The Quebec Amateur Hockey Association (QAHA) was founded at the Montreal AAA clubhouse on January 19, 1919, with Hartland MacDougall elected as president and W. R. Granger as the vice-president.

Dufresne admitted that he had played semi-professional baseball, and argued that he should be reinstated as an amateur since he had not reached the age of majority when the incident occurred.

[8] He filed legal action seeking a writ of mandamus to be issued an amateur card,[9] and testified that he was young and inexperienced at the time, did not know that he was playing with professionals.

[12] Commercial leagues in Montreal gave Granger a vote of confidence and agreed that professionals in another sport should be excluded from amateur hockey.

[13] At the QAHA general meeting in December 1921, Granger recommended revisions to the constitution to improve finances and ensure amateur player registrations, and retired as president because he held the same position with the CAHA.

[17] He appointed a special committee to revise the constitution and by-laws to resolve a lack of clarity that had resulted recurring petty differences,[17][18] and chaired a meeting requested by the leagues to discuss a "one-man, one-league" regulation.

The QAHA divided its junior ice hockey leagues into tiers, when it adopted the junior-B rating, similar to other CAHA branches.

Dawe attempted to mediate the dispute by allowing the ODAHA to keep the five per cent share of gate receipts for the Ottawa and Hull teams, instead of the funds being paid to the QAHA.

[48] Rumors about the QSHL becoming a professional minor league persisted in The Gazette, which reported that teams were upset with the amount of travel expenses given by the CAHA in the Allan Cup playoffs.

Dawe stated that Lester Patrick of the New York Rangers, and Art Ross of the Boston Bruins, wanted to see the QSHL and other CAHA senior leagues become professional for the best interests of the other NHL teams.

[54] Lionel Fleury was elected president of the QAHA to succeed Robert Lebel in June 1955,[55] and was the first person to live outside of Greater Montreal to hold the position.

The QAHA contended those teams were operating on a semi-professional basis since they paid a weekly stipend to their players and were too strong of competition in the Memorial Cup playoffs for the Canadian junior championship.

In January 1957, the QAHA reached an agreement with the Maritime Amateur Hockey Association and the ODAHA to establish a new junior championship at a lower level than the Memorial Cup.

They invited teams from the Northern Ontario Hockey Association and Western Canada to join, then presented the plan for approval by the CAHA.

[58] The CAHA voted instead to allow its weaker branches to strengthen their championship teams by adding up to six players in the Memorial Cup playoffs.