Georges Anglade was master of the short comic stories known as lodyans. (CBC)

Georges Anglade, a Quebec writer and founder of PEN Haiti, is being remembered for his contributions to press freedom and literature.

The 65-year-old Anglade and his wife Mireille Neptune were killed in the earthquake in Haiti when the house where they were staying collapsed. He was able to call his daughter in North Carolina from under the rubble before he died.

"They're still buried, so hopefully we'll get news today," daughter Dominique Anglade told CBC News on Thursday.

"My cousin is going back today to try and get to the house. There's no road to get to the house and you need very heavy equipment to get to the concrete."

Her father, who was born in Haiti, had been concerned over what might happen if a disaster struck, she said.

"He was interviewed a number of times regarding a disaster that could happen and he died, in not just a disaster, but a major one."

Anglade was a founding member of the Université du Québec a Montréal and had retired as a social geography professor there in 2002.

"He was a major figure in Canada as one of the founders of UQAM ... a major figure in the Haitian community, on the board of Quebec PEN for 11 years — a voice in places like North Africa and the Middle East both for Canada and for Haiti for freedom of speech and for literature," John Ralston Saul, president of International PEN, told CBC News.

He remembered Anglade as a "big bear of a man" with a huge personality, who never gave up the dream of democracy for Haiti.

Imprisoned under Papa Doc Duvalier in 1974, he had returned to his birthplace to advise presidents Jean-Bertrand Aristide and René Préval and serve in the Haitian cabinet.

"He was forced into exile twice, but he kept speaking out," Ralston Saul said. "His attempt over the last five years to put together the bones of a writers' freedom of speech PEN centre was his last big attempt."

Anglade played a role in connecting Haitian writers in exile, among them many Canadians such as Dany Laferriere, with writers in Haiti. He also created a PEN centre in Haiti to try to work for freedom of expression in a country that too frequently imprisons those who speak freely.

Anglade wrote several books, his last being Haitian Laughter, which collects his lodyans. Lodyans are a form of comic story, often with an underlying political meaning, that are often performed as entertainment after dinner in Haitian culture.

"I tell one of his stories which is a conversation between the Pope and Castro negotiating a visit by the Pope to Cuba You can imagine — very funny — and comparing it to visits by the Canadian prime minister," Ralston Saul said.

"He was taking Haitian styles and bringing them to Canada and taking Canadian styles and bringing them to Haiti."

He also was author of Les blancs de memoire and Leurs jupons depassent, both collections of lodyans and of several non-fiction books about Haiti's fight for freedom.

Anglade was born in Port-au-Prince on July 18,1944, and studied geography and law in Strasbourg in the 1960s, earning his doctorate. Anglade and his wife came to Canada in 1969.

He was head of the UQAM department of geography from 1982 to 1984 and served two terms as head of the graduate program. He remained active in fighting for democracy in Haiti throughout his years in Quebec.