August, 1972.

• "I'll tell you one thing that's certain. From now on, no more philosopher king."
  Trudeau to a cabinet minister, election night, October, 1972.

• "Zap, you're frozen."
  Trudeau mocks Conservative Leader Robert Stanfield's wage-and-price controls proposal during the 1974 election.

• "Tomorrow the government of Canada will ask Parliament for the authority to impose severe restraints upon rising prices and incomes."
  Trudeau announces controls, October, 1975.

• "We haven't been able to make it work, the free market system. That means the government is going to take a larger role in running institutions."
  December, 1975.

• "Pierre and Margaret Trudeau announce that because of Margaret's wishes, they shall begin living separate and apart."
  May, 1977 statement from the prime minister's office.

• "I'm bloody sorry I won't have you to kick around any more."
  Opposition leader Trudeau to the press after announcing his retirement, November, 1979.

• "Fellow Canadians, mes chers amis canadiens, well, welcome to the 1980s."
  Trudeau returns to win a majority government, February, 1980.

• "It takes more courage to stay in Canada and fight it out than to withdraw into our walls."
  Trudeau in a May 1980 speech imploring Quebecers to vote for the federalist side in the referendum.

• "Our main exports to the United States are hockey players and cold fronts. Our main imports from the United States are baseball players and acid rain."
  July, 1982.

(text of March 1, 1984 Vancouver Sun article)

*-EXPERIENCE IN DEALING WITH THE "LEGACY" OF THIS STATEMENT BY TRUDEAU'S 'SUPPORTERS' OBLIGES ME HERE TO BRIEFLY CLARIFY THE CONTEXT OF THIS HIGH-SOUNDING REMARK BY THE THEN-JUSTICE MINISTER OF CANADA.
HE WAS, AS JUSTICE MINISTER, INTRODUCING PROPOSED GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION THAT ULTIMATELY LED TO THE LEGALIZATION OF HOMOSEXUAL ACTS IN CANADA.

AS I AM AN ADMITTED HETEROSEXUAL WHO FORESEES IMMINENTLY HAVING TO ENDURE A LOT OF PUBLIC ATTENTION DRAWN TO THE "INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC WORK...ON A DIRECT BASIS" I DID FOR THE WORLD'S CHILDREN, OF COURSE I HAVE VERY LIMITED INTEREST IN THIS SUBJECT.

I WAS 15-YEARS OLD WHEN HE MADE THIS STATEMENT, ONE OF THE QUOTES MOST OFTEN ASSOCIATED WITH HIM (IN THE MINDS OF CANADIANS WHO ARE FAMILIAR WITH THAT ERA) IN RECALLING HIS POLITICAL CAREER.
SO I HAVE TO ADMIT THAT I DIDN'T READILY RECALL IF HE WAS THE JUSTICE MINISTER WHEN THE BILL WAS ACTUALLY PASSED INTO LAW OR WHETHER, AS I ORIGINALLY THOUGHT, HE HAD MOVED ON TO THE OFFICE OF PRIME MINISTER BEFOREHAND.
I SAW A CANADIAN TELEVISION PROGRAMME HOST SAY HE WAS STILL THE MINISTER WHEN THE LEGISLATION PASSED. SO, I REALLY DID GO DOWN TO THE LOCAL LIBRARY TO SEE WHAT I COULD FIND OUT.

UNFORTUNATELY, IT WAS NOT AN EASY SEARCH, AND I WALKED AWAY FROM THE SEVERAL HOURS OF PORING OVER BOOKS AND MICROFILMS (SLIGHTLY BLEARY-EYED AND) WITHOUT GETTING A DEFINITIVE ANSWER.

GIVEN TRUDEAU'S RECENT WIDELY PUBLICIZED ILL HEALTH IN THE AFTERMATH OF HIS PNEUMONIA EARLIER IN THE YEAR 2000--WHATEVER BAD FEELINGS I RETAIN BECAUSE OF HIS EFFECT ON MY LIFE IN PAST--I WAS LOATHE TO PRESS THIS DIRECTLY.
AND ON SEPTEMBER 28, 2000, HE DIED.
TO CONSIDER A NEW YORK TIMES-PUBLISHED OBITUARY OF HIM, TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.

THUS, BECAUSE THIS IS AN ISSUE OF WHAT HIS 'SUPPORTERS' ASSUME[D] THIS REMARK MEANT/ENTITLED THEM TO DO, I TEND TO THINK PERHAPS IT IS A MATTER BETTER CLARIFIED BY ONE OF THOSE WHO SUCCEEDED HIM AS CANADIAN JUSTICE MINISTER--CANADA'S PRESENT PRIME MINISTER, JEAN CHRÉTIEN.

SAUDI ARABIA: EXECUTIONS

Three Yemeni men were executed for engaging in homosexual acts and molesting young boys, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. It quoted an Interior Ministry statement as saying that a court had found the men guilty of "the extreme obscenity of homosexuality and imitating women" in violation of Islamic rules that ban homosexuality.
(Reuters)

Compiled by Jeanne Moore

(text of July 15, 2000 New York Times On The Web article)