Facts: - death date: 26 march 2005 - spouse: francoise servetre - birth date: 18 august 1909 - name: gerard filion - birth place: l'isle-verte , quebec - occupation: businessman and journalist Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of gerard filion .
gerard filion , -lrb- august 18 , 1909 -- march 26 , 2005 -rrb- was a canadian businessman and journalist .born in l'isle-verte , quebec , the youngest of 17 children , he received a bachelor of arts from universite laval in 1931 and a diploma in 1934 from Ecole des hautes Etudes commerciales de montreal .from 1935 until 1947 he worked for the l'union catholique des cultivateurs , a group representing farmers .from 1947 until 1963 he was the publisher of '' le devoir '' , a french-language newspaper published in montreal .he was one of the most vocal critics of maurice duplessis 's government .he was mayor of saint-bruno-de-montarville from 1960-1968 .in 1970 he was made a companion of the order of canada .in 1989 he was made a grand officer of the national order of quebec .he was married to francoise servetre and had nine children .born in l'isle-verte , que. , gerard filion 's journalism career began when he was 26 .working for the terre de chez nous , a paper run by the catholic union of farmers , filion became a lifelong ally of many quebec unions .in 1947 he began publishing le devoir and used the paper to rise to the unions ' defence against maurice duplessis , the province 's premier .duplessis was the leader of quebec 's conservative union nationale government and filion became one of his fiercest opponents .decades later , filion credited duplessis as being a boon to his career .without having the premier as an opponent , filion doubted he ever would have published such excellent work during his time with le devoir .after duplessis ' death in 1959 , filion continued pushing to modernize quebec .a member of many crown commissions , he worked with the group that took control of french-canadian schools away from the catholic church .because of this work , he is considered a key player in quebec 's quiet revolution .in 1970 , he became a companion of the order of canada .he died in 2005 .he was inducted into the canadian news hall of fame in 1966 .