In September 1941, he was accepted at Université Laval where he studied medicine and on July 22, 1943, he married a fellow student, Madeleine Therrien, whom he divorced in 1949.

Not in the name of charity, but rather of solidarity- his giving was politically motivated, and he understood that his training as a doctor-his privilege- was paid for by the misery that the francophone working class was experiencing at that time.

In 1960, with the help of Raoul Roy, he created l'Action socialiste pour l'indépendance du Québec.

In 1962, he received the Governor General's Award for French fiction for his book Contes du pays incertain.

He also ran for the RIN in the district of Taillon in the 1966 provincial election and outperformed other candidates of the same party, finishing third with a score of 18.3%.

His life was dramatized by playwright Michèle Magny in her 2004 play Un carré de ciel.