Georges-Henri Lévesque (February 16, 1903 – January 15, 2000) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Dominican priest and sociologist and a liberal figure during the conservative Duplessis era in Quebec.

Biography

Born in

Roberval, Quebec Roberval is a city on the south-western shore of Lac Saint-Jean in the Le Domaine-du-Roy Regional County Municipality of Quebec, Canada. With a population of 9,840 in the Canada 2021 Census, it is the fourth largest city on this lake after Alma, ...

, the son of Georges Lévesque and Laura Richard, he was ordained into the priesthood in 1928. He studied philosophy and theology at the Dominican College in Ottawa and social sciences at the School of Social Sciences of the

Université Catholique de Lille The Université catholique de Lille (also known as the Catholic University of Lille), also « University and Polytechnic Federation of Lille » is a private collegiate university of Catholic-inspired institutions established in 1875. The u ...

(France). Lévesque was a professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte- ...

from 1935 until 1938 and a professor of social philosophy at

Laval University Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Lux ...

from 1936 until 1962. In 1938, Lévesque founded the School of Social, Political and Economic Sciences of Laval University and was its first director from 1938 until 1943. The school became the Faculty of Social Sciences in 1943, and he was its first dean, from 1943 until 1955. Lévesque founded the Quebec Superior Council of Cooperation and was its first president, from 1939 until 1944. He founded the periodical ''Ensemble!'' and was its director, from 1939 until 1944. He was a member of the

Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences The Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, otherwise known as the Massey Commission, chaired by Vincent Massey, was founded in 1949. The Massey Commission examined Canada's cultural needs. Massey had long belie ...

in Canada (1949–1951). He was vice-president of the

Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal i ...

(1957–1962). He represented Canada at several international events. In 1963, he founded the

National University of Rwanda The National University of Rwanda (NUR; rw, Kaminuza nkuru y’u Rwanda, french: Université nationale du Rwanda, UNR) was the largest university in Rwanda. It was located at in the city of Butare and was established in 1963 by the government i ...

and he was its first president, from 1963 until 1971. Lévesque supported the

co-operative movement The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement bega ...

and, through his faculty, helped create new social welfare bodies such as the Conseil supérieur de la coopération and the Société d'éducation des adultes, and to modernize Québec's church-controlled social welfare organizations. As well, his Faculty of Social Science trained a generation of union organizers. His liberal and social democratic ideas and work brought him into constant conflict with the government of Premier

Maurice Duplessis Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis (; April 20, 1890 – September 7, 1959), was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 16th premier of Quebec. A conservative, nationalist, anti-Communist, anti-unionist and fervent Catholic, he and hi ...

and he is seen as one of the fathers of the

Quiet Revolution The Quiet Revolution (french: Révolution tranquille) was a period of intense socio-political and socio-cultural change in French Canada which started in Quebec after the election of 1960, characterized by the effective secularization of govern ...

that transformed Quebec society after Duplessis's death. In 1955, Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent approached Lévesque about naming him to the Senate of Canada as a non-partisan appointee. Lévesque agreed and the Dominican Order gave its permission but the appointment was vetoed by Archbishop

Maurice Roy Maurice Roy (January 25, 1905 – October 24, 1985) was a Canadian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Quebec from 1947 to 1981, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965. Early life Roy was born in Queb ...

due to concerns that allowing a priest to accept a political appointment could potentially embarrass the Church.

Honours

* He was the 1983 recipient of the Pearson Medal of Peace for his work in peacekeeping. * In 1967 he was made an officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

and was promoted to companion in 1979. * In 1985 he was made an officer of the

National Order of Quebec The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as ''l'Ordre national du Québec'', and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is an order of merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Governo ...

. * He received honorary doctorates from fourteen universities. * A sculpted bust of him was erected on the grounds of Laval University in 2002.

Notes and references

External links

Pearson Medal of Peace - Georges-Henri Lévesque

Georges-Henri Lévesque
at

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...

*
Révérend Père Georges-Henri Lévesque

Archive
.

Université de Sherbrooke The University of Sherbrooke (French: Université de Sherbrooke) (UdS) is a large public French-language university in Quebec, Canada with campuses located in Sherbrooke and Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal approximately west of Sherbrooke. It i ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Levesque, Georges-Henri 1903 births 2000 deaths 20th-century Canadian Roman Catholic priests Canadian sociologists Officers of the National Order of Quebec Companions of the Order of Canada Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur People from Roberval, Quebec Canadian Dominicans Université Laval faculty Presidents of the Canadian Political Science Association 20th-century political scientists