Université de Montréal decides to keep the name of Pavillon Lionel-Groulx

How can some of the positions held by Father Lionel Groulx, one of French Canada’s best-known historians of the early and mid-20th century, be reconciled today with the values of his alma mater, Université de Montréal?

This was one of the questions that UdeM’s toponymy committee had to consider after it was asked to review the name of Pavillon Lionel-Groulx, the nine-storey building on the university’s main campus.

The request for a revision was made in July 2020 by faculty members of UdeM’s history department, who condemned Groulx for some of his writings and accused him of a lack of intellectual integrity and of practices incompatible with academic ethics.

To reach its decision, the committee met with a wide range of people who held sharply opposing views about Groulx and his legacy.

After a thorough analysis of their points of view, a majority of the committee’s members voted to recommend to UdeM’s governing council that the name of the building be retained in recognition of Groulx’s role as an UdeM pioneer, while contextualizing this recognition and casting a critical eye on the more controversial aspects of his work.

Part and parcel of UdeM’s past

As the founder of the Institut d’histoire, which became UdeM’s Department of History in 1962, Groulx made an important contribution to the professionalization of historical studies in Quebec and at the university. He was the first holder of a Canadian history chair at UdeM and the founder of the Académie canadienne-française and the Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française. Groulx was considered by his contemporaries to be a leading thinker on Quebec society and an eminent academic.

Although some of his positions are contrary to Université de Montréal’s modern-day values, particularly those related to diversity, equity and inclusion, the majority of the experts consulted by the committee were of the opinion that the racism, misogyny and anti-Semitism expressed in Groulx’s work were not central to his thought.

Father Groulx, the experts said, did not contribute to the development of these ideologies but rather reflected the dominant thinking among Roman Catholic intellectuals of his time and the prejudices of that era, when the clergy wielded considerable influence in Quebec and in academia.

Regarding the charges of intellectual dishonesty, including Groulx’s use of pseudonyms to sign reviews of his own work, the experts consulted by the toponymy committee noted that this was a common practice at the time, and could be explained in part by some of Groulx’s contentious positions on the Catholic Church and its clergy.

Principles and a procedure

Before analyzing the request to rename the building, the committee established guidelines for its work. In June 2021, the governing council adopted a statement of principles for renaming requests. The committee then developed a procedure for renaming requests.

As renaming is an exceptional decision, the committee conducted a thorough and systematic review of the request regarding Pavillon Lionel Groulx, based on its statement of principles and its renaming procedure and taking into account the general principles on naming at the university.

Before arriving at its final recommendation, the committee met with the faculty members who’d requested the name change and, to hear different points of view, also sought the advice of numerous experts on Groulx’s work.

After this analysis, a majority of the committee’s members concluded that Groulx’s legacy, so much a part of the university’s own history, deserves the honour of a toponymic designation on the main campus. A minority report supporting a name change was also prepared and submitted to the council, which reviewed both documents before endorsing the majority recommendation.

In the council’s view, recognizing Groulx’s major influence on Quebec society and UdeM’s history is not incompatible with acknowledging the pernicious nature of some of his positions.

Engaging in a dialogue with Groulx’s work

Since late summer, people passing through Place Publique, the square next to Pavillon Lionel-Groulx, have seen a new modular installation that is part sculpture, part public furniture. The work by contemporary artist Ludovic Boney can be read as both a place to relax and a space for dialogue. It was commissioned by the university to contextualize the legacy of Lionel Groulx.

In the coming weeks, an explanatory plaque will be installed near the work, inviting people to contemplate, reflect and redefine their points of view.

When it accepted the toponymy committee’s majority recommendation to keep the building’s name, the council also asked for a project that would acknowledge the multiple aspects of Groulx’s work, including those that are controversial.

To that end, in the winter of 2023, the university launched a public art competition to acquire a work that would engage in a critical and constructive dialogue with Groulx’s intellectual and political legacy.

The jury consisted of members of the university community—including one signatory of the history department’s initial request for a toponymic review—and representatives of civil society.

The competition was overseen by Laurent Vernet, director of the Galerie de l’Université de Montréal and an expert on public art. At the end of the process, Boney was selected.