DOCSLIB.ORG

THE BOUNDARIES of CHARITY the Impact of Ethnic Relations on Private Charitable Services for Quebec City’S English-Speakers, 1759-1900

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE BOUNDARIES of CHARITY the Impact of Ethnic Relations on Private Charitable Services for Quebec City’S English-Speakers, 1759-1900 THE BOUNDARIES OF CHARITY The Impact of Ethnic Relations on Private Charitable Services for Quebec City’s English-speakers, 1759-1900 Thèse Patrick Donovan Doctorat en histoire Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) Québec, Canada © Patrick Donovan, 2019 THE BOUNDARIES OF CHARITY The Impact of Ethnic Relations on Private Charitable Services for Quebec City’s English-speakers, 1759-1900 Thèse Patrick Donovan Sous la direction de : Donald Fyson, Directeur Johanne Daigle, Co-directrice RÉSUMÉ Cette thèse porte sur les organismes privés de bienfaisance s’adressant aux anglophones de Québec entre 1759 et 1900. L’étude offre un portrait des différents organismes, des besoins auxquels ceux-ci répondent et des lacunes dans le réseau d’assistance. Au cours de la période étudiée, le rôle des organismes privés d’assistance s’accroît, alors que celui de l’État décroît. La compassion envers les pauvres augmente, engendrant de nouvelles organisations charitables pour les populations les plus marginalisées. En dépit de ce fait, la prison sert souvent de refuge pour compenser les failles dans le réseau. Cette thèse montre plus précisément comment les relations interethniques façonnent le réseau d’assistance aux pauvres. Tout au long du demi-siècle suivant la Conquête, dans la ville de Québec, les autorités britanniques en poste soutiennent l’infrastructure charitable catholique établie lors du régime français, fait inusité dans l’Empire britannique. Après 1815, époque marquée par une forte immigration de Grande Bretagne et d’Irlande, de nouvelles associations bénévoles laïques voient le jour. La cooperation entre élites de différents groupes ethnoreligieux existe dans plusieurs associations. Les divisions ethniques s’intensifient toutefois entre 1835 et 1855, un changement engendré par une convergence de facteurs, dont la défaite du républicanisme patriote, un accroissement de la pratique religieuse, la mise en place d’écoles confessionnelles et l’émergence d’un nationalisme irlando-catholique plus robuste à la suite de la grande famine. Dans la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle, le paysage de l’assistance se divise clairement entre trois réseaux parallèles : un pour les catholiques francophones, un pour les irlando-catholiques anglophones et un pour les protestants anglophones. Le Saint Bridget’s Asylum et le Ladies’ Protestant Home, fondés dans les années 1850, constituent des points d’ancrage forts pour ces réseaux. Les rares tentatives de remise en question des frontières ethniques se soldent par des tensions accrues et même de la violence. Malgré ces divisions, il existe un respect mutuel pour ces frontières dans les trois communautés de la ville, ce qui est inhabituel dans la plupart des villes nord-américaines. iii ABSTRACT This thesis examines the private charitable sector for English-speakers in Quebec City from 1759 to 1900. It provides an overview of poor relief associations, the needs they addressed, and the gaps that remained. The role of private charities increased over the period studied, and that of the state decreased. Compassion toward the poor also increased, leading to new types of charitable organizations for the underclass. Despite this, the prison system served as a refuge to fill gaps in the private charitable sector. More specifically, this study demonstrates how changes in ethno-religious relations shaped the charity network. In the first half century after the Conquest of Quebec, British authorities supported the Catholic charitable infrastructure established during the French regime, which was unusual within the British Empire. After 1815, as immigration from Britain and Ireland increased, lay private voluntary associations emerged, including many that involved elite cooperation across religious and linguistic lines. Instances of cooperation decreased from 1835 to 1855 due to rising ethnic boundaries caused by the defeat of Patriote republicanism, an increase in religious practice, the establishment of separate confessional schools, and a new type of Irish-Catholic nationalism following the Great Famine. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the private charitable sector became sharply divided into three parallel networks with hardly any overlap: one for Francophone Catholics, one for English-speaking Irish Catholics, and one for English-speaking Protestants. Two core institutions founded in the 1850s, Saint Bridget’s Asylum and the Ladies’ Protestant Home, cemented the divide. Rare attempts to challenge these boundaries resulted in tension and even violence. Despite these divisions, there was a greater mutual respect of established boundaries among communities than in most North American cities. v TABLE OF CONTENTS RÉSUMÉ ................................................................................................................. iii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................. ix LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / REMERCIEMENTS...................................................... xiii INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................1 Definition of problem .............................................................................................1 Historiography ......................................................................................................9 Sources and Methodology .................................................................................. 