E STÉREL & THE B ELGIAN C ONNECTION $5

HeritageVOL 4, NO. 1 JAN-FEB. 2007 News

The Nymark Touch In search of a future for log-built Laurentian heritage site Championing Burgundy High hopes for a revitalized community landmark People of the Corn Reviewing the mystery of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec CONTENT HeritageNews EDITOR President’s Message 3 DWANE WILKIN Remarkable Century Rod MacLeod DESIGN DAN PINESE Letters 5 Royal treatment Okill Stuart Wiser school counsel Marcus Tabachnick PUBLISHER Principal failure Nick Fonda THE QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE HERITAGE NETWORK TimeLines 7 400-257 QUEEN STREET SHERBROOKE (LENNOXVILLE) The Nymark touch Sandra Stock QUEBEC Street victory J1M 1K7 Worthy of a Phelps? PHONE New guide to Outaouais archives 1-877-964-0409 Lead role for Anglo heritage (819) 564-9595 FAX Championing Burgundy 11 564-6872 Black leaders push to save Montreal landmark Carolyn Shaffer C ORRESPONDENCE Last of a Kind 13 [email protected] Tyndale centre doubles as Welcome Mission Carolyn Shaffer WEBSITE BAnQing Collections 15 WWW.QAHN.ORG Exploring Quebec’s national library and archives Pierre Louis Lapointe World on Stage 18 PRESIDENT Interpreting from the perspective of minorities Carolyn Shaffer RODERICK MACLEOD EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR What’s in a Name? 20 DWANE WILKIN Dream Resurrected Joseph Graham HERITAGE PORTAL COORDINATOR MATTHEW FARFAN Reviews 23 OFFICE MANAGER The Bronfmans Dwane Wilkin KATHY TEASDALE Sons of the Mountains Tyler Wood Corn People Carolyn Shaffer Quebec Heritage Magazine is produced on a bi-monthly basis by the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network Event Listings 27 (QAHN) with the support of The Department of Canadian Heritage and Quebec’s Ministere de la Culture et des Communications. QAHN is a Cover photograph: The Dr. Lowell Foster house, circa 1930. Built on Mont St. Sauveur non-profit and non-partisan umbrella by Victor Nymark in the Scandinavian style with round logs, sod roof and carved de- organization whose mission is to help advance knowledge of the history and tails. Photo courtesy of John Harvie. culture of English-speaking society in Quebec. Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement Number 405610004. Correction: An article which appeared in the Sept/Oct 2003 issue of Quebec Her- itage News, [Vol. 2, No. 6: “A bustling hive …, p. 14] incorrectly described the ex- act function of the “charleymen” who laboured in ’s wooden ship- building industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. Charleymen did not install ropes, but rather hauled the huge timbers to wherever they were needed on the yards. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Remarkable Century by Rod MacLeod

often wonder what my very Presbyterian who grew to enormous proportions, as well-loved grandmother would have thought had she pigs are wont to do, and whose favourite position been told that her great-grandson would have was with its head in the lady’s lap so that she I a great-grandmother who was a gun-runner could saw away at its neck with the edge of her for the Anarchists during the Spanish Civil War. hand in a parody of the slaughterhouse: “Come Of course I refer to two separate ladies. My here and I’ll slice you up!” was the way these af- own grandmother died 32 years ago at the age of fectionate rituals always began. Another such 95, forty-five years after her husband. Her knowl- creature, I gather, was my grandmother-in-law her- edge of the Spanish Civil War, while it was going self, who never knew the woman who actually on, might just have extended to an awareness that gave birth to her and thought the well-to-do gent her eldest son supported the loyalists and had an down the street was a family friend. One day, admired colleague at the Royal Victoria Hospital when she was in her early twenties and the gent who had gone off to serve in Spain—on his way to was getting on, he informed her that he was her re- serving in China. (If you don’t know who I mean al father and that she should come and take care of you join the ranks of my students, none of whom him. Having told him what he could do with his had a clue when I told them the name of the most suggestion she promptly married a tall (over six- famous Canadian in history!) foot; did I mention she was about 4’ 10” ?) young My grandmother-in-law died a few months ago Spanish refugee dockworker whose clear political at Mount Sinai Hospital in Montreal, just shy of views promised relief from the muddle-headedness her hundredth birthday, having outlived her hus- around her. band by fifty-six years. She spoke neither English My children’s great-grandfather proved a loyal nor French, and as far as I know she made no di- and loving husband, but he came with an awful lot rect contribution to the heritage of Quebec, but she of baggage, not least of which were his political was a resident for over forty years and for most of views which eventually brought the ire of the po- that time a proud Canadian. At another level, of lice down on him. He was told to leave Cuba or course, her heritage contribution has been consid- face execution; so he left, promising as soon as he erable: she helped raise two grandchildren, and was able to send for his wife and their expected then two great-grandchildren, who are very con- child. He returned to Spain, having heard that a scious of how diverse their cultural backgrounds republic had at last been established there. The are, and consequently of how rich their world is. year was 1931. Unfortunately, upon his arrival it A significant passing reminds us with a jolt of how was discovered that he had technically been the past has shaped us. We feel for a familiar AWOL from military service for some years and foothold and find it missing, and only then take was drafted into the army. Despite this setback, stock of how much we relied on it. My grand- his young wife was determined to join him. Two mother-in-law died while I was at the Quebec weeks after her daughter’s birth in Cuba she and Community Groups Network meeting in Gatineau, the baby caught the first boat to Bilbao. and although this outcome was half-anticipated, I It was a year or more before the family were was surprised to hear my teenage son tell me the reunited in Madrid, by which time the Republic news when I phoned before getting on the bus back had taken a turn to the political right and radical to Montreal. “Someone’s gone,” is how he put it, unions were leading the opposition. The Anar- his awkward struggle for words speaking volumes. chist-led FAI (Federación Anarquista Ibérica) were Here is a major chunk of my children’s her- no friends of the government, even the left-wing itage: one that was elected in the spring of 1936, but Their great-grandmother grew up on the out- when an army coup under General Franco threat- skirts of Havana, Cuba, in a house full of animals. ened to install a dictatorship they tentatively sided Her mother kept a menagerie, more out of tender- with the Popular Front. It wasn’t long, however, heartedness than need, being something of a local before the government was refusing to give arms eccentric who could not turn away any creature to anyone it didn’t trust, especially anyone not en- left on her doorstep. One such creature was a pig tirely comfortable with Stalinism. Like most An-

3 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS archists, my children’s great-grandparents kept a emigrate. She then “claimed” her mother and stockpile of weapons to defend against any aggres- brother, and the whole family soon found them- sive outside authority. One night the police came selves in Venezuela, where a daughter was born. and grilled their five-year-old daughter on whether The brother went his own way, but the young cou- there were any guns in the house; she loyally re- ple started looking around for a nice, safe country fused to cooperate, although it was a nail-biting to settle in. Of course they chose Canada. moment. This nasty chapter in this terribly nasty The last four decades of my children’s great- civil war ended with the arrival of Franco’s troops grandmother’s life were by far the least tumultuous in Madrid in the spring of 1939. Some years ago and probably the happiest, even given her widow- when my grandmother-in-law had had a few glass- hood. Despite her difficult past, or perhaps be- es of wine we got her talking about the war years, cause of it, she had a remarkably sunny outlook and she went on for a couple of hours describing and was famed for a perpetually cheerful disposi- the people she knew from those days and ending tion. After some years in a Montreal apartment with an account of how each of them in turn was while her son-in-law completed his specialization shot. she moved to Joliette and then Gaspé, where he helped start up the new psychiatric facilities in y children’s great-grandfather was in these communities. In the 1970s the family bought Barcelona when the war ended and a house in Town of so to be handy to escaped into France. In order to get the Montreal General as well as to high schools, M people like him back, Franco arrested CEGEP and McGill, where their Venezuela-born their family members, promising their release only daughter embarked upon a set of relationships that if the wanted men returned. Hearing that his wife would lead to the birth of the young man who so was being held for ransom my children’s great- poignantly informed his father on June 10, 2006, grandfather went dutifully back to Madrid, where that “someone’s gone.” he spent the next half decade behind bars in the His great-grandmother had kept her health un- hands of savage guards keen to punish Republi- til about six months earlier, an operation for colon cans. Despite his earlier promise Franco did not cancer in her early 90s notwithstanding. When he release my grandmother-in-law for a couple of was a baby we watched her rocking his cradle years; her stories of prison life were almost as in- (well, what passes for a cradle these days: a de- teresting as those of the city under siege. tachable car seat) and wondered what she was My children’s grandmother and great-uncle be- thinking, sixty years after whisking her own first- came wards of the state, and even after their par- born off to Republican Spain. We doubted she ents’ release from prison there was a long battle to would last long enough for him to remember her, regain custody. The children spent many years in but not so: as a toddler he spent hours curled up on boarding schools run by nuns who strove to the sofa with her, reading picture book after pic- cleanse them of any secular, let alone anarchist, ture book (in Spanish, of course) and later the two tendencies. At one such school in a suburb of would cooperate on kitchen-table art projects and Madrid the daughter, now 16, took to gazing enjoy a merienda (coffee and hot chocolate with a across the street at a serious young med student variety of cookies) together. Her mind steadily de- reading in the window opposite; later they met, teriorated, unfortunately, and she was unable to and went for long walks in the Retiro gardens. have the same relationship with her great-grand- My children’s great-grandfather struggled to daughter—but there remained a great deal of mutu- find work, but his health was broken by years in al affection; the two even shared a first name. jail. By the spring of 1950 he died, aged 42. Had Over the last six months it was my daughter who he achieved anything by going back to Madrid at went into the sick room, watched her being washed the end of the war? Perhaps: two of his brothers and fed, and visited her in the hospital. who remained in France were arrested by the It’s no fun watching an elderly parent decline; Vichy government in 1940 and shipped off to die it is particularly difficult when you yourself are no in Mauthausen concentration camp. longer young or able to take care of them. Their The rest of his family now had little use for his passing is, alas, often a relief. But we think back, widow and children, and so they made their way as I did with my parents, and as I remember my back to Cuba where old friends found mother and parents doing with theirs, over lives lived and what daughter work as dressmakers. As working peo- they meant to us and how their passing leaves us. ple, the family were guardedly supportive of the My children’s great-grandmother’s peaceful death, Communist revolution when it came in 1960, but surrounded by daughter, son-in-law, and grand- soon blanched at Castro’s evident friendship with daughter, has left a mark that they are all now try- the hated Soviet Union. It was the Madrid med ing to deal with. student, with whom my children’s grandmother Although I had almost nothing to do with it, had continued to correspond, who came to the res- hers is a legacy that I am delighted and proud to be cue; he married her in Cuba, giving her the right to able to pass on to my own children.

