Jean-V. Dufresne

In 1951, Jean-V. Dufresne was already working as a reporter for the daily La Patrie and as a news editor at CKAC. He gave up journalism to spend some time in Europe in the mid-1950s and began studying translation to English; at the same time, he was teaching English and editing the magazine Pakistan at the Embassy of Pakistan in Paris.

Upon his return to Quebec, after a brief stint at La Presse, he made a quick foray into Quebec politics as a minister’s secretary. He very quickly returned to his original profession, where he would remain, working in both print and electronic journalism: in 1961, he began working for the Nouveau Journal and then became editorial secretary for Maclean’s magazine. From 1964 to 1968, he was in turn editor and parliamentary correspondent for Le Devoir. Later, he worked in electronic media as a reporter for Radio-Canada/CBC ‒ radio and television ‒ both for the French and English networks.

After two years as a reporter at the Montreal Star, Jean-V. Dufresne became a freelance journalist and tried his hand at the delicate job of columnist for Montréal Matin, from 1975 to 1980. He then moved from dailies to periodicals as editor and editor-in-chief of L’actualité before working as a reporter and host of the show Présent, on Radio-Canada. He also managed the cultural pages for Le Devoir and became a daily columnist, much to the delight of readers of his lively, caustic prose. He stayed involved in the electronic media as a host at CIEL FM.

Jean-V. Dufresne received the Union canadienne des journalistes Prize in 1964.

Jean-V. Dufresne died in 2000. He was inducted into the Academy of Great Montrealers in the Cultural category in 1978 and was named a Commander of the Ordre de Montréal in 2016.