NUMBER 49 ■ Summer 2016 ■ $2.00

■ A BRITISH SUFFRAGETTE IN COLLEGE HALL ■ IRON BARS & BOOKSHELVES: OUR NEW BOOK ■ THE LEGACY OF OUTGOING PRESIDENT SOVITA CHANDER

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NUMBER 49 ■ SUMMER 2016 ■

PUBLISHER Literary & Historical Society of Quebec 44 chaussée des Écossais Quebec, Quebec G1R 4H3 CONTENTS PHONE 418-694-9147 FAX 418-694-0754 GENERAL INQUIRIES [email protected] Letter from the President 1 Sovita Chander WEBSITE www.morrin.org

From the Executive Director 1 Barry McCullough ■

LHSQ COUNCIL Outgoing President: Sovita Chander 2 Diane Kameen, et al. [email protected] Barry Holleman, President Ladd Johnson, Vice-President Transactions Gina Farnell, Treasurer Diane Cline, Secretary Donald Fyson, Honorary Librarian Bruce Laurie, Member at Large Emmeline Pankhurst in College Hall 3 Jack Bryden Jacob Stone, Member at Large Peter Black Jack Bryden Library Pages Katherine Burgess Arthur Plumpton Grant Regalbuto On The Shelf in 1916 4 Britta Gundersen-Bryden Hélène Thibault

Sovita Chander, Ex-Officio New Acquisitions 6 David F. Blair, Ex-Officio Tomas Feininger, Ex-Officio Cameron J. MacMillan, Ex-Officio

Miscellanea ■

DIRECTOR Iron Bars & Bookshelves 7 Patrick Donovan Barry McCullough Executive Director [email protected] , EP4 8 Barry McCullough FULL-TIME STAFF Gail Cameron Accounting & Financial Clerk [email protected] Rosemarie Fischer Administrative Assistant [email protected] Stefanie Johnston Guided Tours Coordinator LIBRARY HOURS [email protected] Caroline Labrie Rentals and Events Coordinator Sunday 12:00PM-4:00PM [email protected] Elizabeth Perreault Development and Communications Director Monday CLOSED [email protected] Deborah van der Linde Library Manager Tu e s d ay 12:00PM-8:00PM [email protected] Hoffman Wolff Communications and Events Coordinator Wednesday 12:00PM-4:00PM [email protected]

Thursday 12:00PM-8:00PM ■

The mission of the Morrin Centre Friday 12:00PM-4:00PM is to share and foster English-language culture in the Quebec City region. The Morrin Centre is administered by the Saturday 10:00AM-4:00PM Literary & Historical Society of Quebec. ISSN 1913-0732

Front cover: “Arts Alive,” celebrating Anglophone Culture, on the chaussée des Écossais. (Photo: Morrin Centre.) SOCIETY PAGES LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

I feel honoured to have Canada and had his work featured on the back of the been chosen as President of Canadian five dollar bill. The evening’s Honorary the Society and would like President will be Mr. Yvon Charest, President and CEO to thank Council for of Industrielle Alliance. Mr. Charest is an avid reader entrusting me with this and is very active in philanthropic circles, making him a role. I would also like to natural fit for our annual fundraising dinner. Guests will thank Sovita Chander for also be treated to a great meal. Tickets for the event four wonderful years at the are already available, and those interested should helm of the Society. These contact the Morrin Centre as soon as possible because years saw the Morrin they are already going fast. Centre blossom from the potential we all knew it had. As summer hits full stride, so too does the Morrin I am very excited to take it even further. Centre’s rentals season. Rentals are an important part of the Centre’s self-generated revenue. With spaces as The 2016 Literary Feast is already set to be a varied and unique as ours, the Centre really can be the memorable evening. We are honoured to have two ideal setting for almost any type of event, from distinguished guests: Mr. Roch Carrier, author of the weddings to business meetings to conferences. Contact seminal children’s book, The Hockey Sweater, as well as our Rentals Coordinator to plan your event. his most recent work, Wolfe and Montcalm, will be the keynote speaker. Throughout his long and storied Wishing you all a fantastic summer, career, Mr. Carrier has been made an Officer of the Order of Canada, has been National Librarian of Barry Holleman

