C HAMPLAIN R EVISITED: POMP AND PATRIOTISM $5 Quebec HeritageVOL 4, NO.11 SEPT-OCT 2008 News Cold Welcome Stereotypes and xenophobia in early press portrayals of Chinese immigrants ACurrentAffair Sigismund Mohr pioneered Quebec City’s hydroelectric power Odysseus in Canada A Greek journey in the history of la Vieille Capitale QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS Quebec CONTENTS HeritageNews President’s Message 3 EDITOR TheFinePrint Kevin O’Donnell DWANE WILKIN PRODUCTION Letters 4 DAN PINESE Herd leader Daniel Parkinson Our pleasure Carol Green PUBLISHER THE QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE TimeLines 5 HERITAGE NETWORK Voices from Quebec Barbara Lavoie 400-257 QUEEN STREET What’s in a name? Barbara Lavoie SHERBROOKE (LENNOXVILLE) QUEBEC J1M 1K7 Cold Welcome 6 PHONE Early press portrayals of Chinese Quebecers Scott French 1-877-964-0409 A Current Affair 8 (819) 564-9595 Sigismund Mohr, hydro-electric pioneer Antonin Zaruba FAX The Humbler Celts 10 (819) 564-6872 The obscure legacy of Quebec’s Welsh Patrick Donovan CORRESPONDENCE Odysseus in Canada 12 [email protected] A Greek journey in the history of Quebec Louisa Blair WEBSITE Champlain Revisited 14 WWW.QAHN.ORG Pomp and patriotism in the confection of history Richard Virr PRESIDENT The Forgotten Patriote 18 KEVIN O’DONNELL E.B. O’Callaghan and early democratic reform Marjorie A. Fitzpatrick EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Group Behaviour 21 DWANE WILKIN English schools and the shaping of identity Annie Pilote COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR BARBARA LAVOIE Reviews 23 OFFICE MANAGER Remember All the Way Gloria Er-Chua KATHY TEASDALE HindSight 25 Quebec Heritage Magazine is produced six Harmony Nick Fonda times yearly by the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) with the support of The Department of Canadian Heritage Event Listings 27 and Quebec’s Ministere de la Culture et des Communications. QAHN is a non-profit and non-partisan umbrella organization whose mission is to help advance knowledge of the history and culture of English-speaking society in Quebec. Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement Number 405610004. ISSN 17707-2670 Cover: Chinese official, Mgr. Tchiou Tchu Koi, photographed outside the Ligue nationaliste headquarters on rue Côte d'Abraham, Quebec City, undated. Photo reproduced in The Anglos: The Hidden Face of Quebec City, Volume II, by Louisa Blair. (Commission de la Capitale nationale et Éditions Sylvain Harvey, 2005). 2 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2008 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE The Fine Print by Kevin O’Donnell egular readers of Quebec Heritage News may have noticed a change R in recent issues of this magazine: Rod Macleod’s always-in- sightful column no longer graces these opening pages. After five years at the helm, Rod told his fel- low directors on the Quebec Anglo- phone Heritage Network (QAHN) board that he would be stepping down as president at the end of the 2007-08 term. Over the entreaties of the directors (especially me) he re- linquished the post during our annual general meeting last June 14. I was elected to take over. It’s a cliché to talk about “big shoes to fill,” but this is certainly a time when the cliché rings true. Rod—and before him, QAHN’s founding President Dick Evans— fessionals, all of the above ably Fighting the Flames; The Squire of had created and nurtured an organi- supported by QAHN’s volunteer the Great Kettle (about Philemon zation universally recognized as the board of directors. Wright and the founding of the set- voice of Quebec’s English-speaking I was president of the Hudson tlement that would become Hull); heritage and local-history communi- Historical Society two years ago The Gaspé Schooners, and A Home ties. This magazine is just one of when Michael Cooper asked me to in the Wilderness (recalling the real- the projects carried out by QAHN in complete his term as director repre- life adventures of a pioneer family recent years. Others that immediate- senting the Outaouais region. I in the Eastern Townships). I have ly spring to mind include the her- agreed, but didn’t read the fine lived in Quebec all my life, have itage conferences that QAHN has print—it turned out that Michael travelled to just about every region sponsored in Montreal, the history- was also vice-president of QAHN, in the province, including the North writing contests in schools, the de- and the vice-president was expected and the Lower North Shore, and al- lightfully named Heritage Aware- to step up to the plate upon the pres- ways seek out local histories to ness and Stewardship Training Ini- ident’s retirement. So, apart from round out my appreciation of the tiative (HASTI) and Cemetery Her- naïveté, what other qualities do I places I visit. itage Inventory and Restoration Ini- bring to the job? tiative (CHIRI) projects, our Her- Well, history, both local and s someone long involved in itage Trails pamphlet