Au revoir, Rose-Marie


Au revoir, Rose-Marie

The Copibec team is losing a key figure with the departure of Rose-Marie Lafrance, our Director – Education. After defending copyright for more than 30 years, she’ll be starting a new chapter of her life on the shores of the St. Lawrence River.

During a long and distinguished career at Copibec, Rose-Marie has formed strong, enduring bonds with the other employees as well as the members of the author and publisher community. It’s her love of nature that is taking her so far from us, and we’ll miss her friendly smile and dry wit.

Looking back at our first Education Director

After obtaining a junior college diploma in media arts and technology with a print media major, followed by a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in political science, Rose-Marie worked for a few years as a freelancer for regional weekly newspapers in the Laurentian and Saguenay regions.

Drawing on her love of books and literature, she started a career at the Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois in 1984 after completing her university degree. At that point, she was a research assistant in charge of preparing author files and managing transactional licence requests. When Copibec was formed in 1997, Rose-Marie was the head of UNEQ’s rights department and internal licensing agency. It therefore made sense for her to migrate to Copibec full time to manage the licensing and education department. That was her role for more than 20 years. During those years, she formed lasting relationships in the education sector, listening to people’s needs and developing creative solutions.

Quiet strength

In the past 20 years, Rose-Marie has dealt successfully with many challenges as Copibec’s environment evolved. That changing environment includes weakened copyright following the changes to the Copyright Act, together with the resulting losses for creators in the context of the digital transformation. But her devotion to the cause and her human values helped our copyright collective and her co-workers weather the storms.

Goodbye, for now

The Copibec team is saying an emotional goodbye and paying tribute to her but we’re also pleased that she has so much to look forward to. Thank you for your commitment, patience and determination. We wish you much happiness in your new life. Au revoir, dearest Rose-Marie!