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

On Canada Day weekend, While Arts Alive wrapped up our cultural programming the Morrin Centre, in for the summer, the Centre isn’t slowing down. This collaboration with the summer, the building will be full of visitors steeping English Language Arts themselves in the unique history of the building. If June Network, hosted the traffic is any indication (it was the busiest June the second annual Arts Alive Centre has ever seen!), we should be in for a busy festival. Friday night we summer. In addition, summer wedding season is about hosted Ben Wilkins with to kick into full gear. opener Jane Ehrhardt, while on Saturday Lily Thibodeau Summer is also the time of the year when we are warmed up the crowd for a planning the activities for the next year. One of these is fantastic performance by the My Morrin initiative. Funded by Canadian Heritage, Pascale Picard. Sunday afternoon, we moved things the project will put some of the Morrin Centre’s outside to the chaussée des Écossais, where visitors had programming into your hands. The call for project a chance to check out artists and community groups, proposals ends August 1st, so don’t miss your chance! some of whom put on workshops. Throughout the afternoon the appreciative crowd was entertained by As always, stay tuned to our Facebook page and sign up the music of Vibrant Voices, Gilles Sioui, Rob Lutes and for our newsletter to stay on top of everything Randall Spear. In total over 1,100 people participated in happening at 44, chaussée des Écossais! Arts Alive weekend, making it one of our busiest weekends ever. Have a great summer,

Barry McCullough

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SUMMER 2016 TRANSACTIONS SOVITA CHANDER BUILDS THE MORRIN CENTRE INTO A CULTURAL LEADER By Diane Kameen, former Vice-president with contributions from Elizabeth Perreault, Frederic Blouin and Lorraine O’Donnell

At the AGM on March 30, Sovita Chander stepped introduced to the history of the English-speaking down as president of the LHSQ after a very busy four- community of Quebec and the historical significance of year mandate. Sovita’s leadership the Morrin heritage site. The “We style—greatly appreciated by are One” youth initiative, initiated everyone she meets—is under Sovita’s term with financial professional and positive, yet quiet support from the Movement and unassuming. It is my personal Desjardins and the Department of impression that she never backs Canadian Heritage, is bringing down from a challenge. This students from Francophone and observation can be corroborated by English-speaking high schools two facts: Firstly, she is only one of together to work on a unique two women to preside over the program that is having a direct Society in its entire 192 years of impact on our communities. existence, preceded only by Rosemary Cannon (1977-1980, Sovita’s passion for literature has 1985-1989). Secondly, and perhaps also allowed the Morrin to flourish more impressively in my view, she in the arts realm, primarily through was willing to take the helm the ImagiNation Writers’ Festival. following David Blair’s term as She was always available to greet the president when the Society was in writers, artists and presenters and the midst of perhaps its most say a few well-chosen opening significant transition in its long and words at that annual event and at illustrious history. countless others. She increased the visibility of the Centre by taking an Her legacy will be to have built the active role in various discussion Morrin Centre into a leading tables and boards, including the cultural organization with a vision for the future that Jeffery Hale Foundation and the Quebec Community she helped to articulate and is set on three pillars, Groups Network. namely heritage, education and the arts. Thanks to this new communications concept, it has been easier for While she knows how to focus on the bigger picture, both English- and French-speakers alike to understand Sovita is also meticulous and attentive to detail. Her the Society’s unique past and how the different expertise in the technology field was invaluable when functions of the building have led to a variety of the Centre redesigned its website. She was a goldmine activities and services thriving under one roof. of information when it came to developing a solid business plan because, in addition to all her other During her tenure, visits to the Morrin Centre have qualities, she's a startup expert. I am very happy to exploded from 15,000 yearly to an astonishing 43,000. report that everything accomplished under Sovita’s Francophone attendance is now reaching 40% at key reign has resulted in an increase in government grants. events, proof positive that the Centre is playing a vital role as a bridge between communities. School group Sovita Chander will be remembered as a visionary visits have also more than doubled over the last four president who took the necessary actions to assure the years, resulting in thousands of students being longevity of the organization. We wish her well in all her future endeavours. ■

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SOCIETY PAGES TRANSACTIONS CONTROVERSY AT COLLEGE HALL By Jack Bryden

