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Defender of social justice dies

Concordia recognized Madeleine Parent's lifelong struggle for justice for women and workers
March 21, 2012
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By Tom Peacock


Madeleine Parent, a tireless fighter for the legal and social rights of women and the working class in Quebec, passed away March 12 at the age of 93. Parent had a long relationship with Concordia, and received an honorary doctorate from the university in 1984.

“In honouring her, one honours people who have shared her commitment in working for autonomous Canadian unions and the rights of women,” wrote Elizabeth Saccà in her citation.

Madeleine Parent, 1949, Montréal. | Photo by A. G. Nakash
Madeleine Parent, 1949, Montreal. | Photo by A. G. Nakash

A public memorial service for Parent will be held at the Centre Funéraire Côte-des-Neiges on Sunday, April 1 at 2 p.m. All members of the Concordia Community are encouraged to attend.

Parent was born into privilege, but her social conscious was awakened during her years as a boarder at the Villa-Maria convent. During an interview with the CBC in 1980, she recalled being appalled by how the servants girls were treated. “We were not supposed to fraternize with them in any way. They were just non-persons in the convent.”

As a sociology student at McGill, Parent lobbied for university scholarships for working class children. Two years after graduating she began working as a labour union organizer. Her first major assignment was organizing Dominion Textile workers who eventually walked out in protest over terrible working conditions. The company settled in Montreal, but tried to break the strike at the Valleyfield plant. Violence ensued, but the workers, rallying behind Parent and fellow organizer Kent Rowley, eventually earned a victory.

Parent’s unwavering commitment to the labour movement drew the attention of Quebec’s governing officials, and she was arrested five times. In 1948, she was convicted of seditious conspiracy, sentenced to jail time, and branded a Communist. Eventually, though, a new trial was ordered and Parent was never put behind bars.

Though Parent was married to another organizer, she eventually divorced him and married Rowley in 1953. “He treated her like a fellow militant and not just a pretty girl, says Maïr Verthuy, founding principal of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia. “That was very important and gave her confidence, too, I think, in what she was doing.”

In the early 50s, most Canadian unions had U.S.-based headquarters. In 1953, Rowley and Parent refused to sign a contract with their headquarters, and began the long and arduous task of building an independent Canadian labour movement.

“They argued this case before workers everywhere in Canada,” wrote Parent’s friend and newspaper columnist Rick Salutin in a tribute to her. “Both could turn around a dire situation on the picket line or in a union hall with the power of their words. They made plenty of enemies.” The duo’s work led to the creation of the Confederation of Canadian Unions in 1968.

Throughout her career, Parent was a staunch defender of the rights of women. She played an instrumental role in the creation of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, and served as the Quebec representative for eight years. She also fought for abortion rights, pay equity, and rights for aboriginal and immigrant women.

Verthuy remembers inviting Parent to speak about the history of women in unions in Quebec at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute shortly after it opened in 1978. “I desperately wanted her to come to the institute,” Verthuy recalls. “She came in, she had this terrible flu, but the minute she started speaking all the adrenaline came, and she was pumped up … And she didn’t need to read it, she had it all at her fingertips. She was just so stimulating.”

Over the years, Parent maintained a very close relationship with the Simone de Beauvoir Institute. Former principal of the institute Arpi Hamalian says Parent was a “pillar of strength” whenever she needed strategic advice.

“During the public transport strike, frail though she was, she would walk several kilometres to attend our meetings and to participate in our events.” Hamalian recalls. “We offered to send a taxi or to drive her to the meetings ourselves, but she refused, arguing that taking any alternative means of transportation would weaken the strikers’ position.”

Parent had a huge impact on the university as a whole, says Maria Peluso, head of Concordia’s part-time faculty association (CUPFA). “She provided students, faculty and the community at-large with the energy needed to advance the status of women, achieve better working conditions and ardently defend the need for peace and a clean environment.”

Peluso remembers her students being in awe of Parent’s incredible power as a speaker. “There was no greater moment for students in the political science course Women and Politics in Canada than to meet one of the women who helped secure the vote for women in Quebec,” she says. “She revealed to students the need to not lose sight of the prize.”

What: Memorial Service for Madeleine Parent
When: Sunday, April 1 at 2 p.m.
Where: Centre funeraire Côte-des-Neiges (4525 Côte-des-Neiges Rd.)

Related links:
•  Madeleine Parent – Honorary Degree Citation 
•  Simone de Beauvoir Institute 
•  Confederation of Canadian Unions 

 



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