André Laurendeau
Encyclopedia
Joseph-Edmond-André Laurendeau (March 21, 1912 in Montreal
– June 1, 1968 in Ottawa
) was a journalist, politician, co-chair of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
, and playwright
in Quebec
, Canada
. He is usually referred to as André Laurendeau. He was active in Québécois life, in various spheres and capacities, for three decades. Laurendeau's career also "spanned the most turbulent periods in the history of Canada".
family. He was the only child of Blanche Hardy and Arthur Laurendeau. Theirs was a very musically and politically oriented home, and also a very Catholic
atmosphere. His father Arthur was an ardent nationalist and Laurendeau grew up admiring people such as the founder of Le Devoir
, Henri Bourassa
, and the Catholic nationalist historian Abbé Lionel Groulx
. Laurendeau graduated from Collège Sainte-Marie
in 1931. Due to a bout with depression, Laurendeau did not pursue a university degree immediately thereafter. The fact that he reached young adulthood as the Great Depression
struck naturally influenced his social views.
Starting in 1933, Laurendeau and several friends from the University of Montréal founded a neo-nationalist, separatist
movement called "Jeune-Canada
". They advocated for the establishment of "Laurentie
", a homeland for French Canadians. While a member of Jeune-Canada, Laurendeau helped organize and spoke at a protest rally titled "Politicians and Jews". It was held in response to a protest against anti-Semitism
in Germany held in Montreal, both rallies taking place in 1933. Laurendeau questioned the validity of the charges of maltreatment against Jewish peoples in Germany. He also described Jewish peoples' ability to make their political weight felt as a cohesive unit. While claiming not to be anti-Semitic throughout their political career, Jeune-Canada's message of hatred was debated openly in the newspaper Le Devoir, and it was not until the death of Hitler that the group died down. In 1963 Laurendeau wrote an article in the French edition of Maclean's
magazine, which essentially denounced this period of his life as ignorant, youthful passion.
and social sciences
at the Sorbonne
. After studying abroad, Laurendeau relinquished his separatist persuasion and began to be more preoccupied with the American threat to French-Canadian culture than with that threat posed by English Canada. Upon returning home, he served as director of the L'Action nationale
magazine from 1937 to 1943 and from 1949 to 1953, which had been under his father's direction in the past. As a journalist and editorialist, Laurendeau broached a myriad of topics, from nationalism
, to World War II
, to federalism
, to separatism and bilingualism/biculturalism, but always from essentially the same platform. Laurendeau subscribed to tenets of Christian humanism
throughout his long career. He was concerned for the good of the collective and ever suspicious of those who wished to concentrate power in the hands of the few. Additionally, Laurendeau believed that even though Quebec constituted a minority in Canada, their position as a unique province with a unique culture were to be respected and not undermined by a central (majority/anglophone
/Protestant) power, based in Ottawa
.
In 1942, Laurendeau entered into politics in opposition to conscription
, as a member of the Ligue pour la défense du Canada. His primary reason for doing so was that Prime Minister Mackenzie King had promised conscription would not become national policy, only to put a plebiscite to Canadians to determine whether or not he might revoke his promise and retain their favour. Laurendeau later took part in the founding of the centre-left party Bloc populaire Canadien, and soon became its provincial leader while Maxime Raymond
was its federal leader. Laurendeau was a Member of the National Assembly of Quebec
(MNA) from 1944 to 1948.
In 1947 Laurendeau became associate editor-in-chief of Le Devoir
, and in 1957 became its editor-in-chief. As editor, he was known first for his battles against Maurice Duplessis
, and later as a leading spokesman for the rising national identity of Quebec during the Quiet Revolution
. His editorial column of November 18, 1958, Maurice Duplessis à l'Assemblée nationale: la théorie du roi nègre ("Maurice Duplessis at the National Assembly: the theory of the negro king") was widely cited by Quebecers of all political stripes for years afterwards. This piece compared the status of Duplessis in Quebec in Canada to that of an Indigenous ruler in an imperial colony, the parallel being that violations of civil rights and liberties, perpetrated by Duplessis, were tolerated by English Canadians. In the colonial case, the same would hold true even though such violations would not be tolerated by colonists in their imperial lands of origin.
Laurendeau is known for having popularized the word "joual
". From 1953 to 1961 he was the host of the television show Pays et Merveilles broadcast by Radio-Canada.
From 1963 until his death, Laurendeau served as co-chair, along with Davidson Dunton, of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
, a position that brought him considerable criticism from his nationalist colleagues. The stress caused by this criticism was blamed for Laurendeau's relatively early death by historian Charles Godin.
