Actress and former senator Viola Leger, best known as La Sagouine, dies at 92
Actress, teacher and former senator Viola Leger has died at the age of 92.
A release from management company Le Grenier musique says Leger died Saturday in Dieppe, New Brunswick.
Leger was best known for her portrayal of the character La Sagouine in the play of the same name by Antonine Maillet, playing the role more than three-thousand times and winning the Dora Mavor Moore Award in 1981 for her performance. In 2013, she was recognized by the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards with the Lifetime Artistic Achievement for theatre.
She was appointed to the Senate in 2001 by then Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien, serving as a representative of New Brunswick until 2005.
In a statement on Facebook, federal Minister of Official Languages Ginette Petitpas Taylor wrote Acadia will never again have such a loyal ambassador, saying La Sagouine was not only the role of Leger's career and life, but "also represented a symbol of great pride and tenacity for all Acadians."
Leger was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1989.
She retired from public life in 2017 after having suffering a stroke.
Funeral arrangements will be announced in the near future.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 29, 2023.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.