Our lectures take place on the 3rd Thursday of the month, starting at 19:30.

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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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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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 has 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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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, auteure et conférencière, a fait des études en Sociologie à l’UQAM; l’École de radio-télévision Pierre Dufault, à Montréal; des Études de violon avec Maître Eugène Bastien, membre de l’OSM. Ses expériences de travail incluent : journaliste pigiste pour différents journaux, incluant sa collaboration depuis 2020 au magazine OUR CANADA, publication de Readers Digest; animatrice culturelle aux émissions musicales (radio FM), Radio-Canada; conservatrice d’expositions (en collaboration); autrices de livres sur l’histoire du théâtre, de l’art et de l’horticulture.

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