4 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 Letters Royal treatment Sylvia and I were given the royal less hours of volunteer participation treatment as well as a cup of tea. from such prominent Quebecers as This would be a worthwhile venture Alex Paterson, Centraide director On November 30th, 2006, my for any Fraser visiting London. Michèle Thibodeau-Deguire, busi- wife, Sylvia and I were invited by Incidentally, HRH’s invitation ness leader Pierre Lortie, Father the Princess Royal to a reception at was addressed to “Mr. and Mrs. Emmett (“Pops”) Johns, retired uni- Buckingham Palace for the launch- Okill Stuart” and since proof of versity Rector Frederic Lowy and ing of the Kurt Hahn Foundation, identity was required at the entrance former Assistant Deputy Minister connected with my old school, Gor- to the palace it took more than a lit- Robert Bisaillon in producing this donstoun, in Scotland. Her Royal tle explaining to convince security report for us. Highness, whose two children went guards that in Quebec today wives Without any direction or control to Gordonstoun, is the school’s pa- go by their maiden names, and that from QESBA, the Council produced tron and her father, Prince Philip, Sylvia was indeed my wife! a series of 32 recommendations on was a contemporary of mine at the Due to my age rather than to my how to improve our English public school just before World War Two. pocket book, Sylvia and I were hon- schools. Your readers are invited to oured by being number one in the read the full report, at receiving line when Princess Anne www.qesba.qc.ca. We have devel- arrived in the reception room. We oped a preliminary action plan (also found her to be most attractive and available on the site) to move for- charming in addition to being very ward on a number of the recommen- well informed. The press could give dations. There are tough challenges her better coverage. faced by public education, but we have a strong working partnership Okill Stuart of teachers, board members, admin- Montreal, QC istrators and parents ready to face them. This report was a pro-active and, we believe, visionary contribu- Wiser school counsel tion to that effort. We think your readers will agree. I’ve just been through the No- vember-December edition of Que- Marcus Tabachnick bec Heritage News, and I congratu- President, QESDA late you on a stimulating, informa- Montreal, QC tive and eminently readable maga- zine. You are filling an important The following day we took the niche for English-speaking Quebe- Principal failure train from Charing Cross to Seven cers wherever they reside in the Oaks and from there a short taxi province. I think you can count on As a still-active school teacher ride to Quebec House in Westerham, us, our member school boards, their (Grade 5, or to use the new jargon, childhood home of General James parents and teachers as supporters Cycle 2, Year 1) who sits on his Wolfe. Readers may be interested to and perhaps, occasional contribu- school’s governing board, I read know that it was through the gen- tors. with more than cursory interest both erosity of Mrs. J.B. Learmont of I do nonetheless want to express Rod MacLeod’s “School Spirit,” Montreal, influenced by my late un- my disappointment at the inclusion [page 3, Nov/Dec] and Jim Wilson’s cle, Sir Campbell Stuart, one-time of a commentary from retired union “Wisdom of the Rubber stamps” honourary director of the United leader Jim Wilson [“Wisdom of the [Opinion, page 6]. Empire Loyalists Association of Rubber Stamps,” page 6] who lam- In my mind there is no doubt Canada, that this 17th-century brick bastes the Quebec English School that the creation of the Ministère de house became the property of the Boards Association (QESBA) for l’Education du Québec four decades British National Trust. It is now the report of an Advisory Council it ago is the source of almost every- open to the public as a museum. commissioned on the future of Eng- thing that ails public education to- Quebec House is endowed with lish public schooling in the day. It was the MEQ which opted paintings, engravings and books all province. for the big-is-beautiful educational connected with Wolfe’s life and ca- We were privileged—and we model, and nothing grew quite as reer, and his role in Canada’s histo- think English public education will big as administration. ry. As members of the 78th Frasers, be the better for it—to secure count- Half a century ago the school I

5 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS now work in was part of a small in particular) should be written school board which oversaw the in clear and simple language Speech talking education of some 6,000 stu- which can be easily understood dents. All school principals by the layman; all policies and From the Spring 2005 newsletter of the Quebec taught—the principal was the initiatives should come from the Provincial Association of Retired School Educa- “main” or principal teacher. The grass-roots. tors, by Ann MacLeish, a volunteer director of the school superintendent, the only Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network. non-teaching administrator, visit- Nick Fonda ed every classroom in the board St. Francis Elementary School Reading newspapers and listening to elec- at least once a year. Richmond, QC tronic media has made me realize that the Eng- The school board for which I lish language has evolved a new rule of English work today has some 6,000 stu- Error in reason grammar: using nouns as adjectives that are in dents. In-school administrators turn used to modify empty or redundant nouns. (principals) avoid the classroom For example, a writer may now combine “ver- We were most grateful to like the plague. The number of bal symbols” and “visual representations” in- find the generous notice you directors, consultants and admin- stead of merely combining words and pictures; published of our book in the last istrators continues to swell de- a coach promises that improvement should set issue of Quebec Heritage News spite the fact that the student in with each “game-type adventure”; three [p.25] At least one of my co-edi- population is decreasing. cows are described as “three head of cattle.” tors will be taking out a sub- Worse, the entire raison Redundant nouns arise when a speaker or scription. Richard Mason says d’être of this top-heavy adminis- writer uses one word to help define another. “it’s a bargain.” From my point trative superstructure is to ensure Thus Americans talk of sherry wine, whereas in of view, I find the new format that teachers and students adhere Britain sherry is sherry. A wonderful specimen very professional and easy on the strictly to the Quebec Education of a combination of emptiness and redundancy eyes and commend you on the Plan—the “Reform.” in the noun is a recent newspaper report about a improvements. Richard has asked Administrators know that the man who was resting comfortably after under- me to point out that his email ad- QEP is producing students whose going “leg amputation surgery.” dress is [email protected]—a basic skills in both math and lan- Why should current English have devel- crucial letter “m” was, unfortu- guage are frighteningly weak and oped these tricks? One can readily see why ra- nately, omitted from the notice. whose general knowledge is all dio and television announcers use them. These Is it possible for you to make a but non-existent, yet they pre- people have a task to fill so many minutes with note of this in the next issue? tend all is well. My own children verbiage, whether they have anything to say or all ended up in private school. not. The amusing thing is that they become so Daniel Parkinson My role on the governing addicted to the ready-made and round-about Toronto, ON board, and so far I’ve been con- expressions that even when they are actually spicuously unsuccessful, is to fo- pressed for time, they go on using padded lan- The CD version of Cyclone Days guage but speak it faster. ment revolution: all administra- is available for $12 from Richard Many writers and speakers, however, do tors should have a teaching load; Mason, 117-2205 South Millway, all documentation (report cards Mississauga ON, L5L 3T2. not have the announcer’s excuse. They are sim- ply pompous, and in their minds, the more and bigger the words, the more impressive the statement will be. They “utilize” instead of use YES, Sign me up! and “donate” instead of give and “verbalize” 6 issues per year for $20 instead of talk. Such expressions may sound impressive because they are at first out of the New subscriber? Ask for your FREE gift of ordinary, but this virtue is lost as they gain in 20 pocket guides to Quebec s historic regions! usage: those who use them come to consider them as normal English and the simpler words as somewhat substandard. The trend toward the use of empty nouns Name continues, but where is it going to lead? Just think, if the adjective plus its empty noun is the standard formula, then it is possible to make Address the whole thing into an adjective expression modifying a new and even emptier noun. City Prov. Postal Code Schools never taught driving, for example, only driver education; which explains why nowa- Cheque enclosed Bill me days there are programs for “teaching driver education skills.” Once you double the padding, the possibilities become infinite.

6 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007

TIMELINES

The Nymark touch In search of a future for log-built Laurentian landmark by Sandra Stock

he future of religious sites and structures continue to serve as a somewhat smaller meeting has become a major concern, especially in hall. The hotel owners, who offered to pay the An- rural Quebec and especially in regard to glicans $695,000 for the building also seem T the English-speaking communities. The favourable to this idea. overall decline in participation in, and support for, St. Francis church was built in 1951 and was traditional religious denominations is only one fac- the product of a unique combination of people and tor. Even among church parishes that are still alive, circumstances. Canon Horace Baugh, who minis- even if not thriving as they once were, there appears tered in the parishes of Mille Isles, Morin Heights to be a trend towards selling off any buildings that and St. Sauveur from 1950 to 1983, conceived of are perceived as economically challenging. building a church in St. Sauveur early on in his The recent sale of Laurentians term to the St. Francis of the serve what was then a Birds Anglican church fairly large and mainly hall in St. Sauveur-des- English-speaking popu- Monts serves as an ex- lation of seasonal resi- ample of this trend. dents, weekend skiers This large round-log and tourists. In the early structure was built in 1950s many wealthy 1958, six years after the Montreal families construction of the owned properties church, which is on the around St. Sauveur and adjoining lot. Both Canon Baugh was able buildings are important to receive more than ad- Laurentian heritage sites equate financial support that recall the Scandina- for his project. vian influence on the re- At first the idea met gion’s development dur- some resistance from ing the last century. the local Roman However, because the Catholic parish, which municipality of St. perceived it as signaling Sauveur declined to re- a possible “turf war,” zone the site of the but this was pleasantly church hall for commer- resolved. Then the An- cial activities, the only glican Diocese of Mon- persons interested in treal itself objected, on buying it were the own- grounds that the ers of the Manoir St. church’s proposed Sauveur hotel. Their name, St. Francis of the stated intention is to re- Birds— a tribute to the move the building alto- 12th-century Christian gether and use the space mystic and legendary for a parking lot. nature lover Francis of This proposal, Assisi— sounded “too tabled in late 2006, led to a great deal of protest Roman Catholic” or what used to be called “High from the community, prompting St. Sauveur mayor Church.” However, Baugh and his influential back- Michel Legacé to voice his support for a local com- ers, including John Molson, won the day. mittee that is now seeking to preserve the striking The first meeting of the planning committee structure by dismantling it and rebuilding it as a was at Nymark Lodge. Victor Nymark, a builder new building adjoining the church. Here it could and contractor, had come to Quebec come from Fin- St. Francis of the Birds Anglican Church, St. Sauveur-des-Monts. 7 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