25 Structure and Organization ................................................................................. 30 1. POST-CONQUEST CONTINUITY: CHARITABLE NETWORKS BEFORE 1815 ............................................................................................................... 33 1.1. Family and Church Networks ................................................................... 33 1.2. Religious Institutions: Hôtel-Dieu and Hôpital Général ............................. 35 1.3. The Role of Mutual Aid Societies ............................................................. 42 1.4. Poverty and the Criminal Justice System ................................................. 43 1.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 45 2. WORKING TOGETHER: CHARITABLE NETWORKS FROM 1815-1835 ..... 48 2.1. Factors Increasing Social Service Needs After 1815 ............................... 48 2.2. New Typologies, Separate Spheres, 1815-1835 ...................................... 55 2.3. Aid to New Mothers: The Female Compassionate Society ...................... 64 2.4. Men’s Voluntary Work: Sorting out the Adult Poor ................................... 67 2.5. Early Protestant Homes: Anglicans at the Forefront ................................ 91 2.6. Early Homes for Irish Catholics ................................................................ 99 2.7. Irish Catholic Charitable Initiatives ......................................................... 106 2.8. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 108 3. THE QUIET DEVOLUTION, 1835-1855 ...................................................... 111 3.1. Rising Ethno-Religious Boundaries (or the Quiet Devolution) ................ 111 3.2. Structural Changes and New Additions .................................................. 144 3.3. National Societies: the Saint George’s, Saint Andrew’s and Saint Patrick’s Societies................................................................................................. 150 3.4. Catholic Male Volunteerism and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul ... 169 3.5. Expansion of Women’s Charitable Endeavours ..................................... 182 3.6. Charity and the State ............................................................................. 197 3.7. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 202 4. “GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBOURS”: 1855-1900 ..................... 205 4.1. Anglophone Decline and Consolidation of the Charitable Network ........ 206 4.2. A Cohesive Irish Catholic Charitable Network ........................................ 213 4.3. Evangelicalism and its Impact on the Protestant Charitable Sector ....... 246 4.4. Vagrants and the Underclass: Between the Asylum and the Gaol ......... 268 4.5. Challenging Boundaries, or the Salvation Army Wars of 1886-1887 ...... 283 4.6. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 297 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 303 vii BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 317 viii LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1: Proportion of Vagrancy Convictions at the Quebec City Common Gaol, Yearly Averages for 1818-1822 and 1829-1835 .......................................... 90 Fig. 2: Number of Vagrancy Convictions at the Quebec City Common Gaol, 1829-1838 ................................................................................................... 91 Fig. 3: Total Population
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Anonymous Birth Law Saves Babies—Optimization, Sustainability and Public Awareness
    Arch Womens Ment Health (2016) 19:291–297 DOI 10.1007/s00737-015-0567-3 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Anonymous birth law saves babies—optimization, sustainability and public awareness Chryssa Grylli1 & Ian Brockington2 & Christian Fiala3 & Mercedes Huscsava4 & Thomas Waldhoer5 & Claudia M. Klier1 Received: 5 April 2015 /Accepted: 30 July 2015 /Published online: 13 August 2015 # Springer-Verlag Wien 2015 Abstract The aims of this study are to assess the impact of neonaticides. The subsequent significantly decreasing num- Austria’s anonymous birth law from the time relevant statisti- bers of anonymous births with an accompanying increase of cal records are available and to evaluate the use of hatches neonaticides represents additional evidence for the effective- versus anonymous hospital delivery. This study is a complete ness of the measure. census of police-reported neonaticides (1975–2012) as well as anonymous births including baby hatches in Austria during Keywords Anonymous birth . Baby hatches . Neonaticide . 2002–2012. The time trends of neonaticide rates, anonymous Child abandonment legislation births and baby hatches were analysed by means of Poisson and logistic regression model. Predicted and observed rates were derived and compared using a Bayesian Poisson regres- sion model. Predicted numbers of neonaticides for the period Introduction of the active awareness campaign, 2002–2004, were more than three times larger than the observed number (p= The day of birth is the day in which an individual runs the 0.0067). Of the 365 women who benefitted from this legisla- highest risk of being murdered. The term ‘neonaticide’ has tion, only 11.5 % chose to put their babies in a baby hatch.
