1.) Silvered bronze. 72mm. 185.1 grams. Edge marked V. CANALE with B and triangle marks left and right.

2.) Bronze. 72mm. 178.7 grams. Edge marked with B.

This pair of medals was awarded to Marcel Cadieux in 1939 for graduating at the top of his class from the University of Montreal law school. Cadieux would go on to have a distinguished career in the public service. He served as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1964 to 1970, heading that department as its top civil servant, and in 1970 was appointed Canada’s Ambassador to the United States under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, a position he held until 1975. Cadieux would go on to receive a number of honours during his life, as well as posthumously.

He was awarded the Vanier Medal in 1969 by The Institute of Public Administration, and named as a Companion of the Order of Canada that same year. Shortly after Cadieux’s death in 1981, the Canadian Council on International Law awarded Cadieux its highest honour, the John E. Read Medal.

In The Good Fight: Marcel Cadieux and Canadian Diplomacy (2019), author Brenden Kelly calls Cadieux “Canada’s most distinguished francophone diplomat and public servant.” He specifically mention’s these medals:

In the spring of 1939, with Europe on the brink of war, Cadieux and [ friend Paul] Tremblay sat the examination for their law degree. Cadieux passed with flying colours, winning the Lieutenant Governor General’s Medal for top marks, as Pierre Trudeau would do, and graduating from the Université de Montréal with great distinction.

For years these medals sat in a frame, presumably displayed proudly by Cadieux. The condition of the frame necessitated removal. However, a contemporary newspaper clipping attached to the back of the frame remains intact. The reverse of each medal shows minor staining from the glue that kept them in place. An inscription in pencil occurs at the upper reverse border on the silvered example. Difficult to make out, it appears to read SCI. SOC. ECON ET .. (indistinguishable). The dates 1934-1936 appear faintly above the shield.

E.L Patenaude (1875-1963) served as the 17th Lieutenant Governor General of Quebec from 1934 to 1940. The Patenaude medals were engraved by Montreal sculptor Sylvia Daoust and struck by the firm of Victor Canale in France.

Ex: From the Estate of Ambassador Marcel Cadieux.