1885: Montreal's Annus Horribilis

Speaker: Robert N. Wilkins
When: Thursday, November 21, 2024, 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

Our speaker, Robert N. Wilkins, will highlight different events of 1885 in Montréal, including the Winter Carnival, the Election of Honoré Beaugrand as Mayor of Montréal, the Spring Floods, the Smallpox Epidemic and the Hanging of Louis Riel.

Born in Montreal in 1947, Robert N. Wilkins was educated at Concordia University, Carleton University, and McGill University. High school teacher in the Montreal area for some 35 years, he was also a contributor to the Quebec Family History Society quarterly Connections, The  Westmount Examiner, The Suburban, The Montreal Gazette, and, occasionally, other national newspapers as well. He published the books Montreal, 1909 (Shoreline Press, in 2017), Montreal Recorder’s Court, 1906 (in 2020), and Grandad’s Montreal, 1901 (in 2022).

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Love in the Shadow of Rebellion

Speaker: John Kalbfleisch
When: Thursday, October 17, 2024, 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period

Why does young, reform-minded lawyer George-Étienne Cartier join an armed uprising, only to later reject violence as the way to achieve responsible government in this country? In 1837, Lower Canada seethes with discontent. After savage rioting in Montreal between hardline loyalists and dissident radicals, there is no turning back. Cartier, a future Father of Confederation, commits himself to rebellion against the Crown. At Saint Denis, Saint Charles and Saint Eustache, poorly armed Patriotes find themselves in pitched battles against the most disciplined army on the planet, battles that echo to this day.
Inspired by three of Cartier’s recently discovered letters, John Kalbfleisch deftly weaves fact with fiction in his new novel, The '37. It imagines how an affair with a beautiful and witty schoolteacher changes his life—and helps ensure the birth of an independent Canada.

Longtime journalist John Kalbfleisch wrote a Montreal Gazette column on the city’s history for seventeen years. His novel The ’37 was published early 2024. He is also the author of No Place More Suitable: Four Centuries of Montreal Stories (2018), A Stain Upon the Land (2017), Le cadeau royal: Histoire de la ville de Mont-Royal / The Royal Gift: a History of Town of Mount Royal (2013) and This Island In Time: Remarkable Tales from Montreal’s Past (2008), and is co-author of Montreal’s Century: a Record of the News and People Who Shaped the City in the 20th Century (1999).

The following books will be available for sale: "The ’37", and "A stain upon the Land".

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Christ Church Beaurepaire 100 yrs

Speaker: Michael Silverthorne
When: Thursday, September 19, 2024, 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

Christ Church Beaurepaire was established in 1924. Our speaker, Michael Silverthorne, member of this Church, will talk about the first 100 years of this Anglican Church.

Michael Silverthorne has always been interested in the past, to what came before what we have now and how we got where we are. He taught les études classiques at McGill for nearly forty years, especially ancient Greek literature. In his latter years he translated several neo-Latin texts on political and philosophical topics, such as works of Hobbes, Spinoza and the notebooks on religious topics of Sir Isaac Newton.

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Growing up on Lakeview in Beaurepaire

Speaker: Jacqueline Lamoureux
When: Thursday, May 16, 2024, 19:30 à 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
       288, Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English, followed by a bilingual question period

The members of the board of directors have decided to waive the entry fees for this special evening.

At our Thursday May 16, 2024 meeting, Jacqueline Lamoureux will share her family’s souvenirs of “Growing up on Lakeview in Beaurepaire”. After her presentation, the attendees who have grown up in Beaurepaire will be invited to share their family’s souvenirs of that era.
If you have pictures that you would like to share during this special evening, you could send them in advance in jpeg format by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. before Mai 9, 2024 so we could include them in a Power Point to put them up at the appropriate time.
We invite everyone to discover Beaurepaire through the souvenirs of those who grew up in that area.

Jacqueline Lamoureux was born and raised in Beaurepaire. Jacqueline’s grandparents bought Farm 4 in the 1910s and developed what would become Lakeview Boulevard. Jacqueline’s father, Edouard Lamoureux, was the third secretary-treasurer of Beaconsfield starting in 1929. Through the years he also cumulated different positions including Chief of Police and Fire Chief. In 1952 he became the first City Manager, which position he occupied until his retirement in 1955.

