Maxville

Yesterday the wife and I had lunch with my very first fiancée and her husband. Back then, she was in grade 8 or 9 and I was 7 or 8 years of age. We were vacationing in Maxville, Glengarry county, Ontario where she lived at her uncle and mine. We were cousins several times removed. My childish heart was maddly thumping in her presence. That day we had gone to George's Ice Cream Parlour owned by her best girl friend's father. I had found the most beautifull engagement ring in a Cracker Jack box and I decided that it would be perfect for her and asked her to marry me. Of course nothing came out of it and Thérèse was not a bit jealous when we lunched with Madeleine and Marcel.

In 1939 Maxville was a nice sleepy village where life was regulated my the morning trains from Montreal and Ottawa and the afternoon trains from the same cities. The whole village was at the station each time then proceeded to the post office to get their mail. While the mail was sorted people would sit outside the post office and we kids would listen to old folks telling about the olden times. Two stood out, Mr MacPherson, the former blacksmith whose business had gone the way of the dodo bird and Mr Dupuis a former Montreal horse drawn tramway conductor. How Dupuis got to Maxville we never learned but he was a fantatastic story teller as was MacPherson.

Now above the post office there was the Masonic Lodge. We kids were fascinated by that place...and the legend that should a non mason go into the premises that person would die in the next 24 hours. One fine and awfully hot August day a window was opened above a low shed behind the post office. We managed to hoist ourselves up unto that roof and through the window. What a disappointment. The room was bare save for chairs with small metal plaques reading: in memory of our dear departed brother so and so and a picture of the king. We climbed back out...awaiting our death...and, at least, I am still waiting. Of course I have no idea what has become of the others.

About 4 years ago I rented a minivan and took the whole family, daughter-in-law and grandson included, and drove to Maxville. It was still the sleepy village I had known. Long dead Uncle Fred's house had burned down and the lot stood vacant. the train station had been torn down and replaced by a wooden shelter a bit down the tracks, Maxville had become a whistle stop. The post office had moved to a smaller building and lawyers offices replaced it...and the Masonic Lodge. The school. opposite uncle Fred's place was still there and the playground and the curling rink...but no one was around. I was a bit dejected driving back to Montreal.

Nowadays Maxville seems to wake up once a year at the beginning of August for the Highland Games disputed there over the last 10 years, if I'm not mistaken.

But the village still lives in my memory as it was in Fred's and Dupuis's and MacPherson's time along wit the 4 trains , the post office and that tantalizing Masonic lodge. If you ever drive that way, be very attentive, you may drive right through the village without even noticing it.

Independance (the sequel)

Commenting on my last post Rob-Bear wondered why I had not mentioned the Quebec Act of 1794. At first it did not ring a bell. Then I figured he must have been referring to the 1791 Act creating the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, now mostly Ontario and Québec. Upper Canada was to be majority Anglphone and Lower Canada was to be majority Francophone. Both provinces were to be governed by an elected parliament and a nominated legislative council under a governor named by London, he in turn appointed the members of the legislative council (kind of an unelected senate) and vetted the election of the Lower Chamber members. To be eligible to office or to vote, you had to be a male over 21 and owner of propety or commerce generating a revenue of 40 schillings or more ( in: Histoire du Canada par les textes, by Guy Frégault, Michel Brunet and Marcel Trudel, éditions Fides, Montréal, 1952).

However, because of the eligibilty conditions, very soon both governements were dominated by the elite and the wealthy. It caused much irritation at the popular level and much corruption since the sole revenue allowed these administrations were the perception of excise taxes. Since the merchants were dominant and considered those taxes as very bothering every means were legitimate to avoid them. The governements were always short of money and could not provide the general services they were called to give the population.

After some forty years of this regime, in both provinces the pot boiled over. In Upper Canada the Family Compact, closely related people controling the Governor, the Legislative Council and the Judiciary, generated much opposition but were deaf to it. A short armed uprising, in 1837, under the leadership of William Mackenzie, a York (now Toronto) journalist ensued. The army quelled it and Mackenzie fled to Buffalo. In Lower Canada, the Clique du Château de Ramezay was the exact replica of the Family Compact and caused the same type of frustration. It was compounded by the refusal of the Clique to recognize the Francophones needs and place in the society. Lead politically by Louis-Joseph Papineau a strong movement of opposition took form. parrallel to it a miltary wing, lead by the Nelson brothers, both doctors, and an Irish merchant, J.B. O'Callaghan took form involving many Francophone farmers and workers. While papineau disapproved, the militia attacked the army, in 1837, battles were fought in St-Eustache and on montreal's South Shore. Lives were lost and General Colborne, nicknamed Le Vieux Brulôt (The Old Torch), burned down farms and villages in reprisal. It petered out in 1838. Papineau fled to Britain then France, the Nelsons, with 300 armed men, fled to North Hero, Vt.

