A PRIMER ON BILL 82, QUEBEC’S NEW HERITAGE LAW $10 Quebec

VOL. 7, NO. 1 W INTER 2013 HeritageNews

Stones and Bones Sherbrooke’s Winter Prison and Sir John Johnson’s Vault Producing Potash Horatio Gates and Others Do a Roaring Trade Heritage on Tap The Career of Ethel May Bruneau QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Quebec CONTENTS HeritageNews EDITOR Editor’s Desk 3 RODERICK MACLEOD Wee Kiddies on picket duty Rod MacLeod PRODUCTION DAN PINESE Timelines 5 QAHN joins in Traf’s 125th PUBLISHER THE QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE Sherbrooke’s Winter Prison inside and out Jessica Campbell HERITAGE NETWORK 400-257 QUEEN STREET Right step or misstep? Quebec’s new cultural heritage law Kevin O’Donnell SHERBROOKE, QUEBEC J1M 1K7 The restoration of Sir John Johnson’s burial vault Jessica Campbell PHONE 1-877-964-0409 Miss Swing 13 (819) 564-9595 Ethel Bruneau from Harlem to Rockhead’s Lys Stevens FAX (819) 564-6872 Trudeau Park’s Hidden Treasure 18 CORRESPONDENCE The Human Right’s Walkway Myra Shuster [email protected] WEBSITES The Ghost of the Ottawa 21 WWW.QAHN.ORG Joseph Graham WWW.QUEBECHERITAGEWEB.COM The Potash Process 22 PRESIDENT Exploring a grand old trade Susan McGuire KEVIN O’DONNELL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & Horatio Gates 24 WEBMAGAZINES EDITOR An American in Montreal during the War of 1812 Susan McGuire MATTHEW FARFAN OFFICE MANAGER Alec C. Booth 26 KATHY TEASDALE Richmond County’s “Working Man” poet Nick Fonda

Quebec Heritage News is produced four Reviews 28 times yearly by the Quebec Anglophone Worthy of the Annals Heritage Network (QAHN) with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage Irish Settlement and National Identity by Peter Southam Sandra Stock and Quebec’s Ministère de la Culture et des Communications. QAHN is a non-profit New History, Old Dilemmas Nick Fonda and non-partisan umbrella organization whose mission is to help advance knowl- An Illustrated History of Quebec by Peter Gossage and J. I. Little edge of the history and culture of the English-speaking communities of Quebec. Annual Subscription Rates: Editor’s note: Individual: $30.00; Organization: $40.00 Please note that the previous issue of Quebec Heritage News (Vol. 6 No. 7) was the final issue Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement Number 405610004. of that volume. With the current issue (Vol. 7, No. 1), we are “rebooting” our numbering sys- ISSN 17707-2670 tem to better reflect our quarterly format. Henceforth, each volume will include four numbers. PRINTED IN CANADA

Cover image: For sale! Sherbrooke’s Winter Prison, 2012. Photo: Matthew Farfan

2 WINTER 2013

EDITOR’S DESK Wee kiddies on picket duty by Rod MacLeod

o, you thought this past year in with Protestants “for education purpos- in part excuse certain discriminatory ten- Quebec saw a shocking level of es,” the position of Jewish children in dencies on the part of one Miss McKin- student protest and clashes in classrooms was always precarious, even ley, teacher of a Grade Six class at Ab- the streets? Small potatoes. in schools such as Mount Royal, Lans- erdeen School, her sense of timing was SNothing compared to the scene one hun- downe, and Aberdeen where Jews made clearly abysmal. On the morning of dred years ago this February when Mon- up the majority of students. There were Thursday, February 27, 1913, she told treal’s St. Louis Square was turned into virtually no Jewish teachers working in her almost entirely Jewish class that the strike headquarters of hundreds of the public system. Certainly cultural Jews were dirty and should be banned picketing students whose actions would sensitivity training was not part of the from the school. Given the political cli- have revolutionary consequences for ed- Normal School curriculum. mate, this outburst electrified the stu- ucation and ethnic relations in Quebec. In early 1913, however, the issue dents – five boys in particular: Harry And most of them were under ten. that would have dominated discussions Singer, Frank Sherman, Joe Orenstein, There were lots of strikes in those around kitchen tables in homes on and Moses Skibelsky, and Moses Margolis days – vicious ones, too, with went straight to the principal police and/or private goon to complain. Unfortunately, squads breaking up marching although a staunch discipli- workers, both collectively and narian, Principal Henry Cock- individually. 1912 saw a par- field was no diplomat. Seeing ticularly bitter dispute in Mon- only pre-teen troublemakers, treal’s garment industry, which he dismissed the boys out of was close to my story’s home hand. in that both factory owners So they called a strike. and workers were Jewish. The Applying what they had workers were Yiddish-speak- learned from their parents, ing, secular, and socialist, their Aberdeen school students political views imported from from all grades picketed in the Pale of Russia from which front of the school gates Fri- they (unlike the factory own- day morning, February 28. ers) hailed. The children of Soon over 200 children (some these families earned their said as many as 600) had Poli-Sci degrees around the gathered, at which point they kitchen table, just as they crossed St. Denis Street to the learned English, Math, Geog- park in St. Louis Square, raphy, and how to be a good citizen of off The Main was the Plamondon affair. which became strike HQ. There, they the Empire at the local Protestant school. Three years earlier, notary Jacques- vowed not to return to class until they There was also lots of anti-semitism Edouard Plamondon, addressing a gath- received an apology, and declared that in those days. Very few Canadians of ering of the Association catholique de la any student who did so would be consid- non-Jewish persuasion were immune to jeunesse canadienne-française in Quebec ered a scab. Someone, possibly a resi- this form of mental illness, although for City, denounced Jews and Judaism, dent of this otherwise tony square, called most the symptoms either did not mani- evoking no less than the ancient blood the police. Two officers arrived and tried fest or were cleverly concealed. Protes- libel as evidence of a mounting conspir- to force the children out of the park, but tant school administrators were usually acy. This speech provoked several in- this proved harder than herding cats. adept at masking whatever distaste they stances of street fighting and vandalism According to reporters, who also turned may have felt towards the growing num- between Jews and Catholics, and these up in search of curious news, the chil- ber of Jewish children in their class- in turn spurred the provincial Jewish dren were slippery but neither aggres- rooms with expressions of concern for leadership to sue Plamondon for libel – sive nor provocative; apparently not maintaining the “Christian character” of an unprecedented course of action. The even a single snowball was thrown. schooling and for having to provide edu- trial was set to begin in May 1913, its Their sense of calm purpose is especial- cation to hundreds of pupils whose par- outcome eagerly awaited by the entire ly impressive given that these children ents, as renters, did not pay school taxes. Jewish community. had reason to be afraid of police after Even though a 1903 law equated Jews And so, although upbringing might witnessing what had occurred during the

3 Montreal Herald, March 1, 1913. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS recent garment workers’ strike. the matter of hiring Jewish teachers. This was good publicity, but not Sure enough, after legal counsel de- enough. The savvy strike leaders sent a clared there was no impediment, the delegation to march on the offices of the board began to accept non-Protestant ap- Keneder Adler (the “Canadian Eagle”), plications for teaching positions. In the Montreal’s principal Yiddish newspaper, fall of 1913, Misses F. Novick, whose editor Reuben Brainen and pub- L. Chaskelson and Rebecca Smilovitz lisher Hirsch Wolofsky proved sympa- (all clearly identified as “Jewesses”) thetic to the children’s cause. Over the took charge of classrooms in various following days, Brainen’s numerous arti- Protestant schools. Within a decade of cles about the strike presented it as evi- the Aberdeen School Strike, the board dence of a nascent sense of Jewish dig- was employing over seventy Jewish nity and solidarity: “What interests me is teachers – hardly enough to go around that the children did not seek justice for all the schools with large Jewish popula- themselves,” he wrote. “It was their na- tions, but a definite improvement over tional sensibility that was offended and the situation at the beginning of the cen- that provoked their little fists against tury. their highest government (for to children A colleague and I first learned of their teachers and schools are the highest the Aberdeen School Strike some time government).” ago from a book of articles taken from Another delegation of students was the early years of Keneder Adler, but felt let go of.) sent to the Baron de Hirsch Institute, much more could be done with the story. And so, after countless drafts and where the city’s Jewish political leader- We particularly wanted to explore the numerous conference presentations (in- ship (including Samuel Jacobs, one of variety of reactions to the strike, from cluding Klez Canada Laurentian Retreat the lawyers in the Plamondon case) held support to hostility, both within the Jew- and the LeMood festival of “unexpected their meetings. The Institute’s legislative ish community (Abramowitz, for one, Jewish learning”) we lucked out on a committee agreed to send a negotiating was initially very skeptical) and outside. fast publishing turnaround at Labour/Le party to Aberdeen School, consisting of We also wanted to present a story of re- Travail and the story of the Aberdeen Jacobs and Rabbi Herman Abramovitz. sistance to anti-semitism, especially by School Strike will see print in January Later that day, these two men ar- children, who are too often relegated to 2013. But that’s not all. In collabora- rived by sleigh to wild cheers from the the sidelines in history. Indeed, much of tion with the Canadian Jewish Congress crowd of striking children. The meeting the newspaper coverage at the time was and the Jewish Public Library, we will with the uncouth Principal Cockfield did condescending in tone: for example the be commemorating the centenary of the not go well, although, when summoned, Montreal Herald’s front-page headline strike on February 28 at the CJC offices Miss McKinley (like all public figures “Wee Kiddies on Picket Duty.” (That (corner of Côte des Neiges Road and Dr. caught making obnoxious statements) phrase became the working title for our Penfield Avenue in Montreal) with a expressed regret that her remarks had project until another colleague pointed roundtable discussion, a short dramatiza- been taken out of context. Cockfield did out that we seemed to be perpetuating tion of some of the events I’ve de- agree to leave the issue in the hands of the condescension; we changed it to scribed, and the launch of a graphic nov- the school commissioners. On condition “Little Fists for Social Justice,” but I’m el about the strike geared towards young that no child would be punished for tak- offering the original here as it is hard to people. Those of you who have been in- ing action, the students volved in major commemo- agreed to return to classes ration projects will know on Monday morning. Once how they can take on a life again, they cheered the ne- of their own, and can easily gotiators’ sleigh as it sped leave the organizers dis- off into the gathering dusk. tinctly less sane. But the The matter was re- cause is just: those kids de- solved over the course of serve whatever honour and several subsequent back- recognition we can give room discussions between them. Abramovitz, Jacobs, and After all, it isn’t every the chair of the school day that students go on board, Herbert Symonds. strike. No recriminations against any of the parties would take place. Order was re- stored on the condition that the commissioners look into

Top: Reuben Brainin, from Reuben Brainin's Selected Works, 1965. 4 Bottom: William Notman & Son, “St. Louis Square, Montreal,” c.1895. McCord Museum: VIEW-2700. WINTER 2013

TIMELINES QAHN joins in Traf’s 125th century after it first opened ing visitors to the heritage rooms. It was its doors to the old building an occasion to introduce people to on Montreal’s Simpson QAHN in general and the Quebec Her- Street, Trafalgar School for itage News in particular. Janet’s recent GirlsA celebrated in style with a weekend article on the history of Traf proved a homecoming event that brought Old draw. The two from QAHN were well Girls from across the globe. supplied with food and drink, and given In addition to a number of organ- personal tours of the school from Janet. ized events, “Traf” held an open house It was a privilege to help Traf commem- on the afternoon of Saturday, October orate its prestigious history, and always 20, 2012. Grads, sometimes two or a pleasure to make new acquaintances. three generations from the same family, filed though the venerable halls to relive old memories, rekindle almost forgotten friendships, or just see what they’d done to the place. Two rooms in the oldest part of the school (those immediately behind the ancient door depicted on the cover of the Fall 2012 Quebec Heritage News) were devoted to historical memo- rabilia: photos, old school books, prizes and trophies, and an old hand bell that must once have summoned the faithful to the halls of learning. What did not fit on the walls went into a looped video that visitors sat to take in. QAHN’s Sandra Stock (herself a former member of the Traf staff) and Rod MacLeod joined Janet Allingham, one of the reunion’s organizers, in greet-

HOMETOWN HERITAGE 2nd ANNUAL HERITAGE ESSAY CONTEST PHOTO CONTEST! 2013 2013 “MY HERITAGE OBJECT” Open to students in grades 4, 5 and 6 across Quebec! Open to High School Students across Quebec! Cash prizes! Cash prizes! Great publishing opportunity! Great publishing opportunity!

