The missing people of 2023: discover the Quebec and Canadian personalities who have left us

Several Quebec and Canadian figures from different fields passed away in 2023. Here is a retrospective of those who have unfortunately left us. This list does not include the great departed from the world of arts and sports.

• Read also: Cultural retrospective 2023: a year of controversy and great mourning

• Read also: Review 2023: missing people from sport that we will not forget

Denise Bombardier, 1941-2023

Journalist, writer, host and columnist, Denise Bombardier will have left her mark on the Quebec cultural landscape. She was notably the first woman to produce and host a public affairs program on Radio-Canada television, where she spent more than 30 years. She was a columnist for the newspaper The duty before writing columns for The Montreal Journal since 2013. Author of around twenty novels and essays, she was also known throughout the French-speaking world because of her outspokenness. In France, she became known in 1990 for publicly opposing the writer Gabriel Matzneff on television, who recounts his adventures with minors in several of his books, at the risk of his own career. . Denise Bombardier was decorated as an officer of the French Legion of Honor in 1993, a knight of the National Order of Quebec in 2000, then a member of the Order of Canada in 2015. She died of a devastating cancer in July 2023.

Harvey Linwood Mead, 1940-2023

A pioneer of the Quebec environmental movement, Harvey Linwood Mead was a teacher before being appointed assistant deputy minister for Sustainable Development and Conservation at the Quebec Ministry of the Environment, from 1990 to 1991. In 2006, he became the first commissioner sustainable development of Quebec for a two-year mandate. He is also the founder of the Nature Québec organization. Harvey Linwood Mead died on January 14 after a long illness at the age of 82.

Marc Lalonde, 1929-2023

A lawyer by training, Marc Lalonde was Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s chief of staff from 1968 to 1972 before heading several ministries, including National Health and Social Welfare (1972-1977), Energy, Mines and Resources (1980-1982), or Finance (1982-1984). He died last May, at age 93.

Nadine Girault, 1959-2023

Member of Parliament for Bertrand for four years (2018-2022), Nadine Girault held several positions within the CAQ government during this period. She was Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie, Minister responsible for the Laurentides region as well as Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration. She died at the age of 63 from lung cancer on February 13.

Claude Cormier, 1960-2023

Claude Cormier is the landscape architect behind the Montreal Ring and the Village boules. He is also at the origin of several architectural emblems which have marked tourists and residents in Toronto and the United States. He died of cancer last September at the age of 63.

Roger Thibault, 1946-2023

Roger Thibault is one of the first same-sex couples to marry in Canada. He married Theo Wouters on July 18, 2002 in Montreal in a legal civil union. Their union was made federally official almost three years later, on July 20, 2005. Mr. Thibault suffered from Parkinson’s disease, he died at age 77 last August.

Patrick Morin, 1927-2023

Patrick Morin is the founder of the hardware stores of the same name. He founded his first hardware store with his wife, Denise Benny, in Sainte-Marcelline-de-Kildare, in Lanaudière, in 1960. The Patrick Morin hardware stores were resold in February 2021 to Groupe Turcotte and Home Hardware Stores. There are more than twenty branches in the province. Mr. Morin died in December 2023 at the age of 96.

Jacques-Yvan Morin, 1931-2023

Before entering politics under the banner of the Parti Québécois, Jacques-Yvan Morin was professor of public and constitutional international law at the University of Montreal. He was then a defeated candidate in the Bourrassa riding in 1970, but finally entered the National Assembly in 1973. He was vice-premier of Quebec (1976-1984) and minister of Education in the government by René Lévesque (1976-1980). He died last July at the age of 92.

Michel Biron, 1934-2023

The businessman was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien on October 4, 2001. Michel Biron was also the president of the telecommunications and cable company Sogetel since 1967. He died at the month of April in Saint-Nicolet at 89 years old.

Frédéric Bastien, 1969-2023

A historian by training, Frédéric Bastien was a professor at Cégep Dawson in Montreal before becoming a columnist for The Montreal Journal And The Quebec Journal, where he maintained a blog, in addition to contributing to the History section. More recently, he was a candidate for leadership of the Parti Québécois in 2020, facing Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, Sylvain Gaudreault and Guy Nantel. He died last May at the age of 53.

Pierre Schneider, 1945-2023

An activist committed to the independence of Quebec, Pierre Schneider is one of the co-founders of the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ). He is the author of half a dozen works, including collections of poems and more committed writings on the independence of the province and on his own experience within the FLQ. He was also a journalist, then an executive at Montreal JournalL. He died in April at age 78.

Others missing:

Ryan Smolkin, 1973-2023: founder of the popular poutinerie chain Smoke’s Poutinerie;

Léon Courville, 1945-2023: economist who became one of the pillars of viticulture in Quebec;

Jacques Cossette-Trudel, 1947-2023: member of the Quebec Liberation Front, from 1969 to 1971;

Ghislain Lebel, 1946-2023: Quebec politician and former member of the Bloc Québécois in the House of Commons of Canada.

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