Robert Paquin was born and raised in Pointe-Saint-Charles, a working class district of Montréal. He studied French and English literature, as well as French and English linguistics, at the University of Montreal, where he received first a licence des lettres, mention lettres anglaises, then an M.A. in English. After which he obtained a Ph.D. from King's College, University of London, England.

Robert taught literature, linguistics and translation as a lecturer in various universities of the province of Quebec. He has translated 13 books, some of them by such internationally known authors as Matt Cohen and Michael Ondaatje. As a literary translator, he was awarded an honourable mention by the Canada Council for the Arts in 1984. Having been Vice-president and President of the Literary Translators' Association of Canada, he remains very active in that organization. In 1984, Robert started his own company, JARP. Since then, he has adapted for dubbing or for subtitling into French or English more than 57 feature films and television series. He has been invited to lecture on literary translation, and on translation for the audiovisual media, in several universities and international conventions in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Germany, and Brazil. A distinguished poet in his own right, Robert inundates his friends and female acquaintances with poems. He has published two collections of poems and, under the pseudonym of Dr. Bobus, often gives live readings of his blues poetry, accompanied by professional blues musicians.