Jean-Paul Desbiens

Who was Jean-Paul Desbiens?

Jean-Paul Desbiens, Frère Pierre-Jérôme, OC was a Quebec writer, journalist, teacher and member of the Catholic order of Marist Brothers.

He was born at Métabetchouan in the Lac Saint-Jean region of Quebec in 1927. He joined the Marist order in 1944 and studied at the Université de Montréal and the Université Laval, graduating with a degree in philosophy in 1958. He began a teaching career in high schools of his native Lac-St-Jean region. His 1960 book Les insolences du Frère Untel, is a strong attack on the quality of public education system in Quebec. The book, which also denounces the poor quality of the spoken and written French among the younger generations, is credited by many as inspiring the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. A follow-up, Sous la soleil de la pitié was published in 1965.

His identity revealed and his relationship with the church establishment strained, Desbiens left the Quebec intellectual scene and attended University of Fribourg, Switzerland, where he obtained a Ph.D in philosophy. He later worked with the Ministry of Education in Quebec to help improve the public school and junior college programs in the province.