{{Short description|Canadian activist and feminist (1919–1993)}} {{Infobox person | name = Simonne Monet-Chartrand | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1919|11|04}} | birth_place = Montreal, Quebec, Canada | death_date = {{death date and age|1993|01|18|1919|11|04}} | death_place = Richelieu, Quebec, Canada | known_for = | spouse = Michel Chartrand | relatives = Dominique Monet (grandfather) | children = Alain Chartrand | occupation = | alma_mater = Université de Montréal | political_party = Bloc populaire <br> Rhinoceros Party | nationality = }} '''Simonne Monet-Chartrand''' (November 4, 1919 – January 18, 1993) was a Canadian labor activist, feminist writer, and pacifist.<ref name="Canada_Encyclopedia">{{cite web|title=Monet-Chartrand, Simonne|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/simonne-monet-chartrand|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920191109/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/simonne-monet-chartrand/|archive-date=2017-09-20|access-date=30 December 2010|website=The Canadian Encyclopedia|publisher=The Canadian Encyclopedia}}</ref>
She was an advocate for syndicalist causes and a proponent of women in the labor movement. A co-founder of Concordia University's Simone de Beauvoir Institute, dedicated to feminist studies, Monet-Chartrand also co-founded the Federation des femmes du Quebec, the pacifist movement Voix des Femmes, and the Movement for Nuclear Disarmament.<ref name="Canada_Encyclopedia"/>
== Early life == Simonne Monet-Chartrand was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1919. Her parents were Aurore-Berthe Alain and Amédée Monet, who was a judge, as was her grandfather Dominique Monet. Her family was well-off, spending summers on the Richelieu River in Beloeil.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=ICI.Radio-Canada.ca|first=Zone Société-|title=Simonne Monet-Chartrand, une militante d'exception dans l'histoire du Québec|url=https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1078346/simonne-monet-chartrand-feminisme-syndicalisme-archives|access-date=2020-09-08|website=Radio-Canada.ca|date=16 January 2018 |language=fr-ca}}</ref> She studied at a Catholic boarding school in Montreal, and began noting the inequalities between boys and girls at a young age.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|last=Terreur-Picard|first=Simon La|title=Simonne Monet-Chartrand, Québec (1919-1993)|date=2014-12-09|url=https://citoyennes.pressbooks.com/chapter/simonne-monet-chartrand-quebec/|work=Citoyennes|publisher=Éditions science et bien commun|language=fr-ca|access-date=2020-09-08}}</ref> A dark stain on her otherwise idyllic childhood was the death of her brother Roger, of tuberculosis; Monet-Chartrand also caught the disease, but she survived thanks to a long stay in a sanatorium in the Laurentides.<ref name=":0" />
After graduating high school, she attended the Université de Montréal from 1939 to 1942, where she studied literature.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Simonne Monet-Chartrand {{!}} l'Encyclopédie Canadienne|url=https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/fr/article/simonne-monet-chartrand|access-date=2020-09-08|website=thecanadianencyclopedia.ca}}</ref><ref name=":0" />
Her activist career began with joining the Jeunesse Étudiante Chrétienne, a youth organization of the Catholic social movement, during her student years.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-10-12|title=Simonne Monet-Chartrand, femme de tous les combats|url=http://ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emissions/aujourd-hui-l-histoire/segments/entrevue/42151/simonne-monet-chartrand-militante-catherine-foisy|access-date=2020-09-08|website=Radio-Canada|language=fr}}</ref> She led the organization's provincial-level board of directors and began to work with a number of influential activist figures, including fellow Catholic youth leader Michel Chartrand.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Monet-Chartrand, Simonne|url=https://grandquebec.com/gens-du-pays/simonne-monet-chartrand/|access-date=2020-09-08|website=Grand Quebec|date=19 August 2013 |language=fr-FR}}</ref> Her upper-class family opposed her relationship with the working-class Chartrand—they temporarily sent her to Chicago in the United States in an effort to split the couple up, and three priests refused to marry them before they could find one who would agree to do so. Nevertheless, the two wed in 1942.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Martin|first=Douglas|date=2010-04-17|title=Michel Chartrand, Fiery Labor Union Leader in Quebec, Is Dead at 93|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/world/americas/18chartrand.html|access-date=2020-09-08|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Barbeau-Lavalette, Anaïs, 1979-|title=Nos héroïnes|others=Cinq-Mars, Mathilde, 1988-|year=2018 |isbn=978-2-923896-90-8|location=[Montréal, Québec]|oclc=1078906963}}</ref> They would go on to have seven children together and to support each other in their political activism.<ref name=":0" />