Deadline: April 30, 2013 Deadline: April 30, 2013 For contest details, contact QAHN at: [email protected] For contest details, contact QAHN at: [email protected] Tel: (819) 564-9595 Tel: (819) 564-9595 Toll free at: 1 (877) 964-0409 Toll free at: 1 (877) 964-0409

5 Janet Allingham, Rod MacLeod and Sandra Stock at the Trafalgar Open House. Photo: courtesy of Trafalgar School for Girls. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Sherbrooke’s Winter Prison inside and out Awaiting a promising future by Jessica Campbell n ominous feeling still hangs in the air in prison harsh; only two years after opening, the prisoners and around Sherbrooke’s derelict Winter began complaining about the poorly functioning chimney, Prison. The prison, which is reputedly the which made breathing difficult, and the toilets [...] More- oldest stone structure in Sherbrooke and the over, it took until 1913 for the authorities to install city’s third oldest public building, is the province’s old- modern plumbing and replace the wood burning stove A with a hot water boiler. est prison outside of Quebec City and Montreal. Hid- den on quiet Winter Street in Sherbrooke’s Borough of Whether given good treatment or bad, inmates still Jacques-Cartier and overlook- wanted and managed to escape Winter Prison, most notable among them being a man ing the Magog River, the Win- named Guillenette, who escaped ter Prison functioned as Sher- in the 1930s and was never brooke’s only penitentiary for found. well over a century. People today may cringe at Michel Mercier, a mem- the idea of preserving a prison, ber of the Société de sauveg- an institution made for punish- arde de la vieille prison, the ment and for housing criminals, organization that currently but it stands as a doorway to the owns the building and is dedi- past and a beautiful piece of ar- cated to preserving it, once chitecture. It would be unfortu- wrote an article reminding nate if we erased this building Sherbrooke residents of the from the history of Sherbrooke, heritage they would be losing there is no reason for us to find it should the old prison be de- to be less hauntingly beautiful molished. Mercier’s article and awesome today, simply be- was written around 1989, cause it was a prison. when the building was first condemned and after the So- oday, the prison’s ciété de sauvegarde had pur- ghostly feel makes it chased it amidst public fears the perfect setting for that it would be torn down. a horror film. In fact, Mercier’s article, originally written in French, in- TI toured the prison recently cludes a brief sketch of the Winter Prison’s history, fo- with an amateur film crew planning to spend the night cusing on the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen- inside to film the eerie halls and cells, and even (we turies: hoped) signs of supernatural activity. Our tour guide, Société de sauvegarde treasurer Jean-Michel Longpré, Construction of this large Palladian structure began told us that recent and current uses for the old prison in 1865 and was completed in 1872 at a time when Sher- include accommodating the activities of Art Libre, a brooke had only 4,000 habitants. The Winter Prison was local art association, and storing the collection of an- meant to replace the older prison on the corner of Mon- treal and William streets […] The prison was designed by tiques belonging to the prison’s caretaker. The building the renowned architect at the time, Frederick Preston has also been a film location for historical documen- Rubidge. Inspired by the prison style in vogue in the Unit- taries, including a production focusing on Canadian ed States, Rubidge designed a larger building, which outlaw and folk hero Donald Morrison. allowed for a more humane treatment of the prisoners. The prison is now for sale, although there is no His rooms could accommodate many prisoners in sepa- sign on the building. Its interior can be altered accord- rate double or single cells that aligned in a row, rather ing to a buyer’s wishes. Longpré told us that “if buy- than a few common rooms that would have to hold many ers are serious about renovating the building and pro- prisoners piled on top of one another […] vide proof of their plans, then we will sell the prison to The Winter Prison was mixed; it held long-term pris- them for the same price we bought it for from the oners, people awaiting trial, people with fewer than two- Ministry of Culture – $1.00!” year sentences, and even those awaiting execution for Although the building is not protected by any capital offenses. The location of prisoners’ cellblocks de- municipal or provincial heritage status, it has been in- pended on the duration of their stay and ultimately on the cluded in the City of Sherbrooke’s zoning guidelines, nature of their crime. known collectively as the Plan d’implantation et d’in- While the prisoners were treated relatively well in tégration architectural. So there is at least some meas- terms of forced labour, other aspects made living in the

6 Interior of a 2 by 8 foot cell. Photo: Jessica Campbell. WINTER 2013 ure of protection for the building’s exterior. supposedly for the use of the prison inmates, although For the past 23 years, the Société de sauvegarde far too small to hold all the prisoners and employees at has encouraged multiple uses of the prison’s interior: any one time. as a heritage centre or museum, a tourist site, offices, Besides the chapel, which has a recently-built sky- or even a condo complex. Despite some community light, most of the windows in the building have thick members’ interest in restoring the prison as a museum, bars, and some have shutters, so little natural light the Société is not stressing any grandiose plans or links enters the prison halls, making navigation throughout to Sherbrooke’s heritage for the interior. The organiza- difficult. tion’s main desire is for the building to be put to use While there are technically four floors in the rather than to fall into further disrepair. prison, there are also a multitude of small independent As it is, few peo- sets of steps leading in- ple are interested in in- to different rooms and vesting money in such areas; the term “nook a massive structure, and cranny” is quite ap- and the more time that plicable to this maze- passes, the more the like building. Given the building will decay and Winter Prison’s many the harder it will be to renovations through the sell. The Société de years, the exact purpose sauvegarde does not of each of these many have the funds to re- little rooms is not store the building or certain. even to properly main- But perhaps the tain it. A 2010 article most impressive thing about the status of the about the Winter Prison prison stated that “the is its exterior. Apart Conseil des monu- from its imposing stone ments et sites du Québec has already urged local stake- façade, its interior courtyard and the 5.5 x 144 metre holders…to integrate the prison in future revitalization (18 x 472 foot) stone wall surrounding it are truly re- plans,” but thus far no one has made a serious offer. markable. Stepping into the courtyard is like stepping Because of its “advanced state of disrepair,” the onto the set of The Shawshank Redemption. The feel- prison was condemned for a second time in its history ing one has is of utter imprisonment. in 2007 by the Régie du bâtment. As it is, most rooms At the far right is the area where the guards and hallways are cement or neatly cut stone and some surveyed the prisoners. At the front right, a small walls remain in decent shape, while others are decay- corner was dedicated to a three-storey-high hanging ing and the doorways are so small that one needs to scaffold, where six prisoners between 1880 and 1931 duck to get through them. The only recently renovated were executed. Due to the sloping green space, the area, located in the front, far right part of the building, wall dips a few feet behind the location of the scaffold. are two now vacant offices used during the last decade Ironically, this is where some prisoners attempted to by a law firm and a moving company. escape. The Winter Prison’s interior is a maze consisting “This portion, the outside, and the interior court of two symmetrical side-wings, which once housed the must remain authentic,” Longpré emphasized. Clearly, prisoners’ quarters, workshops, showers and a small the Société de sauvegarde de la vieille prison is ready cafeteria, where the prisoners would eat their meals – to pass the building on to new buyers. But until a which consisted mainly of oatmeal or bologna. The suitable buyer is found, the status of the Winter Prison most interesting feature of these side wings are the will remain as it is. prisoners’ double- or single-cells, the latter measuring approximately 0.61 x 2.4 metres (2 x 8 feet). These Sources: tiny cells, wherein the prisoners were only supposed to Interview by the author with Jean-Michel Longpré spend eight hours at a time, were eventually considered (October 6, 2012). inhumane and were cited as a reason for the prison’s closure and relocation to the newly-built Talbot Deten- Michel Mercier, “La Prison Winter,” no date [circa tion Centre. 1989]. The side wings flank the private residence of the prison’s governor who lived rent-free with his family. The Heritage Canada Foundation. “Winter Street According to Mercier’s article, the governor occupied Prison.” http://www.heritagecanada.org/en/ issues- this apartment until the 1940s, when he moved to a pri- campaigns/top-ten-endangered/explore-past-list- vate annexation built around that time. Sharing the top ings/quebec/winter-street-prison. 2010. floor with the governor’s bedrooms is a chapel –

7 Cell windows, exterior. Photo: Matthew Farfan. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Right step or misstep? Quebec’s new cultural heritage law by Kevin O’Donnell id the earth move for you last As time marched on, the province Planning and Development Act, the October 19? In case you began playing an important role in the Cities and Towns Act, the Sustainable missed the tremors, that was international evolution of what should Development Act, and others.) the day Quebec’s new Cultur- be considered “heritage.” In 1982, Que- “We must therefore develop a new Dal Heritage Act (Bill 82) came into bec’s own Deschambault Declaration approach that will embrace the extraor- force. Frankly, I would have to rate the stressed the need to “identify our cultur- dinary diversity of our heritage and help changes and improvements the new leg- al personality, and thereby define the it survive the next decades, for ourselves islation brings as low-to-moderate on the special nature of our heritage.” The De- and on behalf of generations to come,” heritage Richter scale. But read on. schambault Declaration appeared under St-Pierre declared in A Fresh Look at Parts of the legislation might prove the aegis of ICOMOS, the International Cultural Heritage, the Green Paper that useful to willing heritage guardians. Council on Monuments and Sites, as did laid the groundwork for her remake. There even appears to be new money the 2008 UNESCO-ICOMOS “Quebec “We are passionate about our shared her- available for cherished projects as well Declaration on the Preservation of the itage and committed to demanding that as ventures in new ar- the right steps be taken eas. The English- to ensure its long term speaking minority survival.” should not miss out on These stirring potentially significant words set off a round of opportunities. public hearings across To see what is pos- the province, which itive in the Cultural were followed by Na- Heritage Act requires a tional Assembly com- little background infor- mittee hearings with mation. As can be ex- briefs submitted by in- pected from a province terested parties (includ- with Je me souviens as ing QAHN), and im- its motto, Quebec has passioned articles in the had heritage legislation French-language me- on the books for a long dia. Finally, after a time. The first law, clause-by-clause re- passed in 1922, fo- view resulting in 69 cussed on protecting amendments, Bill 82 monuments and histor- was adopted on Octo- ical works of art. By 1972, the Cultural Spirit of Place,” given international rati- ber 19, 2011, to come into force one Properties Act reflected a then-modern fication in 2011. This declaration de- year later. consensus concerning heritage that had fined Spirit of Place as “the tangible It’s little wonder that the very first emerged from such international con- (buildings, sites, landscapes, routes, ob- section of the Cultural Heritage Act is in ventions as the Charter of Athens (1931) jects) and the intangible elements (mem- the spirit of the Quebec Declaration: and the Charter of Venice (1964). The ories, narratives, written documents, rit- “Cultural heritage consists of deceased new law and its subsequent updates of- uals, festivals, traditional knowledge, persons of historical importance, historic fered protection to properties of values, textures, colors, odors, etc.), that events and sites, heritage documents, aesthetic, historic and monumental sig- is to say the physical and the spiritual el- immovables, objects and sites, heritage nificance. Archeological sites were now ements that give meaning, value, emo- cultural landscapes, and intangible her- protected, and the law extended to ob- tion and mystery to place.” itage.” At first glance this seems like a jects and documents. Property tax reduc- These new perspectives, as well as jumbled if not bizarre formulation, but tions were added to the law in 1972, and the patchwork nature of Quebec heritage then, on November 1, the Ministry made municipalities were compensated for legislation, led Christine St-Pierre to an- the first move under the new law. The lost revenues starting in 1986. The year nounce in 2007 her intention to champi- “Premiers of Quebec Deceased since before, municipalities had been given on a new law. (The Cultural Properties 1867” were given designation status, powers to enact bylaws, to designate Act had been updated several times from and were entered in the Registre du pat- heritage sites and historic monuments, to 1972 to the mid-90s, and several other rimoine culturel. The premiers are the grant financial and technical assistance laws had a direct impact on municipal first, but presumably not the last, to en- to owners, and to expropriate heritage. and individual practices: the Land Use ter the Hall of Fame section of the 8 Seville Theatre site, Montreal, Fall 2011. Photo: Patrick M. Lozeau, Alexandre Albert. WINTER 2013 province’s Register of Cultural Heritage. communities,” but then section 207 im- lors, municipal staff and CCU members. In fact, to underline that the Min- plies that certain fines will go, not to the Ministry documents boast that since istry was taking seriously the implica- towns or the Cultural Heritage Fund, but 1985 some 275 municipalities have tak- tions of “intangible heritage,” on the day will “belong to the prosecutor.” en advantage of the provisions of the old Bill 82 came into force the new Minister Municipalities are granted impor- Cultural Properties Act, designating of Culture and Communications, Maka tant rights and responsibilities under the some 200 heritage sites in their jurisdic- Kotto, announced that a new component Cultural Heritage Act to protect heritage tions. There are 1,112 municipalities in had been added to Quebec’s shadowy within their jurisdictions – but this may Quebec. Furthermore, the Ministry’s $5.5 million Cultural Heritage Fund. turn out to be where problems begin. 2011-12 annual report notes that only 68 This fifth component, for which new Bill 82 calls for Local Heritage recipients had been reimbursed less than sums will be added in 2013 from tobac- Councils to be set up, to serve town $5 million for taxes. co tax revenue, “aims to provide grants councils in an advisory capacity, and to So far, the Quebec experience for conducting studies and outreach ac- hear representations from local citizens. seems to bear out Canadian heritage ex- tivities related to awareness, inventory Impressive sounding, but the law impos- pert Robert Shipley’s gloomy observa- and project development. It will, for ex- es no obligation to establish such Her- tion that “heritage laws, almost alone ample, provide financial support for lo- itage Councils and even implies that among our legislative framework, are cal municipalities or regional jurisdic- these advisory bodies can simply be not taken seriously by the people tions to undertake steps to obtain a her- added to the chores of Town Planning charged with upholding the law.” itage designation for a culturally signifi- Advisory Committees (also known as But maybe things will change. The cant landscape.” (This from a press re- Comités consultatifs d’urbanisme). Ministry seems to be serious about im- lease, Loi sur le patrimoine culturel: TPAC/CCUs are established under the plementing the law, and about providing Une loi pour connaître, protéger, val- Act Respecting Land Use Planning and (some) funds to encourage compliance. oriser et transmettre notre héritage col- Development, and there’s one in every QAHN will be on the lookout to publi- lectif. In fact, this was recycled news – Quebec municipality, the result of a law cize these resources from the Ministry, the fifth component had been added that is meant to be taken seriously. To as well as from other sources, so that in January 2012. See: www.mcc. ensure that heritage issues are taken seri- your museum or historical society can gouv.qc.ca/index.php?id=2766) ously, architect Michael Fish has pro- continue to make known the both the Non-profits (e.g. museums and reg- posed a solution: municipalities which tangible and intangible heritage of Que- istered historical societies) and munici- fail to set up properly constituted Local bec’s English-speaking minority. It’s im- palities can take advantage of this fund- Heritage Councils should have these re- portant that our “physical and spiritual ing. Recently, QAHN director Richard sponsibilities taken up by their Munici- elements that give meaning, value, emo- Smith participated in a meeting with of- pal Regional Councils on the reception tion and mystery to place” be recognized ficials of the Ministry of Culture and of a petition of 25 citizens from that mu- as a vital element in Quebec society. Communications. The officials men- nicipality. tioned that “they have an interesting sum In fact, municipalities, for all their A detailed analysis of the Cultural Her- of money available for cultural proj- new but more-or-less traditional, powers itage Act (Bill 82) can be found on the ects,” especially with regards the new and responsibilities granted under Bill QAHN website: www.qahn.org. fifth component of the Fund. 82, are the Achilles heel of the new her- Aside from this interesting expan- itage law. This is the informed opinion Links to Bill 82 can be found at sion of heritage areas, and the willing- of QAHN Executive Director Matthew http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/travaux-par- ness of the government to subsidize new Farfan, who spent 11 years serving on a lementaires/projets-loi/projet-loi-82-39- projects, the rest of the law is disap- municipal council, including nine on a 1.html. pointing. In spite of the consultations CCU. According to Farfan, town coun- and amendments – or maybe because of cils and CCUs are over-represented by The Ministry of Culture and Communi- them – Bill 82 has a slapdash, thrown- developers, for whom heritage buildings cations has just published, La Loi sur le together feel to it. For example, the fi- should not stand in the way of progress, patrimoine culturel: Guide pratique des- nal wording regarding property tax reim- such as building parking lots. He points tiné aux municipalités: www.mcc.gouv. bursements given to municipalities is not out that the new law makes no provision qc.ca/fileadmin/documents/patrimoine/g indicated in the law. Provisions in the to provide training in heritage matters uide-municipalites-19-10-2012.pdf. old law remain for this year, and will for relevant players such as city council- continue if they don’t get around to adding new sections to the Cultural Her- itage Act. Another example: the pream- ble to Bill 82 notes that “the Act pre- scribes that the fines collected are to be paid into the Quebec Cultural Heritage Fund, except the fines collected by local municipalities or Native communities, which belong to those municipalities or

