Denise Bombardier has passed away

Denise Bombardier has passed away

Entertainment News / By /

Denise Bombardier passed away on Tuesday from a deadly cancer that left Quebec in shock and orphaned by one of her sharpest feathers.

• Also read – Death of Denise Bombardier: The political world is in shock

• Also read – Death of Denise Bombardier: a shower of tributes for the columnist

“It was her liver that finally gave out,” her husband James Jackson told the Journal, still shocked at the all-too-quick departure of his lover of the past twenty years.

He explained that she was gone in less than a month. After two weeks at CHUM, Ms B. was finally transferred to the Saint-Raphaël palliative care home in Outremont in the last few days.

There she breathed her last, “calmly,” “painlessly,” and with “wisdom,” said Mr. Jackson. She was surrounded by her son Guillaume, her sister Danièle and her husband.

“It was the last phase of a fulfilled life full of things,” blows her husband.

The early morning announcement of her death caused a real shock wave, both politically, culturally and media, as well as among the general public, with whom she was very fond.

Ms. Bombardier was the Journal’s staunch columnist for a decade and had stated in her autobiography, A Life Without Fear and No Regret, that she was infatuated with controversy and controversy “for conviction and pleasure.”

Pioneering feminist and journalist

In this book, published in 2018, she tells in particular about her difficult childhood on rue De Gaspé in Montreal. She was born in 1941, in the middle of World War II, to a distant and violent father and a mother who was saddened that she was born too young.

Growing up in a world full of women, between her mother, her aunts and her grandmother, little Denise solidified her feminist beliefs from a very young age.

Notably, she was the first woman to produce and host a public affairs program on Radio-Canada television, where she spent more than 30 years as a perpetual freelancer.

Ms. Bombardier, who holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Montreal and a doctorate in sociology from the Sorbonne, was particularly recognized for her in-depth and uncompromising interviews.

She notably received Prime Ministers Pierre Elliott Trudeau and René Lévesque, French Presidents Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and François Mitterrand, and the writer Georges Simenon.

She wrote about twenty novels and essays, as well as columns for Le Devoir newspaper, before becoming a dying columnist for the Journal de Montréal, the Journal de Québec and QUB Radio. She also hosted a podcast series entitled “À haute voix” on Radio QUB, sharing her story and that of Quebec.

A FULL LIFE

  • Born in Montréal in 1941.
  • Bachelor of Arts from the University of Montreal in 1964.
  • Master’s degree in Political Science in 1971.
  • 1974 Doctorate in sociology at the Sorbonne in France.
  • Researcher then presenter at Radio-Canada, where she worked for more than 30 years.
  • First woman to host a television show with Noir sur blanc, which aired from 1979 to 1983.
  • An experienced author, she has published more than twenty books.
  • Columnist at Le Devoir from 2001 to 2012, then at the Journal from 2013.
  • Awarded Officer of the French Legion of Honor in 1993, Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 2000 and then Member of the Order of Canada in 2015.

· Listen to Alexandre Moranville-Ouellet’s interview with Gilles Proulx, columnist MontrealJournal and contributor to QUB Radio, and Pierre Karl Péladeau on QUB radio:

Sudden death

Denise Bombardier liked to say that she would “live forever”, and until the publication of her last column on our pages on May 20, her legendary form did not contradict her.

“The next day she took her car to write her column at LCN and everything was fine. From the following week she felt tired, explains her husband James Jackson. But given his age and his four columns a week plus radio and television, we thought that was normal.

Again in April she made the most of the Florida sun as she was accustomed, with no shadows on the chalkboard, and upon her return in early May she plunged back into her chronicles, eternal blue pen in hand.

Mr Jackson, who computer-transcribed all of Ms B’s texts himself before sending them to the editors, sometimes found it difficult to keep up with his favorite workaholic, even though he is a few years younger.

“I always told her she would die writing a column. I was sure she would never retire,” he said.

At her annual doctor’s visit, her doctor finally determined that something was wrong.

As a hypochondriac, Mrs. B. went to this routine appointment with the same stomach discomfort she had every year, unaware that she was ill. Shortly thereafter, she underwent a CT scan and biopsy and was hospitalized at CHUM.

“It was a shock. She kept telling me while she was at CHUM, “It’s amazing.” She couldn’t believe it,” says Mr. Jackson.

A few days ago, the couple were preparing to leave for the summer in North Hatley, where they used to spend sunny days on the shores of Lake Massawippi.

  • Listen to Alexandre Dubé’s interview with Danièle Lorain, a very good friend of Denise Bombardier and a columnist at MontrealJournal, above QUB radio:

The struggle she leaves us

Denise Bombardier was an ardent champion of the French language and Quebec, a struggle she carried body and soul through the pages of the journal and on the Quebecor channels broadcast.

She also wanted Journal de Montréal editor-in-chief Dany Doucet, who was very dear to her, to be the first to be informed of her death early Tuesday morning.

“She was at home with Quebecor,” says her husband James Jackson, who also signs texts on our pages. The group gave her free rein to talk about “her great struggle” for the language, a subject she “could have written about non-stop for months.”

“It was necessary for her to defend Quebec and the French language at all costs,” says her husband, implying that she wants us to remember this by continuing her fight.

“She would like to see young people, especially women, journalists, have the same love for the French language as she does,” says the man, who met her while teaching French at Dublin University. He had invited her to give a speech to the students.

Accompanied by Jean-François Lisée, Ms. Bombardier then impressed everyone with her verve, intelligence and elegance, he recalls with emotion.

M. Jackson emphasizes that the intellectual felt just as comfortable in a university amphitheater or in front of a television as in a pataterie surrounded by ordinary people.

“She was very close to Quebecers and common people. She loved being in Florida so much that she was surrounded by Quebecers in our building. Everyone came up to her and she talked to everyone.

Mr. Jackson states that she was concerned about the survival of the French in Canada. A concern that also led her to tour Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick for the documentary Mme B. au pays des francos.

Her fight for the language of Molière notably earned her the title of Member of the Order of Canada in 2015 for her services as a journalist, TV presenter and author.

She was previously an officer in the French Legion of Honor in 1993 and Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec in 2000.

Quebec in shock