The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I received a notice from the Leader of the Progressive Senate Group who requests, pursuant to rule 4-3(1), that the time provided for the consideration of Senators’ Statements be extended today for the purpose of paying tribute to the Honourable Joyce Fairbairn, whose death occurred on March 29, 2022.

I remind senators that pursuant to our rules, each senator will be allowed only three minutes and they may speak only once.

However, is it agreed that we continue our tributes to our former colleague under Senators’ Statements? We will therefore have up to 30 minutes for tributes. Any time remaining after tributes would be used for other statements.

Hon. Jean-Guy Dagenais: Honourable senators, I rise in the Senate today to pay tribute to hockey legend Guy Lafleur, who passed away last Friday.

It almost feels as though the earth stopped spinning last Friday, especially in Quebec. The news headlines are no longer about Ukraine, the 6% inflation rate or the next wave of the pandemic. There is only one subject that is getting all the attention, and that is the death of the Montreal Canadiens’ number 10, Guy Lafleur, who died of lung cancer at the age of 70.

Since Friday, the country’s television networks have been constantly running footage of the on-ice exploits of this gifted player, an extraordinary and spectacular goal-scorer who was nicknamed “The Flower” by anglophones and “Le Démon blond” by francophones.

Guy Lafleur was the last living superstar of the Montreal Canadiens, after Maurice Richard and Jean Béliveau. More than 35 years after hanging up his skates, Guy Lafleur was still the idol of Quebec hockey fans and revered by an entire nation. His personality, candour and great humility made him a larger-than-life character.

Tributes have been pouring in for the past five days and will probably continue until next week, when a state funeral will be held on May 3 at the Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral in Montreal.

Looking back on Guy Lafleur’s career, it is easy to see how incredibly talented he was. At 12, the young hockey player from Thurso was already dazzling fans at the Quebec City peewee tournament, where he scored 64 goals over three seasons.

In the junior ranks, in 1971, he had a season where he scored 130 goals in 62 games with the Quebec Remparts, in addition to winning the Memorial Cup.

As a Montreal Canadien, Guy Lafleur made history by scoring 50 goals or more for six straight seasons. He won all the individual trophies possible from the National Hockey League, and no less than five Stanley Cups, including four consecutive cups from 1976 to 1979.

By the way, he won his first Stanley Cup in 1973 with teammate Frank Mahovlich, whom several senators know since he sat here for 15 years.

Beyond hockey, Guy Lafleur was a major figure in Quebec pop culture. As far as I am concerned, he contributed as much as or more than Maurice Richard to motivating francophone Quebeckers to succeed in every aspect of society.

Since Friday, tributes have been pouring in for our hero, Guy Lafleur. I felt it was important to join in the accolades here in this chamber.

Thank you to Guy Lafleur for giving so much to hockey fans and to all Canadians. On behalf of the Senate, I would like to offer condolences to his wife, his children and his entire family.