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QAHN CELEBRATES MONTREAL’S 375TH WITH THE FHQ $10 Quebec VOL 11, NO. 3 SUMMER 2017 HeritageNews Water, Water Everywhere Montreal’s Reservoirs and Pumping Stations The Lodges of Pontiac An Inside Look at the Orange Order Mille-Iles Tragedy Adele Bidwell’s Burden and Late-life Consolation QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS Quebec CONTENTS HeritageNews EDITOR Editor’s Desk 3 RODERICK MACLEOD 150 ways to kill a party Rod MacLeod PRODUCTION DAN PINESE; MATTHEW FARFAN Letter 9 Of time and the river Beverly Prud’homme PUBLISHER QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE Reforming the Reform 10 HERITAGE NETWORK A call for a new inclusive history curriculum Com-ECH Quebec 400-257 QUEEN STREET SHERBROOKE, QUEBEC Volunteering Matters 11 J1M 1K7 Microvolunteering: think minutes, not years Heather Darch PHONE 1-877-964-0409 Stuart Bidwell and the St. Rose Boat Club 12 (819) 564-9595 Wes Darou FAX (819) 564-6872 2017 Joint QAHN-FHQ Convention a Success 14 CORRESPONDENCE Matthew Farfan [email protected] WEBSITES The “English” Tour 18 QAHN.ORG Convention delegates visit overlooked Montreal sites Rod MacLeod QUEBECHERITAGEWEB.COM 100OBJECTS.QAHN.ORG What Lurks Below: Montreal Under the Ground 20 Part 2: Transporting water Sandra Stock PRESIDENT SIMON JACOBS The Sash Our Ancestors Wore 23 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR The Orangemen of Pontiac Gloria Tubman MATTHEW FARFAN PROJECT DIRECTOR, “DREAM” Prohibition in the Eastern Townships 28 DWANE WILKIN Part 3: Women and children Phil Rich RESEARCH DIRECTOR, “DREAM” HEATHER DARCH The Rebellion That Succeeded 29 BOOKKEEPER Part 1: September 8, 1836 Joseph Graham MARION GREENLAY Quebec Heritage News is published quarterly by QAHN with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage. QAHN is a non-profit and non-partisan organization whose mission is to help advance knowledge of the history and culture of the English-speaking communities of Quebec. Annual Subscription Rates: Individual: $30.00; Institutional: $40.00; Family: $40.00; Student: $20.00. Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement Number 405610004. Cover photo: The Masonic Temple, Sherbrooke Street, Montreal. Photo: Matthew Farfan. ISSN 17707-2670 PRINTED IN CANADA 2 SUMMER 2017 EDITOR’S DESK 150 ways to kill a party by Rod MacLeod nce, in the dim recesses of ent incidents from the past as examples ebrating at our sesquicentennial party. time, in the even dimmer re- of individual heroism or entrepreneur- And so, in the spirit of the slightly cesses of a late-1970s college ship that are somehow typically, even drunk and moderately pathetic party dorm party, I stood about uniquely, Canadian. The Battle of the pooping of my misspent youth, I will Owith two other somewhat pickled chaps: Plains of Abraham, for example, is less step back from today’s equivalent of the we swayed rhythmically to the room’s important as a regime-changing incident disco beat and strobe lighting and try to booming disco beat, absently peeling the in the Seven Years War than as an exam- pop a few balloons. Again, this should labels off our beers and making what we ple of the cliff-climbing stamina and not be seen as mean-spirited. Indeed, it imagined were smart remarks. It was strategic ingenuity that has supposedly comes from a genuine belief that learn- clear to us, mostly because we were too shaped the Canadian character. As a his- ing from one’s mistakes is the best way shy to dance, that this was a pretty poor torian, I object to this relentless mutual to learn, and that admitting that one was party. As the evening wore on, and we back patting. It’s not that we shouldn’t wrong is a major step on the road to wis- continued to chain-peel our way through feel good about ourselves; indeed, Cana- dom. fresh stubbies fished from the vast icy Besides, it’s a challenge: find as tub at the edge of the makeshift dance many sobering events in our history as floor, we consoled ourselves by imagin- there are candles on the cake. One for ing various ways that an event such as each year, no more no less. I should this could be brought to a halt. This ex- point out that many of these events are ercise, less mean-spirited than it might actually positive developments, but are sound in retrospect, led to our gleefully sobering in that they underscore how setting ourselves the challenging (given long it took for us to get to a more posi- our lack of sobriety) task of identifying tive point. It’s also true that one person’s “101 ways to kill a party.” The list in- gain can be another’s loss, and vice ver- cluded such gems as cutting a slow leak sa; generally, if an event brought a de- in the beer tub, spreading rumours about gree of disruption, it made the cut. For a surprise pop quiz early the