    [Show full text]
  • Christopher Plummer
    Christopher Plummer "An actor should be a mystery," Christopher Plummer Introduction ........................................................................................ 3 Biography ................................................................................................................................. 4 Christopher Plummer and Elaine Taylor ............................................................................. 18 Christopher Plummer quotes ............................................................................................... 20 Filmography ........................................................................................................................... 32 Theatre .................................................................................................................................... 72 Christopher Plummer playing Shakespeare ....................................................................... 84 Awards and Honors ............................................................................................................... 95 Christopher Plummer Introduction Christopher Plummer, CC (born December 13, 1929) is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor and writer of his memoir In "Spite of Myself" (2008) In a career that spans over five decades and includes substantial roles in film, television, and theatre, Plummer is perhaps best known for the role of Captain Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music. His most recent film roles include the Disney–Pixar 2009 film Up as Charles Muntz,
    [Show full text]
  • Download Press
    SYNOPSIS Vienna, 2001. CARLA, an Austrian woman in her late twenties and bulimic, became pregnant unintentionally and lives as a single mother under very precarious cir- cumstances. She struggles to have the strength to take responsibility - financially and psychologically - for the baby. While searching for the child’s father, Carla meets in her former favorite karaoke bar a non-binary person from Argentina who is dressed as an ASTRONAUT. The two social outcasts establish a closeness in a short time that some people cannot achieve in years in a confined space. The encounter with the Astronaut gives Carla a new per- spective on her reality and the courage to make the most important decision of her life. DIRECTOR’S MARIANO CABACO NOTES The human brain automatically organizes people and things into categories to make the world easier to understand for themselves. Discrimination, misunderstandings and fears are mostly the result of this. ASTRONAUTS deals with questions that are drastic and still hard to make for women today. When the external circumstances are precarious, a lot of feelings of guilt come up when having a child. The first baby hatch was launched in Vienna in 2001 to help parents in such hopeless situations. Being able to bring your child to such a safe place, where they are well looked after, is an important socio-political and women’s rights achievement that is just as important today as it was 20 years ago. Two strangers from different cultures meet in absurd circumstances - a Karaoke Bar in Vienna-, as out- casts of society. But their cultural differences give them the space to change their perspective on their personal realities.
    [Show full text]
  • Course and Attractions of the Grand Prix Cycliste De Québec
    Course and attractions of the PARCOURSGrand Prix Cycliste de Québec Côte de la Potass e Saint-Vallier Est s Côte de la 28 30 Canoterie 31 27 Des Glaci Fabrique Remparts Saint-Jean De la 29 De 26 4 47 32 s 3 45 33 25 1 7 43 41 Buad 2 46 42 34 Port 24 e Dauphin 9 Grande Allée Oues A t Ta Grande Allée Es venue t Saint-Louis 23 ch Côte de la Du Fort 10 é 35 Montagne 4 6 36 BATTLEFIELDS Avenue Geo 44 rge-V 48 22 11 PARK I 37 De Laun 38 Dalhousie 20 19 e Avenue 39 40 E Ont 5 Gilmou ario 17 r 9 18 16 8 14 21 BOIS DE 15 COULONG N Boulevard Champlain 12 Start 13 Finish ST . LAWRENCE RIVER 1 Grande Allée 5 Battlefields Park 9 Citadelle/Royal 22e Regiment The street that never sleeps! Day or Created in 1908, Battlefields Park was Museum night its sidewalks are always teeming commemorating the 250th anniversary The star-shaped Citadelle de Québec with people, from families out for a of Battle of Sainte-Foy in 2010. Once is an actual part of the city’s walls. Its stroll to party-goers enjoying a night on the site of clashes between the armies layout is typical of fortifications desig- the town. It is home to a host of restau- of Wolfe and Montcalm (1759) and ned by Vauban. Construction began rants, bars, and buildings with stunning Murray and Lévis (1760), the Plains of in 1820 and lasted over 30 years.
