A pioneer of Log passed away last Sunday after a long illness. Aged 79, Jean-Denis Lamoureux had risen through the ranks to become director of information for the daily.
“He was a man with a sense of humor and great professional skill, who also had his little character,” recalls the former editor-in-chief of the Log, Paule Beaugrand-Champagne, heaping praise on her ex-colleague and friend.
A great defender of Quebec independence, Mr. Lamoureux was one of the founders of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), where he acted as communications manager in the spring of 1963.
Co-author with his friend Pierre Schneider of the manifesto “Message from the FLQ to the Nation” which denounced “the domination of colonialism” and “the exploitation of workers in Quebec”, Mr. Lamoureux had a particularly keen sense of rhetoric, remembers his friend Louis Fournier, author of the book FLQ History of an underground movement.
Ascent
However, Mr. Lamoureux’s involvement in this movement led to him being arrested and sentenced to four years in prison. It was upon his release from prison that he began his career as a journalist.
“He wrote a little letter to Pierre Péladeau, remembers his friend Louis Fournier. Mr. Péladeau told him to come, the Montreal Journal had just been founded. »
Mr. Lamoureux was thus a news reporter before joining the Quebec newspaper, where he was director for 8 years.
He then became director of communications in the office of Prime Minister René Lévesque in the 1980s, and then became involved with, among other things, Amnesty International.
“He made friends everywhere he went,” recalls Ms. Beaugrand-Champagne, speaking of Mr. Lamoureux as a man of convictions who took great care of his godchildren and goddaughters.
Back in the media, the fervent separatist was desk manager and union president at the To have tobefore returning to Log in the 1990s as director of information at the Montreal Journal.
“Those who worked with him adored him, assures Pierre Schneider, who was also his colleague. He is one of the most brilliant people I have known, of exceptional intelligence. He had a great career. »
Mr. Lamoureux’s funeral will be held at a later date in Valleyfield, the town where he was born.
Reference-www.journaldemontreal.com