Quebec businessman and philanthropist André Chagnon, founder of Vidéotron, dead at 94

MONTREAL — André Chagnon, a Quebec businessman who founded telecommunications giant Vidéotron and later set up one of the largest family foundations in the country, has died.

In a statement, his family said Chagnon passed away early Saturday at the age of 94, surrounded by loved ones.

The Montreal-born Chagnon, an electrician by trade, was the founder of Vidéotron in 1964, the Quebec cable television company that would become one of the largest telecommunications companies in Canada.

Vidéotron was later acquired by Quebecor Media Inc. in 2000, with Chagnon and his widow, Lucie, in turn setting up the Lucie and André Chagnon Foundation with a goal of preventing poverty.