    [Show full text]
  • TERS INSIST the Accusatrons ARE AB PQR SUP IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE to COYER up SURD
    If' TERS INSIST THE ACCUSATrONS ARE AB PQR SUP IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE TO COYER UP SURD. "",,,e,'l SA'l KIDNAPPING AND TRAFFICKING 1,000 CHILDREN . BUT IS/T? ~. LAncu6tcr IU:!l Carriere clatmed that the nuns sold babtes from $40 to $5,000 tO LAncnstcr 1021 l.:\ ede J •. l ..n.joucle Cl'\rclc H. Pnlll\irn paar people and $3,000 ta $10,000 (equivalent ta $8,000-$25,000 Atr'tl'\Chntt! t)ln}t'lrlf't' taday) ta rich people. The Sisters of Mercy alane made $5 million + from this business, selling 50,000 babies. Hopital Ste-Thérèse Carrière revealed tactics used to disguise the engins of the babies 8NI'tO, and how they were delivered lO their adoptive parents. Stnce the MATeRNITE PRIVEE nuns were in charge of mast matemity wards, and Quebec's btrth 1)(/1",1' DomEs et .JDl(,n~~ FiUN. .E'ia,g" SéporF registry was run by religicus authorities, it was simple ta change the 1""1X NOO"ftt!:O flL,.-.QONS ~",,,ÎUI babies' name and religion to that of the adoptive parents. Montréa' Even when they didn't knaw who wauld be adapting the chtl- dren, they still changed the name te make il impossible ta trace the babies' origins, The Sisters of Mercy had an internal system: ta light. all babies born in January of an even yeal" received the same name beginning wtth an A, ln February, a name beginning with B, and "Slsters of Mercy" Baby so on. ln january of an odd year, the newborns received the same Sale name beginning with M.
    [Show full text]
  • Openness in International Adoption
    Texas A&M University School of Law Texas A&M Law Scholarship Faculty Scholarship 3-2015 Openness in International Adoption Malinda L. Seymore Texas A&M University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar Part of the Family Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Malinda L. Seymore, Openness in International Adoption, 46 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 163 (2015). Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/707 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Texas A&M Law Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Texas A&M Law Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. OPENNESS IN INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION Malinda L. Seymore* ABSTRACT After a long history of secrecy in domestic adoption in the United States, there is a robust trend toward openness. That is, however, not the case with internationaladoption. The recent growth in international adoption has been spurred, at least in part, by the desire of adoptive parents to return to closed, confidential adoptions where the identity of the birth mother is secret and there is no ongoing contact with her. There is, however, an emergent interest in increased openness in internationaladoption, spurred by the success of domestic open adoptions, health concerns when an adoptee's genetic history is important, psychological issues relating to identity in adoptees, and concern that the international adoption might have been corrupt. International adoptive families who were once happy to avoid birth parent involvement have begun to seek them out.
    [Show full text]
  • Justice for Magdalenes (Jfm) Ireland
    Crocknahattina, Bailieborough Co. Cavan, Ireland Telephone/Fax: (353) 86 4059491 Web: www.magdalenelaundries.com Email: [email protected] JUSTICE FOR MAGDALENES (JFM) IRELAND Submission to the United Nations Committee Against Torture 46th Session May 2011 Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) is a non-profit, all-volunteer organisation which seeks to respectfully promote equality and advocate for justice and support for the women formerly incarcerated in Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries. Many of JFM’s members are women who were in Magdalene Laundries, and its core coordinating committee, which has been working on this issue in an advocacy capacity for over twelve years, includes several daughters of women who were in Magdalene Laundries, some of whom are also adoption rights activists. JFM also has a very active advisory committee, comprised of academics, legal scholars, politicians, and survivors of child abuse. More information is available at www.magdalenelaundries.com. 1 Executive Summary 1.1 Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries were residential, commercial and for-profit laundries operated by four Irish orders of nunsi where between the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922ii and 1996, when the last institution closed, a number of girls and women, estimated in the tens of thousands,iii were imprisoned, forced to carry out unpaid labour and subjected to severe psychological and physical maltreatment. 1.2 The women and girls who suffered in the Magdalene Laundries included those who were perceived to be “promiscuous”, were unmarried mothers, were the daughters of unmarried mothers, were considered a burden on their families or the State, had been sexually abused, or had grown up in the care of the Church and State.