In many of his publications Laurendeau attached particular importance to the education and future of youth. Schools were named in his honour in Saint-Hubert
, in LaSalle
, and in Ottawa
(this Franco-Ontarian
school closed in 1998 and was later converted into a primary school).
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
– June 1, 1968 in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
) was a journalist, politician, co-chair of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism was a Canadian royal commission established on 19 July 1963, by the government of Prime Minister Lester B...
, and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He is usually referred to as André Laurendeau. He was active in Québécois life, in various spheres and capacities, for three decades. Laurendeau's career also "spanned the most turbulent periods in the history of Canada".
Early life
André Laurendeau was born March 21, 1912, into a 'notable' QuébécoisQuébécois
The French word Québécois and anglicised as ' , is used in both French and English to refer to different persons or concepts, depending on the language and/or the context in which the word is being used...
family. He was the only child of Blanche Hardy and Arthur Laurendeau. Theirs was a very musically and politically oriented home, and also a very Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
atmosphere. His father Arthur was an ardent nationalist and Laurendeau grew up admiring people such as the founder of Le Devoir
Le Devoir
Le Devoir is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and the rest of Canada. It was founded by journalist, politician, and nationalist Henri Bourassa in 1910....
, Henri Bourassa
Henri Bourassa
Joseph-Napoléon-Henri Bourassa was a French Canadian political leader and publisher. He is seen by many as an ideological father of Canadian nationalism....
, and the Catholic nationalist historian Abbé Lionel Groulx
Lionel Groulx
Lionel-Adolphe Groulx was a Roman Catholic priest, historian and Quebec nationalist. -Early life and ordination:Groulx was born at Chenaux, Quebec, Canada, the son of a farmer and lumberjack, and died in Vaudreuil, Quebec. After his seminary training and studies in Europe, he taught at Valleyfield...
. Laurendeau graduated from Collège Sainte-Marie
Collège Sainte-Marie
Collège Sainte-Marie was a college in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It ceased to exist in 1969, when it was merged into UQAM ....
in 1931. Due to a bout with depression, Laurendeau did not pursue a university degree immediately thereafter. The fact that he reached young adulthood as the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
struck naturally influenced his social views.
Starting in 1933, Laurendeau and several friends from the University of Montréal founded a neo-nationalist, separatist
Quebec sovereignty movement
The Quebec sovereignty movement refers to both the political movement and the ideology of values, concepts and ideas that promote the secession of the province of Quebec from the rest of Canada...
movement called "Jeune-Canada
Jeune-Canada
Jeune-Canada was a French Canadian right-wing nationalist movement founded in Quebec and active during the 1930s. Launched in 1932 in reaction to the public nominations of unilingual anglophones, the movement reached its apogee the following year, in 1933.As a movement, Jeune-Canada was...
". They advocated for the establishment of "Laurentie
Laurentie (concept)
Laurentie was a poetic name given to Quebec from the 1930s to the 1950s. It was also the name of the independent Quebec foreseen by the early indépendantistes of the 20th century, notably the Alliance laurentienne...
", a homeland for French Canadians. While a member of Jeune-Canada, Laurendeau helped organize and spoke at a protest rally titled "Politicians and Jews". It was held in response to a protest against anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
in Germany held in Montreal, both rallies taking place in 1933. Laurendeau questioned the validity of the charges of maltreatment against Jewish peoples in Germany. He also described Jewish peoples' ability to make their political weight felt as a cohesive unit. While claiming not to be anti-Semitic throughout their political career, Jeune-Canada's message of hatred was debated openly in the newspaper Le Devoir, and it was not until the death of Hitler that the group died down. In 1963 Laurendeau wrote an article in the French edition of Maclean's
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
magazine, which essentially denounced this period of his life as ignorant, youthful passion.
Career
In 1935 he left Quebec with his spouse to study philosophyPhilosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
. After studying abroad, Laurendeau relinquished his separatist persuasion and began to be more preoccupied with the American threat to French-Canadian culture than with that threat posed by English Canada. Upon returning home, he served as director of the L'Action nationale
L'Action nationale
L'Action nationale is a French-language monthly published in Quebec, Canada.The magazine publishes critical analysis of Quebec's linguistic, social, cultural and economic realities...
magazine from 1937 to 1943 and from 1949 to 1953, which had been under his father's direction in the past. As a journalist and editorialist, Laurendeau broached a myriad of topics, from nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, to federalism
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
, to separatism and bilingualism/biculturalism, but always from essentially the same platform. Laurendeau subscribed to tenets of Christian humanism
Christian humanism
Christian humanism is the position that universal human dignity and individual freedom are essential and principal components of, or are at least compatible with, Christian doctrine and practice. It is a philosophical union of Christian and humanist principles.- Origins :Christian humanism may have...
throughout his long career. He was concerned for the good of the collective and ever suspicious of those who wished to concentrate power in the hands of the few. Additionally, Laurendeau believed that even though Quebec constituted a minority in Canada, their position as a unique province with a unique culture were to be respected and not undermined by a central (majority/anglophone
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
/Protestant) power, based in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
.