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Être femme et peintre dans les années 1920

Speaker: Hélène Jasmin
When: Thrusday, April 18, 2024, 19:30 à 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
             288, Beaconsfield Boulevard, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in French followed by a bilingual question period

Our tour of women painters begins in France with the impressionist Berthe Morisot, then one of Picasso's muses: Marie-Laurencin.
We cross to Scotland, to the Glasgow Girls (1890-1920). An exceptional art school, very creative artists... Flourishing Art Nouveau Period.
Hop to Poland to visit the very glamorous Tamara de Lempicka, socialite and artist
From there, to Mexico, we meet a most colorful Frida Kahlo.
Then we go up to the state of New Mexico to meet Georgia O'Keeffe, one of the pioneers of the American Art movement.
From there, a direct flight to British Columbia to see Emily Carr in Victoria, an original painter often associated with the Group of Seven and Haïda culture.
Finally, we return to Quebec where Louise Gadbois, Simone Denéchaud, Agnès Lefort and Helen McNicoll are waiting for us. They have done portraits and landscapes with a lot of colours and points of view, in a feminine way.

Hélène Jasmin, author and speaker, was educated at UQAM in Sociology; at École de radio-télévision Pierre Dufault in Montréal; and Violin private class with Master Eugène Bastien, member of MSO. Her professional experience includes: freelance journalist for many newspaper, including her collaboration since 2020 to OUR CANADA, magazine by Readers Digest; freelance radio program host, Radio-Canada FM, Montréal; assistant curator for different exhibits; author of books on the history of theatre, arts and gardening.

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National Field of Honour

Speaker: Richard Gratton
When: Thursday, March 21, 2024, 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
            288, Beaconsfield Boulevard, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English (Bilingual Visual), followed by a bilingual question period

In December 1908 two policemen find a homeless man huddled in a doorway of downtown Montreal suffering from hypothermia and malnutrition who had served the Empire for more than 20 years, the man was Trooper Daly.

The head orderly of the Montreal General Hospital, Arthur Hair raised money from friends and colleagues to give the soldier a decent and dignified funeral. This was the catalyst for the creation of the Last Post Fund in Montreal, in April 1909. Trooper Daly was the first of nearly 150,000 servicemen and women for whom the Last Post Fund has provided benefits over the past century.
More than 22,000 Veterans and their close ones are now resting in our community at the intersection of Beaconsfield, Kirkland and Pointe-Claire in one of the ‘’ British Empire most beautiful cemeteries’’ called the National Field of Honour, a Canadian Historic Site.
Come hear about the history and the important contribution of the Last Post Fund to Canada and beyond its borders.

Major retired Richard Gratton, CD, resident of Beaconsfield, served more than 25 years with the Canadian Armed Forces as an artillery officer and is the instigator of Heroes Park in Beaconsfield and contributed to the Trans-Canada Respect Monument following his service to Afghanistan.

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The Great Absquatulator

Speakers: Frank Mackey and Aly Ndiaye, alias Webster
When: Thursday, February 15, 2024, 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
            288, Beaconsfield Boulevard, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English, followed by a bilingual question period

In this presentation, Frank Mackey talks about the genesis of his book “The Great Absquatulator", the combination of accidents that led him to write and publish it.
Alfred Thomas Wood, the subject of this book, was a truly great imposter. In the 19th century, through a multitude of countries: from Halifax, N.S., to New England, Liberia, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Montreal, the U.S. Mid-West and the South, he posed as a preacher, an academic, a carpenter, an architect, a political fundraiser and a medical doctor. In this meticulously-pieced-together biography of A.T. Wood, Frank Mackey wittily casts new light on the momentous mid-19th-century events that shaped the world we live in today.
Aly Ndiaye (Webster), the rapper-historian, author of the preface and other works of a historical nature, agreed to participate in the lecture.