== Career == Monet-Chartrand took up the cause of feminism beginning in the 1930s, fighting for women's right to vote in Quebec, which was the last province to institute women's suffrage.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-03-08|title=Se souvenir : Simonne Monet-Chartrand, une pionnière inspirante|url=https://liguedesdroits.ca/se-souvenir-simonne-monet-chartrand-une-pionniere-inspirante/|access-date=2020-09-08|website=Ligue des droits et libertés|language=fr-FR}}</ref> Her political involvement grew during the Conscription Crisis of 1944, and she joined the Bloc populaire, an anti-conscription political party.<ref name="Canada_Encyclopedia" />
In the 1950s, Monet-Chartrand joined the labor movement, helping the wives of strikers and arguing that women should be able to participate in union contract negotiations.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Lanoix|first=Alexandre|title=Michel et Simmone Chartrand|url=https://primaire.recitus.qc.ca/sujet/organisation/quebec-1980/content/michel-et-simonne-chartrand|website=Sociétés et Territoires}}</ref> She was a member of the socio-political committee for the Quebec Teachers Union, and in the '70s she worked for the teachers' union in Champlain, Quebec.<ref name="Canada_Encyclopedia" />
In the '60s, Monet-Chartrand co-founded the pacifist group Voix des Femmes and the Fédération des femmes du Québec, a feminist organization.<ref name=":2" /> Her anti-war activism had begun with opposition to World War II and an anti-nuclear instinct in response to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which she stuck with through the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War.<ref>{{Cite web|title=1991 - Simonne Monnet-Chartrand précise sa conception du pacifisme|url=http://bilan.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/pages/clips/275.html|access-date=2020-09-08|website=bilan.usherbrooke.ca}}</ref> She was also a co-founder of the Movement for Nuclear Disarmament.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Simonne Monet-Chartrand|url=https://www.womeninpeace.org/m-names/2017/7/10/simonne-monet-chartrand|access-date=2020-09-08|website=Women In Peace|date=27 February 2017 |language=en-US}}</ref>
Monet-Chartrand's activism, particularly her feminist organizing, extended internationally. She attended women's conferences in Europe and represented the Human Rights League of Quebec at conferences in the Middle East.<ref name=":2" /> She organized the Peace Train's arrival in Ottawa in 1962 to present the demands of feminist pacifists.<ref name="Canada_Encyclopedia" /><ref name=":3" /> She also held a conference to express these demands during Expo 67.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Parc Simonne-Monet-Chartrand {{!}} Le Saint-Joseph|url=https://www.lesaint-joseph.com/je-me-souviens/parc-simonne-monet-chartrand/|access-date=2020-09-08|website=www.lesaint-joseph.com}}</ref>
In 1978 and 1979, Monet-Chartrand returned to her studies at Concordia University, where she also co-founded the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, a college dedicated to feminist studies.<ref name="Canada_Encyclopedia" /> In 1979, she was a candidate for the Rhinoceros Party, a satirical political party, to represent the district of Longueuil in Parliament. She received 5 percent of the vote.<ref>{{Cite web|date=1979|title=Élections générales|url=http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/FederalRidingsHistory/hfer.asp?Language=F&Search=Gres&genElection=31&ridProvince=10&submit1=Recherche|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parl.gc.ca%2FAbout%2FParliament%2FFederalRidingsHistory%2Fhfer.asp%3FLanguage%3DF%26Search%3DGres%26genElection%3D31%26ridProvince%3D10%26submit1%3DRecherche|archive-date=2015-10-06|website=Bibliothèque du Parlement}}</ref>