London sent in Lord Durham to inquire. His report is famous and led to the dimantlement of Upper and Lower Canada and the Union act of 1841 destined to mate the Francophones and assimilate them to the Anglophone population...problem was that in the new entity the Francophones were a majority. It did not work and in 1867 the Confederation was born re-creating Upper and Lower Canadas as the provinces of Ontario and Québec, joined by New Brunswick and Noca Scotia.

1791 was a total failure, some would say 1867 also...but that is another story.

Independance

This week, commenting on my post about Canada Day, Rosaria asked wether Canada had an Independance Day. I answered that we did not have one. That question has been bugging me ever since. Why does canada have no Independance Day?

After much thinking and mulling over recollection of various sources, I guess I have worked out a suitable explanation. F

For most former colonies, Canada began as a French colony and morphed, in 1763, into a British colony, independance came through a violent process called war. The American Independance War is a prime example. The end of that war marked the beginning of independance, thus Independance Day.

In Canada, independance came bit by bit over some 400 odd years. The first native born French governor of New France was the initial step. The 1791 Act of the British parliament that recognized the right of Catholics, in Canada, to hold public office without renouncing their faith was another one. Then gradually we evolved toward representative government that process culminating in the 1867 British North America Act creating the Confederation of Canada. But that newborn coutry still relied on the British parliament for it's foreign policy and it's laws could be annuled by the Lords.

Another stepping stone was the 1931 Statute of Westminster that recognized Canada's jurisdiction over it's foreign policy and created the Dominion of Canada, a sovereign country within the British Commnwealth of Nations, but the constitution remained under British authority. In 1982, Under Prime Minister Trudeau, Canada got it's very own Constitution adopted by our parliament and 9 out of 10 provinces, Québec holding out it's signature. Nevertheless, Queen Elizabeth II signed it in Ottawa on Canada Day 1982. Why Québec held back from signing ? Well that will be another post.

Now, 86 % of Quebecers and 66% of other Canadians seem to be in favor of severing ties with the British monarchy when Queen Elizabeth abdicates or die. That would eradicate of the last colonial vestige or reminder.

As I believe to have demonstrated Canadian independance was not a brutal event that can be tied to one date or treaty. It has been a slow process and it is still ongoing in some ways. As I previously wrote, despite real obstacles, Canada is a work in progress and well worth keeping workint at.

Canada Day

142 years ago the B.N.A. Act gave the Canadians what they, or at least their leaders of the time, wished for i.e. representative government and a federation of their four existing, now, provinces: Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Prince Edward Island would join later, as would, in 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador. The new federal goverment was given authority over the remaining territories right up to thr Rockies. British Columbia promised to join...if linked to the ROC by a railway. Thus the Canadian Pacific Railway was born, in the process, Manitoba came to be, followed by Sakatchewan and Alberta carved out of the territories given the Hudson Bay Company by George III of England in 1670 although it did not at that time formally belong to Britain and was claimed by France.

What remained eventually became the Yukon, The Nortwest Territory and Nunavut, not full provinces but largely self administered territories. New First nations territories and administrations are slowly coming into their own under various forms: Nunavut is one of them, the Nunavik regional authority in Québec's former Ungava is another one as is the Nisga'a Treaty in B.C.

Thus Canada Day is a celebration of a work in progress and of diversity of cultures, folklores and traditions. Such is the quilt work that we call our country. That is the country I love and I would not, warts and all, have it any other way.

Décrochage

Le décrochage scolaire, la plaie de notre société. depuis des années nous en cherchons le remède. La dernière solution pproposée, payer les jeunes pour qu'ils restent à l'école, me laisse perplexe. La méthode appliquée dans certaines écoles en milieu défavorisé de Toronto et des États Unis semble donner des résultats spectaculaires. Les modalités varient mais semblent essentiellement tourner autour d'incitatifs monétaires futurs reliés à la poursuite des études jusqu'à diplômation secondaire et de bourses pour aller plus loin. Cependant, cette méthode n'éradique pas le phénomène, 10% continuent à décrocher. Nous salarions nos jeunes de ctte façon. J'admets que les allocations hebdomadaires de mes enfants étaient jusqu'à un certain point liées à leurs résultats scolaires mais pas à la continuation de leur scolarité. L'école était considérée comme leur travail. S'ils arrêtaient, il était clair qu'ils devraient trouver un travail et gagner leur croûte.

