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Claire L'heureux-Dubé: a Life by Constance Backhouse

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Claire L'heureux-Dubé: a Life by Constance Backhouse Document generated on 09/28/2021 1:39 a.m. Ontario History Claire L’Heureux-Dubé: A Life by Constance Backhouse Mélanie Brunet Volume 110, Number 2, Fall 2018 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1053515ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1053515ar See table of contents Publisher(s) The Ontario Historical Society ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this review Brunet, M. (2018). Review of [Claire L’Heureux-Dubé: A Life by Constance Backhouse]. Ontario History, 110(2), 232–234. https://doi.org/10.7202/1053515ar Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2018 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 232 ONTARIO HISTORY women’s basic motivation to volunteer as nurses and VADs, and VADs’ degree of sat- VADs was not a desire to nurse, but a de- isfaction with their work. Of special note sire to perform patriotic wartime service. is chapter 4, where the voices of the VADs The staggering volume of wartime casu- shine through in discussions of their work alties required more assistance than the on the wards, alternately plucky or dispir- ranks of trained nurses could provide, and ited, joyous or frustrated. young, untrained women stepped in to fill One disappointing absence is that of a the breach. sustained examination of why VADs dis- Readers familiar with Cynthia To- appeared from Canadian/Newfoundland man’s work on CAMC military nurses, memory and history of the First World or Christina Bates’ work on nursing uni- War. Quiney hints at reasons throughout forms, will notice similarities in Quiney’s the book, and chapter 5 is even subtitled discussions of the VAD image (chapter 3) “Forgetting, Remembering, and Moving and VAD work (chapter 4). In particular, On.” However, it focuses on the post-war an emphasis on respectable femininity, as lives of the VAD program and individual well as a desire to stick it out even in the members, rather than connecting back to face of trying conditions, gruelling and Quiney’s observations in the introduction gruesome work, and physical/emotional/ that “the public memory of their contribu- mental strain appear to be nearly univer- tion soon faded” (14). It feels like a missed sal elements of wartime nursing in any opportunity. Nevertheless, as the first Ca- form. Another pattern that emerges is the nadian monograph on VADs, This Small importance of location in shaping profes- Army of Women makes a valuable contribu- sional experiences: much as Toman found tion to the ongoing reshaping of Canada’s with her nurses, Quiney concludes that First World War historiography into a whether one worked in a hospital in Can- more robust body of work that includes ada, England, or France influenced the de- gender as a significant category of analysis. gree of friction between “colonial” VADs and British matrons, the types of duties Sarah Glassford, Research Associate performed, relationships between trained Wilfrid Laurier University Claire L’Heureux-Dubé: A Life By Constance Backhouse Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017. 740 pages. $49.95 hardcover, PDF, e-pub. ISBN 978-0-7748-3632-6 (ubcpress.ca) his biography of Claire L’Heureux- as well as privileged access to her closed TDubé was a colossal undertaking. records at Library and Archives Cana- The result of nine years of research and da. It documents and contextualizes the writing, it is based on over 200 interviews life of Canada’s second female Supreme with the subject, her family, friends, for- Court justice from childhood to her re- mer classmates, colleagues and law clerks, tirement, while reflecting on her reputa- fellow judges, journalists, and politicians, tion as the “Great Dissenter.” book reviews 233 Constance Backhouse approaches L’Heureux-Dubé as a recent historical figure from two angles that are often in- timately intertwined. The first is a per- sonal life marked by her disabled but ambitious mother, a disciplinarian and unsupportive father, and her husband’s and son’s struggles with mental illness and addiction. The second is her profes- sional life as an outsider, especially on the Supreme Court, as a francophone, a woman, a family law specialist, and a dissenter. This may appear to be a con- siderable shift from Backhouse’s usual technique of using individual legal cases to explore broader themes, but she sup- plements her approach with a discussion of selected decisions that have marked L’Heureux-Dubé’s fifteen years at the Su- preme Court. Also familiar is the femi- nist lens she applies to her examination of the former judge’s early