land in 1924 and was a leading proponent of Scan- contributed. dinavian architectural traditions in Eastern Canada. Six years later the need for a church hall be- He had already worked on the famous Château came apparent as there was nowhere at that time to Montebello, the world’s largest log building, and hold large events in St. Sauveur. Again, the his influence was evident in many smaller hotels fundraisers, led by John Molson and Chipman and private homes across the Lower Laurentians, Drury, went to work and again, the Bamberger and including the Mont Gabriel Club in Ste. Adèle. All Nymark team settled on the Scandinavian round-log of them were modeled on the classic Scandinavian style. This time the logs came from the property of round-log house. Matt Kirkpatrick, a farmer from the Morin Heights- Nymark had also bought some land in the moun- Mille Isles area. Lucille Wheeler, famous Olympic tain area behind St. Sauveur village where he estab- skiing champion, laid the church hall’s cornerstone. lished Nymark Lodge, near the present-day site of the “The hall was a wonderful help in giving the Mont St. Sauveur Ski Centre. Here he and Fred Pabst community a social centre,” Baugh recalls. “Won- installed St. Sauveur’s first cable ski-tow in 1932; the derful square dances were held, plays were per- following year Nymark and Adolphe Bélanger founded formed, dinners were served, wedding receptions the St-Sauveur Sport Club and fitted the hill with a ski were held and a badminton group started by Bar- jump. Nymark died in 1983. bara (Barney) Aylette. This group called themselves ‘The Badminton of the Birds,’ still active today. Some ladies who played in the 1950s when it opened are still playing in the 1990s.” Today, the unique and very beautiful stained glass windows are probably the most notable fea- ture of the log church’s interior. The large window over the altar, another gift from John Molson, shows St. Francis surrounded by twenty-one species of birds, all native to the Laurentians. The long narrow stained glass win- dows on the sides of the church show the four seasons in the St. Sauveur valley and were donated by various parishioners. Over the years the St. Francis hall has been well used by groups not directly connected to the Construction began in March and the church church, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, a cancer was opened on October 6, 1951. In his 1999 mem- support group, the Laurentian Ski Museum and oth- oirs, My Father Before Me, Canon Baugh recounts ers. The Parish of Morin Heights and St. Sauveur that John Molson supplied the wood, donating some has used the hall for youth activities and, until re- 600 pine trees that had been felled by a freak wind- cently, operated a used-clothing market every storm on the family estate. The architect was Erwin Thursday. The large fieldstone fireplace, the soaring Bamberger and the building contractor, Victor Ny- windows and the warm ambience of the logs create mark. Volunteers did a lot of the work and most of a welcoming atmosphere, even in such a huge the fittings were donated. Captain E.J. Rodgers space. gave two brass lanterns, installed at the front of the As time has passed the congregation has aged church. These were from the Isle de France ocean and numbers have declined. Costs for heating and liner of which he had been the captain. The lectern general upkeep have increased. The windows re- was donated by John Molson and had been on the quire refitting, probably replacement, and even ship, Nooya. The Molsons had owned and sailed on though logs are still one of the more easily main- this ship in 1870. The wrought-iron lighting fixtures tained construction materials, they still need treat- inside were from H.B. Bydwell and the two cruci- ment for preservation as time goes by. fixes at the head of the aisle were made at the It’s still hoped that the meeting hall can be Shawbridge Boys’ Farm, now called the Batshaw saved and will continue, in some form, to provide a Youth Centre. Many other people, such as the Raf- gathering place for remaining parishioners and the fignon, Dinsdale, Fisher and other local families surrounding community.

8 The church hall as it appears today. Photos by Sandra Stock. JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 Street victory City Hall drops bid to erase historic Park Ave. name here’s nothing like a bad idea to bring ties each year, not all of which are approved. One of folks together. An unpopular proposal to the rules supposed to guide the commissioners’ de- change the name of Montreal’s historic liberations states that changing existing names must TPark Ave. gave rise in January to a broad be avoided if doing so is likely to generate contro- coalition of heritage activists, business leaders, pub- versy; the commission may also block a proposal to lic figures and ordinary residents who had vowed to commemorate a deceased public figure if descen- fight the change—all the way to the Supreme Court, dants of that person object. if need be. Now they A number of promi- won’t have to. nent organizations, in- City council led by cluding the Park Avenue Mayor Gerald Trem- Business Council, blay voted last Novem- Héritage Montréal, the ber in favour of renam- Fédération des Sociétés ing the street after the d’Histoire du Québec late Quebec premier (FSHQ), the Canadian Robert Bourassa, in a Centre for Architecture resolution that many and Les Amis de la Mon- observers denounced as tagne, banded together to heavy-handed and un- add their voice to those democratic. The city’s of more than 42,000 bid to change the name Montreal residents who was still under review opposed the renaming by by the provincial to- signing a petition. The ponymy commission proposal was also de- when Tremblay announced Feb. 7 that City Hall was nounced by former Quebec premier Bernard Landry going to formally withdraw its request, apparently and Jean Decarie, retired Montreal city planner. in response to an appeal from the Bourassa family. Phyllis Lambert, founding director of the Canadian The Commission de toponymie du Québec, the Centre for Architecture, noted in a letter to the body that rules over whether or not a municipality’s Commission that the name Park Ave. embraces a street-name choice becomes official, had not yet is- history that is woven deeply into the city’s fabric. sued its own decision when the announcement was A joint submission by Héritage Montréal, the made public, and was still sifting through an esti- FSHQ and Les Amis de la Montagne calls on mu- mated 600 letters and emails from concerned citi- nicipal leaders to consult with the city’s municipal zens who had made submissions. The panel reviews heritage committee to find another way to honour hundreds of name-change requests from municipali- the late premier. Worthy of a Phelps? Heritage network issues call for 2007 award nominees he Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network ute to Joan Bisson Dow, co-founder of the British (QAHN) is currently inviting nominations Gaspesian Heritage Village, historian Kenneth An- for its 2007 Marion Phelps Award. The nett, and authors Norma Geggie of Wakefield and T award is given out each year to honour a Byron Clark of the Magdelan Islands. community volunteer who’s made an outstanding Is there someone you know who has consistent- lifetime contribution to the protection and preserva- ly worked towards the promotion and preservation tion of anglophone heritage in Quebec. Past recipi- of Quebec’s heritage? Send us his or her name and ents have included volunteer archivists, chroniclers contact information accompanied by a one-page bi- of local history and a museum founder. ography describing this person’s contribution, no The award is named for Marion Phelps of the later than April 30, 2007. The Phelps Award will be Brome-Missisquoi Historical Society in Knowlton, presented at QAHN’s annual general meeting in honoured in 2001 for the five decades she spent as a Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue in June. Send nominations volunteer archivist in her home community in the to the QAHN office in Sherbrooke (address on in- Eastern Townships. Since then QAHN has paid trib- side front cover) or by email to: [email protected].

9 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS New guide to Outaouais archives Aylmer Heritage Association sets high standard ith a grant from Quebec’s national library appropriately, housed in one of West Quebec’s most his- and archives, the Aylmer Heritage Associa- toric buildings, the Old Methodist Chapel of Hull Town- tion has completed a comprehensive and ship (1827), believed to be the oldest surviving church Weminently readable bilingual guide to its building in Quebec west of Montreal. archives, containing an overview and descriptive invento- The Aylmer Heritage Association is inviting other ry of the contents of each of its collections. The guide historical and societies and heritage groups to share simi- should be of particular interest to researchers hoping to lar information about the contents of their own archives, navigate the Association’s considerable wealth and diver- and researchers can only hope that others will follow this sity of archival material relating to the rich history of excellent model for presenting and illuminating local doc- Quebec’s Outaouais region. The archives consist of umentary heritage. Particularly useful are the brief intro- eleven sets of documents, letters and photographs kept by ductory texts that precede each inventory. local families over many generations, dating to the early Volunteers endeavour to keep the office open to the 19th century. public three days a week, but interested parties may also Among the archives is a collection of papers belong- arrange an appointment by contacting the Association by ing to Scottish settler James Finlayson Taylor, office clerk phone at (819)-684-6809 or by email: and bookkeeper for Hull Township founder Philemon [email protected]. The Association’s mailing Wright. Taylor was instrumental in organizing the town- address is: P.O Box 476, Aylmer, QC. J9H 5E7. ship’s first Methodist congregation. “Indeed,” notes the The guide was prepared by Enid Page, Lorraine Association’s volunteer archivist Enid Page, “it is through Deslauriers and Marie-Adèle Lueger. the eyes of James Taylor, and his extraordinary legacy, that we know as much as we do about the social history of A printed copy of the archives guide and inventory was those early days of settlement in Hull Township and of the recently sent to the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Associ- many families who struggled to establish a living and lay ation (QAHN), and may be consulted at the QAHN office a foundation for future generations.” The collections are, in Sherbrooke (Lennoxville). Lead role for anglo heritage Townships Trail to highlight historic towns and villages he latest tourism-development scheme in Que- which spans a total distance of 415 kilometres, will be to bec’s Eastern Townships draws its inspiration erect a series of signs along the side of existing high- from the charms of the past and will focus ways, tracing a suggested visitor circuit that winds its Tlargely on promoting the region’s English- way from the sleepy village of Ulverton on the St. Fran- speaking heritage. Sponsored by a mainly francophone cis River to the already bustling tourist town of regional tourist association, the Chemin des Cantons Bromont. Interpretation materials currently being devel- heritage driving tour is intended to emphasize the his- oped for the tour are expected to feature visitor toric role that American and British immigrants played stopovers in 31 municipalities, including museums, settling the territory in the late 18th and early 19th cen- churches, covered bridges and local heritage-walking turies and their subsequent influence on farming and in- tours. It’s hoped that a well-indicated travel itinerary dustry. highlighting the area’s historic ties to Great Britain and The Townships Trail, as it will be known in Eng- New England will make a valuable contribution to the lish, is a novel undertaking in a province that tends to development of heritage tourism in southern Quebec. pride itself on its dominant French-speaking heritage. Alain Larouche, head of Tourisme Cantons-de- Then again, the towns, villages and small cities of the l’Est, chose St. Mark’s Chapel at Bishop’s University in Townships have a unique history in Quebec, marked by Lennoxville to unveil the proposed itinerary, which de- successive waves of colonization, first from New Eng- scribes visitor attractions of heritage interest in the fol- land, then the British Isles and later, from older estab- lowing communities: Danville, Asbestos, Saint-Camille, lished French-Canadian settlements of the St. Lawrence Dudswell, Bury, Cookshire-Eaton, Sherbrooke, River valley. At its peak in the mid-1800s, the English- Lennoxville, Waterville, Compton, Coaticook, Barnston- speaking population of this largely rural region reached Ouest, Stanstead, Magog, Potton Township, Sutton, almost 90,000, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of all Knowlton, Waterloo and Granby. Located off the route households and leaving an indelible imprint on the built but indicated as side trips are: Windsor, Valcourt, Gould, landscape. Anglophones today constitute less than 7 per North Hatley, Cowansville and Stanbridge East. cent of the total population. Larouche said the blue signs will be in place along road- The first step in the proposed Townships Trail tour, ways by June.