series, the an- global, has always fascinated me. I educational technology, I nual Marion Phelps Award recogniz- put this curiosity to work on a num- am also keen to contribute ing outstanding contributors to the ber of history projects in my days at to our Internet presence, to protection and promotion of her- A Quebec’s Ministry of Education and help make the most out of this very itage and history, our website and at the province’s public television powerful communications tool. Sup- the suite of regional heritage web- network, Télé-Québec. Many groups porting this magazine must also be on magazines. Both Rod and Dick throughout the province have seen any QAHN president’s priority list. would want me to point out that “Quebec Mosaic,” a series of video Dwane Wilkin is the editor and pub- much of the heavy lifting on these narratives based on local history lisher of Quebec Heritage News,as projects was carried out by Dwane themes. This series included titles well as carrying out his duties as ex- Wilkin, our executive director, such as The Eighth Wonder of the ecutive director, a full-time job in it- Kathy Teasdale our office manager, World—Building the Victoria Bridge; self. I hope to help the magazine and a number of keen contract pro- QAHN president Kevin O’Donnell greets the crowd during Townshippers’ Day 3 celebrations in Sutton, Sept. 20, 2008. Photo by Barbara Lavoie. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS reach its full potential by working capitale. While English-speakers did Wilkin and I were invited to partici- with Dwane to increase the readership not scramble up the escarpment with pate in a workshop entitled “Cultural base and its potential pan-Canadian Samuel de Champlain in 1608—the Heritage: Obstacles and Opportunities reach. Kirke Brothers would not show up, for Municipal Development” during uninvited, until 1629—anglophones of the annual convention of the Fédéra- ith Voices from Que- different classes and ethnic groups tion Québécoise des Municipalités. bec [see Timelines, have made Quebec City their home About fifty English-speaking mayors, current issue] we are for the last two-and-half-centuries. councillors and municipal administra- W venturing into new This Thanksgiving weekend tors attended the workshop; I believe territory this year. QAHN will be QAHN is very proud to host Roots that they came away with a better un- assisting the Blue Metropolis Foun- Quebec, an event which will highlight derstanding of new heritage legisla- dation, sponsor of Montreal’s major the rich diversity and contributions of tion that the Quebec government will international literary festival in car- these English-speaking groups. We are likely bring into law early next year. rying out a school-based oral histo- partnering with the Morrin Centre and This is a bread-and butter issue for ry project that we expect will in- Shalom Québec in what promises to municipalities, offering them the volve nearly a dozen schools in as be a special and engaging event. promise of new powers (and access to many regions. Students will work Space is limited, so if you haven’t al- subsidies) but also saddling them with with writers and media experts to ready, please consider joining us for new responsibilities (perhaps without turn the life stories of seniors into all or part of this event. the grants.) Along with fellow panel- online audio podcasts. Reenie Marx, The following pages offer sketches in lists David Belgue, president of the whose students at Laurentian Re- the history of a few of these Quebec États généraux du paysage québécois gional High School in Lachute put City communities, narratives not al- and Joan Westland-Eby, mayor of East together truly remarkable video pro- ways heard elsewhere. My thanks Bolton, I think we were able to help grammes in their Building Bridges goes out to all of those who con- the audience understand some of the projects, has agreed to lend her ex- tributed to this issue of Quebec Her- potential benefits as well as the pit- pertise to this collaborative project. itage News and to those Roots Quebec falls of the proposed legislation. We Connecting with youth, helping conference participants who are help- emphasized that we represented them appreciate the richness of their ing us to shed more light on the evolv- QAHN’s membership and included a communities, is one of QAHN’s pri- ing character of contemporary English list of the member groups in the re- mordial goals. We have great hopes Quebec. source folders we handed out. Very that Voices from Quebec will lay the positive audience reactions, including foundation for an expanded out- he heritage network now requests to do workshops at next reach into the schools in the years counts over one hundred his- year’s convention, convinced us that ahead. torical societies and heritage we had represented our constituency The big story in Quebec history T organizations among its core well before these municipal authori- this year, of course, is the series of and affiliate members.