03/12/2025
On this day in 2012, Madeleine Parent died in Montreal.
Through her life, she fought for workers' rights in Quebec and Canada. For her efforts, she was arrested, charged and put on trial.
Let's learn more about her story!
Madeleine Parent was born on June 23, 1918 in Montreal. In 1940, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University. It was there she first got involved in collective action when she joined the Canadian Students Assembly to campaign for financial aid.
She also met Val Bjarnason at the university. They married in 1941 but divorced a few years later.
In 1942, she became the secretary of the Montreal Trades and Labour Council organizing committee.
One year later, she became a key union organizer with Kent Rowley.
By 1946, she and Rowley had organized 6,000 textile workers into a union. They soon launched a strike against Dominion Textile.
Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis labelled Parent a communist. She was arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy.
Despite Parent's arrest, she helped the strikers win their strike and create their union.
She then organized 700 wool workers into a strike in 1947 that lasted five months.
Once again, she was charged with seditious conspiracy and sentenced to six months in prison.
Through appeals and a trial that was one of the longest in Quebec's history, she was acquitted on all charges.
In 1952, she organized the Canadian Textile and Chemical Union with Rowley.
One year later, Rowley and Parent married.
In 1969, she and Rowley formed the Confederation of Canadian Unions. The purpose of the organization was to repatriate Canadian unions that at the time were part of American parent union organizations.
In 1968, 70% of Quebec workers paid dues to US unions.
Following the death of Duplessis in 1959 and a provincial government more favourable to unions, Parent started to focus more on women's rights.
She helped found the National Action Committee on the Status of Women.
She also campaigned for Indigenous women's rights.
Rowley died in 1978 and Parent continued her activism work. In 1979, she led a strike against Purtex over their use of surveillance cameras to monitor workers, including at bathroom entrances.
In 1983, she retired from union work but continued her activism.
Parent became involved with the Fédération des femmes du Québec and participated in the World March of Women in 1995 and 2000.
She denounced NAFTA and both Gulf Wars in 1991 and 2002.
Madeleine Parent died in her sleep during the night of March 11-12, 2012.
A public square in Valleyfield is named for her. There is a park in Montreal that has been named for her.
A bridge over the Beauharnois Canal carries her name, and in 2023 she was featured on a Canada Post stamp.
Learn more in my Deep Dive 👇
https://canadaehx.com/2023/03/14/madeleine-parent/
I hope you enjoyed that look at the life of Madeleine Parent.
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