\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
![\"SUPPLIED](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788602234_599_4514398_web1_photo-Charles.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
SUPPLIED<\/p>\n
Charles Leblanc is being remembered fondly for his theatrical bent.<\/p>\n
He died June 26 at the age of 75.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was eccentric and very loving,\u201d said his daughter, Liliane J\u00e8gues.<\/p>\n
Leblanc moved to Winnipeg from Montreal after he split with his ex-wife when J\u00e8gues was seven. During the time they were apart, Leblanc would frequently send his daughter children\u2019s books to stay connected.<\/p>\n
When J\u00e8gues moved to be with her father at 15, it was just the two of them in Winnipeg, as all of Leblanc\u2019s family was still in Montreal.<\/p>\n
J\u00e8gues was supported by her father in everything. He\u2019d be especially excited when she\u2019d participate in events involving the francophone community, including the French improv league he started, Ligue d\u2019 Improvisation du Manitoba.<\/p>\n
Growing up, J\u00e8gues would frequently accompany her dad to the theatre and spend time backstage while he worked on productions.<\/p>\n
He was always trying to expose her to new art and music, playing everything from the Rolling Stones to experimental rock act Mr. Bungle in the house. He supported new artists of any kind and collected roughly 600 CDs in his life.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t SUPPLIED<\/p>\n Charles Leblanc was a man of many talents.<\/p>\n Leblanc was also a voracious reader, amassing a huge collection of novels.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to figure out what to do with the literal 10,000 books that are in his house,\u201d J\u00e8gues said.<\/p>\n Leblanc pushed his grandkids to read and would take them to a bookstore every Christmas to pick a novel of their choice.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had a passion for words, which came from his mom,\u201d said J\u00e8gues.<\/p>\n Leblanc\u2019s mother had been a teacher in rural Quebec and taught him to read when he was four.<\/p>\n \u201cHe loved reading ever since then, and loved learning the origin of words,\u201d his daughter said.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t SUPPLIED<\/p>\n Charles Leblanc excellent at academics early on and had a curious mind.<\/p>\n Leblanc had a traditional French-Canadian upbringing and was the eldest of seven siblings.<\/p>\n His father was kicked out of school in Grade 7, so it was very important to him that Charles and his siblings got a good education.<\/p>\n Leblanc excelled in academics, skipping a grade and eventually getting a bachelor\u2019s degree in economics. He even taught the subject for a couple years, before pursuing his love of languages as a translator at the Universit\u00e9 de Saint-Boniface.<\/p>\n During this time \u2014 the 1970s \u2014 he fell in love with Montreal\u2019s counterculture theatre movement and met Catherine Graham, the mother of his daughter.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was curious about how the world was and very hopeful that the world could be better than it is,\u201d Graham said. \u201cThat was, I think, one of his chief characteristics.\u201d<\/p>\n The two met through a theatre company they were both part of around 1976. Leblanc held many roles in the company, writing, acting and building sets for plays about social issues.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t SUPPLIED<\/p>\n Charles Leblanc was deeply immersed in the Montreal theatre scene.<\/p>\n Graham said Leblanc always cared deeply about inequality and social change.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was something that I think preoccupied him throughout his life was seeing the world through different angles or encouraging people to see that the way things are isn\u2019t necessarily the way things have to be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Leblanc founded the Manitoba Popular Theatre Alliance. The organization occasionally put on festivals that would bring people from all over Canada \u2014 including former governor general Jeanne Sauv\u00e9.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was always a little odd. I mean, it was lovely that she was there, but given the kinds of plays we were talking about, the Vice-Regent was not really who they were aimed at,\u201d Graham said with a laugh.<\/p>\n When they first met, Graham immediately saw that Leblanc \u201cmarched to a different drummer\u201d and had a deep sense of how theatre worked.<\/p>\n Leblanc preformed in many of the productions and had \u201csuperb comedic timing,\u201d Graham recalls. While she wasn\u2019t as much into acting, she and Leblanc often wrote plays together and bonded over their shared love of theatre.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t SUPPLIED<\/p>\n Charles and baby\u00a0daughter Liliane.\u00a0<\/p>\n Leblanc would also light up whenever they spent time with their daughter.<\/p>\n \u201cI can remember (him) sitting and singing silly children\u2019s songs, which was sometimes a bit surprising, because Charles was quite serious about the things he did. Put him around a small child and he started making faces and singing silly songs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The two maintained a good friendship even after ending their 12-year marriage in 1988, continuing to visit each other and holding family dinners through the years.<\/p>\n Graham laughed as she attempted to recall their proposal, remembering nothing other than the thought that \u201cwe should probably do this.\u201d<\/p>\n She said during their time together three main things occupied Leblanc: reading, writing and theatre.<\/p>\n He loved those things for the same reason that drove him to be so passionate in his work as a translator.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t SUPPLIED<\/p>\n Daughter Liliane J\u00e8gues says her dad supported her in everything she did.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was just intrigued by how people saw the world and how you could translate that for people who didn\u2019t see the world the same way,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n Leblanc was dedicated to the translation industry, said Jean-Paul Gagn\u00e9, a friend who worked closely with him in the Association of Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters of Manitoba.<\/p>\n Leblanc met Gang\u00e9 in translation school at Universit\u00e9 de Saint-Boniface, where they had classes together.<\/p>\n Gagn\u00e9 got closer to Leblanc while on the board of the association, which Leblanc served on for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say he kept that association afloat during all those years, because it\u2019s a very small association \u2014 only about 80 to 85 members \u2014 and it was sometimes hard to find volunteers to fill the board positions, but he was always there when it counted,\u201d Gagn\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n Leblanc rarely missed a meeting and kept the minutes with extreme precision.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n