Nicole Gladu, this woman who had won alongside Jean Truchon her fight before the Superior Court of Quebec to obtain medical assistance in dying, died Sunday of a natural death. She was 76 years old.
Posted at 6:14 p.m.
This was confirmed by some relatives of the deceased at The Press, Thursday. “I have known Nicole since about 1973. I have always found her to be an exceptional woman in many ways. When we were close, we felt a very special strength of character and an unfailing will when she undertook something,” confided her longtime friend, Gaétan Lavoie.
A former director at Télé-Québec, Mr. Lavoie now owns a publishing house that will publish next summer a book entitled “Les tempsPRESents”, which pays tribute to several painters.
A painting by Nicole Gladu, made by the artist Manon Ruffet, will be found in the book. The canvas was finished just two or three days before Mme Gladu does not die. The deceased will never have finally seen him, but a tribute will be paid to him.
PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK
The artist Manon Ruffet, in front of the portrait she made of Nicole Gladu.
“Nicole was an extraordinary woman, a proud woman who was close to people. I was supposed to see her in May. She was brilliant too so beautiful. In my painting, it was important despite her tragic illness to stage a proud woman who, despite her illness, wanted to live, ”explained Manon Ruffet, when reached on the phone Thursday evening.
Fight of a lifetime
A polio survivor and suffering from post-poliomyelitis syndrome – an incurable degenerative disease – the deceased had won her fight before the Superior Court to obtain access to medical assistance in dying (MAD), in the fall of 2019. Jean Truchon – this man suffering from triple paralysis since birth died in April 2020 – had also been front in this legal fight.
Both wanted to die, but since they were not “end of life”, a criterion of Quebec law, and their death was not “reasonably foreseeable”, a criterion of Canadian law, they were refused MA. They had therefore turned to the courts to challenge the constitutionality of the two laws. The Court finally agreed with them, a decision that forced the government to review the criterion of foreseeable death within the next six months. Quebec and Ottawa have never contested the judgment of the courts.
“Among the important personalities that I have come across in my work, this is one. It was more her will to live that drove her. Although she fought for medical assistance in dying, Nicole was a fighter. She did it not only for herself but also for all the people who suffer in the conditions we know. And she always had this will to live in mind,” summarizes Gaétan Lavoie.
As for her, the painter Manon Ruffet will remember Nicole Gladu as a “true fighter” and an inspiration. “She fought to live her death in her own way. She wanted to choose. She was a woman who accepted her illness, and who lived with it for a long time, ”she concludes, offering her condolences to all the relatives of the deceased.