Celebrating Jacques Ferron

The year 2005-2006 has been designated AnnŽe-Hommage ˆ Jacques Ferron, in memory of the great QuŽbŽcois physician-writer who died in 1985. Throughout the year, in Quebec and in other parts of Canada, events have been organized to celebrate the life and work of this major literary figure who was also a family physician, a social and political activist and the founder of the Rhinoceros Party. Dalhousie University is part of that celebration.

From April 5 to May 7, a bilingual travelling exhibition, Jacques Ferron: Physician-Writer, Docteur en littŽrature, will be on display in the main foyer of the Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building and in the Kellogg Library, hosted by the Medical Humanities program of the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine and the Dalhousie Department of French.

Bilingual symposium

On April 25, a full-day bilingual symposium on Ferron's writing and medical practice will be held in the Faculty of Medicine (15th floor Conference Room), with the participation of faculty and students from French and Medicine and invited speakers from across Canada. The evening of April 25 will be devoted to a public screening of a recent NFB documentary on Dr. Ferron, Le cabinet du docteur Ferron, a film by His Excellency Jean-Jean Lafond. Following the screening, a discussion will be held in English and French.

Members of the Dalhousie community and of the general public are invited to visit the exhibition, which will emphasize the connections between writing and medicine in Ferron's career, and his interest in the Maritimes and l'Acadie. They are also encouraged to attend the symposium and film screening. Guided visits of the exhibition can be arranged in English or French.