Tensions Run High at the Institute

Photomontage of three black-and-white portraits featuring a nun and two men.

Sister Roy, Dr. Pinsonneault and Dr. Dufresne, between 1929 and 1947

November 7, 1945, Doctor Dufresne, Doctor Pinsonneault and Sister Roy co-signed an inflammatory letter denouncing the eminent Doctor Gendreau, founder and Director of the Institute. The letter was a barrage of criticism. According to them, Gendreau was profiting from the Institute as if it was his own private medical practice. They accused him of not having practiced medicine for more than seventeen years, instead taking credit for scientific papers written by Doctors Dufresne and Pinsonneault. Even worse, in 1946, employees at the Institute sent a petition to the Board of Directors demanding that “Doctor Gendreau be cut from the hospital’s staff.”

Photographic montage of two handwritten pages placed side by side. 43 names are typed, followed by 42 signatures. The majority are women: the nurses. Most are unknown, but the following doctors are recognizable : Origène Dufresne, Germain Pinsonneault, and Lorenzo Jutras.

Petition against Dr. Ernest Gendreau, 1946

Listen to the audio clip (in French) with the translated transcript : Request rom the Staff of the Radium Institute Asking for Dr. Gendreau’s Dismissal

Blurry, overexposed black and white photograph due to light leakage. It depicts a man leaning in a nautical setting. He is dressed in a neat suit and a black fedora.

Dr. Gendreau on the “Normandie” liner, 1939

Faced with such protest, on May 29, 1946, Gendreau tendered his resignation as Scientific and Medical Director of the Radium Institute. Despite this scandal, Gendreau would still try to profit from the Institute, insisting on a generous retirement pension, refusing to give up his personal office, and holding on to the title of Honorary Director. At his death, in June of 1949, the Radium Institute’s Board of Directors never mentioned the scandal. Quite the opposite, they published a glowing obituary in the Montréal papers, celebrating Gendreau as a genius and a visionary. This image of Gendreau was further reinforced when, on July 16, 1957, the City of Montréal renamed the alley behind the Institute as Place Ernest-Gendreau.

Black and white photograph depicting a man facing forward. He is wearing a three-piece suit.

Portrait of Ernest Gendreau, before 1949

Relations between the Grey Nuns, who were the Institute’s administrators, and doctors were also rife with tensions. There was a power struggle between doctors, who defended the superiority of scientific power over the spiritual vocation of the Institute, which the nuns espoused. A report submitted by the Medical Council to the Management Board described the situation in detail.

Listen to the audio clip (in French) with the translated transcript : Medical Council Report Addressed to the Institute’s Board of Directors

Despite the doctors’ criticisms, the Grey Nuns’ work remained vital to the running of the Institute. In August 1956, when President of the Board of Directors Taggart Smyth received a letter from Sister Flora Sainte-Croix announcing the definitive departure of all Grey Nuns from the Institute, he pleaded with them to stay, but to no avail. The religious community was facing its own crisis, besides the internal politics of the Institute. With fewer new members in its orders, the congregation needed to leave Maisonneuve after having spent more than thirty years there.

Health and Safety at the Institute One Problem Leads to Another