Chaput claims to have become a partisan of the independence of Quebec as part of the Groupe Reboul while preparing for a public debate on the subject of "separatism". He and his team member Jacques Boulay had to argue "for" separatism in a debating contest against two comrades, Roland Dompierre and Réal Denis. His team lost the debate held on December 10, 1937, but the readings he did to learn about the subject ("Séparatisme, doctrine constructive" by Dostaler O'Leary, old issues of the paper "La Nation" by Paul Bouchard, history books on the Patriots of the 19th century) convinced him of the merit of the idea in itself. He considered that he and the other pioneers of the contemporary movement for the independence of Quebec did nothing but update an idea that goes back to the British conquest of French Canada in 1760.