Felix Desrochers: general librarian 1933-1956.

• Author: Gordon, Ross

The Library of Parliament is one of the country's great intellectual resources. For many years it was Canada's National Library. Since the mid 1960s it has been a centre of information and research dedicated to providing Members of Parliament with the tools they need to perform their duties. Despite its importance to the public life of Canada little has been written about the history of the institution or the individuals who lead it. This article looks at the life of Felix Desrochers who served as General Librarian from 1933-1956.

For many years the Library of Parliament had a system of dual Librarians or "duelling Librarians" depending upon how one viewed this structure. As shown in the accompanying table there was always an English and a French Librarian. One was the Parliamentary Librarian, the other the General Librarian.

This arrangement lasted for nearly sixty years and served two purposes. One was to keep the English-French balance in place. This was especially important in the early days of the Parliamentary Library which had been born out of the combined collections of Lower and Upper Canada and had spent time located in Montreal, Toronto, Quebec and Kingston. But the second reason was as important, Canada did not have a National Library and the Library of Parliament was in many ways seen as the de facto National Library. The existence of a dual library system was a political response to competing needs, as is often seen in Canadian history. Felix Desrocher was a beneficiary of this odd system.

The Appointment of Felix Desrochers

How does one get appointed to high office? This is often a mystery that we simply cannot answer. We can wonder, we can speculate, but we cannot know for sure what happened. With Felix Desrochers, we not only know how he got the job, I believe that he wanted us to know. He was not in the least shy about this and he even left us a file labelled: Desrochers, Felix-Library of Parliament -- Appointment (campaign for this position).(1)

In late 1931 he began a fight for the job of General Librarian that would use up all of the political capital he had built up over 25 years of service to the Conservative Party of Canada. He wrote letters to influential friends and politicians, beginning with Prime Minister R.B. Bennett, seeking help in landing the best Librarian job in Ganada open to a French Canadian.

The General Librarian of Parliament, Joseph de la Broquerie Tache had announced his impending retirement. In the world of dual librarianships, based upon linguistic characteristics and geography as much as on actual experience, Felix, a lawyer by training, saw this as an opportunity to move up in the world.

Parliamentary and General Librarians Since Confederation The first Library of Parliament Act was given Royal assent April 14, 1871. Staff consisted of one librarian and one assistant librarian as well as two clerks and two messengers. On May 6, 1885, a resolution was passed in the House of Commons that "the officers and servants of the Library of Parliament should consist of two officers, one to be called the General Librarian, the other the Parliamentary Librarian, and to hold a joint commission as "Librarians of Parliament" and to have equal powers ..." This was amended in 1955. The Parliamentary Librarian was given "the control and management of the Library" while the position of General Librarian was changed to that of Associate Parliamentary Librarian who would "perform the duties and functions of Parliamentary Librarian during his absences, illness or during a vacancy in the office of Parliamentary Librarian Parliamentary Librarian General Librarian Alpheus Todd 1854 - 1884 Became Parliamentary Librarian after Confederation. A.D. DeCelles Martin Joseph Griffith 1885-1920 From 1880-1885 he was 1885-1920 Assistant Librarian 1885 became the First General Librarian Martin S. Burrell Joseph de la 1920-1938 Broquerie Tache 1920-1932 Felix Desrochers Francis A. Hardy 1933-1956 1944-1959

After Burrell's death, Appointed Assistant Librarian the government left his In 1936 and Parliamentary position open. Desrochers Librarian in 1994. Performed both functions, From 1938 until 1944. Associate Librarians Erik Spicer Guy Syvestre 1956-1968 Gilles Frappier 1970-1979 1960 - 1994 Richard Pare 1980-1994 Richard Pare 1994- present

There was another reason to make a move: his position as the Civic Librarian of Montreal, under Mayor Houde's administration, had come to an end when changes in the administration, from `bleu' to `rouge', caused him to be demoted to assistant librarian. He was politically on the outside now in Montreal.

After being tipped off by his friend Tache about the imminent opening, Felix sent an updated resume to Prime Minister Bennett, listing every political campaign he had been in or otherwise helped to organise from 1908 to 1930. In all he had taken part in some 35 municipal, provincial and federal electoral battles and felt that he had more than paid his dues to the Conservative Party. He had even organised the convention of 1929 that had nominated Camile Houde as leader of the provincial party. In this rather long letter of December 21, 1931, (typed on the official stationary of the Library of the City of Montreal), he noted that:

You can realise through the reading of this summary, I believe, that I have done more than my share for our party. And kindly note that I have fought all these campaigns from beginning to the end, and in most cases without any remuneration. I may say like Flambeau, in Rostand's L'Aiglon, I fought for glory and...