9 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Commemorating a Loyalist The restoration of Sir John Johnson’s burial vault by Jessica Campbell ont Saint-Grégoire is known for its apple Legislative Council of Lower Canada. orchards, forest parks, sugar shacks and Johnson is perhaps best remembered for his relation- hiking trails. On the slope of the moun- ship with Native Americans. He was responsible for repre- tain, on land owned by the Centre d’in- senting the Native peoples, and for maintaining their well- terprétationM du milieu écologique du Haut-Richelieu being and happiness. He quelled the feuds between the (CIME), lies the foundation of the burial vault of Unit- Natives and the settlers. He developed amicable relation- ed Empire Loyalist Sir John Johnson, erected by John- ships with their chiefs, and held councils with them. He al- son’s family in 1812. Except for the flattened grass so helped maintain long-held traditions, such as the British leading to the site, the vault is nearly invisible to government’s practice of gift-giving to the First Nations passersby. peoples. By the late 1950s, the Johnson’s real estate Johnson family vault had endeavors are also note- been looted and ran- worthy. Despite the sacked. It was in a dilapi- British government’s re- dated state, with only the luctance to allow settle- foundation and the door, ment so close to the nearly hidden by over- American border, he grown grass, remaining. brought in a number of The owner, Romuald other Loyalists from the Meunier, believed that United States. He con- these were only the ruins tributed to the establish- of a root cellar. Land- ment of an English- scaper Jean-Paul Lasnier speaking community in a was hired to “clean up a largely French-speaking pile of rocks that sat in the middle of an apple orchard.” region. He acquired and developed properties in and And even though he immediately discovered that the rock around Montreal, Lachine, Kingston, and Cornwall, and pile was the remains of a tomb with human bones in the on Lake St. Francis, the Raisin River at Gananoque, and surrounding area, he continued his work bulldozing the on Amherst Island. Upon these properties, he built homes site. In the 1960s, Meunier found Sir John Johnson’s and mills. Along the rivers, he built dams and became in- tombstone bearing a nearly illegible inscription: “…Hon- volved in other commercial activities. ourable Sir John Johnson…” In the 1790s, Johnson acquired the seigneuries of Meunier brought the stone to the attention of the Sir Monnoir and Argenteuil. Monnoir included the land John Johnson Centennial Branch of the United Empire around Mont-Sainte-Thérèse, which he renamed Mount Loyalist Association of Canada (UELAC), which was Johnson and which is now known as Mont-Saint-Gré- formed in 1967. It was discovered that the nearly de- goire. He spent the remainder of his days at Mount John- stroyed tomb was the final resting place of a man who was son where he continued to welcome Natives as friends. worthy of commemoration for his contributions to Quebec It was in the family vault at the base of Mount John- history. (The stone is now embedded in the outside wall of son that Johnson was buried in 1830. Other members of the Missisquoi Museum in Stanbridge East.) his family to be interred here include his wife, Lady Polly In the midst of the American Revolution, Sir John Johnson, his son-in-law Col. Edward MacDonnell, and Johnson fled to Quebec with the Rebel army in pursuit. four of his sons, William, Robert, Adam and John Jr., all of Having just barely escaped, he made the land north of the whom fought on the side of the British. border his home and immediately invoked his loyalties to Following Johnson’s death, a grand military and Ma- the British crown by claiming the area for King and Coun- sonic funeral was held in his honour. It was attended by try. friends, family, admirers, members of the military, brother In 1776, Johnson was commissioned to organize the Freemasons (Johnson was a Mason), and several hundred King’s Royal Regiment of New York. Over the next seven Natives, including a Mohawk orator who called Johnson years the regiment raided and attacked the food supply of the “Indians’ friend and fellow warrior.” the Continental Army in the Mohawk Valley. Johnson was It is uncertain when the truth reached Jean-Paul Las- appointed Superintendent General and Inspector General nier about whose tomb he had bulldozed. In 1998, by of the First Nations loyal to Britain. He was also appoint- which time he was Mayor of Sainte-Brigide-d’Iberville, ed supervisor of Loyalist refugee settlements, wherein he Lasnier’s conscience led him to co-found the Société de was considered a leader. In 1796, he was appointed to the restauration du patrimoine Johnson, a committee dedicated 10 The ruins of the Johnson Vault. Photo: Jessica Campbell. WINTER 2013 to restoring the burial vault as a historic site, and thus “restoring to Sir John Johnson the dignity that he deserves and to elevate his prominence in history.” Lasnier’s committee has worked hand-in-hand with the UEL’s Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch to meet their common goals. However, according to Adelaide Lanktree, the branch’s past president, several setbacks have delayed the completion of the project. First, the Quebec government ordered several costly archeological excavations and lab analysis of the human bones found at the site before it could be proven that the bones actually belonged to Johnson and his relatives. These measures did allow the Quebec Ministry of Culture to designate the site as historic, but once the site was des- The people of Quebec would do well to remember Sir ignated, the government prohibited the restoration of the John Johnson’s efforts in this country. This has been a key vault on top of the foundation, as had been initially goal for the Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch of the planned. UELAC for the past thirteen years: the reestablishment of The restoration team is now working on a new plan to Johnson’s burial vault, a landmark on the Loyalist trail. build a replica of the vault beside the foundation. The replica will be modeled on an 1885 painting of the vault Sources: by artist Henry Richard S. Bunnett. The team also plans to Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch, UELAC. Restora- install a memorial plaque recounting Sir John’s biography tion of Sir John Johnson Family Vault: a joint project of and his role in Quebec’s history. Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch UELAC and La so- Another cause for delay was the property changing ciété de restauration du patrimoine Johnson. hands. The restoration team had negotiated a right of way www.uelac.org. with the former owner, Marie Deschênes, in order to guar- antee access to the site, but unfortunately the deed to a Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Sir John John- right of way was never signed, requiring a new set of ne- son.http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01- gotiations with the new owner, the CIME. e.php?&id_nbr=2937. Finally, as is the problem with most historic projects in Quebec, acquiring funding for the restoration has been a Interviews by the author with UELAC members Raymond time-consuming process. Funds were raised through the Ostiguy and Adelaide Lanktree, and CIME Director Renée government, the local historical society, the UELAC, and Gagnon. from private donors, totaling about $14,000, representing Blanchard Ad just over half of the original estimate of $25,000 for the entire project. Moreover, by 2010, estimates for the restoration had risen to $80,000. The Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch and the restoration team have not yet begun asking for more funding, and will not do so until they have a clear idea of their new budget. Sir John Johnson is not a well-known historical figure for most Quebec citizens. When asked for the location of the site, for example, a number of townspeople in Mont- Saint-Grégoire – even those who had lived there all their lives – said that they knew nothing of Sir John and his vault. Hopefully the Centre d’interprétation du milieu écologique du Haut-Richelieu, a Francophone organiza- tion, will help to make Sir John’s story more accessible to the French-speaking community. CIME already wishes to preserve Johnson’s legacy, as it “maintains, and exploits for visitors, a network of interpretive trails that closely mirrors the pattern used by the Johnson family.” CIME Director Renée Gagnon has said that CIME’s interest in preserving Johnson’s memory also lies in its de- sire to use the site as a tourist attraction. “Last year,” she said, “we had a Montreal theatre group come down during the summer. They performed one of their skits beside the vault’s foundations and reenacted Sir John’s history.”