    [Show full text]
  • Childlessness in Europe: Contexts, Causes, and Consequences Demographic Research Monographs
    Demographic Research Monographs Michaela Kreyenfeld Dirk Konietzka Editors Childlessness in Europe: Contexts, Causes, and Consequences Demographic Research Monographs A Series of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research Editor-in-chief James W. Vaupel Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5521 Michaela Kreyenfeld • Dirk Konietzka Editors Childlessness in Europe: Contexts, Causes, and Consequences Editors Michaela Kreyenfeld Dirk Konietzka Hertie School of Governance Department of Social Sciences Berlin, Germany Braunschweig University of Technology Braunschweig, Germany Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research Rostock, Germany ISSN 1613-5520 ISSN 2197-9286 (electronic) Demographic Research Monographs ISBN 978-3-319-44665-3 ISBN 978-3-319-44667-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44667-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016961706 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017. This book is published open access. Open Access This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the work’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if such material is not included in the work’s Creative Commons license and the respective action is not permitted by statutory regulation, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to duplicate, adapt or reproduce the material.
    [Show full text]
  • To You Our Selected Witnesses
    TO YOU OUR SELECTED WITNESSES Below over 250 ELECTRONIC TORTURE, ABUSE AND EXPERIMENTATION, AND ORGANISED STALKING, CASES from CHINA & ASIA-PACIFIC FOR YOU TO WITNESS, RECORD AND OPPOSE Some of our ELECTRONIC TORTURE, ABUSE AND EXPERIMENTATION CASES detail the most extreme and totalitarian violations of human rights in human history, including the most horrendous psychological tortures, rapes, sexual abuse, physical assaults, surgical mutilations, ‘mind control’, and other mental and physical mutilations – see http://www.4shared.com/dir/21674443/75538860/sharing.html and COMPILACION DE TESTIMONIOS EN ESPAÑOL:- http://rudy2.wordpress.com/ There are MANY, MANY others, all over the world, who are being subjected to similar torture and abuse. YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO BE “A SELECTED WITNESS” to these extreme and monstrous CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY - indescribably terrible in themselves - coupled with the ORWELLIAN secrecy and denial of any support at all that we are experiencing, makes them even more horrendous and monstrous. We have contacted most Governments, Security/Intelligence Agencies, Religious Organisations, International Organizations, Human Rights Organizations, Universities, Scientific and other Institutions, and the International Media all over the world - over and over and over again – and have had our appeals for assistance, protection and/or publicity almost completely ignored and/or suppressed. Some TARGETED INDIVIDUALS have been attempting to gain assistance, protection and/or publicity about these crimes since the 1990s - and even earlier - this extends as far back into the history of illegal ‘scientific and medical’ testing and experimentation as MKULTRA, COINTELPRO and the DUPLESSIS ORPHANS - and further. We are still collecting CASE SUMMARIES from TARGETED INDIVIDUALS all over the world, and we have also advised them to send them to you - “THE SELECTED WITNESSES” - TO WITNESS, RECORD AND OPPOSE so that :- A.
