Quebec Canada Government Officials

Separatist leader Lucien Bouchard was sworn in as premier of Quebec on Monday, vowing to lead the French-speaking province to independence from Canada after first bringing it financial stability.

The top-ranking political dignitary in Quebec resigned after provoking a furor with his admission that he wore a swastika while a student in Montreal during World War II. Jean-Louis Roux, a well-known actor who was appointed Quebec's lieutenant governor in September, also admitted in a magazine interview that he participated in a 1942 military draft protest that degenerated into vandalism against Jewish shops.

Jacques Parizeau, the separatist premier of Quebec, announced his resignation Tuesday, less than 24 hours after his forces fell just short of winning the right to take the French- speaking province out of Canada. Parizeau, 65, denied that his decision was influenced by the avalanche of criticism that struck him for a speech he made after the ballots were counted, in which he blamed "money and the ethnic vote" for thwarting the nationalist ambitions of French-descended Quebeckers.