11 The vault, with Mont Saint-Grégoire (Mount Johnson) in the distance. Photo: Jessica Campbell. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

12 WINTER 2013

MS IS SWING Ethel Bruneau from Harlem to Rockhead’s by Lys Stevens

he was called “Miss Swing” and stories about their younger days (as I already a fan, a dance researcher who “The Queen of Afro-Cuban.” have known Ethel over these past ten- had, for whatever reason, sought out Adored by her many tap stu- odd years) invites you to delve into their African American dance artists, sought dents, among certain circles she physical archives. Suddenly the oral di- to understand how race intersects with isS known as a Montreal legend. mension – the words of it – gets re- exclusion in the standard narrative of art Ethel Mae Waterman arrived in placed with the flesh of it. It’s ironic – a history, did I register the import of these Montreal by train in the summer of 1953 narrative coming from a living, breath- names. at the age of 17, a long-legged girl with ing body should be more alive than a But these were American stories, stars in her eyes and a swagger in her two dimensional image. And it is – it is. and as much as they intrigued me, I hips, confident in her new adventure. questioned their relevance in the con- Travelling direct from Harlem at the text of Montreal, Canada, and to me, a tail end of the Harlem Renaissance, Montrealer. Until I met Ethel. And she had grown up surrounded by black lapped up her stories. cultural luminaries, the ‘royalty’ as she Ethel arrived in Montreal with a likes to put it, of jazz and show busi- few contacts, and her gig: a two-week ness. run at the famed Bellevue Casino on She was joining a minor pilgrim- Bleury Avenue, dancing as the age north of black performers settling soubrette for Cab Calloway’s orches- in Montreal that had begun around the tra. She was no stranger to show busi- 1920s, including the likes of Charlie ness herself, having danced with her Biddle, Louis Metcalf, and Herb John- teacher’s elite dancers, the Brucettes son. She had a few personal contacts: and in a duo with her cousin Cornelius she would be staying with her older “Poppy” Scott on Atlantic City’s sister, Miss Tanya Grace, a shake boardwalk, at USO shows, and in nu- dancer who had danced at Minksy’s in merous television appearances (Ed her New York City heyday, and anoth- Sullivan’s The Toast of the Town, Mil- er relative, Rodricks Scott, who made ton Berle’s Texaco Star Theatre, The costumes for the local showgirls. She Jackie Gleason Show, etc.), in certain remembers asking a police officer for cases breaking colour lines. directions to “Uncle Scotty’s” studio With legs and chops like hers, no on St. Catherine Street, her first stop. wonder the agent Roy Cooper ap- “I remember getting off the train,” she proached her before the run with Cal- says, “and it was like, ‘I’m in another loway was up, to offer her 365 days of world!’ That’s why I decided, ‘I’m going But in that moment of peering across the work a year. She was sold in a heartbeat. to stay here.’” The neon lights had window of time at this new, younger It was the City of Sin, the Neon hooked her in. person, the stories re-align from the the- City, with streets lit up from east to west Now in her 70s, she lives here still, oretical into the living past, and the with nightclubs. Managing to avoid total travelling regularly between the home in imagination takes you on a voyage to a prohibition through the twenties, when Brossard she’s owned since 1966 and space and time you hadn’t considered. the rest of the continent banned the legal the studio in Dorval where she continues This is what happened to me, in any sale of alcohol, Montreal developed an to teach tap dance. With large coke-bot- case. After years of listening in rapture international reputation for its thriving tle glasses and walking with a cane, she to Ethel’s stories of her childhood in nightlife. The momentum carried Mon- doesn’t at first glance seem like a Harlem, her experiences dancing in treal’s jazz era longer than other North woman with a nightclub performance Montreal nightclubs in the 1950s, her American cities, where it was beginning history. But her easy laugh and generous listing off of heroic names from the Jazz to wane by the 1950s. Ethel claims that, disposition make for easy company, and Canon: she danced for Cab Calloway, “there were 980 clubs on St. Catherine one quickly falls under her charm. Bill Bailey hit on her, Bill Robinson and Street alone,” although I can’t imagine There is a magic that happens when Honi Coles were her mentors. Men I had who would have had the tenacity to someone you have come to know rela- read about in books and maybe seen in count that far. She lists off venue names tively well via an older person telling movies. And maybe only because I was like a drum roll: Montmartre, the 13 Ethel May Bruneau in the 1950s. Photo: courtesy of Ethel Bruneau. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Terminal Club, All American, Tourbil- with some singing, and then transition venues, and Gilmore’s book focuses on lion, Casa Loma, and more. “The Top into a big tap number. After that she the (mostly male) musicians. A clear pic- Hat was on the west part of St. Cather- would throw in some comical stuff, turn ture of the acts, which by Gilmore’s own ine, and all this from east of Frontenac around, put on her top hat and pick up admission was the real draw to the all the way up to St. Lawrence: night- her cane, and do a soft shoe, all in one clubs. Then from St. Lawrence to Atwa- act. “Open with something really hot, ter: all nightclubs. Then you’re going to and you close with a bang,” she states. go on to St. Antoine, the most famous For her Afro-Cuban act, she’d come out nightclub, Mister Rockhead’s, and then in a gown, again singing, and then whip you had, in front of Rockhead’s, was the off the dress, revealing a decorated biki- St-Michel. Around the corner was the ni, and go into a big drum number. It Black Bottom, all on the sides there cost her around $1,000 to have her were clubs like the Aldo, the Maroon music written out for the band – a sec- Club, the Cavendish Club. I worked tion for the drummer, a section for the from one club to another.” trombone, another for the piano. Montreal jazz historian John Rockhead’s Paradise, on the corner Gilmore states that “the scale of Montre- of St. Antoine and Mountain, was a spe- al’s nightclub industry during its peak in cial club. Owner Rufus Rockhead was a the late 1940s and early 1950s was stag- former railway porter who smuggled gering.” The archives that he amassed bootleg liquor for Al Capone, a danger- working on his 1988 book Swinging in ous but lucrative occupation that afford- Paradise: The Story of Jazz in Montreal ed him the luxury of opening his own clubs, not the musicians, is relatively un- is housed at Concordia University’s His- nightclub in 1931, featuring the best of explored in the history texts. Which torical Archives. His and the other pri- black entertainers. He was, in fact, the makes Ethel’s testimony all the more vate collections that make up the Jazz only black nightclub owner in Montreal, valuable. The NFB documentary Show Fonds and Collections formed the back- by most accounts. He enlarged the three- Girls is one exception, exploring the bone of the documents behind Stepping storey brick building “by cutting an oval lives of three Montreal-born performers, Out: The Golden Age of Montreal Night hole in the third floor so it was possible Tina Baines Brereton, Olga Spencer and Clubs (2004), by archivist Nancy Mar- to look down at the second-floor stage,” Bernice Jordan, from a slightly earlier relli. Although Ethel doesn’t appear in states Marrelli in Stepping Out. This fea- era than Ethel’s. these archives, her story intersects with ture is clear in Gilmore’s pictures as well It must have been a bit of a world those that do. Her intention is to one day as Ethel’s own, where she performed her apart, among the nightclub entertainers add her documents to the collection. act and later worked a stint as an MC. and musicians. They worked nights, “In those days you had to do two Mr. Rockhead was “such a gentleman,” slept through the morning, and social- spots. I would open with my Afro. You remembers Ethel fondly. “And this club ized afternoons. Ethel recounts how did 15 minutes. And then I came back – judges and lawyers – everybody came some afternoons a gang of them would and did my tap, and sang, and that you back because he had the best shows.” take a special bus up to Ideal Beach, a had to do twenty minutes. I did drum so- “And the only time you didn’t work boardwalk and amusement park in los until they ran out of my head. Tap was when you didn’t feel like working,” St-Martin on Laval’s south shore. “You and Afro.” For her tap act she’d open she continues. “Every club had a band, met so many entertainers,” remembers with a song, go into a tap dance routine and every club had a chorus line. And Ethel. “That’s when I met Tina Baines. every club had a shake dancer (a That’s when I met Bernice Jordan.” stripper), and an MC, and a tap She’s still in touch with the ones still liv- dancer – or tap dancers!” She’s ing – many have passed on. “All these shouting it a bit, like a preacher, people! Because we all worked together, hitting you with the truth: “And we danced in the clubs together. We all seven nights a week: tap danc- became really good friends, life-long ing!” It’s a truth that’s been just friends.” They were young, and they about forgotten. “I worked at the were talented; the world was their Chez Paree, with 45 strippers, oyster. they came up from the States. I In some ways Montreal must have worked with [famous striptease appeared like an oasis of racial harmony, artist] Lili St. Cyr… When I in contrast to the heavy cloak of racial worked with the strippers, I was prejudice in the United States. By the considered the star, the Vedette. I 50s, Montreal musicians had been play- was always either an MC and [I ing in mixed-race bands for a few brought] on the strippers, or [I’d] decades, and the musicians’ union had sing and dance between them.” desegregated in 1939. Interracial mar- Marrelli’s book focuses on the riages were not uncommon – both Ethel

Top: Ethel dancing in Rockhead's Paradise's distinctive 14 Bottom: Ethel performing at Rockhead's Paradise, 1970. performance space. Photos: courtesy of Ethel Bruneau. WINTER 2013 and her sister before her married French- campaign against crime and corruption the other end of the phone line when I Canadians. (Hers was the legendary contributed to the decline of Montreal’s wanted her – although I wondered, when Mansfield Tavern waiter Henri Bruneau, jazz era, although television and the in- time would go by between moments of considered the best waiter in Montreal. creasing popularity of rock music played contact, if she would actually be on the “He looked like Mickey Rooney, and I their part as well. Ethel seems to have other end, her heart still ticking away at loved Mickey Rooney,” she remembers. ridden the wave until the very end, per- 76 years old. In her Brossard home, in “I started calling him the Mickey forming in gigs through the 1960s and the middle of renovations, on a sticky Rooney of Montreal,” but most knew day in July just before a flash rainstorm him as “Ti Rouge” or “Big Red.”) And that would blind my view of Montreal as although Ethel had been raised in what I crossed the bridge on my drive home, seems to have been a cradle of black- she handed me a disintegrating but still positivity, she still knew the sting of sturdy plastic bag that held two photo al- racism. bums, one framed photo and a few VHS Ethel tells the story of returning to cassette tapes. the States in 1959 to tour with Pearl Bai- Through the black and white photos ley’s Big Review. Due to a life-long fear and newspaper clippings, I began to see of flying she travelled by bus, and re- an Ethel anchored not only in her waver- members the bus driver leaving Montre- ing voice and her animated but aging al asking her to sit in the seat behind soul, but in the images. I saw a glam- him, to make sure no one asked her, orous woman, a self-assured woman, once south of the border, to move to the with a dynamite body. She had sass – back. even then. As one of her first tap In St. Louis, the first stop on the students put it: you could tell she was tour, no white taxi driver would take her, the real thing. and the eventual black taxi driver would into the 70s. In the early 1970s, now a not drive her to the assigned hotel be- mother of two kids, she received her cause it was in the ‘white’ part of town. Diploma in Early Childhood Studies This is a story from QAHN’s On the other hand, Montreal was from McGill University and became a “StoryNet” project, which matched not entirely without discrimination. nursery school teacher. She’s been emerging writers with established men- Some clubs still banned the mixed race teaching tap – rhythm tap, ‘hoofin’,’ for tors to produce innovative works of non- bands as late as the 1960s, and certain close to 50 years now. fiction with a heritage theme. establishments would not admit black When I finally took my interest seri- clients into the 50s. ously enough to write about her for Ethel is well aware of the limits that publication, I felt worthy enough to ask have been placed upon her career as a for a peek into her archives. Not for my tap artist, a dance technique that is seen own sake, mind you, simply because I as mere entertainment -- not, until knew the magazine would require it. recently, as a legitimate art form. Readers require it. Did I not? I had her Certainly Mayor Jean Drapeau’s in flesh and blood in front of me, or on

Ethel today with student Ana Pacanins in the Dorval dance studio. 15 Photo: Lys Stevens. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

