Lalonde was professor of the history of civilizations at the National Theatre School of Canada, served as president of both the Fédération internationale des écrivains de langue française and the Quebec Writers' Union, and was a member of the Order of Francophones of America.
[4] In March 1957, she authored the historical play Ankrania ou celui qui crie that was produced at Montreal's Le Proscenium at the Festival d'Art Dramatique de l'Ouest du Quebec.
Also that same year, Lalonde helped to organize annual gatherings of Canadian writers referred to as "recontres" now known as Rencontre Quebecoise Internationale des Ecrivains.
[2] Her first book of poetry,[4] Songe de la fiancée détruite published in 1958,[1] focuses on solitude and people's inability to communicate.
[2][4] She wrote the poem, Speak White, hurriedly for the actress Michelle Rossignol to read in May 1968 at the height of the 1960s Quiet Revolution in Quebec,[5][6] became her most famous work and denounces "the inferior cultural, social and economic conditions of French Canadians, while calling for the solidarity of oppressed peoples against all forms of colonialism and imperialism.
"[1] Lalonde recited Speak White in essays, lectures, manifestos and statements concerning politics, intellectual and authors' rules, and Quebec women's status.
[4] She experimented with the 1977 historical play known as Dernier recours de Baptiste à Catherine that was first produced at Montreal's Theatre d'Aujourd'hui.
[2][4] Lalonde compiled her best works between 1965 and 1975 into the collection Défense et illustration de la langue québécoise and Portee disparue in 1979.
"[11] But, in the mid-1960s, Lalonde's works had become "‘committed’: no longer addressed to a limited readership, they sought a wider audience and adherence to the socio-political concerns of the people.