MONTREAL – They spent their entire lives trying to build a better Haiti.
In the end, they died as their beloved homeland crumbled around them.
Georges and Mireille Anglade are among the three Canadians confirmed killed by the disaster so far.
The Montreal husband and wife killed in Haiti’s earthquake are being remembered as passionate, intelligent people who worked to help the troubled country reach its potential.
Georges was a geography professor and accomplished author who was active in Haitian politics, and who helped found the Universite du Quebec a Montreal in 1969.
He had been a political prisoner under the Duvalier regime, was active in Haiti’s democracy movement, served as public-works minister in Haiti’s Aristide government, wrote several books, and was an advisor to current president Rene Preval.
His wife was an economist who worked with the United Nations in Haiti.
The Montreal couple were found buried in the rubble of the family compound in a suburb of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday after rescuers failed to get to them in time.
Georges Anglade, twice exiled from Haiti under its former dictatorship, lived and raised a family for 30 years in Quebec.
“His loss will be felt very deeply in both countries – he has passion for both places but he was very actively involved in Haiti over the last 20 years,” Frantz Voltaire, Anglade’s cousin, said in Montreal.
After a distinguished academic career, the couple had begun globetrotting and spending winters in Haiti.
Georges Anglade was also an author who had most recently spent time writing and publishing lodyans – a predominantly Haitian literary genre that consists of short stories passed on orally.
He was expected to attend a writer’s conference in Haiti that was to have started on Thursday.
