Dr. Balfour Mount, who was deeply influential in the establishment of palliative care services, teaching and research in Canada and beyond, died peacefully at about 10 p.m. on Sept. 25 in the palliative care unit named for him at the Royal Victoria Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre. He was 86.

The man considered the father of palliative care was a practising urologist and surgical oncologist at the Royal Victoria when he heard a lecture by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, author of the 1969 book On Death and Dying. “She drew welcome attention to the fact that, in Western culture, we deny death and are very uncomfortable with the topic and we don’t treat the dying person with openness,” Mount recalled in a 2020 interview with McGill News . “That made a big impression on me, working as

See Full Page