    [Show full text]
  • Tradurre Figure / Translating Figurative Language Donna Rose Miller, Enrico Monti
    Tradurre figure / Translating figurative language Donna Rose Miller, Enrico Monti To cite this version: Donna Rose Miller, Enrico Monti. Tradurre figure / Translating figurative language. Bononia Uni- versity Press, pp.01-405, 2013, Rizomatica, 978-88-7395-989-2. 10.6092/unibo/amsacta/4030. hal- 02375282 HAL Id: hal-02375282 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02375282 Submitted on 21 Nov 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. TRADURRE FIGURE TRANSLATING FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE A CURA DI / EDITED BY DONNA R. MILLER & ENRICO MONTI QUADERNI DEL CESLIC CeSLiC Quaderni del CeSLiC Atti di Convegni CeSLiC - 3 Selected Papers 2014 General Editor Donna R. Miller CeSLiC Centro di Studi Linguistico-Culturali, ricerca – prassi – formazione http://www3.lingue.unibo.it/ceslic/ Con il contributo di / Contributors: Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne (LILEC), Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna ILLE (EA 4363), Institut de recherche en langues et littératures européennes, Université de Haute-Alsace (Mulhouse) Dipartimento di Interpretazione e Traduzione (DIT), Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Campus di Forlì Alliance Française, Bologna Associazione Culturale Italo-Britannica, Bologna Centro traduttori della Fiera del Libro per Ragazzi, Bologna Regione Emilia-Romagna Immagine di copertina / Cover image: © Chema Madoz TRADURRE FIGURE TRANSLATING FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE A cura di / Edited by DONNA R.
    [Show full text]
  • Quebec to Give Duplessis Orphans a Public Apology Campbell Clark, National Post December 28, 1998
    Quebec to Give Duplessis Orphans a Public Apology Campbell Clark, National Post December 28, 1998 Largest Youth Abuse Case: 3,000 survivors hope for financial compensation The Quebec government is to issue an apology over the treatment of the so-called Duplessis Orphans, who were interned in mental institutions in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s after being abandoned by their parents, the National Post has learned. Those representing the estimated 3,000 surviving orphans hope the public apology by Lucien Bouchard, the Quebec premier, will be a first step in obtaining financial compensation similar to that offered to victims of abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland, and others who suffered similar treatment at institutions in other provinces. Hundreds of the Duplessis Orphans, so-named because Maurice Duplessis, the former Quebec premier, governed the province during most of the years of their internment, have reported harsh treatment and physical and sexual abuse in institutions run by Catholic religious orders. The allegations involved forced confinement, beatings, molestation and even rape. The episode is believed to be the largest case of institution- based youth abuse in Canadian history. Quebec’s College of Physicians has also, for the first time, agreed to express the medical profession’s “regrets,” and to launch a program to re-evaluate the cases of orphans who were falsely diagnosed as mentally retarded or mentally ill. The public apologies, expected to be made in January or February, will also involve correcting, where necessary, erroneous civil records, including birth certificates that may have wrongly listed the orphans’ parents as unknown.
    [Show full text]
  • The Magdalene Laundries
    Ireland’s Silences: the Magdalene Laundries By Nathalie Sebbane Thanks to the success of Peter Mullan’s film The Magdalene Sisters, Magdalene laundries—institutions meant to punish Ireland’s “fallen” women—are now part of the country’s collective memory. Despite tremendous social advances, survivors still await reparation and an official apology. In 2016, the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising was commemorated with great fanfare, but another anniversary went almost unnoticed. Yet it was on September 25, 1996, that Ireland’s last remaining Magdalene laundry closed its doors. These institutions, made infamous by Peter Mullan’s 2003 feature film, The Magdalene Sisters, are now part of Ireland’s collective memory. But what memory is this? And what Ireland does it relate to? It is estimated that since the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, around 10,000 girls and women were referred to these institutions, staying there from a month up to several decades. Magdalene laundries however, had been in existence in Ireland since the 18th century under other guises and other names. Their origin can even be traced to 13th-century Italy. Yet at a time when Ireland is looking to redefine its national identity and fully embrace modernity with the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2015 and the repeal of the 8th amendment on abortion on May 25, 2018, it seems relevant to commemorate the closure of the last laundry and revisit the history of Magdalene laundries. Though they were not an Irish invention strictly speaking, they remain one of the key elements of what historian James Smith has called “Ireland’s architecture of containment”—a system which erases vulnerable groups destined to ‘disappear’ in Irish society, whether in Magdalene laundries, Industrial Schools or Mother and Baby Homes.
    [Show full text]