next morn- those who don’t agree with my choices, ing, and setting off a stink bomb. Pathet- do feel free to suggest your own. ic, yes – but the game cheered us up and kept us out of trouble. *** Four decades later I find myself in the midst of another party, albeit one on 1867 Jefferson Davis, ex-president of a much larger scale and with much more the Confederate States of (or perhaps less) at stake than a chance America, comes with his family to work up a sweat “Stayin’Alive” under to live in Montreal and the strobe lights with the wannabe dians have probably spent far too much Lennoxville. Large numbers Blondies. This year, we celebrate our na- time not feeling good about themselves. cheer his arrival. tion’s sesquicentennial – a most worthy The problem with doing so in such a objective, as many countries don’t make rah-rah essentialist way is that we start 1968 Thomas Darcy-McGee it anything like that far. accepting the implication that being a assassinated by Fenians who The operative word, however, is hero is key to being Canadian. Heroes feel he has betrayed the Irish cause. “celebrate.” Not, as many of us in the don’t fail. Sure, they work hard at sur- History/Heritage field have noticed late- mounting great obstacles, but a lot of 1869 Quebec Education Act consoli- ly, “commemorate.” The onus is on feel- people work really hard and they don’t dates the Protestant and ing good, not on remembering. On bal- succeed, or they barely get by. What’s Catholic monopoly on public loons, not on social and political turning wrong with them? The Story of Us education, leaving no room for points. avoids asking that question by hammer- people of other religious What we get by way of official his- ing home the rather dubious message backgrounds. tory is a television series that has caused that by being Canadian we are all ipso widespread disappointment and even of- facto heroic. When there was earth to 1870 Recruits from across Quebec fence for its gaps and oversights. Even plough or guns to bear we were always join the Papal Zouaves, more irritating, in my view, is that The there on the job – because we’re Canadi- Catholic shock troops in the Story of Us went out of its way to pres- ans. It is this, apparently, that we are cel- battle against Italian 3 John Wilson Bengough,"Whither are we drifting?", 1886. McCord Museum, M994X.5.273.73. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS fighting in Montreal, provoking provincial government in a widespread violence. Quebec outraged by the hanging of Louis Riel. 1878 Governor General Lord Dufferin spearheads the 1888 Fire destroys the town of Hull, restoration of the Quebec City later to become part of the fortifications, ironically giving National Capital Region. a distinctive “French” look to what would become La 1889 Royal Commission on the Capitale Nationale. Relations between Capital and Labour issues a report outlining 1879 National Policy implemented, the shocking working solidifying a spirit of conditions of Canada’s poor. protectionism that would colour Canadian economic policy for 1890 Public funding of Catholic decades. schools terminated in Manitoba. 1880 St. Jean Baptiste Society 1891 First Springhill Mining Unification. Many return home anthem “O Canada!” sung on Disaster: 125 Nova Scotian ready to advance the cause of June 24, Saint-Jean-Baptiste miners die in an underground Ultramontanism. Day, on the Plains of Abraham. explosion. The song’s lyrics and meaning 1871 Former rebel leader and would be debated ever since. 1892 Canada’s first Quebec-born long-time speaker of the House Prime Minister, John Abbott, is of Assembly Louis-Joseph 1881 Fire destroys over 600 homes the first of four men to fill this Papineau dies. in the Saint-Jean Baptiste position over a five-year period neighbourhood in Quebec City. following the death of John A. 1872 Nine Hour Movement sweeps Macdonald, weakening the Canada’s labour force in a 1882 Archbishop Taschereau Conservative party’s image. (failed) attempt to secure a opposes the policy of obliging shorter working day. staff at Laval University to 1893 National Council of Women of declare themselves against Canada founded to promote the 1873 Pacific Scandal exposes liberalism. status of women but not to widespread federal government advocate political suffrage. corruption and forces the 1883 First Winter Carnival held in resignation of John A. Montreal, though the choice of 1894 “Outlaw of Megantic” Donald Macdonald. its location (Dominion Square) Morrison dies shortly after his divides citizens along ethnic release from prison, having 1874 Introduction of the secret ballot lines. become a folk hero in the in Canadian elections and the Eastern Townships for his abolition of the property 1884 Pacific Northwest First Nations unjust treatment at the hands of qualification to vote.