Emmeline Pankhurst, the British Suffragette, was invited Pankhurst then stated that “she hoped that when the to speak at Morrin College on March 1, 1916. Canada time was ripe, the women of Quebec would start a and much of the world had been at war for more than a movement in this direction." Mrs. Pankhurst was year. The evening before, she had spoken to a large obviously trying not to be inflammatory that day. She audience at Columbus Hall in Place d'Youville. That first advised that the militant tactics used in London may not night Pankhurst had focused be appropriate in Quebec, and on the importance of the war that when it was time for (WW1), the important role of change in women's rights in women in that war, and her Quebec, the movement should support for conscription of all be inclusive and not just be led eligible males in Britain and by an isolated “clique”. She Empire. She had also passed suggested that the audience the hat to raise funds for probably had “distorted or Serbian war orphans. sensational” views about the suffragettes and that her The large audience at Morrin audience at Morrin College College wanted to see the may not appreciate that the famous leader of the militant British women's movement British suffragettes and to hear had had to resort to militancy about the fight to win the vote because peaceful for British women. Those demonstrations had not filling the hall would have worked. known about the recent violence associated with this By this time, those in the small, fragile-looking woman. audience who were hoping for Quebecers were aware from controversy may have started the newspapers that to feel disappointed. However, suffragettes had smashed Pankhurst couldn't resist windows in London, detonated addressing Quebec's gender bombs and set fires in politics. She explained to the churches across the United crowd that suffragette work Kingdom. Emmeline Pankhurst everywhere was for the “social had been jailed and released and moral uplift of young several times by British girls.” She also commented on authorities. Everybody in the the recent Quebec decision to audience probably had strong Emmeline Pankhurst in Prison, 1908 ban women from practising opinions about her before they law. arrived. Six days after her presentation, on March 7, 1916, the After introductions, Pankhurst stood and quietly Quebec newspaper L'Action Catholique devoted a clarified that the civil disobedience campaign had been significant portion of its front page to a large-print put on hold at the beginning of the war. According to editorial criticizing Mrs. Pankhurst's speech. There the Quebec Chronicle reporter present that day, she would have been no problem had she only talked about quickly explained that her visit to Quebec “had not the war, it said, but she seemed to have come to been intended for the purpose of interesting Quebec Quebec to preach about the political emancipation of women in the question of votes for Women.” Mrs. the sexe faible. Women of Quebec did not need

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SUMMER 2016 TRANSACTIONS

Pankhurst to raise their social and moral sensibilities, more disapproved of the militant tactics used by the and they already had high social and moral standing in suffragettes. However, an American non-militant their role as the moral centre of the family and suffragist of the time wrote that the British militants had guardians of home and hearth. The editorial concluded “planted in the minds of people the world around the that Pankhurst’s stated concerns about Serbian orphans fundamental thought that women are people. To raise were only a pretext for lecturing Quebecers about the half the human race to consideration is an achievement. vote for women. The world has condemned, but it has thought.”

This was not the only reaction of its kind. Many outside If a college's role is to invite debate and discussion, Quebec were also concerned in 1916 that changing Morrin College did a good job on March 1, 1916. ■ women's rights would destabilize family life, and even

LIBRARY PAGES ON THE SHELF WHEN MRS. PANKHURST CAME TO TOWN By Britta Gundersen-Bryden

Audience members in College Hall listening to Books on social issues covered the labour movement, Emmeline Pankhurst in 1916 were probably avid rights of citizens, race relations, the plight of the poor, readers. But exactly what titles might they have been democratic institutions, “social hygiene,” eugenics and, reading? not surprisingly, women’s rights and suffrage.

New Acquisitions, 1900–1913 Mrs. Pankhurst’s listeners may have

On New Year’s Day, 1914, the Literary checked out The Woman Who Toils by and Historical Society published its Marie van Vorst (1903) or Sex “Hand List of Additions to the Library, Antagonism (1913) by Walter Heape. 1900–1914.” The title page included the They may have reached for The still-apt motto: “Infinite Riches in a Little Subjection of Women (1869) by John Room.” Stuart Mill (who was ahead of his time). There was undoubtedly a waiting list Many of these books were classified as for The Suffragette, 1905-1910 (1911) “Questions of the Day” (Canadian, by Mrs. Pankhurst’ daughter E. Sylvia Imperial, Economic or General). Pankhurst. Suffrage nay-sayers would have found their positions bolstered by “Canadian Questions” included titles Woman Adrift: the Menace of such as W. R. Lawson’s still-in-print Suffrage (1912) by Harold Owen and classic, Canada and the Empire (1911). The Unexpurgated Case Against “Imperial Questions” titles focused on Woman Suffrage (1913) by Almroth E. the Empire’s colonies in Africa and India. Wright.

A few acquisitions foreshadowed the Great War, As today, fiction made up the bulk of the Library’s including Germany in Arms (1913) by Crown Prince collection. Thomas Hardy, Mark Twain and Rudyard Wilhelm of Germany, What Germany Wants (1912) Kipling each had more than fifteen titles on the shelves. by W. N. Wells and Pan Germanism (1913) by Roland There were novels by Balzac and Charlotte Brontë, Leo G. Usher; but most history, biography and military titles Tolstoi and Anthony Trollope, H. G. Wells and Edith looked backwards to the Victorian Age and before. Wharton. There were also multiple novels by now- obscure writers like G. A. Henty and Harold Bindloss.