In 1942, Laurendeau entered into politics in opposition to conscription
Conscription Crisis of 1944
The Conscription Crisis of 1944 was a political and military crisis following the introduction of forced military service in Canada during World War II. It was similar to the Conscription Crisis of 1917, but was not as politically damaging....
, as a member of the Ligue pour la défense du Canada. His primary reason for doing so was that Prime Minister Mackenzie King had promised conscription would not become national policy, only to put a plebiscite to Canadians to determine whether or not he might revoke his promise and retain their favour. Laurendeau later took part in the founding of the centre-left party Bloc populaire Canadien, and soon became its provincial leader while Maxime Raymond
Maxime Raymond
Maxime Raymond was a Canadian politician, businessman and lawyer in Quebec.Raymond was born in Saint-Stanislas-de-Kostka. In the 1925 Canadian federal election he ran as a Liberal candidate in the district of Beauharnois, and won. He was re-elected in 1926 and 1930. In 1935 and 1940 he was...
was its federal leader. Laurendeau was a Member of the National Assembly of Quebec
National Assembly of Quebec
The National Assembly of Quebec is the legislative body of the Province of Quebec. The Lieutenant Governor and the National Assembly compose the Parliament of Quebec, which operates in a fashion similar to those of other British-style parliamentary systems.The National Assembly was formerly the...
(MNA) from 1944 to 1948.
In 1947 Laurendeau became associate editor-in-chief of Le Devoir
Le Devoir
Le Devoir is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and the rest of Canada. It was founded by journalist, politician, and nationalist Henri Bourassa in 1910....
, and in 1957 became its editor-in-chief. As editor, he was known first for his battles against Maurice Duplessis
Maurice Duplessis
Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis served as the 16th Premier of the Canadian province of Quebec from 1936 to 1939 and 1944 to 1959. A founder and leader of the highly conservative Union Nationale party, he rose to power after exposing the misconduct and patronage of Liberal Premier Louis-Alexandre...
, and later as a leading spokesman for the rising national identity of Quebec during the Quiet Revolution
Quiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution was the 1960s period of intense change in Quebec, Canada, characterized by the rapid and effective secularization of society, the creation of a welfare state and a re-alignment of politics into federalist and separatist factions...
. His editorial column of November 18, 1958, Maurice Duplessis à l'Assemblée nationale: la théorie du roi nègre ("Maurice Duplessis at the National Assembly: the theory of the negro king") was widely cited by Quebecers of all political stripes for years afterwards. This piece compared the status of Duplessis in Quebec in Canada to that of an Indigenous ruler in an imperial colony, the parallel being that violations of civil rights and liberties, perpetrated by Duplessis, were tolerated by English Canadians. In the colonial case, the same would hold true even though such violations would not be tolerated by colonists in their imperial lands of origin.
Laurendeau is known for having popularized the word "joual
Joual
Joual is the common name for the linguistic features of basilectal Quebec French that are associated with the French-speaking working class in Montreal which has become a symbol of national identity for a large number of artists from that area...
". From 1953 to 1961 he was the host of the television show Pays et Merveilles broadcast by Radio-Canada.
From 1963 until his death, Laurendeau served as co-chair, along with Davidson Dunton, of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism was a Canadian royal commission established on 19 July 1963, by the government of Prime Minister Lester B...
, a position that brought him considerable criticism from his nationalist colleagues. The stress caused by this criticism was blamed for Laurendeau's relatively early death by historian Charles Godin.
In many of his publications Laurendeau attached particular importance to the education and future of youth. Schools were named in his honour in Saint-Hubert
Saint-Hubert, Quebec
Saint-Hubert is a borough in the city of Longueuil, located in the Montérégie region of Quebec, Canada. It had been a separate city prior to January 1, 2002, when it along with several other neighbouring south shore municipalities were merged into Longueuil. According to the Quebec Statistics...
, in LaSalle
LaSalle (borough)
LaSalle is a community in the Greater Montreal Region of Quebec, Canada. Of which, for quite a lengthy time was once a municipality following the town's inaugural foundation in 1912 until the classification as a borough of the city of Montreal during the 2002 amalgamation.All of which was a...
, and in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
(this Franco-Ontarian
Franco-Ontarian
Franco-Ontarians are French Canadian or francophone residents of the Canadian province of Ontario. They are sometimes known as "Ontarois"....
school closed in 1998 and was later converted into a primary school).