16 WINTER 2013

17 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

T RUDEAU PARK’S HIDDEN TREASURE The Human Rights Walkway by Myra Shuster

t's business – no, pleasure – as usu- is devoted to “heroes who, by their United Nations Secretariat. al on this hot and humid midsum- steadfast commitment to mankind, have “Humphrey had been instrumental mer day in Côte Saint-Luc's Pierre held high the torch of human rights.” in drafting the Declaration of Human Elliott Trudeau Park. Children Below it is an inscription of a quote by Rights, and because he was from the Ibuild sandcastles in the sand box, moms Eleanor Roosevelt: “The destiny of hu- area, there was some discussion in and dads offer up treats from picnic bas- man rights is in the hands of all citizens Council as to how to honour him,” Lib- kets, and couples walk peacefully hand in our communities.” Côte Saint-Luc ap- man said in an interview. “We wanted in hand along the quiet pathways encir- pears to have taken Roosevelt’s state- something more substantial than a bust cling the park. A refreshing mist wafts ment to heart in creating the Human in his honour, something educational up off whooshing fountains near the and inspirational, and we hoped it baseball diamonds, and two geyser would feel like you're in an outdoor fountains cast a gentle spray over room. We came up with the idea of Centennial Lake. A plaque overlook- creating a roof-like, enclosed setting ing the lake states it was so-named to in that beautiful walkway part of the commemorate a “euphoric nation cel- park.” ebrating 100 years of nationhood.” John Humphrey and René Cassin Pedal boats create ripples through the were the first honorees. In addition to water, like waves of memory span- his role in drafting the Declaration of ning Canada's century of rich history. Human Rights, René Cassin was Just beyond the lake, children squeal awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in with delight in the water park as they 1968. refresh themselves against a back- In 2001, four more honorees drop of forest veiling the CP yards in were added. Raoul Wallenberg was the distance. the Swedish diplomat who rescued “What do you say?" says a mom over 100,000 Jews by forging false leaning over to her son, who is passports to facilitate their exit from proudly gripping the super-sonic wa- Germany; he also set up a “Jewish ter pistol a fellow warrior just handed Guard” disguised in Nazi uniforms, him – ammunition in a game of little- and arranged for the distribution of boys’ war. “Thank you,” says the food, medicine, and clothing. Jules boy to his comrade, and dashes off to Deschênes, Chief Justice of the Que- join his allies in soaking another bud- bec Court of Appeal, was appointed dy – the enemy. chair of the Commission of Inquiry Just past this imaginary war lies on War Criminals in Canada (the De- a hidden and little-known treasure schênes Commission) in 1985, which dedicated to those who have fought inaugurated the pursuit of Nazi war the real thing in its every form, those Rights Walkway. criminals worldwide. Maxwell Cohen who have devoted their lives – often at The Walkway was inaugurated in was Dean of McGill Law Faculty in the great risk to themselves – to the uphold- 2000 as the city’s New Millennium proj- 1960s and chair of the federal Special ing of human rights, justice and equality. ect. Architect Robert Libman, an MNA Committee on Hate Propaganda. Past a rock garden framed by magenta in the 1980s and 90s and the founder of Cohen’s work on hate propaganda be- coleus, pink hibiscus and purple salvia, the Equality Party, was Côte Saint-Luc's came part of Canada’s criminal law; in lies the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Park’s Hu- mayor at the time. He and other council the 1970s and 80s, he represented Cana- man Rights Walkway. A path, winding members came up with the idea for the da on the Canada-United States Interna- through a forested area sheltered from Walkway following the death of John tional Joint Commission and on the In- the sun by the natural overhang of maple Humphrey, who was a legal scholar, ternational Court of Justice. Mary Two- trees, bears nine plaques devoted to hon- McGill law professor and human rights Axe Earley was a Mohawk woman from ouring human rights heroes and activists advocate. In 1946, he was appointed as Kahnawahke who lobbied the Canadian from around the world. The dedication the first Director of the United Nations government and succeeded in having the at the entrance states that the Walkway Division of Human Rights within the Indian Act amended in 1985 to allow 18 A plaque along the path. Photo: Myra Shuster. WINTER 2013

Native women married to non-Natives to regain their Indian status. The next honoree plaque was estab- lished in 2007 and devoted to Helen Suzman, an anti-apartheid human rights activist and politician in South Africa noted for her criticism of apartheid at a time when it was unusual among whites. She was noted for her response to an ac- cusation by a minister in South Africa’s Parliament that her questions embar- rassed South Africa: “It is not my ques- tions that embarrass South Africa, it is your answers.” Supreme Court Chief Justice Anto- nio Lamer was honoured in 2008 for having been a staunch defender of the independence of the judiciary and for having been instrumental in interpreting the Canadian Charter of Rights and enable Jews to escape from three op- Côte Saint-Luc city councillors Freedoms during the twenty years he pressive countries: the Soviet Union, Mike Cohen and Allan J. Levine current- spent on the Supreme Court. Ethiopia and Syria. Montreal took a ly co-chair the 2013 committee responsi- In 2009, Miep Gies was chosen as leading role in this campaign, and the ble for the Walkway. Council is expected an honoree. She was one of the Dutch activists were greatly inspired by Tikkun to announce another honoree in the com- citizens who hid Anne Frank and her Olam, a concept fundamental to Judaism ing months. Mayor Anthony Housefa- family during the Nazi occupation of the which holds that we are all responsible ther says the choice of who to honour in Netherlands. After Anne Frank's arrest for healing the world. the Walkway is made after taking sever- and deportation, Gies discovered and The most recent dedication, in 2011, al things into account: “We consider preserved her diary which was published went to Aung San Suu Kyi, a major what is happening at the time in the after the war. leader in the movement to re-establish world as well as nationally, provincially The year 2010 marked the first ded- democracy in Burma. She was released and locally, and look at individuals mak- ication to a group of people: Human in 2010 after having spent 15 of 21 years ing, or who have made an important dif- Rights Activists for Oppressed Jews in under house arrest. She won the Nobel ference in the area of human rights. We Foreign Lands. This plaque aims to hon- Peace Prize while under house arrest in also consider any links to the Côte Saint- our the many Jewish Canadians who 1991. Luc community and the English-speak- helped create a grassroots campaign to ing community at large, but these are not the only criteria. Council considers vari- ous factors including previous honorees and representatives of groups who have not yet been honoured.” A stroll along the Walkway’s ser- pentine path invites introspection, a wandering of the mind as one's feet wander along the soft, winding path. From the natural beauty of the park, there is a disconcerting sense of several landscapes converging: our internal landscape, as we acknowledge the hero- ic feats inspired by the great works of self-sacrifice we read in brief biogra- phies on the plaques, and the tranquil landscape of the natural setting sur- rounding it. The intellectual stimulation of a museum merges with the free-spirit- edness and beauty of a park. As a Shakespeare-in-the-Park crew was dismantling their Taming of the Shrew set and untangling a web of elab- orate wiring, sound technician and John

Top: The plaque honouring John P. Humphrey. 19 Bottom: Centennial Lake, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Park. Photos: Myra Shuster. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Abbott College theatre student Marc- plaque in Trudeau’s honour reads: PROVINCE-WIDE Antoine Legault said he was well aware EXPOSURE of the Walkway in the park. He’d no- He defined our nationhood by AT A GREAT PRICE!! ticed many people strolling along its making Canada officially bilingual. SPECIAL ADVERTISING RATES path during the time his crew was set up He strengthened the national bond 2013 there. He had managed to read several by repatriating the Constitution. plaques while dashing back from brief He crystallized individual rights by Purchase two or more ads of water breaks, and was particularly taken bringing home the Charter of the same size, and receive by those devoted to Maxwell Cohen and Rights and Freedoms. 40% off each ad! Aung San Suu Kyi. May we follow in his footsteps and Purchase a full year and receive an “If these people had an impact on commit ourselves to keeping alive additional 10% off! the community here, I think it's a good his rich legacy. thing they're being honoured,” he said. FULL-PAGE “Not so much for their ego, but it's im- 10 inches (25.5 cm) high portant for us to remember those who 7.5 inches (19 cm) wide suffered for us.” A native of Vaudreuil- $400.00 (Special: $240.00) Dorion, which was also home to Quebec artist Félix Leclerc, Legault said that Back page, full colour $500.00 ever since he was a young boy, the bust (Special: $300.00) of Leclerc in Félix Leclerc Park has made an impression on him. HALF-PAGE Youths come to an awareness of 5 inches (12.5 cm) high those who came before them in many 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) wide ways, and visual tributes such as those $235.00 (Special: $141.00) of Leclerc and the honorees in the Walk- way appear to leave a deep and lasting THIRD-PAGE impression. This is the case with young campers who sometimes play in the (COLUMN ONLY) Walkway, says Trudeau Park camp 10 inches (25.5 cm) high counsellor Mike Rappaport. He explains 2.25 inches (5.75 cm) wide its significance to them in general terms $200.00 (Special: $120.00) they can understand. Children often ask about the bust of Janusz Korczak which QUARTER-PAGE sits near the entrance. Rather than ex- 5 inches (12.5 cm) high plain Korczak’s heroic decision to die at the hands of the Nazis along with the 3.25 inches (8.5 cm) wide kids he oversaw at a Warsaw orphanage, $125.00 (Special: $75.00) Rappaport presents a watered-down ver- A bust of Trudeau casts a watchful sion he believes they can digest. eye over the park. It bears his contented BUSINESS CARD Students as far away as Hangzhuo, but enigmatic, Mona Lisa-esque smile. 2.5 inches (6.5 cm) high China, recently brought stories of the His expression seems to say: “Please do 3.5 inches (9 cm) wide Walkway back home with them. A group follow in my footsteps. Begin with a $75.00 (Special: $45.00) of youths ages 11-16 who were in Mon- walk along the Human Rights Walkway, treal studying English came to visit for a which pays tributes to rights and free- FREQUENCY, DEADLINES AND few days. “They wanted to see what doms, and causes I've always held dear. SPECIFICATIONS camp here in Canada is all about,” day Thank you my friends, for keeping alive 4 issues annually camp supervisor Stewart Wiseman said. my rich legacy. Merci mes amis, for ho- Deadlines: Spring (early March 2013); “We played some of our typical games nouring me here in my beautiful name- Summer (early June 2013); Fall (early Septem- with them. We taught them how to throw sake, Pierre Elliot Trudeau Park.” ber 2013); Winter (early December 2013) a football. They'd never seen one! After- Resolution required: Minimum 300 DPI wards they were really interested in the in black and white Walkway, especially the plaque in hon- This is another story from QAHN’s By email at: [email protected] our of Burmese activist Aung San Suu “StoryNet” project, which matched Kyi.” emerging writers with established men- It is fitting that this museum-in-a- tors to produce innovative works of non- park should be found in a park named fiction with a heritage theme. after Pierre Elliot Trudeau, one of Cana- da’s greatest human rights champions, and for many a true Canadian hero. A

20 Bust of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Park. Photo: Myra Shuster. WINTER 2013

THE GHOST OF THE OTTAWA by Joseph Graham

s a hydraulics engineer, Dubbed the Ottawa, the boat was fin- place in May of 1821, but after the bid- Thomas Mears had worked ished on schedule and floated down to ding, one of the backers, Alexander Alli- on the design of several Montreal to be outfitted with Lough’s son, ended up as the sole owner and con- mills, including the paper steam engine. tinued to offer the boat for sale until his Amill at St. Andrews and the original mill True to form, Lough fell so far be- untimely death in December. His estate that the Hamiltons had taken from him hind schedule that they lost the first sum- took over the next spring and sold the and David Pattee at Hawkesbury. In mer and had only enough time to try the boat in parts, leaving only the hull on the 1816, looking for a new project to cham- boat out in the autumn just before winter shore at the entrance to the Lachine pion, he partnered in the construction of set in. The trial, held on Lake St. Louis in canal. She sat on the river bottom in the a steamboat that would be able to climb mid-October, caused a sensation. The spring but broke the surface as the sum- the rapids at Vaudreuil. Mears hoped to side-wheeler was considered attractive, mer water level dropped, suffering the be the first to establish a steamboat serv- the engine was Canadian-built and the indignity of serving as a dock. ice on the Ottawa River. boat ran at around 10 miles per hour. Meanwhile, the Perseverance, the Steamboats were coming into more Things looked promising for the Ottawa new boat in which Captain McMaster common usage. The first Canadian one, for the 1820 season, but there was a con- had partnered, succeeded in getting up put into service by the Molsons, was the cern. With her engine onboard, she had a the rapids at Vaudreuil. She did so only Accommodation, travelling between draft of three and a half feet, which once, at great expense, and then returned Montreal and Quebec City. Even the en- would make it unlikely she would ever to Lake St. Louis, where she basked in gine parts were homemade, coming from be able to climb the rapids. She might the glory of her defeated rival’s old the Forges du Saint-Maurice near Trois- never make it back to Hawkesbury. routes. Rivières, the oldest blast furnace in Sure enough, even during the high Thomas Mears did not let go of his North America, dating back to the water of spring, the Ottawa was beaten dream of having a steamboat on the Ot- French regime. The engine was only 6 by the Ottawa River. Seventy feet long, tawa though. He had quietly acquired the horsepower and the boat was a business twenty wide, and with a hold of four and steam engine from the Allison estate and failure, but that did not stop the age of a half feet, she sat three and a half feet had it carried up to Hawkesbury and in- steam in Canada, or the Molsons. Their below the waterline. Her captain, stalled in the Union, the first steamboat next boat, the Swiftsure, had a much William McMaster took her out on an to offer regular service on the Ottawa more powerful engine, built by Boulton unrecorded spring day to find her way up River. She first sailed in the spring of and Watt in Great Britain; all of the boats into Lake of Two Mountains but discov- 1823 between Grenville and Gatineau. built in Montreal during the decade ered there was only three feet of depth of A few years later, in 1827, a heavily- ending in 1820 used imported engines. water for a long portion of the passage laden Durham boat, the Louisa, heading Thomas Mears and his associates between the lakes. Still, she became the down the St. Lawrence from Kingston did not import their engine, but instead toast of Lake St. Louis that summer, and riding high on the spring flood, mas- relied on one of their partners, Joseph proudly running a circuit from Lachine tered all the shallows and rapids includ- Lough, to build it. They started by help- to the Cascades and transferring passen- ing the legendary 82-foot drop between ing Lough set up a proper furnace. Over gers to more suitable batteaux and Lake St. Francis and Lake St. Louis. Ap- the next three years, Lough proved inca- Durham boats. These were large, sturdy, proaching the Lachine Canal, all her pable of managing his business and sev- flat-bottomed boats that could be poled worries behind her, a vindictive old ghost eral of the partners withdrew. Mears, or towed up the rapids to calm water. ripped her apart as she glided serenely who had moved to Montreal, returned to While the summer proved exciting over the abandoned hull of the Ottawa. Hawkesbury and all but abandoned the for passengers and even for sightseers, project. By 1819, though, Lough had lost and real estate promoters began to claim Joseph Graham [email protected] is his stake, and a new partnership took that the steamboat made up-river writing a book on the history of the Ot- shape, bringing Lough back in on the ba- property much more valuable, the own- tawa Valley. sis of a strict contract. Lough also made ers saw things differently. The Ottawa Sources: a deal with John Bruce, a shipbuilder was not paying her way. When Captain Cyrus Thomas, History of the Counties who had worked for the Molsons, build- McMaster “jumped ship” in the fall to of Argenteuil and Prescott, 1896. ing their first steamboat in 1809. join in the building of a rival boat better Frank Mackey, Connections, 2003. One of the new partner’s conditions designed to climb between the lakes, the Arthur R. M. Lower, Britain’s Woodyard, was that the boat itself be built under the partners saw their Ottawa as a liability 1973. auspices of Mears in Hawkesbury. and put her up for sale. The auction took Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