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SOCIETY PAGES LIBRARY PAGES

What a Difference a War Makes Series were popular with By March 1916, Canada was young people, too. They fully engaged in World War I. followed the adventures The Book Committee’s non- of the Bobsey Twins, fiction selections shifted away Anne of Green Gables from progressive social issues to and Pollyanna and were books about the conflict. enchanted by L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Acquisitions in 1916 included Wizard of Oz (1900) and many about areas directly his sixteen subsequent affected by the war, including stories about Oz (as an Russia, Serbia, and the Balkans. aside, Baum supported There were two books on women’s suffrage and his 1904 book, The Marvelous Belgium (including Belgium the Land of Oz features the girls and women of Oz who Glorious [2 Vols.] by “Well took to the streets, knitting needles in hand, to fight for Known Authors.”). The Diplomacy of the War of gender equity). 1914 and the full set of “The Times” History of the War were acquired. And Today? If today’s Library classified titles as in 1916, a category For readers wanting to know about Canada’s adversary, called “Questions of the Day: Women” would include: new 1916 titles included Germany in the 19th Century, The Evolution of Prussia and Prussian Literature of the Women’s Suffrage Campaign in Memories 1864–1914. England (2004), ed. Carolyn Christine Nelson;

In Flanders Fields and Other Poems by Canadian John With All Her Might: The Life of McCrea was published in 1919 but the poem itself was Gertrude Harding Militant first published in 1915, and was likely available in Library Suffragette (1996) by Gretchen periodicals. Wilson. Harding was a New Brunswicker who was, at various Fiction at the Forefront times Mrs. Pankhurst’s bodyguard, Imagine Mrs. Pankhurst touring the publisher of The Suffragette the Library during her visit; she newspaper and private secretary to may have found W. Somerset Mrs. Pankhurst’s daughter, Maugham’s Of Human Bondage Christabel; and (1915) and Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier (1915). John What I Remember (1924), by British Suffragette Buchan’s The 39 Steps began Millicent Garrett Fawcett (Library’s Special Collection). thrilling readers in 1915 and D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow For a Quebec perspective there is A (1915), which had been banned Brief History of Women in in Britain, was available in North Quebec (2014) by Denyse America. Baillargeon.

Library readers waited eagerly for the next Tarzan Sylvia Van Kirk’s Many Tender adventure and Sherlock Holmes mystery; #7 in the Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Holmes series, The Valley of Fear, was published in Society, 1670-1870 (1980) and 1915. Zane Grey’s westerns took readers as far from Jean Barman’s acclaimed French the war as possible and Elizabeth Gaskell’s many novels Canadians, Furs, and Indigenous Women (2015) give took them back to a gentler time. historical background to another “Women’s Question” that is important today. ■

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SUMMER 2016 LIBRARY PAGES

NEW ACQUISITIONS

Here are a few of the recent additions to the Library collection. To reserve a title, please contact the Morrin Centre Library at 418-694-9147 or visit our online catalogue at www.morrin.org. Fiction Non-Fiction A Good Death Early Warning Super- Sandra Martin Jane Smiley intelligence Nick Bostrom

Alert Far and Away Your Song James Patterson & Andrew Solomon Changed my Michael Ledwidge Life Bob Boilen

Someone is At the The Argonauts Watching Existentialist Maggie Nelson Joy Fielding Café Susan Bakewell

Some Luck Patternalia The Penguin Jane Smiley Jude Stewart Lessons Tom Michell

Far from True Women who City of Thorns Linwood Barclay Read are Ben Rawlence Dangerous Stefan Bollman

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SOCIETY PAGES MISCELLANEA THE MAKING OF IRON BARS & BOOKSHELVES or THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD By Patrick Donovan