10 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007

CHAMPIONING BURGUNDY Black leaders push to save a Montreal landmark by Carolyn Shaffer

or fifteen years, the longtime home of Little most ethnically diverse. The plan unveiled last October Burgundy’s historic black community centre has calls for modifying the former church to accommodate sat empty and derelict. Now, armed with a new affordable housing units for the elderly, institutional Fbusiness plan, supporters of the 80-year-old space for community groups, a small museum and li- NCC believe they just might finally realize their dream brary focusing on black studies, a rental banquet hall, an of reopening. auditorium and office space. “There is momentum for the project now,” says It also depends on $7 million in public funding from Michael Farkas, who is coordinating efforts aimed at re- the three levels of government. viving the centre in partnership with Montreal city offi- Although a cost-sharing agreement could be reached cials. “The community needs this place. Our children are within the next few months, Michel Gervais, a at risk. Having a place like the NCC will bring us back spokesman for South West Borough mayor Jacqueline dignity and continuity with previous generations’ Montpetit, says the project will require more than just achievements.” governmental support. “Just to be able to reopen the But the battle’s not over yet. building will cost millions of dollars,” Gervais says. “We Directors of the NCC, formerly called the Negro expect the black community and the Community Center, have been trying since 2004 to find a community to help as well.” way to preserve the 110-year-old landmark. The City of Situated at the corner of Coursol and Canning Montreal and its South West Borough got on board in streets, the imposing stone structure has been the subject 2005 and later hired the urban planning firm Conver- of a number of failed renovation attempts over the years, sité—responsible for the Benny Farm Project and the re- mainly due to the NCC’s past inability to match govern- cent redevelopment of St. James United Church on Ste. ment funds, a condition of many renovation-grant pro- Catherine Street—to help draft a plan that would suit the grams. That’s too bad, say neighbourhood residents, be- needs of the whole neighbourhood, one of Montreal’s cause the building has been intimately connected with

11 The NCC building sits empty today. Photo by Carolyn Shaffer. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS the social ’s West End district , where ly, first for repairs, then a second time because of funding many English-speaking black immigrants to Quebec first cutbacks. The local black community tried to raise funds settled with their families in the late 1800s. The neigh- to match government grants, but the money raised was bourhood was renamed Little Burgundy in the 1960s. never enough to satisfy building safety and operating re- The former Methodist church, built around 1897, quirements. The NCC closed again in 1993 and has not has served Montrealers under many different names over since reopened. the years. It once housed the city’s venerable Old Brew- Though other organizations have tried to pull up the ery Mission and later opened as the Iverly Community slack, the old neighbourhood stills feels the loss, accord- Centre, before the NCC moved here from Atwater St. in ing to Anthony Simonds, coordinator of recreational pro- 1955. Since 1965 the building has belonged solely to the gramming at Tyndale-St.George’s Community Centre. NCC, now known officially as the NCC/Charles H. Este Simonds, who took part in NCC activities as a child, re- Community Centre, in honour of a United Church minis- members people from all cultures and backgrounds com- ter and prominent black rights champion who immigrat- ing to the centre. “Now, there’s lots of division between ed to Montreal from Antigua in 1913. all the different groups,” he says. “There’s no more com- For decades after its founding in 1927, NCC activi- mon ground.” ties served to unite the West End’s mostly black and di- In its heyday, the NCC ran a nursery school, offered verse immigrant communities, and provided a haven sports and recreation programming, taught music and from the racism and discrimination found in other social dance, played movies and held dances on Friday nights. settings. As black families began to move out of the old It had what Little Willy Tzeard, a semi-retired musician neigbourhood and Little Burgundy saw the influx of dif- and a lifelong resident of the neighborhood, terms “at- ferent residents, including new immigrants and French- mosphere.” The kind of place where you could take horn speaking Québécois, the community centre came to serve lessons from some of the stars of the West End’s famous a diverse population. As historian Dorothy Williams dis- jazz scene when they weren’t playing at nearby clubs covered researching her book, The Road to Now: A His- like Rockhead’s or Esquire. tory of Blacks in Montreal. [ Vehicule Press, 1997] the With all those memories and a heritage building in NCC’s white membership soared to 50 per cent for a pe- need of a major overhaul, Tzeard wonders why saving riod after the its merger with the Iverley. “Although offi- the NCC isn’t a priority, especially since there seems to cial membership for non-blacks was accepted only after be plenty of funding for other projects, like the new World War Two,” Williams wrote, “in the early years sports complex on the corner of Notre Dame and anyone, black or white, who went to the NCC received Seigneur streets. “Why are they spending money build- help.” ing other places, when we already have this one?” he The NCC remained a second home to many Mon- asks. trealers, says community centre president and volunteer In Tzeard’s view, the sports complex was never in- Shirley Gyles, who used to travel to Little Burgundy by tended serve the local black, immigrant and low-income bus and streetcar with her sister every Saturday to take population. “It was built for the condos, and everyone tap-dance and piano lessons. knows it,” he says. “Nobody feels right in it. It’s not The community centre began running into serious fi- Burgundy. Then, pointing out of his window toward the nancial difficulties in the 1980s. It was closed temporari- NCC, he adds: “This is Burgundy.”

morrinULTURAL ENTRE C C HERITAGE SITE Your portal to the heritage of English-speakers in Quebec City

Join us for the fun of it Book talks, author readings, discussion groups and special events all year long for the whole family

Come by and visit the charming Victorian You’ll be amazed with our impressive heritage Literary and Historical Society library, site that has housed two prisons and a home of Canada’s oldest learned society. Scottish college.

MORRIN CENTRE 44, CHAUSSÉE DES ÉCOSSAIS, QUÉBEC, (QUÉBEC) G1R 4H3, TEL: (418) 694-9147, EMAIL [email protected]

12 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007

ONE OF A KIND Tyndale centre doubles as welcome mission by Carolyn Shaffer

t the entrance to this neighbourhood, around the Tyndale-St. the railway terminals and the George’s Com- historic “porters’ quarters” A munity Centre, between Windsor and toddlers’ laughter drifts out Bonaventure Stations, cen- from the doorway of a tred on rue St. Antoine. The brightly-coloured class- majority of blacks who set- room into the noise of the tled in Montreal’s West End nearby Ville-Marie Ex- in the late 19th and early pressway. Once targeted 20th centuries were British for demolition, Tyndale to- subjects who had emigrated day is the only remaining from the Caribbean. Being a community and social serv- porter was one of the few oc- ices centre serving resi- cupations open to black men dents of this multiethnic, of that era, then still very largely immigrant neigh- dized housing developments. It’s a much characterized by racial bourhood. It’s also a living link with legacy that continues to haunt the segregation. Marjerison, who serves the English-speaking heritage of present. as Tyndale’s chaplain and treasurer, Montreal’s Little Burgundy. Lacking in green spaces, faced describes the old West End of the Four decades years after Jean with poverty and the social problems early 1900s as being mainly populat- Drapeau and city hall began to ex- endemic to subsidized housing de- ed by two English-speaking commu- propriate large swaths of this historic velopments such as drug abuse, nities: white blue-collar workers and working-class neighbourhood to crime and mental illness, Segee says black employees of the nearby Cana- make way for the expressway, the that youth and particularly adoles- dian National and Canadian Pacific controversial “urban renewal” pro- cents in Little Burgundy are the ones railways. It was here that the city’s gram still has the power to conjure who continue to suffer the most. immigrant blacks first began to or- up bitter memories. “This used to be “There are no high schools in the ganize themselves as a community a vital black community,” recalls neighborhood so no school yards to by establishing a number of social Rosemary Segee, a vocational coun- play in. The police kick them out of institutions, including the Union selor who works in the employment the parks, the NCC is closed, so United Church, in 1907, a chapter of office at Tyndale, which is celebrat- where are they supposed to go?” the New York City-based United Ne- ing its 80th birthday this year. “Fam- Alan Marjerison, an energetic gro Improvement Association, ilies were kicked out of their homes, man of 93 who has worked as a vol- (UNIA) in 1919 and the Negro Com- given very little compensation and unteer at Tyndale for 30 years and munity Center (NCC) in 1927—the forced to move elsewhere. That’s who is currently writing a history of same year as Tyndale House. The when all those antique stores on Tyndale, says Montreal’s English- UNIA, the Union United Church and Notre Dame Street opened—people speaking black heritage is rooted in Tyndale remain active today. had to sell all their As their community things.” grew and its members be- Drapeau’s scheme came more affluent in the proved devastating for post-World War II era, Little Burgundy’s English-speaking black blacks, prompting a families moved into other massive exodus of resi- neighbourhoods, such as dents in the late 1960s NDG and Côte-des-Neiges, and early 70s as single- bringing their institutions family homes were with them. An offshoot of razed and replaced the NCC still operates in with condominiums Côte-des-Neiges. The and government-subsi- 1940s also marked the be-

Rosemary Segee. Photo by Carolyn Shaffer. 13 Below, the expressway near . Photo from Wikipedia. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS ginning of the heyday of Montreal’s founded the Little Burgundy Black legendary jazz-music nightclubs, Family Support Group, which meets among the first public venues in the monthly to discuss issues affecting city to achieve a measure of racial them and to hold community organi- integration. zations accountable for their deci- sions. She was also co-founder of uring the push to clear the Youth-in-Motion, a drop-in centre way for the expressway, for teens that provides hot meals, TThhee Tyndale House at 870 recreation programs, after-school tu- D Richmond Square was al- toring and counseling services. so expropriated, remembers Marjeri- Perhaps no one better exempli- son, but it escaped demolition and fies the ethnic mélange of Little Bur- GGaatteewwaayy local supporters were able to lease gundy quite like Youth-in-Motion’s the building back from the city and other co-founder Kim Kidder, a so- keep it open to the community. cial worker who heads up Tyndale’s ttooYYoouurr Twelve years later, Tyndale support- department of school-aged children, ers repurchased it. youth and families. As in the past, Little Burgundy Kidder is a white woman from a today is a mostly English-speaking middle-class, family HHiissttoorryy neighbourhood, adjacent to the city’s who met her black husband at Tyn- old industrial area and bounded by dale and whose own mixed-race chil- rue St. Antoine in the north, the La- dren now attend Tyndale’s after- chine to the south, Atwater school program. Kidder has worked Street to the at the centre for west and Guy 18 years, and Street to the says that both east. But today her friendships it’s also an eth- and family re- nically diverse volve around community, Tyndale and the home to many surrounding hispanics, and community. “I South Asians as am Tyndale,” she well as blacks. says, laughing. Today’s resi- Kidder notes dents are more that language Online Access to divided by in- barriers can Heritage Magazines come than by sometimes pres- race, with two ent problems for distinct popula- a community that Quebec Tourism tion groups: af- is traditionally Information fluent condominium owners, and a anglophone but largely populated by poorer black and multiethnic immi- recently-arrived immigrants who are grant community. placed in local social-housing proj- Guided Trail Maps The ideals of multiculturalism ects. Immigrants to Quebec are of- are put to the test every day at Tyn- fered free French classes by the dale, whose original mission has, provincial government, but must Heritage Organization nonetheless, remained unchanged look elsewhere if they want to learn Information since its beginning 80 years ago: to English. Which is why Tyndale start- “empower individuals and families ed to provide this service in the www.quebecheritageweb.com to lives of greater self-reliance and 1990s. Classes are taught by volun- fulfillment and to help people help teer students from Concordia Uni- themselves.” versity. Quebec Although the black community Another issue is racism, which here has strengthened in recent as Kidder points out occurs on a dai- Anglophone years, “it still has no voice,” laments ly basis on Montreal’s streets, and in Heritage Segee, who lived in Little Burgundy its institutions. But advocating on Network as a child and who returned to live behalf of a black and multiethnic here nine years ago, becoming active community means helping all people as a community organizer. Segee to learn to see beyond skin colour.

