Berthe Chaurès-Louard

Berthe Chaurès-Louard (née Scharès; October 2, 1889 – February 7, 1968) was a Belgian-born Canadian businesswoman. She is considered the founder of the first French-Canadian consumer cooperative in Québec, La Familiale, in 1937.

Biography

Birth and education She was born on October 2, 1889 in Limbourg, Belgium. She has held an honorary doctorate in social sciences from the University of Montreal since 1947.

Professional career and commitment Arriving in Quebec with her husband, Édouard Louard, shortly after the First World War she dedicated herself to the cooperative system she had known in her country. In 1937, she founded the first food cooperative in Quebec, La Familiale. She managed its three branches (located successively on rue Notre-Dame, and rue Saint-Hubert) which would give life to the Cooprix stores in the 1960s. To bring her project to fruition, she had rallied the economist François-Albert Angers to her ideas and the man of letters Victor Barbeau, co-founders with her.

From La Familiale, Berthe Louard set up a network of works: in 1939, the Family Guild; in 1940, the Study Circles; and for young people, L'École des loisirs, as well as holiday camps.

To help promote her ideal, she gave numerous conferences throughout the province and in 1940 launched a periodical, Le Coopérateur. In 1949, she was awarded the Mérite coopératif by the Conseil québécois de la coopération du Québec.

In 1970, Victor Barbeau wrote his work, Hommage à Berthe Chaurès Louard 1889-1968, upon his merit as an officer of the Order of Canada. She is considered the founder of the first French-Canadian consumer cooperative. On March 13, 2013, the City of Montreal awarded her the title of Builder of the City. Her ideal survived her, notably among the residents of the Domaine Saint-Sulpice where a street, a park in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, a housing cooperative bear her name. Since 2007, a public artwork of the Montreal artist Linda Covit, Les graminées du jardin Saint-Sulpice, erected at the initiative of the Berthe-Louard Recognition Committee, bears witness to her work right near her residence.