Search for ""

Arthur Evans"Slim" (b at Toronto 1890; d at Vancouver 1944). Slim Evans was a colourful socialist and trade union organizer who played the leading role in organizing the On to Ottawa Trek of 1935.

Sandra Birdsell (née Sandra Bartlette), CM, Mennonite-Métis, short-story writer, novelist (born 22 April 1942 in Hamiota, MB). Birdsell’s fiction often investigates the lives of small-town characters, especially women. She has written novels, plays, radio dramas and scripts for television and film. Appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2010, Birdsell has been nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award for English Language Fiction three times, and for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2001.

Jean-Baptiste L'Heureux (b at L'Acadie, LC 25 June 1831; d at Midnapore, Alta 19 Mar 1919). L'Heureux studied for the priesthood but was never ordained; a tradition maintains that he was expelled from the Séminaire de St-Hyacinthe for a criminal offence.

Annie Langstaff, née MacDonald, feminist, legal scholar, aviatrix (b at Alexandria, Ont 1887; d at Montréal 29 June 1975).

Jeannette Vivian Corbiere Lavell (called Keewednanung, “North Star” in the Anishinaabe language), CM, activist, educator and community worker (born 21 June 1942 in Wikwemikong, ON). Corbiere Lavell, an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) woman, was one of several Indigenous women who brought increased public awareness to the gendered discrimination that First Nations women faced because of status law, namely section 12(1)(b) of the Indian Act. Her efforts were central to revising patriarchal (male-dominated) aspects of Canadian legal code.

Patrick Lenihan, trade unionist (b at Kanturk, Ire 11 Apr 1903; d at Calgary 4 Mar 1981). He was a member of the Sinn Féin movement engaged in rebellious activities against British rule in Ireland. In the 1930s he organized workers, farmers and unemployed throughout Alberta.

Grace Annie Lockhart, pioneer of women's university education (b at Saint John 22 Feb 1855; d at Charlottetown 18 May 1916).

Joseph-François Lafitau, priest, Jesuit missionary, legal philosopher (b at Bordeaux, France 1681; d there 3 July 1746).

Jérôme Lalemant, Jesuit missionary (b at Paris, France 27 Apr 1593; d at Québec City 26 Jan 1673), brother of Charles Lalemant. He arrived in Canada in 1638 and was named superior of the Huron mission.

George Lane, rancher (b near Des Moines, Iowa 6 Mar 1856; d at Bar U Ranch, near Pekisko, Alta 24 Sept 1925). Lane came to the Canadian West from Montana in 1883 and was hired as a ranch foreman by the North West Cattle Co.

Charles Lalemant, Jesuit missionary, first superior of the Jesuits at Québec (b at Paris, France 17 Nov 1587; d there 18 Nov 1674), brother of Jérôme Lalemant.

An ardent supporter of building the CPR in 1872, he was sent as an envoy to Europe by the Canadian government in 1885 and the Québec government in 1890. In 1888 Premier Honoré MERCIER appointed him deputy minister of agriculture and colonization.

 Albert Lacombe, Oblate priest, missionary (b at St-Sulpice, LC 28 Feb 1827; d at Midnapore, near Calgary 16 Dec 1916).

Gustave Lamarche, priest, dramatist (b at Montréal 17 July 1895; d 27 Aug 1987).

Paul Le Jeune, Jesuit missionary and superior at Québec, author (b at Vitry-le-François, France July 1591; d at Paris, France 7 Aug 1664). Converted to Catholicism at 16, Le Jeune was named superior of the Jesuits at Québec in 1632.

Jean-Louis Le Loutre, priest, missionary (b at Morlaix, France 26 Sept 1709; d at Nantes, France 30 Sept 1772).

Roderick Andrew Francis MacKenzie, priest, scholar (b at Liverpool, Eng 15 Nov 1911; d at Pickering, Ont 30 Apr 1994). He came to Peterborough, Ont, with his family in 1924, then entered the Society of Jesus at Guelph, Ont, in 1928.

Pierre Maillard, priest of the Séminaire des missions étrangères, missionary (b in the diocese of Chartres, France c 1710; d at Halifax 12 Aug 1762). Missionary to the MICMAC, Maillard was a brilliant linguist who perfected a system of written symbols for the Micmac language.

Latvia is a small country situated on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. It shares borders with Russia, Lithuania, Belarus and Estonia. Established as an independent state after the First World War (WWI), Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, by the Nazis from 1941 to 1944, and then again by the Soviet Union. In 1945, 110 000 Latvians who had fled to western Europe were classified as displaced persons. Of these, 14 911 eventually immigrated to Canada. The 2016 census reported 30, 725 people of Latvian origin in Canada (7040 single and 23, 685 multiple responses).

Françoise-Marie de Saint-Étienne de La Tour, née Jacquelin, Acadian heroine (b in France 1602; d at Ft La Tour [NB] 1645). Civil war raged in Acadia in 1640 when she married Charles de Saint-Étienne de LA TOUR, one of 2 claimants to the colony's governorship.