Raymond Gravel

Raymond Gravel MP
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Repentigny
In office 2006 – 2008
Preceded by	Benoît Sauvageau
Succeeded by	Nicolas Dufour
Personal details
Born	November 4, 1952 Saint-Damien-de-Brandon, Quebec
Died	August 11, 2014 (aged 61) Lanaudière, Quebec
Political party	Bloc Québécois
Residence	Repentigny, Quebec
Profession	Priest
Religion	Roman Catholic

Raymond Gravel (November 4, 1952 – August 11, 2014) was a Catholic priest from the Canadian province of Quebec, who was formerly the Member of Parliament for the riding of Repentigny, as a member of the Bloc Québécois. He was elected to the House of Commons in a November 27, 2006 by-election following the death of Benoît Sauvageau.

As a young man Gravel worked in bars in Montreal's Gay Village; he has been open about the fact that he was a sex-trade worker during that time.^[1] He entered the seminary in 1982 and became a priest. Gravel is controversial among the Catholic clergy and laity for his support of abortion rights, euthanasia and same-sex marriage, three issues officially opposed by the Church. He was most recently a priest at St-Joachim de la Paine Church in La Plaine, Quebec.

He was acclaimed as the Bloc's candidate on October 29, 2006. He received a dispensation from Gilles Lussier, bishop of Joliette, to enter politics. Elected with a large majority in the Bloc stronghold, he became the Bloc critic for seniors' issues.

However, following his opposition to Bill C-484, which would have recognized injury of a fetus during a crime as a separate offence from an injury to the mother, and his support for Dr. Henry Morgentaler receiving the Order of Canada, Gravel was ordered by the Vatican to either give up the priesthood or leave politics, and he finally announced he would not run in the 2008 election, saying that the priesthood was his life.^[2] He cited as his biggest regret his inability to pass his private member's bill C-490, which aimed to improve seniors' access to guaranteed income supplements.^[3]

He was removed from a position as a catechist in the Quebec Diocese of Joliette during 2010. Gravel then launched a lawsuit against the LifeSiteNews (LSN) agency, a project of the Campaign Life Coalition, for $500,000 in damages.^[4] In his motion, Gravel suggests that articles on the LSN website caused him to lose this responsibility. Gravel stated that LSN misrepresented him by identifying him as 'pro-abortion' while he identified himself as 'pro-choice'.^[5] In 2014, he died of lung cancer. He was 61.^[6]

Electoral record

Canadian federal by-election, November 27, 2006: Repentigny
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Bloc Québécois	Raymond Gravel	20,635	66.26	$84,032
	Conservative	Stéphane Bourgon	5,822	18.69	$46,980
	New Democratic	Réjean Bellemare	2,187	7.02	$34,699
	Liberal	Christian Turenne	1,940	6.23	$15,043
	Independent	Jocelyne Leduc	390	1.25	$45
	Canadian Action	Mahmood Raza Baig	91	0.29	$5,641
	Independent	Régent Millette	78	0.25	none listed
Total valid votes			31,143	100.00
Total rejected ballots			493
Turnout			31,636	37.06
Electors on the lists			85,366

Sources

1. Montreal Gazette: "Controversial priest wants Bloc Repentigny nomination". The Gazette, October 25, 2006.
2. "Priest MP leaves politics after pressure from Vatican". CBC News, September 3, 2008.
3. "Le député Gravel ne sera pas candidat". La Presse, September 3, 2008.
4. "LifeSiteNews sued"
5. Hamilton, Graeme (5 Mar 2011). "Two solitudes; Lawsuit pits rebel Quebec priest against hardline pro-life news service". National Post. p. 6.
6. "Father Raymond Gravel, outspoken social activist, dies". CBC News. August 11, 2014. Retrieved September 18, 2014.

External links

• Raymond Gravel – Parliament of Canada biography