A native Quebecer, Frank Mackey retired from the Montreal Gazette in 2008 after working as a reporter/editor in Alberta, Newfoundland, Montreal, Quebec and London (Eng.). He also taught journalism at Montreal’s Concordia University. He and his wife have three adult children. He has published several books: Steamboat Connections: Montreal to Upper Canada 1816-1843 (2000); Black Then: Blacks and Montreal, 1780s-1880s (2004); Done with Slavery: The Black Fact in Montreal, 1760-1840 (2010), the latter translated into French as L’esclavage et les Noirs à Montréal, 1760-1840 (2013). His latest book, The Great Absquatulator, was published in May 2022.

Aly Ndiaye, a.k.a. Webster, hip-hop artist, independent historian, activist and lecturer, was born and raised in the Limoilou district of Québec City. His father is Senegalese and his mother is from Quebec. He has always been proud of his origins and describes himself as a SénéQueb métis pure laine. His passion for history led him to pursue university studies in this field; he holds a bachelor's degree in history from Université Laval. He worked for 10 years as history guide for Parks Canada. He is passionate about the history of the Afro-descendant presence and slavery in Quebec and Canada since the time of New France. Ndiaye is the author, amongst others, of a children's book that follows the journey of Olivier Le Jeune, the first African slave in Canada, Le Grain de Sable (Septentrion, 2019). In February 2023, he was appointed to represent Québec at the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

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The Victoria Bridge: Into A New World

Speakers: Sam Allison and Dr Jon Bradley
When: Thursday, January 18, 2024, 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
              288 Beaconsfield Boul., Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English, followed by a bilingual question period

The Victoria Bridge of 1860 was the longest in the world at that time and was a bridge that led Canada into the new industrialized urbanized and intellectual 19^th century world order. The power point uses diagrams, maps and prints to illustrate this story.

Sam Allison retired after teaching history in Quebec High schools and the McGill Faculty of Education. He has written several history and economic books for high school students, articles for various magazines. He is also Guest Editor with Dr. Jon Bradley for the London Journal of Canadian Studies and authored Driv’n by Fortune: The Scots March to Modernity in America 1745-1812.

Dr Jon Bradley is Retired Professor from the Faculty of Education of McGill University. He keeps himself busy researching/writing on different subjects including Quebec Education, Canadian History and many more.

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Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, ingénieur Canadien

Speaker: Jean-Pierre Raymond
When: Thursday, November 16, 2023, 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall, Annex Herb Linder (Lawn Bowling)
             288 BeaconsfieldBlvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4 303 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield H9W 4A7

Entrance at the West end of the City Hall parking lot

Lecture in French, followed by a bilingual question period

Canadian engineer Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, whose 300th birthday is celebrated in 2023, participated in the War of the Austrian Succession, the French and Indian War, the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. He became an engineer in 1753 in the wake of the commission of inquiry into the construction of the ramparts of Quebec. In 1763 he owned 7 seigneuries, 5 in the new Province of Quebec: Lotbinière, Vaudreuil, Rigaud, Nouvelle-Beauce and Villechauve and two in the Province of New York. He participated in London in the debate on the Quebec Act where he convinced the British parliament to adopt the French Law (Coutume de Paris), the French language and the Catholic religion, which today makes the Province of Quebec a distinct society.

Retired engineer and history buff Jean-Pierre Raymond personifies this Canadian-born engineer in his King's engineer costume of 1758. He will be accompanied by his wife, Andrée Aubut, a retired teacher, who personifies Lotbinière's wife, Louise-Magdeleine Chaussegros de Léry, the daughter of Canada's chief engineer.

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The Lachine Canal and the Gentrification of Montreal’s Sud-Ouest

Speaker: Steven High
When: Thursday, October 19, 2023, 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
             288 BeaconsfieldBlvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English, followed by a bilingual question period

The Lachine Canal was the birthplace of Canada’s industrial revolution. Once the most heavily industrialized urban area in the country, the area deindustrialized during the 1970s and 1980s. The canal was also closed in 1970. As a result, the debate over the future of the Lachine Canal unfolded at a time of social crisis for the adjoining neighbourhoods. This illustrated talk is drawn from the author’s recently published book “Deindustrializing Montreal: Entangled Histories of Race, Residence and Class”, which was awarded the "Prix de la présidence de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec" 2023, recognizing political books.

Steven High is a professor of history at Concordia University where he co-founded the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. He is the author of many books and articles about the history of Montreal. 

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