Our long-time friend and lifelong humanist, Henry Beissel died earlier this week.

Henry was an active and important member of several Canadian humanist organizations from the Humanist Perspectives, Canada’s oldest humanist publication to Ottawa Humanists.

You can visit the HumanistFreedoms Youtube channel to find our readings of Henry’s “Catastrophic Glory” – a collection of his thoughts, concerns and hopes for a better, more humanist future.

Henry was a distinguished Emeritus Professor of English at Concordia University (Montreal) and where he taught for thirty years and founded a flourishing Creative Writing program. Henry was an Ottawa poet, playwright, fiction writer, translator and editor with over thirty books published. As a playwright he came to international fame with Inuk and the Sun, premiered at the Stratford Festival in 1982 and since then translated into many languages.

He was president of the “Freedom of Expression Committee” of the “Book and Periodical Council of Canada” in the 80s. The committee included representation from all writers’, journalists’, editors’ and publishers’ organizations in Canada. Henry also served on the committee on behalf of The League of Canadian Poets, and was elected to the presidency after June Callwood’s term was up and was, in turn, succeeded by Timothy Findley.

Henry Beissel was an indefatigable defender of academic freedom, freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

Citations, References And Other Reading

1. Featured Photo Courtesy of : Henry Beissel
2. https://www.crestwood.on.ca/ohp/beissel-henry/

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