Alexandre Trudeau

Alexandre "Sacha" Trudeau (born December 25, 1973) is a Canadian filmmaker and journalist, and the son of Canada's former Prime Minister, the late Pierre Trudeau, and Margaret Trudeau.

The second of three children born to Pierre and Margaret Trudeau during Pierre's term in office, Alexandre Trudeau was a media sensation, just like his brothers, at the time of his birth. However, Pierre and Margaret tried as much as possible to protect their children from the public eye, and after Pierre retired as Prime Minister in 1984, he raised them in relative privacy in Montreal. Like his father and brothers, Alexandre studied at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf and graduated with a philosophy degree from McGill University in 1997.

At birth, he was given the nickname "Sacha" (the Russian diminutive of Alexander) in recognition of his father's love of Russian literature and culture.

While attending McGill, Alexandre enlisted with the Canadian Forces Reserve Officer Training Program in 1996 and trained at CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick. He was posted to the Royal Canadian Hussars in Montreal upon being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, but released voluntarily before completing his training as an armoured officer. Following graduation, he traveled to West Africa to produce his first documentary: "Liberia, the Secret War" (1998).

When Pierre Trudeau died in 2000, both Alexandre Trudeau and his older brother Justin Trudeau returned to the public eye. Although Alexandre was visibly more reserved and quiet than his brother, his heightened public profile [http://evalu8.org/staticpage?page=review&siteid=4016 brought new attention] to his work as a journalist. In the next few years, he produced documentaries for Canadian television. Alexandre Trudeau attracted controversy in August 2006 for an article he penned praising Fidel Castro's Cuba. [http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1155420635589]

In 2003, he was one of the highest-profile Canadian journalists covering the 2003 invasion of Iraq, producing a documentary film for the CTV program W5, "Embedded in Baghdad".

Trudeau is also a director of the [http://www.trudeaufoundation.ca/ Trudeau Foundation] for excellence in social sciences and humanities research and innovation.

In June 2005, Trudeau focused attention on what he said were the implication for civil liberties in the Canadian government's use of security certificates to detain indefinitely, without trial, suspected terrorists based on secret evidence.

Trudeau offered to be a surety for Hassan Almrei, a Syrian refugee held in a Canadian jail for four years without any charges being laid ( [http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1120168212380] ). Trudeau's appearance in court in support of Almrei resulted in front page coverage in the "Toronto Star" and "National Post" and major media attention being given to the security certificate issue for the first time. Despite Trudeau's efforts as chronicled in his documentary "Secure Freedom" and a Canadian Supreme Court ruling against the certificates, Almrei remains in jail in 2008, seven years after his arrest.

His most recent documentary "Refuge", produced in 2008, tells the story of the crisis in Darfur.

Currently, Trudeau is President and Chief Producer at Jujufilms. He and wife Zoë Bedos became the parents of a son, Pierre-Emmanuel Trudeau, on December 22, 2006.

He was one of several children of former Prime Ministers who became Canadian media personalities between 1998 and 2001. The others were Ben Mulroney, Catherine Clark, and his own brother, Justin.

External links

* [http://evalu8.org/staticpage?page=review&siteid=4016 Alexandre (Sacha Trudeau) faces the world] - Globe & Mail profile written by Sarah Hampson.
* [http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=1634 Trudeau Interview] on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
*imdb name | id=0874051| name=Alexandre Trudeau
* [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070103.wpierre04/BNStory/National/ Le nouveau Trudeau: Little PET weighs in at 7 pounds 4 ounces] - Globe & Mail article written by Jane Taber