[2] He joined the École littéraire de Montréal in 1896 and became a close friend of Émile Nelligan, Charles Gill, Henry Desjardins, Albert Lozeau and Joseph Melançon.

Several of his early poems were published in anthologies edited by Louis Dantin,[1] and later in journals including Le Monde illustré, Le Passe-Temps, L'Avenir, L'Étudiant, La Revue populaire, Les Débats, L'Alliance nationale and Anthologie des poètes canadiens.

[3] His writing style was generally labelled as Parnassian, and as most strongly influenced by José-Maria de Heredia.

[4] He supported himself primarily as a house painter, according to official sources; after Nelligan was committed to an insane asylum in 1899, Bussières virtually disappeared from the École littéraire, and published only a very small amount of work in the next decade until reemerging in 1910.

[5] Bussières was also alleged by a contemporary, Jean-Aubert Loranger, to have supplemented his income as a house painter by also working as a male prostitute.