21 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

TE H POTASH PROCESS Exploring a grand old trade by Susan McGuire

ilas Knowlton and a friend set izers. In the early nineteenth century, all ketable product, the ashes were put out on the 70-mile trip from of these industries were expanding rap- through a leaching process, by which the Stukley to Montreal, each with idly under the impetus of the Industrial ashes were placed into a perforated an oxen-drawn sled carrying Revolution. Since trade disruptions were trough, water was poured over them, and twoS barrels of potash. They went frequent between England, the United the resulting lye was caught in contain- through Granby to the Yamaska River, States and Europe, with wars imminent, ers and transferred to “pot ash” kettles. where they left the sleds and loaded the Canada was a secure source of potash The lye then had to be boiled for hours barrels onto a ferry for a six-mile trip for Britain. until very thick, then cooled and hard- downstream. There, carters were hired to Potash at the time was made from ened, put in barrels and transported to take them to the Richelieu River, where the ashes of the hardwood trees, and Montreal or Quebec. the carters loaded the horses, sleds and such trees thickly covered a narrow belt According to Sutton resident Henry cargo onto oar-driven scows – large flat about 50 miles deep and stretched for Miller in the federal Mines Branch 1968 boats formed of planks. They travelled about 700 miles east from Quebec City publication “Canada’s Historic First Iron across the Richelieu and reached to the Great Lakes. The settlers needed Castings,” 1850 marked the peak of the Longueuil, where the settlers and their to clear the land before they could start Canadian exports of pot and pearl ashes. cargo were transferred to a larger oar- farming and building homes. In that year the value was about $1.2 driven batteau to cross the St. Lawrence The earliest settlers on the forested million – out of total Canadian exports River. From the wharf at Montreal, the lands in Lower Canada couldn’t get the of $11.6 million; some 10% of Canadian barrels were taken by carters to the in- trees to market to sell as lumber, so they exports. However, by then the winds of spection office. After clearing in- change had already taken hold. In spection, each of the settlers sold the 1830s, a process developed in his two barrels of potash for $100. France produced soda, a competing Out of that they bought essential alkali, from inexpensive raw mate- supplies, and then returned home rials, and in 1861 the first potash the way they had come. They ar- salts were recovered from deep rived after an absence of 18 days mines in Germany. The world price and expenses of $20. (The time for potash soon fell dramatically. was the late fall, when the days By the time the new sources of were short; in summer, the journey potash had taken hold, the roughest might have taken 10 to 12 days.) phase for the pioneers in the hard- This is how a sales trip to wood areas of Eastern Canada had Montreal in the early nineteenth been pretty well completed. Cana- century was described by Mrs. C. dian potash exports died out com- M. Day in Pioneers of the Eastern pletely until the discovery in the Townships and the Rev. Ernest early 1940s of underground de- Taylor in History of Brome County. burned the trees in the clearings or in posits of high-grade potash in Potash was big business in the East- their fireplaces. They collected the Saskatchewan, the largest supply of ern Townships and in the Ottawa Valley ashes and carried them to the nearest potash yet discovered in the world. More during the first half of the nineteenth merchant who had a potasherie – such as than 90% of that production is now used century, but producing it and getting it to the Fabrique de potasse de l’Assomp- for fertilizers. In 2011, the shipped value market wasn’t easy. Fortunately for the tion, opened in 1798 by former fur trad- of the mined potash industry to Canada pioneer settlers who needed a cash crop er Laurent Leroux and his partner was $8 billion. right then, there was a ready market for Pierre-Amable Archambault. At these In his Travels through Canada, and potash in Britain. potasheries, in exchange for the hard- the United States of North America, in From antiquity and until about wood ashes, the would-be farmers the Years 1806, 1807, & 1808, John 1860, wood-ashes potash was one of the would obtain essentials such as flour and Lambert describes the early process of world’s major sources of alkali, an es- salt pork. Some farmers invested in making potash: sential raw material for the making of their own potash-making equipment, and Trees are cut down and burned. colour-fast cotton, woolen goods, soap arranged to sell it themselves. The ashes are mixed with lime and put and glass; it was also used in soil fertil- To turn the burned trees into a mar- into several large vats that stand in rows 22 Potash kettle. Photo: courtesy of the Brome County Historical Society. WINTER 2013 on a platform. Water is pumped into them, and leaches through the lime and ashes to dribble out of a spicket into a long trough that is placed in front of the vats for that purpose. The water thus drained becomes a strong lye of a dark brown colour. The lye is then put into large iron boilers generally called pot-ash kettles. Large fires are made underneath and the lye is kept boiling for many hours, until it approaches a fine claret colour, after which it is taken out to cool, and be- comes a solid body, like gray stone, and then it is called potash. When potash was put into an oven and continuously stirred, it would even- tually become “pearl ash,” which was worth more than potash, and was used in the production of pottery, china and soap. According to Lambert, 700 lb. of potash could be obtained from 400 bushels of ashes. The harder and better For several decades, the job of pearl and potash inspector for Montreal was held by woods made the most alkali: James Edward Major, who began as an assistant in 1843, later becoming a full in- spector. It was clearly a lucrative office; by 1859 Major was able to build Erin Cot- 1000 lb of oak ashes 111 lb potash tage, a beautiful villa on Guy Street. After Major’s death in 1890, the house was ac- 1000 lb of hickory ashes 189 lb potash quired by the Anglican Church for use as a home for elderly ladies, a function it re- 1000 lb of beach ashes 219 lb potash tains today: the Fulford Residence. 1000 lb of elm ashes 166 lb potash 1000 lb of maple ashes 110 lb potash roaring condition. The bottom of the ket- flared lip. A side opening in the mason- tle and its contents were raised to a red- ry allowed for stoking the fire with birch Engineer Henry Miller in 1968 de- heat. The salts had become a bubbling, or maple logs; on the opposite side, a scribed the potash-kettle part of the molten mass and the charcoal was soon vent allowed smoke to escape and pro- process in detail: burned out of it. Inorganic contaminant vided a cross-draft for the fire. The kettle was first filled with was scummed off. This “fusion boil” The kettle in Knowlton was made in strong lye from the leaches. This was was continued until the molten mass was Scotland. Similar ones were made in boiled down to a dark-coloured residue motionless, which took about two hours. Lower Canada, including at the famed of syrupy consistency. This was not only After careful preheating, the coolers Forges du Saint-Maurice, and by the potassium and other salts from the were brought into use again. The molten Montreal manufacturer Bartley & Dun- wood-ashes, but much contaminating potash was carefully ladled into them bar. The kettles are now sometimes used matter, such as soil and bits of charcoal, and allowed to cool overnight. The fin- in maple syrup production. from the rough-shod collection of the ished potash was almost as hard as The importance of the export potash bonfire ashes, and the careless opera- stone, and could be broken with an axe trade can be judged by the government- tion of the crudely made leaches. This into large chunks, grey on the outside appointed board of examiners for the job residue was known as “black salts” or and pinkish within. This was quickly of “inspectors of pot and pearl ashes” in merely as “salts.” packed into barrels to minimize absorp- Montreal. At this stage, the “salts” were la- tion of moisture. The barrels, each In 1824, this board consisted of dled out into a series of smaller, thin- weighing about 560 lb., were the recog- prominent citizens Thomas Blackwood, walled, cast iron vessels called “cool- nized form for the sale of potash in early John Forsyth, Henry Mackenzie, George ers.” The kettle was then refilled with 19th century world commerce. Auldjo, Horatio Gates, George Moffat, lye for the second batch boiling, and so Weighing as much as 1,000 pounds, François-Antoine LaRocque, Thomas on. When a full kettle-load of salts had potash kettles could be 44 inches wide Porteous and James Leslie. In 1825, the thus been accumulated in coolers, the and 27 inches deep. The kettles, like the leading Montreal exporter, Horatio whole was dumped back into the kettle. one on the grounds of the Brome County Gates and Company, shipped 6,726 The complete boiling of all the batches Historical Society in Knowlton, were barrels of potash. of lye took several days of round-the- mounted about two feet off the ground clock operation. on a circular masonry structure of flat The fire was then brought to a truly fieldstones that were ledged under the

23 Erin Cottage, Guy Street, Montreal. Photo: Edward McCann. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

H ORATIO GATES An American in Montreal during the War of 1812 by Susan McGuire

ith the 200th anniversary He maintained close ties with his began to conduct transactions involving of the War of 1812-15, a family and business colleagues in the banknotes, cash and bills of exchange. theory has come to the United States. In 1814, he married New There were no Canadian banks at the fore that some influential England-born Clarissa Adams in High- time. AmericansW didn’t want to engage in a gate, Vermont. He brought his nephew Within a few years, he and others major war with Upper and Lower Cana- Nathaniel Jones, of Boston, into his started to raise capital to form Canada’s da. It has been claimed that they lobbied business. Shortly after, they were joined first bank. Through his extensive Ameri- in Washington to have the war fought in by Charles Bancroft, also from Boston, can contacts, Gates raised nearly half the areas where it would not disturb com- who had been working with the Phoenix funds needed, which enabled the Bank merce between the American and British Bank of New York. The three men were of Montreal to open in 1817. Gates was parts of the continent. the principals in Gates’ lead firm, Hora- one of the nine founding directors. He Historian Alan Taylor has written in tio Gates and Company. Charles Ban- also helped establish the Bank of Cana- The Civil War of 1812 that among those da in 1818, which may have been who lobbied against all-out war was formed to specialize in trade with the David Parish, the wealthy German-born United States. He was president of the developer of Ogdensburg, New York. He Bank of Montreal in 1826 and of the had built the area on the south side of Bank of Canada from 1826 to 1831. Af- the St. Lawrence into a commercial hub ter the two banks amalgamated in 1831, for selling food to British troops on the he served as president from 1832 to other side of the river at Prescott, Upper 1834. Canada, and he didn’t want to jeopardize Being in the import-export business, that lucrative business. Gates was interested in developing im- Horatio Gates may have been of the provements to the routes from the Amer- same mindset. Born at Barre, Massa- ican border to Montreal, and so became chusetts in 1777, the son of an officer in involved with others in steamships, the American Revolution, Gates moved canals and railways. In 1818, along with at an early age to Vermont. There, he foundrymen Guy and Joseph Warwick was associated with Boston merchant and others, Horatio Gates and Company Abel Bellows in transporting farm and were part-owners of the Montreal, a other products to Canada by way of steamboat that ran from Montreal to Lake Champlain and the Richelieu and Laprairie. In 1828, he was part-owner St. Lawrence rivers. By 1807, Bellows, with John Molson and others in the Ot- Gates and Company had opened in tawa Steamboat Company. Also in 1828, Montreal, and Gates was familiarizing croft soon married Mary Ann Jones, with several businessmen including John himself with the intricacies of trade be- Gates’ niece, so it was all in the family. Molson, he applied for legislative ap- tween the United States, the Canadas, Various Gates companies exported proval to build a railway connecting St. and England. potash, wheat, flour and pork from Mon- John’s and Laprairie, which they re- When the War of 1812 broke out, treal and Quebec City—some of it pro- ceived in 1832. Gates was also involved Gates was well-positioned to develop a duced in the northern United States, and with Montreal businessmen Peter business supplying the British troops some in Upper and Lower Canada. In McGill and George Moffatt in organiz- who were arriving in the Montreal area; The River Barons, Gerald Tulchinsky ing insurance companies to cover ship- most of these provisions were imported writes that Gates was Montreal’s biggest ping risks, among them the Canada In- clandestinely from the United States. dealer in upcountry staples, handling land Assurance Company. Because of his American roots, some mostly pork, flour and potash from the Gates was a warden of Trinity people questioned Gates’ loyalty to the Black River and Genesee area of New House, the entity responsible for the ad- British crown, but he avoided con- York. ministration of Montreal’s port. He was fronting this issue until 1813 or 1814 With his American, Canadian and also a commissioner for the Lachine when he took the oath of allegiance; he British trading experience, Gates had be- Canal, and one of the founders of the was exempted from military service come conversant with the methods then Committee of Trade, which later became against his native land. current of paying for trade goods, and so the Montreal Board of Trade. 24 Horatio Gates, from The Centenary of the Bank of Montreal, 1917. WINTER 2013

