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Réjane Laberge-Colas

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The Honourable
Réjane Laberge-Colas
Judge of the Quebec Superior Court
In office
21 February 1969 – 1994
Appointed byJohn Turner
Personal details
Born(1923-10-08)8 October 1923
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died9 August 2009(2009-08-09) (aged 85)
Magog, Quebec, Canada
Spouse
Émile Colas
(m. 1958)
Education
OccupationJudge and lawyer
AwardsOrder of Canada (1997)

Réjane Laberge-Colas OC QC (8 October 1923 – 9 August 2009) was a judge of the Quebec Superior Court, sitting in Montreal, and the first woman to serve as a superior court judge in Canada.[1] She was a founder and the first president of the Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ).[2] Laberge-Colas was inducted to the Order of Canada in 1997.[1]

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After placing first in the 1952 Quebec bar exam,[3] Laberge-Colas began her career as in-house counsel to Aluminium Secretariat Ltd,[4] an affiliate of what is now Alcan.[5] In 1957, she took a position as an articling student at Geoffrion et Prud'homme, a corporate law firm.[6][a] She was named a Queen's Counsel in 1968.[7]

Laberge-Colas practised at Geoffrion et Prud'homme until 1969, when she was appointed to the bench. She served as a judge of the Quebec Superior Court until 1994.[4]

Among other professional activities, Laberge served in the family law section of Office de révision du Code civil du Québec [fr] in the late 1960s and on an extraordinary challenge committee in connection with NAFTA in 1994.[1]

Activism

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In the mid-1960s, Laberge-Colas was a member of the Ligue des droits de l'homme du Quebec (Quebec Human Rights League), an organization which advocated for the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.[8]

Along with Thérèse Casgrain and Monique Bégin, Laberge-Colas founded the Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) in Montreal during a conference that ran from 23 to 24 April 1966.[9] At the conference, Laberge-Colas was named the FFQ's first president.[9] A number of members of the Ligue were also members of FFQ.[8]

Personal life

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Laberge-Colas was born in Montreal to Xiste Laberge and Isabelle Lefebvre.[6] She married Émile Colas, a lawyer, in 1958.[7]

Works

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  • Laberge-Colas, Réjane (1963). "L'incapacité de la femme mariée". La Revue du Barreau (in French). 23 (10): 572–576.

Notes

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  1. ^ Geoffrion et Prud'homme were counsel to the Aluminum Company in Quebec as of the early 1940s, so it is probable that Laberge-Colas obtained her position with the firm through connections in the aluminum industry. See Massell, David Perera (2011). Quebec Hydropolitics: The Peribonka Concessions of the Second World War. Montreal: McGill–Queen's University Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7735-9097-7. OCLC 820839325.

References

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  1. ^ a b c The Canadian Press. "Réjane Laberge-Colas (1923-2009) - Décès d'une pionnière de la magistrature". Le Devoir (in French). Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  2. ^ Backhouse 2017, p. 228.
  3. ^ "Décès de l'honorable Réjane Laberge-Colas". Droit-Inc. (in French). 11 August 2009. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020.
  4. ^ a b Fitterman, Lisa (24 August 2009). "She shattered barriers in the courthouse". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  5. ^ See Study of Monopoly Power: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Study of Monopoly Power of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Eighty-second Congress, First Session, Parts 1–4. Government Printing Office. 1951. p. 224. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  6. ^ a b Backhouse 2017, p. 579.
  7. ^ a b Legault, Marthe (10 December 2013). "Réjane L. Colas". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  8. ^ a b Beaumier, Marie-Laurence B. (2017). "Les voix des femmes à la Ligue des droits de l'homme du Quebec : ouvertures, tensions, debats, 1963–1980". Recherches Féministes (in French). 30 (2): 240–241. doi:10.7202/1043931ar. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  9. ^ a b Bégin, Monique (2019). Ladies, Upstairs!: My Life in Politics and After. Montreal: McGill–Queen's University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-7735-5584-6. OCLC 1079008296.

Bibliography

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