‘With me every day’: Former Quebec Liberal leader reflects on losing her parents in 2010 Haiti earthquake

"I can see them there with me every day," says Dominique Anglade, Quebec's former Liberal leader, of her parents Georges and Mireille, 15 years after they died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Alyssia Rubertucci reports.

15 years ago, Georges and Mireille Anglade were the first two Canadians identified as victims in the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti, that claimed the lives of up to 300,000 people that day.

Their daughter – Dominique – the former leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, remembers the horrors of that time.

Dominique Anglade assoc. prof at HEC Montreal and former Quebec Liberty Party Leader, sitting at her desk on January 6, 2025. (Alyssia Rubertucci, CityNews)

“Their house was in a family compound so all the family members were living next to each other and then unfortunately at 4:57 p.m. the houses collapsed because it was right under where the earthquake happened,” said Dominique Anglade, associate professor at HEC Montréal and former Quebec Liberty Party leader.

Anglade says it took over 24 hours to get that fateful news that her parents were gone.

Dominique Anglade’s son and her nephew with her parents Georges and Mireille Anglade. (Credit: Dominique Anglade)

“The first thing was well the shock and I had all kinds of media requests and I thought, ‘Is it my place to go, after losing both my parents and my uncle and my cousin, in front of a camera to talk about what’s going on in Haiti?’ And I spoke with my aunt that was in Haiti that had just lost her son, and she said, ‘We need everything,” said Anglade.

She wasn’t yet in politics – and still, Anglade helped mobilize and collect donations.

It was that same year that she and Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire — also of Haitian descent — created KANPE, which means to stand tall in Haitian Creole. It’s a foundation to support the most disadvantaged there.

Dominique Anglade and Regine Chassagne both co-founders of the KANPE foundation. (Credit: KANPE)

“It allows us to contribute and to touch more than 20,000 people directly and this impact is unbelievable,” said Anglade.

A KANPE bag, a piece of merchandise from Anglade’s Foundation KANPE on January 6, 2025. (Alyssia Rubertucci, CityNews)

Almost six years after the earthquake, she was elected as a provincial Liberal MNA – eventually becoming the first Black woman to lead a provincial party in Quebec.

“My father was a politician himself, my grandfather, my great-great-grandfather — I think it runs in our DNA as well,” said Anglade.

After fleeing Haiti due to its dictatorship in the ’70s, Georges went on to co-found UQAM and made his mark as an intellectual. Mireille had a PhD and was a feminist.

“Every other month, I run into somebody who says, ‘I had your father as a professor, I had your mother as a teacher,’ and I get a lot of feedback still today, 15 years later, from people that’ve known them, so I think it really helps going through this,” said Anglade.

Anglade left politics in 2022, following the provincial election. She’s now an associate professor and co-leader of the Sustainable Transition Office at HEC Montréal — her alma mater – where her parents’ legacies still surround her.

“I haven’t heard their voice in so many years, I can see that they are with me every day,” she said. “In my office at HEC, right there on the wall there is a letter that my dad wrote to my mom the year I was born and they’re in everything I do.”

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today