singular coincidence by the same mala- dy. The death of Mr. Gates as well as Mr. Bancroft will have a powerful influ- ence on the mercantile transactions of the city—and will tend in a great degree to make some extensive changes in the trade of the province.” Tragedy had also struck the Gates family earlier. Mount Royal Cemetery records indicate that five of Horatio Gates’ young children, aged between five months and six years, died in the years 1828 and 1829. A surviving Gates daughter married Montreal merchant John Gordon MacKenzie; a great-granddaughter mar- ried Montague Allan, son of the founder Education was one of Gates’ inter- He was a trustee with John Molson in of the Allan Line. Charles Bancroft had ests. He was on the committee of the the development of Montreal’s first the- four children, and several members of Montreal Centre Auxiliary Society for atre, Theatre Royal, in 1825. He was a his family were to become prominent Promoting Education and Industry in trustee of the Society for the Support of and beloved in the Anglican church Canada. He was the founding president a House of Industry in 1829. He was community. of the British and Canadian School Soci- grand treasurer in the Masonic Provin- ety of Montreal in 1822. A free or low- cial Grand Lodge of the District of Mon- Susan McGuire is historian for the cost, non-denominational school for treal and the Borough of William Henry. Atwater Library and Computer Centre, English and French children from low- He was a justice of the peace, and formed in 1828 as the Montreal Me- income homes, it was supported by was appointed to the Legislative Council chanics’ Institution. prominent businessmen, including John of Lower Canada in 1832. Torrance and John Frothingham, Fran- With that dizzying array of business Sources: cois-Antoine LaRoque and Olivier and community activities, it is perhaps George Abbott-Smith and James Ban- Berthelet, as well as Louis-Joseph Pap- not surprising that Horatio Gates died in croft, Charles Bancroft: His Ancestors ineau. Gates’s wife, Charles Bancroft’s 1834 of a stroke at age 56, apparently and His Descendants 1640-1943, wife, and other family members were on brought on by the difficult business cli- Knowlton, 1943. the school’s committees. mate of the time. His business partner, In 1828, Gates was a founding vice- Charles Bancroft, died one week later, Elizabeth Collard, Nineteenth Century president of the Montreal Mechanics’ In- also of a stroke, at age 46. The company Pottery and Porcelain in Canada, Mon- stitution, the first effort in Canada to finances were too difficult and compli- treal, 1984. provide basic and technical education to cated for younger family members to apprentices and young immigrants. run, and so, a short time later, the Gates Rod MacLeod, “Learning Out of Gates was also active in Montreal’s Company was liquidated. Bounds,” in Quebec Heritage News, religious and cultural life. He was presi- The Montreal Gazette of April 22, January-February 2008. dent of the Montreal Auxiliary Bible So- 1834, notes that “Within one week we ciety in 1820, at the same time that have seen numbered among the dead Peter Murphy, “Trains linked water Charles Bancroft was treasurer. He was two of the most efficient partners of the routes,” in The Gazette, July 23, 2011. a member of the St. Gabriel’s Street most extensive commercial establish- Church, and later St. Andrew’s Church. ment in British America, and by a

Top: The Bank of Montreal, from Hochelaga Depicta, 1839. 25 Bottom: British and Canadian School, from Hochelaga Depicta, 1839. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

AECL C. BOOTH Richmond County’s “Working Man” poet by Nick Fonda

n 2012, the Richmond County His- first volume, are “a collection of arti- torical Society” bears witness to the fact torical Society marked its fiftieth cles” written by “many of Miss Dress- that fundraising has ever been with the anniversary, a fitting time to look er’s old friends.” The articles are not Society. On the front cover is printed: back on the Society’s own history signed, nor is there a list of contributors, “The profit from the sale of this essay is andI reflect on past events and past per- so it is impossible to know which, if any, to be used to finance the publication of a sonalities. of the articles were penned by Booth, al- volume of Richmond County History at The RCHS’s first achievement was though, as he was from Windsor, he present being prepared.” the publication of a book on local histo- might be the author of the second-to-last Opening the cover, one can read: ry, and one of those who played a major essay, “Brief Outline of Windsor “The cost of publication of this essay role in this notable accomplishment was History.” has been borne by the following friends Alec Crabtree Booth. At the founding If so, it’s an atypical piece of writ- of the Society.” The ensuing list takes up meeting of the Rich- an entire page and enu- mond County Historical merates over fifty Society, with 77 charter names and institutions, members present, divided according to Alec C. Booth was the towns of their elected one of the three provenance: Asbestos, vice-presidents. A few Danville, Richmond, short years later, Alice Windsor. Curiously, vir- Dresser, the Society’s tually all the donors founding president, from Windsor were passed away and Booth French while all but came to the helm of the two of the Richmond fledgling society. donors were English. In 1965, Booth, in A few pages into his role as president, his essay, Booth, with penned a short 16-page humour, describes the essay entitled “County demographic of his era: Historical Society.” “The population is now The following year, un- for the most part French der his presidency, Vol- speaking, but with iso- ume I of Tread of the lated and diminishing Pioneer, Annals of English speaking com- Richmond County and Vicinity was pub- ing from him because the two other munities still existing as, let us say, eth- lished. short works that Booth published, nic and linguistic pockets of resistance. The publication of the Annals (Vol- “County Historical Society” and Out of But it is an amiable resistance.” Booth’s ume 1 in 1966, Volume 2 in 1968) repre- My Days as a Working Man, unlike the description is as apt today as it was in sented not just a first flowering of the article on Windsor, sparkle with wit and 1965. newly sprouted Society but also the cul- insight. In his writing, Booth comes Closer to the end of his essay he mination of a project initiated by the across as perceptive, thoughtful and in- proposes, “A historical society properly Richmond County Women’s Institute. sightful, but also as very witty and very incorporated is a public body and here in As the first paragraph of the Annals funny. Even when dealing with a seri- the Province of Quebec ought to be notes, “At a meeting of the Richmond ous topic, he will use a turn of phrase bilingual.” Almost half a century later, County Women’s Institute on October that brings a smile to the reader’s lips. the RCHS is still striving—with very lit- 21, 1961, a committee composed of The photo on the back of his book of po- tle noticeable effect—to become truly Miss Alice Dresser, Mrs. A. T. Smith etry shows a man whose thin, white bilingual. and Mrs. S. Husk was appointed to gath- moustache contrasts with his dark eyes This point notwithstanding, if Booth er and compile a history of the county.” that seem to brim with youthful mis- intended his essay to serve as a set of The Annals, as Booth indicates in chief. guidelines for the future functioning of the Dedication and Introduction of the The cover of his essay “County His- the RCHS, he achieved considerable 26 The Richmond County Historical Society's first Museum Committee, c.1962. Alec C. Booth is at the centre in the back row. Photo: courtesy of the RCHS. WINTER 2013 success. He mentions “a sense of histo- a shout at the state of affairs or a play of Boss Beaver,” he writes, “For why make ry” and enumerates the several ways in poems in several indignations with the social pot boil, / With opinion pro which this “natural gift” reveals itself. sundry other unrelated ballads and and con, / On some silly little issue-- / He stresses the importance of the roles somewhat sentimental sermons com- Concerned with right and wrong?” For played by the archivist, the chronicler posed in content and discontent by Alec Booth, the workplace itself is a “prison and the custodian. He describes how his- C. Booth. It is recommended that the of production lines” where “Fifty years torical societies come by their artefacts poems be performed rather than pe- attention / Accumulates a pension.” as well as how “a historical society will rused.” Many of us may feel some degree miss getting something it would appreci- The words are arranged vertically of workplace frustration, but could we ate having” because the item has gone and symmetrically and several of the express it with as such wit and humour? “to a bigger institution such as a univer- lines are written in full capital letters It’s probably safe to assume that the sity library.” He wryly concludes the across the page. If Booth’s verbal dex- poems in this collection were written passage: “There is nothing you can do terity and subtle humour don’t capture over four or even five decades. “Old about that but gnash your teeth, some- our attention, the layout of the page cer- Soldier Re-Enlisted” describes the death what difficult to do while smiling at the tainly does. The poems that follow carry of a superannuated soldier. The poem is person who is telling you why he is not through on Booth’s promises. He is in- all Kiplingesque, slapdash glory; a vig- going to give this something to the soci- dignant and angry, but also playful with orous, devil-may-care ballad in which ety that it expected to get.” his language; the poems are eclectic and the dying soldier reflects that life’s been Booth’s own “sense of history” ex- provoke sudden turns of mood. Above an unexpected bounty because “the fact presses itself in his admiration for the all, they spark our imagination and is plain and clear, / It’s the [bullet] I early settlers: “I always have a feeling of prompt us to rethink and re-examine missed in Africa, in / eighteen ninety- personal inadequacy, of an inferiority to ourselves and our surroundings. nine.” It’s easy to imagine that this po- these people,” he writes, but without Booth’s dedication page reads: “To em, even though placed at the end of the nostalgia, warning that “people speak My Wife / Who Has Put Up With It. I / book, could have been written in the late frequently about the old days, seldom Do Not / By Modish Chatter / Change / 1940s or the 1950s. On the other hand, the good old days.” Yet he is not without A Simple / Into / A Complicated Mat- in “The Predicament,” the poem’s narra- concerns about the future. He points out ter.” To follow Booth’s instructions and tor is not an angry underling railing that “the best things of the old days have perform this poem, we would want two against his superiors but rather “Middle been lost along with the bad,” and, as characters on the stage: Booth’s exasper- aged, and middle classed, / Having made the population left the farms to live in ated wife, telling him “Tu compliques the grade at last.” towns and cities, “we have evolved from toujours les chose, Alec!” and Booth, In the same poem, he writes: “Why a free society to a planned society, and if calmly and eloquently enunciating his this lack of satisfaction? / Why this life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness lines. It’s easy to imagine, given Booth’s yearning for distraction?” These lines re- really comprise our aim, we may have penchant for posing probing questions of mind us of the lack of direction that evolved without sufficient precaution the soul, that this scene might have Booth noted in his essay. against a loss of direction.” played itself out innumerable times. A short essay and a book of poems, Some two decades after penning his Booth’s preoccupation with avarice, regardless of their merit, are hardly essay, Booth published his poems. Curi- and its close cousins greed, ambition, enough to keep body and soul together, ously enough, the final words of his and envy, appear suddenly and unex- let alone raise a family. Who was Alec 1965 essay (“to catch sight and scent of pectedly in several poems, including Crabtree Booth and where did he live an empty virgin land that the avarice of “Glad Hand Samson,” which ends with and what did he do? man had not corrupted”) are picked up the lines: “You have to understand that my fa- in the first paragraph of the Author’s ther was born in England and even Foreword of Out of My Days as a Work- I’ll tell you—“Glad to know you,” though he’d been in Canada since he ing Man: “We say our hope is heaven, --“And here’s my hand my friend,” was a teenager, he was very much a but what we are really looking for is a But do not stand between me, British Imperialist,” says Ronald Booth, Garden of Eden at the beginning of time And my promised land, a retired teacher who now lives in Sher- when there were no complications. A Or you’ll feel the subtle pressure, brooke. “That explains why, when place that the avarice of man has not Of my unfriendly underhand. WWII broke out, even though he had corrupted, where we can be our own free been studying Theology at McGill, he selves.” Much of Booth’s anger and indigna- left university to enlist. That was where Out of My Days as a Working Man tion is directed towards the bosses under his duty lay, and he was ruled by duty, is a slim, 86-page volume. It was self- whom he works, men who are, in his just like the waves were ruled by Britan- published and not dated. More than a eyes, both stupid (despite their academic nia. He was British at heart.” collection of poems, Booth informs us qualifications) and corrupt. He finishes Nonetheless, by 1939, part of that that it is “a chap book in which the read- the poem “Was That Your Mind I Heard British heart had taken root in the East- er is not released from his responsibility Closing” with the lines: “Oh! It’s nice to ern Townships and, before shipping off of working for an understanding by be well educated, / And have nothing to war in 1940, he married Rita Codère. reading between the lines, being in part whatever to learn.” In “Hear Now! The He made it no closer to the front than

