[1] During his term in office, he chaired a committee which produced a major set of recommendations for reform of the Constitution of Canada.
Viau received their complaints and delegated the matter to his colleague on the executive committee, Michel Robert (subsequently bâtonnier and later Chief Justice of Quebec).
The author of the letter denounced the proposal as being contrary to law, as nothing in the Criminal Code suggested that an accused who exercised his right to trial by jury would find his pre-trial liberty restricted.
With a polite smile, Fish replied that the identity of the letter-writer was protected by the tradition of pseudonyms, but he whole-heartedly agreed with the content of the letter.
The year before, the Parti québécois had won the provincial general election in Quebec and formed the government, on a platform of separation from Canada.
The amendment removed the language calling for the CBA to support national unity and reject provincial separatism.
[14] The resolution called for the Constitution to be re-written "so as better to meet the aspriations and present-day needs of all the people of Canada and to guarantee the preservation of the historical rights of our two founding cultures.
"[15][16] The resolution also set out the mandate for the committee, which was to undertake "the search for a definition of the essential constitutional attributes of a Canadian federalism", with a final report to be presented at the next Annual Meeting of the CBA in 1978.
In addition to Viau, who acted as chairman, the members were:[18] The executive vice-chairman and director of research was Gérard V. La Forest, Q.C., of Ottawa, Ontario, later on the Supreme Court of Canada.
[28] The members of the committee met nine times over the course of the year, with one final marathon meeting for five days at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the site of the first Confederation Conference in 1864.
Viau appeared to confirm that speculation several months before the report was released, at a joint meeting of the councils of the Ontario and Quebec Branches of the CBA.
[29] Speculation continued right up to the day before the report was released, with Viau stating that he had nothing personally against the monarchy, and noting that even Premier Lévesque had said much the same.
Earlier that year, with respect to the division of powers, he had said that in his opinion, the provinces had to be given near complete control over cultural and educational matters if Quebec was to stay in Canada.
From 1982 to 1998, he was the President of the official provincial legal publishing office, SOQUIJ, which he helped to found during his tenure as bâtonnier.
[2] His colleague from the Barreau, Michel Robert, remembered him as a man of warmth and openness, without an ounce of pettiness, albeit with a biting, sarcastic sense of humour.