Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean
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Le Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean (CMR) was a Canadian military academy located in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec.
It had the same purpose as the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in Kingston, Ontario. CMR was founded in 1952, as a classical college, with the initial purpose of providing a more equitable representation of French Canadians in the three services of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) .
During spring 1952, the Right Honorable Louis Saint-Laurent, Prime Minister of Canada, made the decision to found a bilingual military college in Québec, to open in September. Since the Navy was already responsible for Royal Roads Military College (RRMC) in Victoria, British Columbia, and the Army for RMC, the intention was to give the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) jurisdiction over the new college.
The initial academic function of CMR was to educate its cadets up to the second year of a college degree. The remaining studies were to be completed at the RMC in Kingston.
In 1959, the RMC was granted a university charter by the province of Ontario allowing RMC cadets to receive a bachelor's degree upon graduation.
In 1968, with the imminent possibility of the College offering a complete undergraduate course, the authorities were forced to plan for new laboratories, a new library, and additional offices. The result was Pavillon Lahaie, located between Pavillon De Léry and the Richelieu River.
In 1971, CMR established a formal partnership with the University of Sherbrooke, after which CMR cadets were able to obtain a bachelor's degree without leaving Saint-Jean. The Quebec government passed an act granting CMR its own university charter in 1985. CMR was authorized to grant master's and doctorate degrees in 1988. CMR was composed of two faculties: the Faculty of Administration and Humanities and the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
CMR was part of the Canadian Military Colleges (CMC) Circle along with RMC and RRMC until 1995 when the Department of National Defence closed CMR and RRMC.
CMR infrastructure is currently used by the CAF located at ASU Saint-Jean and by a non-profit corporation called Campus du Fort Saint-Jean, which arranges for the upkeep of many of the former educational facilities and leases them out to educational institutions such as the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) for their local programmes while also renting out others for short events such as large banquets or conventions.
There is a small museum in the old guardhouse that presents the history of the college and Fort Saint-Jean.
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[edit] Notable alumni
- Lieutenant-General (Ret'd) Roméo Dallaire - commander of UN peacekeeping mission to Rwanda
- Captain (Navy) (Ret'd) Marc Garneau - first Canadian in space
[edit] Notable faculty
- Roch Carrier, author of Le Chandail de hockey or The Hockey Sweater, and later National Librarian of Canada.
[edit] See also
[edit] External link
- CMR Saint-Jean (in French)
