George Vanier- 19th Governor General of Canada and Humanitarian Hero

"The road of unity is the road of love: love of one's country and faith in its future will give new direction and purpose to our lives, lift us above our domestic quarrels, and unite us in dedication to the common good... I pray God that we may all go forward hand in hand. We can't run the risk of this great country falling into pieces." George Vanier

Vanier was the first French Canadian governor general of Canada (1959 until his death in 1967). The appointment of Vanier established the tradition of rotating between French and English speaking persons, and Vanier's bilingualism was an asset in his mandate of fostering Canadian unity.  The greatest threat during Vanier's tenure was the threat to Confederation which came from the rise of the Quiet Revolution, Quebec nationalism, and the Quebec sovereignty movement, including the terrorist actions of the Front de libération du Québec. As a Québécois representing the Canadian monarch, and someone who promoted federalism, he was perceived by many Quebec separatists to be a traitor to his people. Amongst most other circles in the country, however, he was lauded as a distinguished viceroy.

He was born and educated in Quebec. He was the product of an Irish mother and a French-Norman father. Although he trained as a lawyer, he joined the military, served in Europe in WW1 and lost a leg. During that service he won a Miliary Cross and a Distinguished service medal. Afterward he served in a diplomatic role in Europe until WW2. He then returned to Canada and married Pauline (see film clip below) and became the father of five children.

Following the fall of Vichy France in 1944 to the Allied Forces, Vanier was posted as Canada's first ambassador to France. While serving in that role, as well as acting as Canada's representative to the United Nations, he toured in 1945 the just liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. Later, back in Canada, he delivered a speach on the CBC expressing his shame over Canada's inaction, saying: "How deaf we were then, to cruelty and the cries of pain which came to our ears, grim forerunners of the mass torture and murders which were to follow."
Back in Paris, he and his wife continued to help the refugees who arrived at the embassy, arranging for them food and temporary shelter. The couple, with the assistance of numerous others, eventually pushed the government of Canada to revise the regulations of immigration, and more than 186,000 European refugees settled in Canada between 1947 and 1953.

It was in 1953 that Vanier retired from diplomatic service and returned to Montreal, though he and his wife continued social work there. Vanier simultaneously sat as a director of the Bank of Montreal, the Credit Foncier Franco-Canadien, and the Standard Life Assurance Company, and served on the Canada Council for the Arts.

Pauline Vanier- Refugee welfare