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Calon, Christian. Composer, b Marseilles, France, 5 Sep 1950. He settled in Montreal in 1966. Self-taught for the most part, he did a year of graduate studies in computer music at McGill University and has also been influenced by his compatriot, friend, and mentor Francis Dhomont.

Michel (Marc) Gervais. Conductor, b McLennan, northern Alberta, 25 Ap 1955; B MUS (Alberta) 1978.

In early Canada, the enslavement of African peoples was a legal instrument that helped fuel colonial economic enterprise. The buying, selling and enslavement of Black people was practiced by European traders and colonists in New France in the early 1600s, and lasted until it was abolished throughout British North America in 1834. During that two-century period, settlers in what would eventually become Canada were involved in the transatlantic slave trade. Canada is further linked to the institution of enslavement through its history of international trade. Products such as salted cod and timber were exchanged for slave-produced goods such as rum, molasses, tobacco and sugar from slaveholding colonies in the Caribbean. 

This is the full-length entry about Black enslavement in Canada. For a plain language summary, please see Black Enslavement in Canada (Plain Language Summary).

(See also Olivier Le Jeune; Sir David Kirke; Chloe Cooley and the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada; Underground Railroad; Fugitive Slave Act of 1850; Slavery Abolition Act, 1833;  Slavery of Indigenous People in Canada.)

Robert Charbonneau, journalist, writer (b at Montréal 3 Feb 1911; d at St-Jovite, Qué 26 June 1967). Because of Charbonneau's work, French Canadian literature, particularly the novel, underwent a profound transformation.

Jean-Pierre Pinson. Musicologist, teacher, flutist, b Orléans, France, 12 Dec 1943; L LITT (Poitiers) 1967; Certificate in musicology (Poitiers) 1977, MA musicology (Montreal) 1977, PH D musicology (Montreal) 1981.

Jean Nicollet de Belleborne, interpreter, explorer (b at Cherbourg, France c 1598; d at Sillery, Qué 27 Oct 1642).

Robert Arthur Douglas Ford, diplomat, poet (b at Ottawa 8 Jan 1915; d at Vichy, France 12 Apr 1998).

Charles Philippe Leblond, anatomist, cell biologist (born at Lille, France 5 Feb 1910; died at Montréal, 10 Apr 2007).

Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane, naval officer (b at Scotland 23 Apr 1758; d at Paris, France 26 Jan 1832).

Hortense Gordon, painter (born 24 November 1886 in Hamilton, ON; died 6 November 1961 in Hamilton). Hortense Gordon was one of two female founding members of the Ontario-based group of abstract artists known as Painters Eleven.

Marie-Joseph Angélique (born circa 1705 in Madeira, Portugal; died 21 June 1734 in Montréal, QC). Angélique was an enslaved Black woman owned by Thérèse de Couagne de Francheville in Montréal. In 1734, she was charged with arson after a fire leveled Montréal’s merchants' quarter. It was alleged that Angélique committed the act while attempting to flee her bondage. She was convicted, tortured and hanged. While it remains unknown whether or not she set the fire, Angélique’s story has come to symbolize Black resistance and freedom.

François de Laval, first bishop of Québec (born François-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval de Montigny on 30 April 1623 in Montigny-sur-Avre, France; died 6 May 1708 in Québec).

Jacques Marquette, Jesuit priest, missionary, explorer (b at Laon, France 10 June 1637; d at the mouth of a river later called the Père Marquette R, Mich 18 May 1675).

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, Comte de Bougainville, soldier, sailor (b at Paris, France 12 Nov 1729; d there 20 Aug 1811). After studying law and mathematics, he published a Traité de calcul intégral (1754-56) and was elected to the Royal Society (London).

French is one of Canada’s two official languages. Although every province in Canada has people whose mother tongue is French, Québec is the only province where speakers of French are in the majority. In 2011, 7,054,975 people in Canada (21 per cent of the country’s population) had French as their mother tongue.

In Canada, the word anglophone refers to someone for whom English is their first language, the one they typically use most often to speak, read, write and think, and the one they use most often at home. In the 2016 census, 20,193,335 Canadians representing 58.1 per cent of the total population reported English as their mother tongue.

Richard Verreau (Verreault). Tenor, b Château-Richer, near Québec City, 1 Jan 1926, d 6 Jul 2005. Verreau began singing in his parish church. After winning a Québec Symphony Orchestra competition for young artists he decided in 1945 to enter Laval University.

Kenneth Gilbert, OC, RSC,  harpsichordist, organist, musicologist, teacher (born 16 December 1931 in Montreal, QC; died 15 April 2020 in Quebec City, QC). Hon D MUS (McGill) 1981. 

Sarah Fischer, soprano, teacher (b at Paris, France 23 Feb 1896; Canadian citizen 1912; d at Montréal 3 May 1975).