Kim Kidder, part of the Tyndale family . Photo by Carolyn Shaffer. 14 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007

BANQING COLLECTIONS A brief tour of Quebec’s national library and archives network by Pierre Louis Lapointe

he quantity and importance of English-lan- and private collections, featuring every possible type guage archives kept in various Quebec-based of documentary resource. The fact that these are all repositories as well as in Library and kept under the same roof and that Quebec’s national li- TArchives Canada’s holdings in Ottawa and brary and archives is responsible for copyright regis- Gatineau is quite considerable. McGill University, Mc- tration of all books published and of all films produced Cord Museum as well as Bishop’s University usually in the province makes for an extremely rich and grow- come to mind as the main storehouses of that heritage. ing storehouse of documentary heritage. Since the However, one of Canada’s most significant sources of BAnQ also provides library and archives expertise, it printed and archival holdings that document the evolu- aims to play a dominant role in accessioning and pre- tion of anglo-Quebec society is Quebec’s national li- serving this heritage, whether it originates with histori- brary and archives, the Bibliothèque et Archives na- cal French- or English-language communities, or with tionales du Québec, or BAnQ, formed just over a year other cultural traditions. ago by the merger of the old Archives nationales du While past acquisitions of private archives were Québec with the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec. frequently marred by instances of outright rivalry with Since the founding of the Quebec Provincial other archival institutions, things have simmered down Archives in 1921 under the leadership of Pierre- somewhat and cooperation has set in, with most parties Georges Roy, Quebec’s first provincial archivist, the nowadays trying to respect well-defined fields of inter- BAnQ has evolved into an extensive network of public est or territorial and institutional boundaries. English- speaking Quebecers are, of course, invited to partici- pate in the ongoing building of BAnQ, both as users Pierre Louis Lapointe, Ph.D. works as a reference and as donors, in order to ensure that this vital public archivist at the BAnQ-Quebec City archives centre. institution will play an even larger role in the future Visit the BAnQ website at www.banq.qc.ca. preservation and development of English Quebec’s

Spring view of the Montreal archives centre located at 535 Viger Avenue East. Photo by Alain Michon. 15 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS archival heritage. Let’s start with a brief tour. The BAnQ’s Archives Branch is made up of nine archival centres located in Quebec City, Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Saguenay, Gatineau, Rouyn-Noranda, Sherbrooke, Rimouski and Sept-Îles, to- gether with 30 private archives associated with and accredited by the BAnQ. The Quebec City archives centre, located on the Université Laval campus, is housed in the old seminary chapel at the Louis- Jacques-Casault pavilion. The Montreal archives centre, at 535 Viger Avenue East, is housed in what used to be the HEC (Hautes Études commerciales), for a num- ber of years the home of Dawson College.

AnQ’s archival centres contain a veritable gold mine of infor- mation about the institutions Band the men and women who have shaped Quebec society over the past four centuries; their extensive holdings owe much to the fact that Quebecers have been largely spared the destruction of ma- jor conflicts and natural disasters. The manuscript or record groups, also called fonds—defined as all the records or archives accumulated by a particular indi- vidual, institution or organization in the exercise of its activities—and collections kept in these archives may include all or some of the following types of media: un- published text documents such as hand- written, typed and digitized correspon- dence, minutes, studies and reports; photographic and mologated wills as well as departmental correspon- audiovisual documents such as films, videos and cas- dence files, land-books, photographs, maps and a vari- settes; maps and architectural plans; iconographic and ety of other documents that reflect government poli- digital documents such as diskettes and CDs; and mi- cies and decision-making. Close to sixteen kilometres croforms. Acquired over the years by simple transfer, of shelving is devoted to judicial records alone: 2.3 km loan, gift or sale, the archives bear eloquent witness to in Quebec City, 9 km in Montreal and 4.4 km in the the evolution of Quebec’s administration and shed sig- other, smaller, regional repositories. Civil records take nificant light on its political, social, economic, cultural up six kilometres: 3.4 km in Montreal, 1.4 km in Que- and religious history. bec City and a similar quantity in the other regional All fonds and collections belonging to the BAnQ centres. are kept in temperature- and humidity-controlled rooms, and can be located by using BAnQ’s computer- large percentage of these records, probably ized archival guide to its holdings, dubbed PISTARD. 30 per cent overall, are in English and deal Unless subject to restrictions, all archived documents with individuals, institutions and firms are open for consultation, to ordinary citizens and aca- Aclosely linked to Quebec’s historic English- demics alike, at reading rooms across Quebec. speaking communities. The percentage is of course Government records transferred to BAnQ’s vari- much higher for records from the late 18th and 19th ous repositories by government departments and agen- centuries when English was prevalent in public admin- cies and by district courthouses are designated as pub- istration and even well into the first half of the 20th lic archives. They include civil and criminal court case century, since corporations insisted on dealing with the files, vital statistics registers, public notary contracts Quebec government in English. Historians wishing to and land surveyor files and notebooks dating back to document the life and career of lumber baron Henry the 17th century, “curatorship” and tutorship files, ho- Atkinson, for instance, would have to delve into the 50,000-odd contracts of public notary Archibald

Exterior of the Quebec City archives centre on the Laval University campus. Photo by Yves Bellemare. 16 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007

Campbell, the civil court case files involving him and other members of the business community as well as the correspondence files of the Lands and Forests Yards of reading fun Commissariat—most of it in English. A good knowl- edge of English, therefore, is essential for anyone in- terested in carrying out research in government or judi- he important role played by Quebec’s Eng- cial records from these periods. lish-speaking community in the history and development of Quebec and Canada is re- anuscripts, photographs, films and any flected in the seven kilometres of shelving other documents originating from non- T taken up by the BAnQ’s private archives. At present, governmental sources are deemed pri- roughly a kilometre of this shelving is devoted to pri- Mvate: they are accessioned by loan, dona- vate archives linked to Quebec’s historic English- tion or sale, and a written contract spells out clearly speaking communities, including the following out- the conditions agreed to by both parties. These private standing fonds: archives reflect the existence of individuals, families, organizations and business firms and often bear wit- Montreal archives centre ness to more intimate episodes or events of private life, IODE (Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire) opening new vistas for understanding Quebec history. fonds Because preservation and description of archives United Church of Canada fonds is a time-consuming and costly process, accessioning (Montreal and Ottawa Conference) the right manuscripts is of paramount importance to Quebec Women’s Institute fonds the BAnQ: defining priorities and establishing guide- lines that spell out clearly the collecting areas and the Outaouais archives centre in Gatineau fields of interest is a priority for all serious archival or- The James MacLaren Company fonds ganizations . Since it is impossible to acquire every- The Stone Consolidated Company fonds thing, the best collecting strategies take into considera- The Gatineau Fish and Game Club fonds tion the nature of existing fonds and collections in or- The Loyal Orange Lodge fonds der to avoid accessioning identical materials. Unless an archival centre is highly specialized (e.g. a labour Quebec City archives centre archives) a representative sampling of fields interest, Price Company and Family fonds geographical areas, languages and chronological peri- (Available on 113 microfilms in Quebec City. Originals tem- ods should guide the accessioning decision-taking. porarily BAnQ’s accessioning guidelines stress the need to deposited at Saguenay archives centre) respect the collecting areas and fields of interest of its Neilson Family and Neilson Publishers fonds archival partners. This means that a potential donor of YWCA fonds documents may be redirected towards one of the ac- Lady’s Protestant Home fonds credited repositories. Documents linked to a family or Literary and Historical Society of Quebec Collec- business that operated in Western Quebec, for instance, tion would not end up in BAnQ’s Quebec City archives The James Thompson Jr. fonds centre, but manuscripts linked to the immediate family The William Sharples Family fonds of a Quebec premier would. Lady Aylmer’s Journal (Illustrated by Colonel Accessioning priorities for all of BAnQ’s centres Cockburn) include the archives of cultural minorities (English, 1,500 magnificent Staveley architectural drawings Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Lebanese, Haitian, Chinese, etc.), business and industrial archives and the archives Sherbrooke archives centre of Quebec politicians (MPPs, MNAs, and premiers). United Church of Canada fonds As for all archival organizations, BAnQ’s pre- (Quebec-Sherbrooke Conference) ferred form of acquisition is by gift or donation, the The Bowen Family fonds donor being offered tax receipts in the amount of the The Compton Free Will Baptist fonds fair market value of the documents. This value is es- tablished by a recognized merchant of manuscripts or Trois-Rivières archives centre by a NAB (National Appraisal Board) regional com- The Wabasso Cotton Company fonds mittee. Sometimes, in rather special circumstances, a Rouyn-Noranda archives centre loan of the documents is negotiated, in the hope that Noranda Mines fonds they will eventually be donated. In dire need, when all Beattie Gold Mines fonds other approaches have failed and when documents of great historical value are threatened with destruction or Sept-Îles archives centre export from the country, the BAnQ may offer to buy The Iron Ore Company of Canada fonds them outright.

17 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

WORLD ON STAGE Interpreting Canada from the ‘third perspective’ of immigrant artists by Carolyn Shaffer

railblazers in intercultural Old Montreal paid artistic tribute to tors and playwrights to practise their theatre, the Teesri Duniya the ideals of multiculturalism with an craft in their adopted city. At the time, players have consistently exhibit entitled “Dialogue: Bridges of recalls Varma, who immigrated to Theld a mirror up to Canadian Hope”, featuring paintings, photogra- Quebec from India in 1976, “there society with their biting social com- phy, poetry, music and dance created were no forms of cultural expression mentary. After 25 years of delighting by a dozen artists from places Canada, concerned with South Asians I found Montreal audiences, founding member Albania, India, the Caribbean, Egypt satisfying. Theatre offered a more po- and artistic director Rahul Varma re- and Nigeria. Gathered on stage during litical voice.” mains faithful to the group’s motto: the speeches, their skin tones crossed a At first, Varma wrote plays in change the world, one play at a time. broad palette but identical pride shone Hindi that were set in Canada. Later During their recent production of from their faces at being part of the he wrote in English as his fluency in- renowned Canadian playwright Jason event and the organization behind it. creased. Teesri Duniya also produced Sherman’s prize-winning Reading He- Teesri Duniya, which means works by other English-language play- bron, for instance, the company ended “third world” in the Hindustani lan- wrights, their first being Susan up hosting an open debate between guage, specializes in plays that reflect Townsend’s Great Celestial Cow, a Jews and Palestinians in the audience. the immigrant experience, provoking story about immigrants in England. One of the functions of theatre, after thought and asking tough questions Within two years, though, the compa- all, Varma says, is “to bring people un- about issues that affect visible minori- ny evolved into a multicultural group, der an umbrella where they can air ties both within their own communi- with members inspired to write and their disagreements.” ties and in the larger society. When the produce plays about issues facing oth- True to form, Teesri Duniya’s an- company was founded in 1981, it was er communities and cultures besides niversary party at Pangée Gallery in intended as a way for South Asian ac- their own. On the Double, for in-