La motivation ou son absence conditionne la poursuite des études. Plusieurs de nos jeunes perdent cette motivation quand l'école ne répond pas à leurs attentes ou ne correspond pas à leurs intérêts.

La nécessité de mettre tous nos jeunes dans le même moule en leur faisant suivre des programmes soigneusement standardisés et "modularisés" me semble une des causes de ces abandons des études. Qu'on ne s'y trompe pas ce ne sont pas seulement des cancres qui abandonnent les études ni nécessairement des pauvres. Beaucoup sont tout simplement dégoûtés par une institution qui ne les alimente pas suffisamment et ils vont chercher ailleurs ce qui leur manque.

Et je ne blâme pas ici les enseignants ni les directions d'école qui ne font qu'appliquer des régimes éducatifs imposés par les autorités guidées par des experts. Non, c'est l'uniformité désespérantes des voies d'apprentissage que je déplore. Le système ne laissse aucune place à l'adaptation aux besoins de nos jeunes dont chacun est un individu avec un fonctionnement qui défie toute standardisation.

Nous avons des jeunes qui pourrait atteindre un niveau secondaire en travaillant dans une usine ou un bureau en accomplissant des tâches concrètes qui leur feraient vivre les notions abstraites ou appliquer des notions de grammaire sur le vif, avec nos logiciels auto-correcteurs ils les verraient en rouge ou en vert sur l'écran. Suite à ces stages une vérification des acquis pourrait conduire à l'octroi du diplôme Je me souviens d'un de mes gars dans un centre de rééducation qui avait compris les proportions, anciennement la règle de trois, en fabricant des décors de théâtre et qui avait du coup débloqué en mathématiques.

C'est possible, mais cela exige un investissement en terme de professeurs/superviseurs, en terme d'ouverture patronal/syndical, en terme d'ajustements budgétaires. Cela ne coûterait pas nécessairement beaucoup plus cher; ce serait une façon différente d'affecter les argents.

Le moulage n'est pas la meilleur façon de faire des individus forts et autonomes...mais je suis un vieux fous qui rêve en couleur.

Dolce farniente

Yesterday, Longueuil enjoyed a very nice 30 degrees Celsius. Voltaire and his "Quelques arpents de neige" vision of our country would have been totally confused. As any meteorologist will tell you, such weather generates instability and clouds form. So yesterday afternoon, with my wife, we brought out the lawn chairs and sat in the shaded back of the house with good books and a beer.
I took to watching the clouds. In my childhood I could spend hours watching the clouds. A partly cloudy sky is like being in a cinema; everything moves and the scenery is forever changing. You travel without moving. So I went, all the time lounging and sipping my beer, from lac des Sables in Ste-Agathe to Québec City. A clearing in the clouds was shaped like the Laurentian lake and a long divide had the shape of the St-Laurent river flowing from lac St-Pierre down to Québec where it narrows and just after it bends toward the north east and widens all the way down to it's estuary. Kebec in Huron means "where the river narrows". Champlain heard it and kept the word to designate his establishment.
It was pure bliss despite the noise of the boulevard passing in front of our home. You see I have been graced with the gift of cutting off noises around me. At times people have to touch me to bring me back. In large groups or noisy surroundings it is a blessing.

Il y a de l'espoir

L'Iran a ses Ayatollahs, l'Afghanistan ses Mollahs. Nous avons la Société St-Jean-Baptiste, gardienne de la langue et de ce qu'il reste de la pureté de la race. La semaine dernière, la Société a voulu excommunier deux groupes d'artistes anglophones et les empêcher de se produire lors d'une fête populaire à l'occasion de la Fête du 24 juin. Comme la Société finance en partie l'événement, les organisateurs avaient éléminé les deux groupes du programme.
La réaction populaire, politique (même du Parti Québécois et du Bloc) et artistique a été si forte que les organisateurs ont convoqué une rencontre d'urgence du comité...et les deux groupes ont été réinscrits au programme. Enfin une victoire des modérés et du bon sens sur les éléments ultra nationaleux vociférants.
Le vrai test, cependant, viendra le 23 au soir car des éléments avaient promis du grabuge si les Anglos participaient. Auront-ils compris qu'ils ne représentent pas la pensée profonde des québécois? Espérons-le et croisons-nous les doigts.