Monet-Chartrand also worked as a journalist, contributing to various publications as a writer, including ''Châtelaine'', ''La Vie en rose'', and ''Les têtes de pioche.''<ref name="Canada_Encyclopedia" /> She was also a longtime writer, researcher, and presenter for Radio Canada, particularly for religious broadcasts and women’s broadcasts.<ref name="Canada_Encyclopedia" /> Her work as a writer also included her four-volume autobiography, ''Ma vie comme rivière'', which was originally published in 1981 and re-issued with updates in 1992.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Monet-Chartrand|first=Simonne|title=Ma vie comme rivière : récit autobiographique.|publisher=Editions du Remue-Ménage|year=1992|isbn=2-89091-115-2|oclc=868573896}}</ref> Her second book, focusing on her pacifist activism, was published in 1988 with the title ''L'espoir et le défi de la paix.''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Monet Chartrand, Simonne, 1919-1993.|title=L'espoir et le défi de la paix|date=1988|publisher=Guérin littérature|others=Villemaire, Carmen.|isbn=2-7601-2012-0|location=Montréal, Québec|oclc=20628197}}</ref> She also wrote a two-volume history of Quebec's women, published in 1990 and 1994.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bergeron|first=Marthe|date=1994|title=Simonne Monet-Chartrand : Pionnières québécoises et regroupements de femmes 1970-1990|journal=Recherches féministes|language=fr|volume=7|issue=2|pages=168–170|doi=10.7202/057804ar |s2cid=178551054 |issn=0838-4479|doi-access=free}}</ref>
In 1992, she received the Prix Idola Saint-Jean for her feminist work.<ref name=":1" />
In her own words, Monet Chartrand fought to "build a socialist society."<ref name=":1" /> She also remained a deeply religious person, true to her roots on the Catholic left.<ref name=":2" /> As she once said, in response to being called a "fanatic":<blockquote>"Christ was a fanatic, and anybody who ever accomplished anything for their country was a fanatic."<ref name=":3" /></blockquote>
== Death and legacy == [[File:Drapeau blanc 55-o.art.pub-drapblanc-10.jpg|alt=A sculpture bearing a quote from Simonne Monet-Chartrand|thumb|A sculpture bearing a quote from Simonne Monet-Chartrand at Laval University.]] Simonne Monet-Chartrand died of cancer on January 18, 1993, in Richelieu.<ref name=":2" />
In 1996, her son Alain Chartrand and the filmmaker Diane Cailhier released a film about her life, titled ''My Life Is a River (Une vie comme rivière)''.<ref name="Canada_Encyclopedia" /> They also produced a television mini-series about Monet-Chartrand and her husband called ''Chartrand et Simonne'' in 2000.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Chartrand et Simonne {{!}} History of Canadian Broadcasting|url=https://www.broadcasting-history.ca/programming/television/chartrand-et-simonne|access-date=2020-09-08|website=www.broadcasting-history.ca}}</ref>
Several buildings and institutions have been named for her, including a center for victims of domestic violence and an elementary school in Montreal.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Montréal: murale d'hommage à Simonne Monet|url=https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/479995/montreal-murale-d-hommage-a-simonne-monet|access-date=2020-09-08|website=Le Devoir|date=15 September 2016 |language=fr}}</ref>
In September 2023, Monet-Chartrand was one of three Quebec feminists and trade unionists, along with Madeleine Parent and Léa Roback, honoured by Canada Post with a postage stamp.<ref name="Gazette2023">{{cite news |title=Canada Post to honour three Quebec feminists with stamps |url=https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/canada-post-to-honour-three-quebec-feminists-with-stamps |publisher=Montreal Gazette |date=August 23, 2023}}</ref>
==Electoral record== {{Canadian election result/top|CA|1979|percent=yes|change=yes}} {{CANelec|CA|Liberal|Jacques Olivier|34,207|61.3|+9.5}} {{CANelec|CA|Social Credit|Robert S. Daoust|8,173|14.6|-1.2}} {{CANelec|CA|PC|Georges Perrier|5,952|10.7|-5.5}} {{CANelec|CA|NDP|Jean-Pierre Vaillancourt|3,995|7.2|-5.6}} {{CANelec|CA|Rhinoceros (historical)|Simonne Monet Chartrand|2,556|4.6|}} {{CANelec|CA|Union populaire|Louis Denoncourt|764|1.4|}} {{CANelec|CA|Marxist-Leninist|Yves Boyer|176|0.3|-0.4}} {{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|55,823| 100.0}} {{end}}
==See also== *List of peace activists
== Selected works ==
* ''Ma vie comme rivière'', 1981 * ''L'espoir et le défi de la paix'', 1988 * ''Pionnières québécoises et regroupements de femmes d'hier à aujourd'hui'', 1990 * ''Les Québécoises et le mouvement pacifiste : 1939-1967'', 1993 * ''Pionnières québécoises et regroupements de femmes : 1970-1990'', 1994
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Monet-Chartrand, Simonne}} Category:Canadian activists Category:Canadian feminists Category:Canadian pacifists Category:Pacifist feminists Category:Rhinoceros Party of Canada candidates in the 1979 Canadian federal election Category:Quebec candidates for Member of Parliament Category:1919 births Category:1993 deaths Category:Canadian women activists Category:20th-century Canadian women writers Category:20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers Category:Canadian women non-fiction writers Category:Canadian feminist writers