life, family his- tory, and career—although it becomes clear very early on that this approach is at odds with L’Heureux-Dubé’s own interpretation and understanding of feminism. This difference of opinion is a recurring theme throughout the book, reputable and fair by using social science adding much complexity to Backhouse’s research and mediation. Despite these analysis of cases related to sexual assault significant contributions, as well as her or family law. talent and intellect, Backhouse reveals While L’Heureux-Dubé grew up that it was not a foregone conclusion that in a decidedly female environment sur- L’Heureux-Dubé would make it to the rounded by three sisters and attending bench, much less the highest court in the the Ursuline Monastery, she had few role country. Rather, she was at the right place models when she decided to study and at the right time as the women’s move- practice law in 1940s Quebec. With the ment started exercising more influence in support of a Jewish lawyer who hired her public life, including in judicial nomina- as a secretary during her legal studies and tions. Ironically, in the process, she “be- promptly made her a full-time lawyer came a standard-bearer for a movement upon her call to the bar, she specialized to which she had never belonged” (5). in family law and divorce cases. This had Indeed, throughout her judicial ca- long been considered a second-rate area reer, L’Heureux-Dubé insisted that she of law, and she attempted to make it more had never lobbied for such appointments 234 ONTARIO HISTORY and that they all came as a complete sur- as a ‘humanist’ and Backhouse adeptly prise, dismissing her connection to the demonstrates the limits of her definition larger social context of the early 1970s of social justice, one that did not prob- and beyond. A firm believer in individ- lematize race and class or their intersec- ual merit, she also claimed to have never tion with gender as further sources of experienced sexism, despite providing discrimination and inequality. This is vivid examples in her interviews with the clearly demonstrated when she led a fed- author, a disconnect that has also been eral commission on immigration in Que- observed among other women of her bec in the 1970s. She did not address generation. It also reveals that connect- race and considered the sexual advances ing L’Heureux-Dubé’s judicial decisions of white immigration officers towards to her personal experiences as woman is women of colour in a vulnerable situa- not a straightforward exercise. In addi- tion to be “private matters” (248). tion, Backhouse’s in-depth examination While Backhouse provides another of seven Supreme Court cases demon- solid contribution to legal history with strates how even L’Heureux-Dubé’s deci- this book, there are two elements that sions at the Quebec Superior Court and break the flow of the story. The author the Quebec Court of Appeal were not explains her choice of keeping some orig- a good predictor of the reputation she inal French phrases as an attempt to “un- acquired as being both a progressive re- derscore Claire L’Heureux-Dubé’s life- former over matters of social justice and long attachment to her mother tongue” a conservative one in matters of crimi- and remind “readers about the challenges nal law. Through these cases, the author of functioning in two languages” (xii). also delves into the social, cultural and However, bilingual readers may be puz- political contexts that had an impact on zled as to why some phrases were trans- the decisions in which she took part and lated but not others. The choice of im- the sometimes vicious reactions to them. ages was also surprising at times. A good The backlash to her separate concurring number of them are of people who are opinion in Ewanchuk (1999) on the only tangential to the story, often un- issue of implied consent in a sexual as- dated or clearly from a time beyond the sault case was especially severe and per- event or period being discussed. sonal, which Backhouse situates within a Overall, Backhouse paints a fas- “broader pent-up hostility toward femi- cinating portrait of a woman with an nism” (xi). “individualist streak” (545), a tendency This biography demonstrates that strengthened by her repeated experiences L’Heureux-Dubé undeniably contrib- as a rare female presence in the Quebec uted enormously to Canadian women’s legal profession and on three levels of the rights through her work in family law, judiciary. This book is a worthwhile read service on commissions, and judicial for anyone interested in Canadian legal opinions. She “came to embody the quin- history or the history of francophone tessential symbol of ‘feminism’ in the women in Quebec and Canadian society.
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