MONTREAL – From some of Quebec’s most outspoken politicians, a hockey hall-of-famer and one of the province’s most notable religious leaders, Global News remembers those who passed away in 2015.
Claude Ruel (February 9, 2015)
Claude Ruel was a professional hockey coach for the Montreal Canadiens from 1968 to 1970, and then again from 1979 to 1981.
He died at the age of 76.
Ruel grew up playing hockey in Sherbrooke and received his first coaching job in the 1960s with the Montreal Junior Canadiens.
He led a talented group of players to a Stanley Cup championship during his first year.
Elmer Lach (April 4, 2015)
Elmer Lach was the last surviving member of the Punch Line, who dominated the NHL for four seasons in the 1940s.
He died at the age of 97.
Centering between Toe Blake and Maurice Richard, Lach won the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player in 1945, the Art Ross as the league’s point leader twice and the Stanley Cup three times, in 1944, 1946 and 1953.
Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte (April 8, 2015)
Archbishop of Montreal from 1990 to 2012, and a cardinal since 1994, Jean-Claude Turcotte rose from Montreal’s east end to become one of Canada’s best-known religious figures.
After his death at the age of 78, many Montrealers spoke of his personal warmth and compassion, as well as his commitment to fighting and reducing poverty.
Pierre-Claude Nolin (April 23, 2015)
Although he was Speaker of the Senate during the final years of the Stephen Harper era, Pierre-Claude Nolin was best remembered by Canada’s political class as a man able to work beyond party lines for the genuine good of the country.
Appointed to the Senate by Brian Mulroney in 1993, by many accounts Nolin did not always toe the Conservative line on issues like prison reform and marijuana legalization.
Nolin, 64, held the position of Speaker for only a few months before succumbing to pancreatic cancer.
Elizabeth Whittall (May 1, 2015)
Elizabeth Whittall, a Montreal-born competitive swimmer, passed away at the age of 78.
Among her many achievements, she won a silver medal in the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and two gold medals at the 1955 Pan American Games.
Whittall was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s top athlete for 1955 and was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame.
In 1987, at the age of 50, she set a Canadian record in the 200-metre freestyle for competitors in the 50-to-54 age group.
Whittall was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame on June 17, 2015.
Jacques Parizeau (June 1, 2015)
Jacques Parizeau, remembered as one of the true giants of Quebec politics, died at the age of 84.
The former Parti Québécois premier was the driving force behind the 1995 sovereignty referendum; he retired from politics after the ‘Yes’ campaign narrowly failed.
His infamous “money and the ethnic vote” comment followed him for the rest of his life, but his contribution to Quebec politics was honoured with a state funeral, attended by political figures from all parties and levels of government.
Jean Doré (June 15, 2015)
The first mayor of the post-Jean Drapeau era, Jean Doré, passed away at the age of 70 after battling pancreatic cancer.
His MCM party swept to power in 1986, ushering in a new, more democratic way of running the city following decades of closed-door municipal politics.
He served two terms, overseeing the creation of the city’s bike path network and numerous parks and beaches, including the one named after him on Île Notre-Dame.
Arthur Porter (June 30, 2015)
The mercurial entrepreneur and physician at the centre of one of the city’s highest-profile scandals died of lung cancer in a Panama prison, just two weeks after his 59th birthday.
Appointed CEO of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and tasked with overseeing the construction of the Glen Site hospital, Porter resigned in late 2011 amid allegations of bribery, corruption and fraud.
He never faced justice in Canada, but his wife Pamela Porter has since pleaded guilty to money-laundering.
Rabbi Sidney Shoham (September 20, 2015)
The Baltimore-born rabbi of the Beth Zion Congregation in Côte-Saint-Luc died at the age of 86.
Shoham, a towering figure in the Montreal Jewish community, known as a powerful orator and tireless organizer, was the only rabbi to chair the Combined Jewish Appeal.
He also co-founded the Canadian Rabbinic Cabinet.
Edwin Briggs (November 29, 2015)
The former mayor of the City of Beaconsfield, Edwin Briggs, who was elected as Councillor from 1956 until 1960 and served as Mayor from 1960 until 1982, passed away at the age of 90.
He is remembered as one of the actors who contributed to the growth of the city.
Under his administration, Beaconsfield experienced a boom in the development of its social and sports resources, including the construction of city hall, the recreation centre, the library, the fire station, the sewage treatment plant, soccer and baseball fields as well as the lawn bowling greens.
Dickie Moore (December 19, 2015)
Dickie Moore was a gritty goal-scorer and playmaker who was part of the Montreal Canadiens dynasty of the 1950s – though he wasn’t quite as famous as some of his legendary teammates.
Moore, who died at the age of 84, was too often a footnote in tales of the great Habs teams that won five Stanley Cups in a row from 1956 to 1960.
It was a group that boasted Maurice (Rocket) Richard, Jean Béliveau, Bernard (Boom Boom) Geoffrion, Doug Harvey and goalie Jacques Plante.
rachel.lau@globalnews.ca
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