A recent Teesri Duniya production, Bhopal, dealt with the 1984 industrial 18 disaster in India, believed to have caused the deaths of 20,000 people. JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 stance, written by Teesri co-founder resulting in a unique “hybrid litera- Rana Bose, focuses on intergender ture.” He is also proud that his plays conflict in a South American commu- have been translated into French and nity. have entered francophone Québécois Varma himself picked up an award culture. Lately, Teesri has been pro- at the Quebec Drama Festival in 1987 ducing plays in both official languages for his play Job Stealer which dealt such as The Trial, staged numerous with the racism times in 2005. faced by new Based on an refugees to Cana- adaptation of the da. It was in- Franz Kafka sto- spired by TV ry by Matthew footage of Sri Behrens and Lanka refugees Laurel Smith, who were being the play cri- greeted on their tiques Canada’s arrival by people anti-terror leg- chanting “trash islation from go back” and the the perspective racism exposed of five immi- by a subsequent grants, includ- investigation. His ing Montrealer play Isolated In- Adil Charkaoui, cident retold the who was de- tragic story of tained on a fed- Anthony Griffin, eral security a young black certificate for man shot dead by 22 months Montreal police without any in 1987. criminal charge Varma is quick to stress that being made against him. Teesri productions are not obsessed Despite its official policy of mul- with victimization, but rather tend to ticulturalism, in Varma’s view Canada focus on immigrants’ struggle to fit in remains essentially a bicultural society with and contribute to Canadian and with multicultural components. Living Quebec society. In their plays, they and working in the heart of French use specific incidents to pose broader North America adds another creative questions about life in Canada for cul- dimension. “Quebec offers a tension tural minorities but they do not simply which allows me to push forward my point the finger at whites. immigrants ‘third perspective’ force- fully,” he says. arma’s play Counter Of- The company has no intention of fense examined the issue of resting on its laurels now that it has violence against women in passed the 25-year mark. Its new mot- Va minority community from to is, “Stage peace in times of war.” multiple perspectives. It was produced All upcoming works will centre on in collaboration with Montreal’s Black this theme, Varma says. Teesri’s next Theatre Workshop using a multiethnic production is playwright Aparna Sind- cast and was translated into French hoor’s Leaf in the Wind, which draws and Italian. Bhopal, about the continu- attention to the plight of women in ing after-effects of an industrial disas- war and post-war situations and prom- ter that took place in India in 1984 was ises to offer what Varma calls a “third a big hit for Teesri that was translated perspective” on the cause and conse- into French and Hindi. Staged in India quences of conflict. in 2003 and 2004, this reverse-export “We deal with issues that Holly- brought Varma’s Canadian-Indian per- wood doesn’t show,” he says. spective back to the motherland. Having learned English as an Visit the Teesri Duniya websiste at adult, Varma says he still thinks in www.teesriduniyatheatre.com.Or Hindi even while writing in English, call (514) 848-0238 for play dates.

Rahul Varma is Teesri Duniya’s artistic director. 19 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

WHAT’SINANAME?

DREAM RESURRECTED Estérel’s past links Château Clique élite with Old World aristocracy by Joseph Graham

rains and railways fascinated Edouard-Louis- a lawyer named Leon-Mercier Gouin, son of the ex- Joseph Empain. Born in Beloil, Belgium, in premier Lomer Gouin, and grandson of Honoré Merci- 1852, he worked his way through university, er, a legendary Quebec nationalist who had also been Tbut by the time he was 29 years old, he had premier. L-M Gouin, who would one day be named to founded the Empain Bank and he began to indulge his the Senate, was also closely linked with the newly obsession with public transport. Empain built train formed Union Nationale party. The Baron immediately tracks across France, Belgium and Holland. He also set upon the task he had in mind, creating investment experimented with electric trams, supplying a long list companies and establishing a Belgian-Canadian spirit of cities with their of cooperation, first public transit even going so far systems. He built as to create l’Asso- the Paris metro, the ciation Belgique- Cairo transit sys- Canada. tem and a railway Empain seems through China. He to have been guid- built a railway in ed by a vision of the Belgian Congo idealism and was and was involved called by some the in hydroelectric capitalist of the projects and many left. In 1935 he other initiatives. created La Belgo- For his pleasure, he Canadienne de founded the town Crédit Ltée, ac- of Heliopolis out- quiring forestry side Cairo and and mining con- built a Hindu cerns, and backing palace there. His philanthropies. He great accomplish- also acquired some ments, particularly in the Congo, led King Leopold II 5,000 acres of land in Ste. Marguerite du Lac Masson of Belgium to recognise him with the title of Baron in and began building an ambitious art-deco resort com- 1907. plex there which continues to stand as one of the re- When he passed away in 1929, he left an estate es- gion’s most distinct architectural landmarks. timated to be worth six billion French francs to his two Empain engaged the best people he could find to sons Jean-Louis Lain Empain and Louis-Jean Lain plan and build it, including the celebrated Belgian ar- Empain. Whereas their father was the first Baron Em- chitect Antoine Courtens. To complement his hotel, pain, by Belgian rules, they both inherited the title. cinema and shopping centre and give it a fresh identity, Baron Jean-Louis Empain, the elder brother, took he established a post office in 1939, calling it L’Estérel over the management of their father’s holdings, while after the Estérel massif in the south of France. Baron Louis-Jean took his inheritance in money and Around that time, the Sulpician Order of Oka, began anew, setting up La Banque Belge pour l’Indus- having seriously overextended themselves in the cre- trie, and looked for projects. Starting in the Middle ation of Université de Montréal, appealed to the East, he sought a totally new environment, one where provincial government to save them from their credi- he could distinguish himself from his brother, and this tors. Under the guidance of Athanase David, at the notion brought him eventually to Canada. time the provincial secretary for education, the govern- Both brothers also inherited good business prac- ment passed a bill through which the university proper- tices from their father, and so, when Baron Louis-Jean ty was merged with the large Sulpician holdings in came to Canada for the first time in 1934, he was al- Oka, and subsequently the merged enterprise sold ready well prepared, and acquainted with the business 3,700 acres of cultivated land and 1,600 acres of and power elite. Only 26 years old, he had at his dis- forestland in Oka to Baron Louis-Jean Empain. The posal the means to hire the best advisors and to meet university was saved and what was once the Sulpician the most influential people. He retained the services of seigneury became the property of the ambitious Bel- Hotel Pointe Bleue, by architect Antoine Courtens, circa 1938-1940. 20 Majella Bureau collection, BAnQ-Quebec Archives Centre, D646, P08 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 gian. Without displaying bitterness, one of the senior ne fateful summer day in 1958, Simard was members of the Sulpician Order remarked that the flying over the Laurentians headed from his Baron would have some unfinished business to settle home in Alma to Montreal. From the win- with the Mohawks. Soon the Sulpician land was being Odow of his small floatplane, the rolling hills marketed to Belgian immigrants who wished to estab- of the Laurentians unfolded, their jewel-like lakes lish farms in Oka, and the Baron created support sys- twinkling in the sun, but off ahead of him, to the south- tems to help them. west, he was heading into dark thunderclouds piled The remarkable growth and rate of acquisition hit above the horizon. His radio crackled with a message a wall with the beginning of the war. Baron Empain from the control tower at Dorval warning him and all and his new bride, Geneviève Hone of Montreal, were small planes to change flight plans because the storm in Belgium when the German army occupied the coun- was playing havoc with the airport. try. Rumours swirled around the couple in Canada, and Below him, Simard could see a good-sized lake, he was accused of being a German spy, was said to easy to land on, and his charts told him it was called have been detained and held prisoner by the Canadian Lac Masson. As he would later learn, the story of the authorities and was gener- lake’s name began with ally pilloried in the press. Joseph Masson, like him a The Canadian government business man who had went so far as to sequester moved from the country- all of the Baron’s Canadian side to seek his fortune in holdings, justifying its ac- the city. When Masson ar- tions because, as principal rived in Montreal in 1812, shareholder, he resided in a he had no money, but he country under enemy occu- had apprenticed as a shop pation. clerk in St. Eustache, Meanwhile, in Bel- where he soon proved his gium, the Baron and his worth to Hugh Robertson, wife organized a charity eventually becoming a full called Pro Juventute, creat- partner, in the Robertson ed to feed and care for brothers’ firm. A visionary needy children. Faced with and risk-taker, Masson be- the risk of imminent inva- came the purchaser and a sion, the Belgian govern- partner in the Robertsons’ ment called up all avail- concerns in Glasgow, Scot- able men, creating an army land, as well. Trading prin- of 700,000, and the Baron cipally in potash and wool- reported for duty. He par- lens, Masson encouraged ticipated in the heroic the firm to buy ships, and “Campaign of 18 Days,” a he was also a co-founder series of battles that of the Company of Propri- slowed the German ad- etors of the Champlain and vance and is considered to St Lawrence Railroad in have given surprised Allied 1846. troops precious extra time Masson, like Simard, to evacuate Dunkirk. He did not know that French- was captured and became a Canadians were handi- German prisoner, but was capped in business, and soon released, probably because the Germans needed during the difficult period of the 1830s, he was one of to cultivate good relations with the powerful industrial the most important businessmen in . He family. was a member of the Legislative Council, the ruling When the war ended, the Baron could not bring elite known as the Château Clique, in the stormy himself to forgive the Canadian government for the 1830s, and while he was sympathetic to the objectives hardships and the insult of having treated him so badly. of the Patriotes, his loyalty was to the mercantile class. Married to a Canadian, volunteering for duty against He eventually became the sole owner of the import-ex- the enemy, enduring prison and assisting the needy be- port companies in both Scotland and Montreal when fore and during the war period, he felt that the Canadi- the Robertson brothers retired, and he brought his sons an government would act as his ally. He instructed his into the business. Joseph Masson, Sons and Company managers to sell his Canadian holdings and concentrat- had offices in Montreal, Quebec City and Glasgow ed on his philanthropy for the balance of his career. His with marketing and buying offices in Three Rivers, Canadian dreams were left to be fulfilled by others, no- Liverpool and Toronto. Eventually he acquired the tably one Fridolin Simard. Seigneury of Terrebonne, and it was his son, Edouard Esterel commercial centre, circa 1938-1940. From Majella Bureau collection, BAnQ-Quebec Archives Centre, D646, P05 21 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Masson, who undertook to colonise the area around improvement, it was Baron Empain who identified the Lac Masson in the 1860s. lake’s real potential in the 1930s. Simard landed safely before the storm and found Among the properties Empain left behind when he his way to a dock where he could secure the plane. His returned to Europe at the beginning of the Second business expertise was in asphalt and concrete blocks, World War, was this large art-deco recreation and pier, bridge and tunnel construction, and his family tourism complex, which had now sat idle for years. concern, Simard-Beaudry, had grown out of their Simard looked again at the map on the wall, which hometown offices in Alma to spread across Quebec showed development plans for 300 houses, a hotel and and Ontario. Taking shelter near the dock, Simard a cultural centre—but no provision for Empain’s ab- found himself inside an elaborate, abandoned building sence. complex. On one wall, he found a map describing the As though the spirit of the place had conspired to whole lake with projections for development. He ex- grab him out of the sky, Simard learned the property plored further. was for sale. Piqued by the ruins of Empain’s vision sitting on the pristine lake named for Masson, Simard n 1864, Edouard Masson had been accorded determined to complete the dreams of both of his pred- 1,600 acres for his colony on the lake and even ecessors. Acquiring the remaining Empain-Masson though it was not a seigneury, he invested heavily holdings, he built a large hotel and golf course and de- Ito develop it, building both a saw and flour mill. veloped the lakefront with expensive country homes. Most of the colonists came from further south in the In order to better manage his project, he obtained a old Terrebonne seigneury. The first post office, called separate municipal status, and inspired again by Em- Lac Masson, opened in 1868. Its naming served the pain’s name for the post office, he called it L’Estérel. dual purpose of honouring Edouard Masson and con- firming the name of the lake. By 1880, the municipali- References: Estérel website; Paul Jeanjot, Biographie Na- ty took its name from the parish mission and the post tionale, France; http://www.bretagne-quebec.com/histoire- office and became Ste. Marguerite du Lac Masson. qc.htm; L’arbre généalogique de la famille Empain, Pierre Like many of these Laurentian projects, Masson’s Chartrand, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Toponymie small colony experienced difficulties when the bulk of Québec and others. Special thanks to Sheila Eskenazi. the wood was gone and the farmers had to rely on the thin mountain soil. While the railroad brought some Contact Joe Graham at [email protected].

