Joseph Guibord

rdf:langString Joseph Guibord

rdf:langString Joseph Guibord (31 March 1809 – 18 November 1869) was a printer in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, known for the quality of his work. Guibord was acknowledged as one of the best typographers in Canada; he is thought to have introduced stereotype printing to Canada; and he printed a catechism in an Indian language at the request of André-Marie Garin, a missionary in the northwest. However, Guibord's notability is based on events after his death: as a member of the Institut Canadien de Montréal, he was denied ecclesiastical burial by the Roman Catholic Church in the Montreal cemetery of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. His widow, Henriette Brown, challenged the refusal in the courts, and for five years his body lay in temporary accommodation in a Protestant cemetery as the court action worked its way through the Quebec courts. Finally, five years after his death, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, at that time the court of last resort for the British Empire, allowed his widow's appeal in the Guibord Case and ordered the Church to provide a burial in the portion of the burial ground reserved for Roman Catholics. Religious and political passions were highly aroused by the Judicial Committee's decision and a military escort was needed to carry out the order for burial.