The 50th anniversary of the LTAC makes me think of all the colleagues and friends I have met over my years in the Association. I see many of them here tonight. Others are no longer with us, and I’ve been thinking of some of those.

My first published literary translation was Lair, my version of Antre by Madeleine Gagnon. A longtime member of the LTAC, Jean Antonin Billard, knew Madeleine and her work well, and helped me a lot polishing my translation. When Lair was scheduled to be published, Jean Antonin told me I didn’t need to wait for the book to come out in print, I could join the LTAC right away.

I was immediately recruited by Sherry Simon (who was co-president with Michel Buttiens, happily still alive and well) to get involved with the executive. I served in various positions over the years, membership secretary, treasurer, vice-president, and I was president in 1999-2000. 

For the 25th anniversary of the LTAC in 2000, we thought we should do something special. Back then, we had only recently obtained office space from Concordia University, but we still had no paid staff, so everything had to be done by volunteers. But we managed to organize a whole weekend around the AGM, with a reception on Friday night, when Pat Claxton was honoured as the founding president and made an honorary member. The conference on Saturday included an international translation panel with, among others, Italian translator Rosamaria Plevano, who had been recruited by the late Antonino Mazza, a native of Calabria who passed away in 2017. Another member who worked a lot on the AGM weekend was Nora Alleyn, who died in 2011. 

Among the other activities we organized for the 25th anniversary was an exhibition on the history of the LTAC and an evening of readings at the National Library in Ottawa. Gérard Boulad, born in Alexandria, who died in 2013, famous for his bow ties, was largely responsible for organizing the Ottawa events. There are many others I could talk about, but I want to mention in particular two other members, now deceased, who contributed a lot to the LTAC over the years, Karin Montin (Karin not Karen) and Jane Brierley. I have fond memories all those people. 

© Picture : Hélène Bughin