22 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 REVIEWS

The Bronfmans: The Rise and Fall of the House of Seagram By Nicholas Faith St. Martin’s Press [New York] 2006 320 pages

ritish financial journalist sibling discord in the recent past, hear- market while making it all but impossi- Nicholas Faith set out to troll ing only the occasional muffled row be- ble for governments to collect taxes. the much-charted deeps and hind closed doors. Nor do we gawk for And for more than a decade, the Bronf- Breaches of the legendary too long at the piles of treasure generat- mans got rich supplying American Bronfman family after one of history’s ed, astonishingly, within the space of smugglers from a network of warehous- wealthiest business dynasties was sud- just a few decades by this incredibly es strung out across two dozen prairie denly and very publicly flung upon the successful immigrant family. railroad whistle-stops along the border. rocks in 2001. After years of misman- Within ten years of their arrival in They weren’t alone, of course. Their ge- agement, notably at the hands of compa- Canada from Czarist Russia and with nius, writes Faith, was figuring how to ny founder Sam Bronfman’s “overage earnings their father Echiel saved from go legit so successfully. adolescent” grandson, Edgar Jr., the im- working at a Brandon, Manitoba However, after gleaning dozens of mensely profitable Montreal-based sawmill and various sidelines—includ- published sources, including Toronto liquor company Seagram was gradually ing reselling scrap wood as household writer Rod MacQueen’s seminal 2004 transformed in the 1990s into a sprawl- fuel and peddling fish—the Bronfman biography, The Icarus Factor, financial ing media empire that was disastrously brothers got their start in the hotel busi- press archives and his own interview absorbed into the French entertainment ness in 1903. By adjusting their methods notes—Sam’s architect daughter Phyllis conglomerate Vivendi. Surely this deba- to fit ever-changing anti-liquor laws and was the only one of his children who cle, reckoned to have cost the Bronfman regulations, they had soon established agreed to cooperate—Faith searched in family $3 billion in losses, would yield themselves on the prairies as major vain for an original theme broad enough some valuable lessons. Is it any wonder liquor wholesalers in a market long to recast the Bronfman saga as a case publishers have brought out a half- dominated by the Hudson Bay Compa- study in corporate culture. We are left dozen new books on the drinks biz in re- ny. During the First World War, for in- instead with uneven portraits of Sam cent years? stance, Ottawa forbade anyone except and two of his colourful male descen- Bronfman, who died in 1971, would registered druggists to deal in spirits, so dants: son Edgar, whose “finest hour” at hardly recognize today the company that the Bronfmans bought a license to set up Seagram’s we are told was turning its he’d spent most of his life building up, a a wholesale drug company next door to investment in a Texan oil company into point that recurs frequently throughout their Yortkon, Sask. hotel and proceeded over 20 percent ownership of DuPont in this book as though Faith were some- to sell “medicinal” alcohol through the the 1980s; and the so-called “clown how astonished to discover that entre- mail. prince” of the Bronfman dynasty, Edgar preneurial instincts are not genetically The early success of the family Jr., whom Business Week magazine once transmitted. But in a genre that is business owed much to U.S. Prohibi- described as “the stupidest person in the crowded with insider tell-alls, pane- tion, a failed social experiment begun in media business.” gyrics and get-rich parables modeled on the 1920 that drove drinkers under- Above all, this book pays tribute to the latest fashions in management theo- ground and exports across the border, Seagram’s strongman-founder, arguing ry, this House of Seagram stands out, as firmly establishing Canada’s distilleries that Sam Bronfman knew ahead of his much for its tidy rooms and winding by the time the ban was repealed in rivals that Prohibition would some day corridors as it does for its insights. We 1933. Faith notes that Prohibition had end and that the future of distilling lay are spared a reprise of the noisy melo- the twin virtues of wiping out American not with bootleggers and moonshiners, drama that has swirled round bouts of competition in the continent’s largest but in quality brands supported by a

23 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS marketing strategy that could finally and moderate consumption—another in- make whisky-drinking respectable in dustry first. “All this, writes Faith was America. part of “Mr Sam’s overwhelming objec- Bronfman, Faith concludes, had “all tive: to give dignity to products normally the capacities to succeed in business, the maligned as low-class, if not downright flair to understand the product required dishonourable.” In a particularly brilliant by the market, combined with the pas- example of his marketing chutzpah, sionate, obsessive temperament to ensure Bronfman timed the launch of a new that the drink he had dreamed up reached whisky blend to coincide with the British the drinker perfect in every respect.” royal family’s first visit to Canada in The late Canadian journalist Ter- 1939, then somehow to arranged to have rence Robertson, whose unpublished ten cases of Seagram’s “Crown Royal” 1969 biography informs much of this placed on the train that carried King new book, quoted Sam Bronfman as de- George VI, Queen Elizabeth and their scribing the Prohibition border trade in children across the country! Saskatchewan as “insignificant.” The big Placed at the helm of Seagram’s money was being made back east where U.S. operations in the 1950s, McGill- not a small portion of the illegal foreign trained Edgar at first distinguished him- drink was decent Scotch, the product of a self more as a target for gossip columns centuries-old distilling and blending tra- than for his business prowess, flaunting dition that Sam set out to emulate. In his wealth with playboy abandon, and 1923 Bronfman bought an idle distillery philandering his way from one mistress in Louisville, Kentucky, dismantled it to another before inheriting full title to and moved it to Ville Lasalle, near Mon- his father’s legacy in the early 1970s. treal where it would remain the corner- Here Faith’s narrative lingers over-long stone of the family business for decades. on Edgar’s celebrity and bogs down in a He became, Faith recalls, “a brilliant series of weak comparisons between blender in his own right.” He was also Edgar and his younger brother Charles. able to copy the Scots’ knack for market- In any event, Edgar, who has penned ing brands that could be sold at premium three books of his own, will probably be prices. remembered by posterity more for his By 1927 Sam and his brother Allan accomplishments as leader of the World were able to go directly into business Jewish Congress than for his contribu- with the Scottish distilling group DCL, tions to the family fortune. In the 1980s giving them the edge over such rivals as he led an international campaign to oust fellow Canadian Harry Hatch of Canadi- United Nations secretary-general and an Club fame, Lew Rosenstiel of Schen- former Nazi collaborator Kurt Waldeim, ley Distillers and Joseph Kennedy. Part- and then successfully fought Swiss nering with these “acknowledged aristo- banks to secure restitution for money de- crats” of the world liquor also trade gave posited in the 1930s by victims of the Sam Bronfman what Faith describes as Jewish Holocaust. “a step up the social, commercial, and fi- Charles built shopping malls and of- nancial ladder, and was the key to the fice towers across North America and whole of his subsequent career,” not to was founding owner of the now-defunct mention the inspiration for much parody Montreal Expos baseball team from in at least two novels, including Morde- 1968 to 1993. Phyllis founded Montre- cai Richler’s Solomon Gursky Was Here. al’s famed Canadian Centre for Architec- Rather than rushing into the post- ture after pursuing a career outside Sea- Repeal U.S. market with spirits of dubi- gram’s corporate affairs, putting much of ous age and quality, under Sam’s leader- the capital her father left her to work in ship in the 1930s Seagram’s held back, arts and culture—notably in Quebec building up stocks of spirits aged in oak, where for the past two decades she has and confining marketing efforts to a been a driving force behind the move- handful of whiskies, notably the import- ment to save Montreal’s built heritage. ed VO, and two new American blends, 5 All told, still a grand old house and a fas- Crown and 7 Crown. The blends proved cinating chapter in Canada’s economic immensely popular, bolstered by an ex- history. tremely effective and unprecedented ad- vertising campaign that stressed quality Reviewed by Dwane Wilkin

24 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007

Sons of the Mountains: A History of the The Highland Regiments in North America during the French & Indian War 1756-1767, 2 volumes By Ian Macpherson McCulloch Purple Mountain Press, 2006 vol 1, $35; vol 2, $24

hen Col. Harper wrote Highlanders has presented a roman- When he supports his assertions, the The Fighting Frasers in tic, stoic image that is far from the resulting conclusions can be stun- 1959, his research truth, he argues. McCulloch spent ningly insightful. At other times Mc- W broke new ground. To- years assembling what surely must be Culloch refers to a general as “incom- day, though, it’s showing its age: the most complete set of period docu- petent” for example, without apparent Some of his facts seem doubtful— ments and illustrations dealing with reason. What’s more, the few times a ever tried to climb a cliff-face with a these regiments, in order to refute passage conjures up a poetic image, broadsword between your teeth?— such myths. Yet, beyond the introduc- the footnotes disappear. Readers ex- and, what’s more, Harper left no foot- tion, the finished work offers no di- cited over some really juicy detail— notes for those interested in his rect counter-arguments, just facts. like the exact tune the pipers were sources. What we are left with, then, are playing during a battle—find it to be Hence the excitement many of us the many minute details of the High- totally unsupported, and resembling felt when Ian McCulloch, former landers’ participation in the war, the fanciful imaginings McCulloch commanding officer of Montreal’s without their being interpreted or put wants to dispel. The author can’t al- Black Watch regiment set out in this into context. For the most part, Mc- ways seem to meld his use of sources new work out to debunk myths sur- Culloch’s style consists of listing with his few burgeoning attempts at a rounding the noble Highland soldier troop numbers and dates, movement narrative voice. by concentrating on the facts, and and attack orders, battle phases and The most worrying problem with McCulloch has enough of them to fill officers’ decisions. It’s clear that with Sons of the Mountains is that it’s rid- two volumes. The first chronicles the such exact details he wants to estab- dled with mistakes. Most are punctu- exploits of the 42nd (the Black lish a soldier’s “personal angle of vi- ation or grammatical errors, mind Watch), Montgomery’s 77th and Fras- sion”—what war was like from the you, but it makes one wonder how er’s 78th; the second gives a biogra- individual’s perspective—and that’s much attention to detail was put into phy of every officer in all three regi- commendable. But sometimes Mc- a book that is supposedly “all about ments: details on uniforms, weapons, Culloch’s aversion to narration can be the details.” Sure enough, there are soldiers and more. Simply put, this detrimental. For example, the Battle even instances where the dates are book tries to answer almost every- of the Plains of Abraham, the 78th wrong. thing you could want to know about Regiment’s moment of fame, is re- But for all of its faults, Sons of the Highlanders. One is in awe of all sumed almost entirely from one letter. the Mountains is unparalleled in its the work that went in to such an en- While quoting large swaths can occa- depth. Occasional factual mistakes deavour. sionally be refreshingly transparent, and bouts of undocumented, romantic This means, however, that the au- too often McCulloch’s chapters feel guessing do not eclipse the ten years thor spends little time weaving an like a lot of material collated together of research that unearthed so much over-arching narrative of the Seven chronologically. Leaving it to the new material. And despite the scarci- Years’ War; he assumes you know all reader to make links between events ty of narrative or direct argumenta- about the military campaigns and and themes places a burden on those tion, the author succeeds in present- strategies, as well the political and with only a casual knowledge of his- ing enough information for a devoted economic aspects of the conflict. In tory. reader to gleam the most accurate im- most history texts the author’s point In fact, the best parts of the age to date of the Highland soldier of view shapes how he groups his book—especially the first few chap- during the Seven Years’ War. One facts, interprets them, and presents ters discussing the recruiting prac- cannot read the book without feeling them to the reader. As McCulloch tices in the highlands, as well as the it will stoke the passion many of us points out in his introduction, a care- later description of the Battle of have for the 78th of Foot. It is the less author with an undeclared bias Ticonderoga—are those in which the new regimental Bible. can perpetuate falsehoods that last for author overtly shares his ideas and centuries. Previous “research” on the contrasts them to other authors’. Reviewed by Tyler Wood