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London, where he was stationed with a “I remember my father as a very calls. “We had René Lévesque in our house corps of mechanical engineers. good athlete,” Ron recalls. “I was a good more than once during the time that he was “Among his papers,” Ron recalls, runner when I was young and I used to in the Liberal government of Jean Lesage. “were preliminary drawings for am- come home with ribbons and trophies Rita was a tremendous organizer and was phibious tanks capable of functioning from track meets. Well, when I was 16 largely responsible for the surprise victory while fully submerged.” or 17, we all went on a holiday to a of Tobin over the Social Credit incumbent in It was during the war years that beach in Virginia. My dad challenged the early 60s.” (In the general election of Alec C. Booth acquired a range of engi- me to a race on the hard-packed sand 1963, Joseph Patrick Tobin Asselin of neering skills, and it was these that led and he blew right by me, left me in the Bromptonville stepped in to replace the Lib- to a 25-year career at the Windsor paper dust,” Ron laughs. eral candidate who had withdrawn less than mill. He was 32 when he was demobbed Alec C. Booth was occasionally a a month before election day. To the surprise in 1945, and came home to his wife and speech writer for local politicians and also a of the Union Nationale candidate, Asselin a young son he had not yet seen. land speculator. He purchased 180 acres of won the race by a few hundred votes.) The war having been won, his duty now what was mostly woodland at the edge of Alec C. Booth and Rita Codère spent was to his young family (two daughters the town, cut most of the trees for pulp, and their last days at the Wales Home. were to ensue) and he was hired on at subdivided the land into building lots. The Alec Crabtree Booth was born in 1913 the mill as a draftsman. subdivision he planned enjoys both very and passed away in 1997. Of the 20 or so in- “He was paid as a draftsman,” Ron spacious lots and wide streets—characteris- dividuals who have served the RCHS in the says, “but he was doing much more than tics that initially displeased the town plan- role of president, it is arguably Booth whose draftsman’s work.” ning committee, but which are cherished by influence has been the most lasting. Booth designed small dams, and those who live on the streets off Crabtree to- laid out logging roads. He built the day. (Booth is the shortest street in the sub- Windsor curling club. He won a pulp division; Crabtree the longest. Both are Nick Fonda is a past president of the and paper industry award for design in- eponymous.) Richmond County Historical Society and novations to specialized machinery. He The woman Alec Booth married, Rita the author of Roads to Richmond, pub- might have been skilled, imaginative, Codère, was an active, forceful, and very lished by Baraka Books. and resourceful, but without an engi- successful individual in her own right. “She neering degree, Booth remained a drafts- was very involved with the Liberals, both at man until, one day, he cleaned out his the provincial and federal levels,” Ron re- office desk and went home to tell his REVIEWS wife that he had quit work. Their kids were grown, the two of them were ade- quately provided for, his duty to family was done. Worthy of the Annals “When my father started to work, Irish Settlement and National Identity in the the mill belonged to the Canada Paper Company. It then was bought by Lower St. Francis Valley Howard Smith before changing hands again and becoming Domtar. At this By Peter Southam point, they were bringing in new meth- ods and my father recognized it was a Richmond St. Patrick’s Society, 2012 good time to quit. He travelled for a ot since the Annals has a County Historical Society, which pub- year, wrote poetry, grew a beard. He book on local history been so lished the Annals, was only founded in was almost unrecognizable,” Ron says. anticipated in Richmond 1962, it is safe to assume that Tread of But Windsor was home and it was County. the Pioneers (as the Annals are properly not as if Booth’s sudden retirement had “Eleven years,” says Gordon Irwin, titled) wasn’t more than four years in the gone unnoticed. He came home and N who along with Bob Dalton, Joe Kelly, making. considered some of the job offers that Bev Smith and Mark O’Donnell was If you’re familiar with some of the had come to him. He joined a major part of the project team acknowledged in history of Richmond and the Eastern consulting firm in Toronto and, ironical- the opening pages of Peter Southam’s Townships, it’s perhaps unavoidable to ly, his first job was to help with the de- new book, Irish Settlement and National frame Peter Southam’s new book in the sign and installation of a new Domtar Identity in the Lower St. Francis Valley. context of the Annals. mill. He suddenly found himself giving “We started talking about this when the For all their merit, the Annals are orders to the very same people who, just Celtic Cross was put up, and that was not without their flaws; perhaps the a year before, had been his superiors. 2001; that’s eleven years.” greatest of these were pointed out by He also worked for several years in a The Annals of Richmond County Alec C. Booth, who was president of the senior position with the Kruger pulp and and Vicinity ended up being a two vol- RCHS in 1966. “This is not a history so paper mill in Bromptonville before tak- ume set, the first published in 1966 and much as a collection of articles concern- ing a final retirement from engineering. the second in 1968. As the Richmond ing the early settlement of the County of

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Richmond,” Booth noted in his Intro- index of names. kett, a Catholic, and William Mountain, duction. In his Dedication to Alice C. The Annals were written as two vol- a Protestant, who were typical of the Dresser, who was founding president of umes but could well have been one. first wave of settlers. It occurred fre- the RCHS, Booth wrote, “It is particu- Irish Settlement and National Identity in quently that a first family member larly appropriate that this volume con- the Lower St. Francis Valley, as the title would be followed by siblings or parents tains the writings of Miss Dresser’s old indicates, is two relatively short books or in-laws. Southam also traces the friends, and that the very hard work of brought together under one cover. Evans family, who came to the Town- compiling the articles and of getting the The first part, entitled Between Two ships in search of better prospects, volume into print has been done by Worlds: Emigration and the Richmond which turned out not to be particularly those who were her close associates.” Irish Community 1815-1855, is just a lit- good. It would be both unfair and politi- tle longer than the second part, The St. Land not held by the Crown or the cally incorrect to describe the Annals as Patrick’s Society of Richmond and Clergy was largely held by speculators a mix of dull reading and poor writing. Vicinity. who were glad to have tenant farmers Neither Booth nor any other self- improve the land and increase its respecting president of the RCHS value but were unwilling to con- would ever use those words, but it tribute to the building of roads or is easy to imagine that Booth community, a situation Francis might have considered Irish Set- Armstrong Evans sought to change. tlement, which deals with the In the second part of his book, same small corner of the world, Southam examines the 135-year and much the same time period, as history of the Richmond St. something of a counterpoint to the Patrick’s Society which began as a Annals. Catholic institution, survived peri- This contrast begins with the ods of dormancy and eventually books’ titles. Tread of the Pio- metamorphosed into the non-de- nneers may sound a little dated nominational entity it is today. He but still has at least some allure points out the numerous influences for the general reader. Unless that led to its creation, from local you’re an academic – or writing a events like the “provocation by the paper for a credit course because Protestant Orange Order” and the you’re hoping to become an aca- presence of the dynamic Father demic – you’re rather unlikely to Patrick Quinn, to economic growth pick up Irish Settlement and Na- in the area and the more active role tional Identity in the Lower taken by the Catholic Church in St. Francis Valley on the strength secular affairs. of its title. (The exception to this, The “national identity” of the of course, will be members and book’s title has nothing to do with friends of the Richmond St. becoming Quebecois or Canadian, Patrick’s Society who will buy the but rather with identifying with book through a mixture of pride Ireland. For most early settlers from and curiosity.) Ireland, Southam tells us, “the sense Most readers who get past the of self was parochial and family title won’t be disappointed. Un- centred,” and it was living next to like Alice Dresser’s friends who French Canadians and Scots and penned reminiscences, Peter Southam is Southam begins his story in Drum- Englishmen in an arable corner of the a trained historian who taught the sub- mondville, at a small military settlement British Empire that the Irish immigrants ject at the Université de Sherbrooke un- that came to be in part because of an learned to become Irish, even while til his retirement several years ago and economic recession in Great Britain and Ireland was negotiating its difficult path who was a co-author, along with Jean- in part because of a lingering mistrust of through Catholic Emancipation and Pierre Kesteman and Diane Saint-Pierre, the United States following the War of Home Rule. of Histoire des Cantons de l’Est, a semi- 1812. Southam’s prose tends to be a little nal work as far as Eastern Townships Disbanded soldiers, many of them dry at times and his text would have history is concerned. Irish, were given land to settle in the benefited from at least one more proof- If the title of Southam’s book Drummondville area. As this land reading. Pedants will find any number of doesn’t mark it as a history text, then the proved poor, many moved a little up- typos: St. Bibiana instead of St. Bibiane; last forty pages do. The endnotes run to stream on the St. Francis to settle closer Dunham where clearly Durham was in- twenty-five pages, there are two appen- to Richmond, where the land was far tended. At one point (p.68), a description dices and, what Richmond readers in more arable. Southam follows the for- of a ferry crossing on the St. Francis particular will especially appreciate, an tunes of two such soldiers: Peter Plun- confuses Kingsbury with Saint-Félix-de-

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Kingsey. There are also errors that come imagination and held his interest. early settlement of the Richmond corner with frequent revision: “brought togeth- It’s easy to imagine that many read- of the Eastern Townships, Peter er various units to created an ‘Irish com- ers in the Richmond area will have a Southam’s Irish Settlement and National pany’ in 1757” (p.23). similar positive reaction. For historians, Identity in the Lower St. Francis Valley Still, Irish Settlement is unmistak- Southam’s book is another contribution is an interesting read, and the kind of ably a history and a readable one, acces- to the study of the Irish Diaspora, the ex- book that merits a place on an amateur sible to most lay readers. “The first part periences of the Plunkett and Mountain historian’s bookshelf, possibly even next rolls right along,” said a member of the families to be compared and contrasted to the Annals. project team who is a self-avowed non- with those of the early Irish setters in reader. For him, it was the familiarity of New Zealand or Argentina. - Reviewed by Nick Fonda the names in the book that captured his If a reader is at all curious about the

New History, Old Dilemmas An Illustrated History of Quebec: Tradition & Modernity By Peter Gossage and J. I. Little Oxford University Press Canada, 2012 his new Illustrated History of some ideological group's, political and fort to include the histories of certain Quebec tackles our past from social view of Quebec and of Quebec in populations all too often ignored or out- the retreat of the glaciers to the Canada. Gossage and Little, however, lined negatively: women, First Nations approach of Pauline Marois. have managed to steer away from parti- and the working-class are fully repre- ThisT excellent effort is very well sented in this publication. “A Great written with, in general, fast mov- Darkness ?” (Chapter Ten) particu- ing, accessible prose, somewhere larly stood out as insightful in its between a third year university treatment of the Duplessis (Union standard text and popular journalism Nationale) and Godbout (Liberal) for the thoughtful reader. The work governments during the 1930s keeps to its main theme of the con- through 1950s. The book’s unifying trast between the forces of change theme of tradition and modernity is (modernity) and the forces of ideol- especially evident here: even as ogy (tradition) in Quebec. Quebec becomes a modern industri- Gossage and Little are profes- al society, the political elites and sors of history at Concordia Univer- French-speaking Roman Catholic sity and Simon Fraser University, hierarchy attempted to maintain the respectively, with distinguished ca- agrarian and isolated world of the reers as both teachers and writers of eighteenth century. The stresses of history. They have managed to this period were perhaps greater avoid many of the pitfalls of histori- than in the actual Quiet Revolution cal writing. To begin with, they are that followed in the 1960s. concise: although An Illustrated The book’s many illustrations History is very much an overview, are well chosen, even though many the contents constantly refer the seem rather small, and are of a good reader to further sources of informa- variety, including newspaper car- tion that are much more detailed. toons, political propaganda materi- These sources are always clearly cit- als, pre-photography art work and ed and each chapter has explanatory some maps. Many are unintentional- notes. ly (or perhaps intentionally) humor- Of course, this is a Big Topic. ous and certainly augment the text Quebec probably has the most com- very well. plex and potentially contentious his- This up-to-date history is high- tory (in terms of interpretation) of any sanship; even hoary old debates like the ly recommended to anyone interested in part of North America. Our historical Conscription Crisis of World War I are Quebec and how we came to our present writers, in both French and English, presented quite objectively, often giving social and political reality. have tended to have hidden (or not so more than one point of view. hidden) agendas to further their own, or They have also made an obvious ef- -Reviewed by Sandra Stock

30 WINTER 2013

OLD PHOTOS OF WOMEN’S HOCKEY PLAYERS

Wanted old pictures (1890-1920) of Quebec women’s teams or girls playing hockey To be used in a book on ladies’ hockey history in Quebec.

Lynda Baril (450) 904-4120 [email protected]

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