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]

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][lower-alpha 1] 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 in the late 1960s and on an extraordinary challenge committee in connection with NAFTA in 1994.[1]

Activism

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

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

Works

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

Notes

  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

  1. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 Backhouse 2017, p. 579.
  7. 1 2 Legault, Marthe (10 December 2013). "Réjane L. Colas". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  8. 1 2 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. 1 2 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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