25 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

St. Lawerence Iroquoians: Corn People Pointe-à-Callière Museum, 350 Place Royale, Old Montreal Exhibit runs until May 6, 2007. For opening hours call 514-872-9150 or email to [email protected]

hen French explorer But further south, in what is now the cen- roborating evidence has so far rendered first de- tral eastern United States, Iroquoian lan- this hypothesis impossible to prove. How- scribed the villages of the guages were also spoken, notably by the ever, Cartier left us a snapshot of the sexu- WSt. Lawrence Iroquoians Cherokee and Tuscarora Indians. Maize— al division of labour that presumably char- during his visits to Canada between 1535 or corn as it came to be known in English- acterized daily life in all these 16th century and 1541, he put their population at ap- speaking North America—was a central Iroquoian villages: women were in charge proximately 10,000. Sixty years later feature of Iroquoian culture when Cartier of the crops, which included beans and when Samuel de Champlain returned to visited, making up 50 to 60 per cent of vil- squash as well as corn; they also ran the the valley, they were gone. Herein lies one lagers’ diet. Domesticated in Mexico as household, cared for children, cooked and of the more enduring mysteries in Native early as 5,500 years ago, the Pointe-à-Cal- made pots and household tools, gathered American history: Why one of the first lière exhibit shows how the northward firewood and hunted small game. Men aborignal cultures recorded by Europeans spread of this important New World crop hunted large game, carried on trade and seems to have completely vanished from allowed groups of hunter- gatherers living were in charge of war and diplomacy. Iro- the St. Lawrence Valley in the 16th centu- in the St. Lawrence Valley to store enough quoian society was also matrilineal and ry. food to begin settling in permanent vil- matrilocal, meaning that men moved into What little we know today of the St. lages between 800 and 1,200 years ago. the homes of their female partners and Lawrence Iroquoians comes from Carti- The village of Stadacona near mod- their clans. Each clan was led by a clan er’s writings and the fruit of more recent ern-day Quebec City was the largest Iro- mother, who chose the village chief and archeological research conducted at nu- quoian village of a dozen in had the power to revoke his merous village sites discovered along a the valley, with a population authority. 700-kilometre span in the river valley of 500-800 people when The mystery remains as from Quebec City to Cornwall, Ont. and Cartier first encountered to why they disappeared, northern New York State. A wide selection them. The only other villages though intertribal warfare is a of unearthed clay pots, tools and ceremo- he mentions are favoured hypothesis. Re- nial objects feature in this latest exhibit. at the foot of Mount Royal search has discounted cli- Taken together, the documentary and and Tutonaguy, also on the mate change and the effect of archeological evidence point to a fascinat- . Since the 19th century, European diseases, which would decimate ing cultural legacy that links Cartier’s dozens of St. Lawrence Iroquoian villages First Nations following colonization in the hosts with prehistoric Mexico. have been unearthed in Quebec, Ontario 17th century. Whatever the cause, studies St. Lawrence Iroquoians belonged to and New York. Evidence from an archeo- shsow the St. Lawrence Iroquoians dis- a much larger culture known to latter-day logical site near St. Aniset, between Mon- persed in various directions inland and day scholars as the Northern Iroquoians, treal and Cornwall, Ont. suggests that in merged with other groups. Scholars be- whose population once reached 120,000 the mid-16th century this village had 15 lieve many were captured or adopted by people, grouped into 25 nations and spread longhouses and more than 600 residents. other Iroquoian nations, such as the Wen- out along the St. Lawrence in an area There are also two major archeological dat in Wendake and the Mohawk in Akwe- roughly the size of Great Britain. The term sites between Quebec City and Montreal: sasne, Kahnawake and Kahnesatake. To- “Iroquoian” describes a linguistic group of at Lanoraie and at Mandeville. The largest day the horticultural knowledge of the St. more than 900 languages, and is distinct known cluster remains near Watertown, Lawrence Iroquoians lives on in these from “Iroquois,” which refers to the his- NY, where more than fifty Iroquoian vil- communities in the person of the Plant toric political confederacy of Iroquoian- lage sites have been located. Keeper, a ceremonial title whose holder is speaking First Nations who inhabited terri- Some scholars believe that the re- charged with preserving original varieties tory in what is now upstate New York and mains of an aboriginal village discovered of corn, beans and squash. southern Quebec. in the 19th century near McGill College Beside the question of why they dis- At the time of European contact, Iro- Avenue may have been the original site of appeared, one is also left wondering why it quoian peoples were less numerous than the village of Hochelaga described by took so long for a Montreal museum to Algonquian-speakers, their villages being Cartier. But since Iroquoian communities pay tribute to the area’s first inhabitants. concentrated around what is now south- are also thought to have moved their vil- eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S. lages every 10-20 years, the dearth of cor- Reviewed by Carolyn Shaffer

Mask pipes, Glenbrook site, Ont. Canadian Museum of Civilization. Handheld grindstone and 26 charred kernels, from Quebec City and Lanoraie. Centre de conservation du Québec JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007

EVENT LISTINGS Heritage

Outaouais, February-April exhibit their works. Learn about the an- February 19, 7:30 p.m. cient craft of rug-hooking. Minute Chelsea Community Centre Info: 819-564-0409 Looking at Emily Carr Curator Charles Hill speaks about the Until May 13, 1-to-5 p.m. Video late great painter’s works exhibited at the Centre d’interpretation de l’histoire de National Gallery of Canada. Sherbrooke Gatineau Valley Historical Society L’automobile, quelle revolution! Contest Info: (819 )827-4432 Discover the impact that cars have had on the city at this exhibit featuring arti- Students, tell us March 19, 7:30 p.m facts and photos from a century of auto- your story! The Aluminum Plant at Farm Point mobile travel. Bob Walsh describes his father’s work at Societe d’histoire de Sherbrooke the plant from 1944 to 1963. Info: (819) 821-5406 Gatineau Valley Historical Society The Quebec Info: (819 )827-4432 Talking with Townshippers Anglophone Heritage Weekly Radio Show, CJMQ (88.9) FM Network is offering April 16, 7:30 p.m. Wed. at 12 noon & Thurs. at 5 p.m. River Keepers A 15-minute program about initiatives Secondary Level students Speakers Meredith Brown and Neil and events of Townshippers’ Association cash prizes for true stories Faulkner outline what local environmen- and partners, also featuring music and tal organziations are doing to preserve books from the region. about remarkable people the Ottawa and Gatineau rivers. Info: 819-566-5717 from Quebecs past. Info: (819 )827-4432 Montreal, March- April May 21, 7 p.m. For complete contest Gatineau Valley Historical Society March 24, 1-4 p.m. Annual Dinner Antique Books Road Show details, visit our Guest speaker: Fred Ryan, publisher and Atwater Library website, editor of the West Quebec Post and Antiquarian Wilfrid de Freitas evaluates Aylmer Bulletin newspapers. old books. Fee; $2 per book for library www.qahn.org Info: (819 )827-4432 members; $3 for non-members. and click on the News Info:(514)935-7344 Monteregie, February Feb. 1-28, 1-to-4 p.m. March 8, 9:30 a.m to 4 p.m.. Missisquoi Museum, Stanbridge East Ode to Women First prize is $250. The Mystery of the Ruiter Ledgers 1799- McCord Museum Second prize is $150 1811: Were Thomas Morris and Joel Unveiling of a painting and a public Slaves? reading of a collective composition in Send your entries to: Info: www.missisquoimuseum.ca praise of women to mark International Tel: (450)-248-3153 Women’s Day. Events include a tour of Quebec Anglophone Simply Montreal exhibit. Laurentians Info: (514) 398-7100 Heritage Network April 15, 1 p.m. 400-257 Queen Morin Heights Library April 5, 1:30-to-3:30 p.m. Morin Heights Historical Association Chocolate! Street, Annual General Meeting McCord Museum Lennoxville, Quebec Info: (450)226-2618 Get a taste of chocolate’s rich past at this J1M 1K7 lecture and tasting, presented by Cather- Eastern Townships ine Macpherson, researcher in gastrono- February 4 to March 11, 2 to 4 p.m. my. Presentation examines the marketing, Deadline for Uplands Museum, 9 Speid St., manufacture, culinary use and historical submissions is (Lennoxville) Sherbrooke importance of chocolate in Canada from April 30, 2007 The Happy Hookers the 18th century to the present.

27 Montreal Mosaic Heritage Summit at the McCord

S KETCHES IN AMULTICULTURAL H ISTORY April 1st, 2007

Hidden Histories Gathering Time English-speaking communities in Greater How do different communities view their Montreal are composed of many different history in Quebec? Conservation specialists cultures, all of which have helped to shape and community leaders discuss ways to the story of Quebec and Canada. Histori- identify, preserve and promote local her- ans from diverse cultural traditions present itage, including oral history, neighbourhood little-known stories from Montreal’s past. landmarks, artifacts and family archives. Tongue Ties English shaped the identity of many immigrant communities in Montreal and continues to nurture the cultural life of Canada's first truly cosmopolitan city. Find out why and whether non-British English-speakers view their history as part of Quebec's anglophone heritage. Scholars debate the changing identity of English-speaking Montreal, from different cultural perspectives. Plus: A Taste of the World Buffet A great opportunity to network with leading heritage experts while savouring a wide variety of authentic traditional dishes, prepared by some of Montreal's best-loved eateries.

McCord Museum of Canadian History 690 Sherbrooke Street West

CONFERENCE RUNS FROM 9:30 A.MTILL5 P.M. REGISTER IN ADVANCE BY EMAIL: [email protected] OR CALL: 1-877-964-0409.

Admission: $10 regular; $5 student/low-income.