The Morrin Centre has often been called “Quebec’s I fell in love. I remember a small hand-calligraphed sign best-kept secret.” This has become a bit of a cliché. that read “With your help we can survive.” A few coins With the Centre taking on an increasingly public profile, sat in the box next to it. It would take more than this it’s also become increasingly to save the building. I was in false. love, yes, but it felt more like being in love with a terminal But there was a time when patient. this was true, even for members of Quebec City’s Fast-forward ten years to 2003 English-speaking community. and the Society had changed Until recently, there was no its focus from mere survival to sign outside the building to revitalization. The name even indicate what it was. “Morrin Centre” had already Given that someone tried to been decided on, and there burn the library down in the were dynamic people pushing 1960s, it’s no surprise that this project. I was doing a many people wanted it that Masters degree in Historic way. Preservation and asked Lorraine O’Donnell, who I grew up in Quebec City, managed the project at the attended English-language time, if there was a way I could schools, and didn’t even know link up one of my required the place existed until my late research projects to the needs teens. I first set foot in the of the burgeoning centre. I building around 1993, when I wanted to research the gory was in CEGEP. I was dragged tales of the prison, but was along by a friend who had read told library clerk Christine about the free tours. Veilleux was already doing this. Also, Don Fyson was the local It was a different building back expert on crime and criminal then. The green wallpaper in justice. I then suggested the entrance hall was peeling. studying the Literary and The walls of the jail cells were Historical Society, but Louisa crumbling, and some squatters Blair and others had done Joseph Morrin: Philanthropist? Scoundrel? had spray painted “LED ZEP Or something in between? work on this. They’d even WAS HERE” over one of the produced an original draft for doors. College Hall was a an unreleased book that had mildewy room wrecked by water damage. And then been intended for the Society’s 175th anniversary. there was the library: piles and piles of books, many of “Nobody’s researching the College, though,” said them old and crumbling, on the shelves, next to the Lorraine. shelves, on the windowsills, everywhere. None had call number labels, but the elderly woman behind the “That’s because it’s boring,” I felt like saying. “It was an counter knew what was where. The library was still a unremarkable third-rate provincial school that fizzled wonderful place despite its worn pink 1980s wall-to- out after a few decades.” I didn’t say this, of course. wall carpeting and flickering fluorescent tubes. Although it didn’t seem like the most interesting

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SUMMER 2016 MISCELLANEA research prospect, it was the only unstaked claim, so I stories behind some of these women, like Margaret took it. Fraser, who led a military hospital in France during World War I. As it turns out, my initial dismissal had been wrong. Researching the College took me through the Thirteen years have elapsed since I first started fascinating history of education in Quebec in the researching Morrin College and the release of Iron Bars nineteenth century. Looking through different sources, I & Bookshelves. My co-authors Donald Fyson and Louisa came across some incredible stories that raised many Blair began researching their respective sections even new questions. Was Joseph Morrin the selfless earlier. All of this coalesced into a book project philanthropist he’d been made out to be, or was he a sometime around 2008, but then we had to seek out scoundrel who made money off the backs of people funding, find publishers, write the sections, get images, suffering from mental illness? Had he really intended to write captions, etc. All this to say that it wasn’t hastily found a College, or had he been manipulated? A closer written over two weeks, but well thought out and look at those who taught courses at Morrin College meticulously researched. revealed the man who gave his name to the gold rush town of Dawson City; a Quebec City native who gave A long and winding road, but one that finally reveals his name to a copper-mining Mexican border town; and many of the “best-kept secrets” that should be out a scholar who wrote the late Princess Diana’s favourite there. ■ hymn. Then there was Morrin College student Salem Bland, pioneer of the social gospel movement, and one of the founders of what became the New Democratic Iron Bars and Bookshelves, released in June 2016, is Party. And women. Morrin College gave women access available for sale at the Morrin Centre and at all good to the same Bachelor of Arts program as men some booksellers. Aussi disponible en français sous le titre sixty years before Université Laval. There are great Barreaux de fer et bibliothèques.

MUSIC REVIEW: WOLF PARADE, EP4 By Barry McCullough

Remember Wolf referred to as EPs 1 through 3). Parade? For those of you who don’t, Wolf Clocking in at a shade under thirteen minutes, their Parade was formed in comeback salvo isn’t a long one. The first song, the Montreal in 2003 Boeckner-sung “Automatic,” sounds exactly that, giving during an incredibly one the feeling that these guys could crank out gems fertile period for the like this in their sleep. It could easily find a home on independent music either of their last two records. Krug belts out the next scene in the city. They two tracks, the 80’s synth-driven “Mr. Startup” and the had a successful run pulsating “C’est La Vie Way.” Vocal duties shift back to until calling it a day in Boeckner for the last track, mostly up-tempo “Floating 2011. Band members, World.” including its two driving forces and alternating vocalists, and , have stayed busy with While the album doesn’t really break any new ground, other well-regarded projects such as it’s comforting just to know they’ve gotten the band and (Boeckner) and Moonface (Krug). back together again. They have tour dates scheduled throughout the rest of the summer, including a couple After a five-year hiatus, the band is back with the in Montreal. We can only hope that this is the beginning cleverly-titled EP 4 (They have four other EPs, lovingly of another successful and fruitful run. ■

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