Many, if not most, of Sun Life's Head Office employees in 1979 were not fluent in French. Connor, the former President and CEO of Sun Lifeįor the largest employer of English-speaking people in Montreal, this would make things very difficult. It also provided that present and prospective employees who could not speak English not be discriminated against because of their inability to speak English.ĭean A. It made French the official language of the workplace. īill 101 required more than French communications with French-speaking staff. In 1979, the company acquired a property at University Avenue and King Street in downtown Toronto and constructed a new office complex, the Sun Life Centre, which was completed in 1984. In a reaction the next day, the province's finance minister Jacques Parizeau called Sun Life "one of the worst exporters of Quebec capital", and threatened to freeze some $400 million CAD in assets. Officially, Sun Life said it was motivated by the political instability and economic uncertainty of Quebec's future, but skeptics said it was the company's unwillingness to comply with the requirements of Bill 101. On January 6, 1978, Sun Life became the first large company to leave Quebec post-election, announcing that it would move its head office to rented space in Toronto, Ontario. The new government also promised a referendum on Quebec sovereignty, injecting instability into the Montreal business community. The law was received negatively by the English-speaking business community, many of whom perceived that the historical rights of the English-speaking minority should be respected. In 1977, the newly-elected sovereigntist Quebec government passed the Charter of the French Language (known as Bill 101), making the use of French language mandatory for medium- and large-scale companies when communicating with French-speaking staff. The advent, in the 1960s, of political and terrorist movements demanding the independence of Quebec from Canada cast a pallor of uncertainty over the business community. As early as 1950, Toronto's economic activity surpassed Montreal's with regard to stock market trading and capitalization. For the first half of the 20th century, the city of Montreal had been the economic hub of Canada, but it was losing ground to Toronto. Post-World War II ĭuring the post-war period, the company's successful business strategies made it one of Montreal's largest white-collar employers, one of the top corporations in Canada, as well as a global player in the life insurance field. A persistent, but incorrect, rumour is that the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom were illegally shipped out of the United Kingdom during WWII and stored there was deliberately spread in Montreal to account for increased activity at the building. In World War II, as part of Operation Fish, securities from the United Kingdom were secretly moved to the Sun Life Building for safekeeping. Having begun its first US operations in 1895, the company sold its first group life plan in the U.S. In 1919, it was the first Canadian company to offer group life insurance. However, it now also has significant asset management operations. James Street was taller by several floors, the Sun Life Building was at the time the largest building in terms of square footage anywhere in the British Empire.Ĭhartered in 1865, its traditional base business worldwide remains life insurance. Although the head office of the Royal Bank of Canada on St. Capping a Montreal construction boom that began in the 1920s, the company completed construction of the expansion of its headquarters with its new 26-story headquarters north tower in 1933. The company's original Dominion Square building in Montreal was built in 1918. During the next five decades, the company grew and prospered, surviving the difficulties of World War I and the large drain on its finances through policy claims arising from the large number of deaths caused by the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918. By the end of the 19th century, it had expanded to Central and South America, the United States, the United Kingdom, West Indies, Japan, China, Philippines, India, North Africa and other international markets. However, operations actually began in 1871. History Pre-World War II įounded in Montreal, Quebec, as The Sun Insurance Company of Montreal in 1865 by Matthew Hamilton Gault (1822–1887), an Irish immigrant who settled in Montreal in 1842. 7.2 Miami Dolphins NFL Stadium Sponsorship (2010–2016).7.1 Toronto Raptors NBA Jersey Sponsorship (2017–present).
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