Gil Courtemanche

Gil Courtemanche (born 1943, Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian progressive journalist and novelist in third-world and international politics. He writes for the Montreal newspaper "Le Devoir".

Courtemanche began his career as a journalist in 1962, with several collaborations with Radio-Canada including "Le 60", "Métro Magazine" and "Présent National". He later created "L'Évènement", a television program with Radio-Canada which he also hosted between 1978 and 1980. During the same period, he was also an editorialist with CBOT, an Ottawa radio station. In 1978, he hosted "Contact", the first public affairs magazine for Télé-Québec. Between 1980 and 1986, he worked as a host, analyst and correspondent for the programs "Télémag", "Première Page", and "Le Point" with Radio-Canada.

Courtemanche helped found the sovereigntist and social democrat newspaper "Le Jour", and has also worked as a journalist with "La Presse". Since 1986, he has worked on various publications such as Alternatives and Le Libraire. He has published columns on international politics in "Le Soleil", "Le Droit", and "Le Devoir" (where he is currently published).

He has also been involved in the production of documentaries. Notably, he participated in the production of the series "Soleil dans la nuit" for "TV5 Europe-Afrique-Canada", on the first anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. He has also filmed a documentary on AIDS titled "The Gospel of AIDS". Furthermore, he helped produced various documentaries and advertisements on the third-world for "Le Cardinal Léger et ses œuvres" and "OXFAM-Québec": leprosy in Haiti, the politics of water, agricultural development in the Philippines, education for disabled children in Thailand, etc.

His first novel, "Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali", which documents the Rwandan genocide of 1994, was published in 2000. It was chosen for inclusion in the French version of "Canada Reads", broadcast on Radio-Canada in 2004, where it was defended by writer, environmentalist and activist Laure Waridel. "Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali" eventually won the contest. It was made into the movie "Un dimanche à Kigali".

Bibliography

*"Douces colères" (1989)
*"Trente artistes dans un train" (1989)
*"Chroniques internationales" (1991)
*"Québec" (1998)
*"Nouvelles douces colères" (1999)
*"Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali" (2000) (translated into English as "A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali" by Patricia Claxton (2003))
*"La Seconde Révolution tranquille — Démocratiser la démocratie" (essay) (2003)
*"Une belle mort" (2005)

Awards and recognition

*Winner: Prix des Libraires, 2000
*Winner: National Magazine Award for Political Reporting, 1998
*Nominee 2003 — Governor General's Award (French to English translation)
*Nominee 2004 — Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize

External links

* [http://www.randomhouse.ca/newface/courtemanche.php Author page at Random House]
* [http://www.editionsboreal.qc.ca/fr-bio.php?file=274 Author page at "Les Éditions du Boréal"] (in French)
*imdb name|id=1955029|name=Gil Courtemanche