Jean-Baptiste Gustave Lamothe was born on April 16, 1856, in Champlain, Quebec.

He was a Canadian judge and lawyer. He studied the cours classique at the Séminaire Saint-Joseph de Trois-Rivières, and law with François-Xavier-Anselme Trudel in Montreal. He was called to the Quebec bar in 1880 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1899. In 1921, he was awarded a doctorate in Law by the Université de Montréal. He practiced with Trudel and with Napoléon Charbonneau. He was bâtonnier of the district of Montreal between 1904 and 1905. Involved with the Parti conservateur du Québec, he was vice president of the Association libérale-conservatrice de Montréal. He was the director of the Ligue anti-alcoolique in 1909. He was appointed a judge of the Quebec Superior Court on September 25, 1915. He was also appointed to the Quebec Court of Queen's Bench and made Chief Justice of Quebec on September 19, 1918. On October 16, 1918, he served for a few days as Administrator of Quebec because of the health problems of Pierre-Évariste Leblanc, the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec.

He died on November 24, 1922, in Montreal, Quebec.

Born in 1944, Yvan Lamonde was educated in Quebec. He received his B.A. degree from Joliette and the University of Montreal in 1964 and a M.A. in philosophy from the University of Montreal in 1967. He attended Laval University and graduated with a M.A. in history in 1969 and a PhD in 1978. His doctoral study was entitled L’enseignement de la philosophie au Québec (1665-1920). He began teaching at McGill University in 1972 as a faculty lecturer. In 1978 be became an assistant professor and in 1980 an associate professor. In 1993 he became a full professor and in 2009 a professor emeritus in the French Language and Literature Department. He served as the Director of the French Canadian Studies program from 1980-1985. He has written many publications on Quebec cultural and intellectual history. He won the Governor General’s Literary award for Louis-Antoine Dessaulles, 1818-1895: un seigneur libéral et anti-clerical in 1995. He was also a major contributor for the three volumes of the Histoire du livre et de l’imprimé au Canada.