Léa Roback (1903 – 2000)

Léa Roback was a union organizer, activist, and Québec feminist. Born in Montréal, she grew up in Beauport, where her family was the only Jewish one in the town. They returned to Montréal in 1915. Roback's first job, at British American Dyeworks, made her aware of inequities between various sectors of Montréal society. She saved her wages and travelled to Grenoble to complete a Bachelor of Arts in Literature. Continuing to work and travel widely, Roback's growing political awareness led her to adopt the principles of Marxism and commit herself to fighting injustice. She worked with Norman Bethune to organize unemployed workers in Montréal and with Thérèse Casgrain for women's suffrage. She helped to establish the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and led a strike of 5,000 workers. In her later years, Roback devoted her energies to pacifism, women's rights, fairness in education and pay equity. Her vision lives on in the Léa Roback Foundation and Le centre Léa-Roback, a Montréal centre for research into social inequalities.

“All my life I have stood with the working men and women.
I was proud to belong to the rank-and-file. Whenever I said “we,” I meant “we,” what we could achieve together.”