Retired Senator and former journalist Joan Fraser is being recognized this year by the Quebec Community Groups Network for her achievements. She is one of four Anglophone Quebecers to receive the Goldbloom award for 2019.
Part of the reason she won the award was her work as editorial writer and then editor-in-chief at the Montreal Gazette during the sovereignty debate in Quebec in the ’80s and ’90s. She said the atmosphere was distressing because of the tensions and divisions she said it created.
As a journalist, though, she also found the whole thing fascinating and tried to be a constructive voice.
“Emotions ran very, very high and very deep at that time,” she remembers, “and I always thought that appealing to reason as well as to principle was perhaps the most constructive way to go.”
One of her principles, some observed, was to show different points of view.
“Defending language rights to some degree, of the anglophones, but also acknowledging that we were living in a French province,” former Gazette editorial writer Peter Hadekel told Global News.
He also credited her for getting the newspaper to effectively analyze the consequences of Quebec separation.
“She wanted our newspaper to really investigate fully, all the issues that would be at stake in a vote such as this,” he said.
Fraser was later appointed to the senate by former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, a career she found enriching.
“In some ways, it was almost like journalism in that there were just so many subjects that came across your desk that you had to learn about,” she explained.
She served on several committees, including one on official languages, and worked to advance the status of women. In 2018, she retired.
These days she doesn’t see the same anxieties in Quebec as there were decades ago.
She pointed out, though, that things will flare up now and then, stressing that “between any majority and any minority there will always be moments where things aren’t going as smoothly as one might wish.”
But she believes the differences and debates strengthen the province.
“That’s part of the condition, and part of what’s terrific about living in Quebec,” she grinned. “We have to be constantly aware of each other, and I find that stimulating!”