Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.06.1967, Side 19

LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, FIMMTUDAGINN 1. JÚNÍ 1967
19
university, a natural development in this age of techno-
logy. We were especially urged to examine the new
atomatic reaetor or something of the sort, but I have
not insight into such things, and sat down to wait
while my companions climbed a winding stairway to
view this wonder.
At noon we were greeted in the reception hall of the
university by the rector of the university, Mgr. Louis-
Alber Vachon, and his wife. The rector addressed us
in French, which few of us understood, but Madame in
French, Italian and German. Neither spoke to us a
word of English, though they must have known that
only in English they could have made themselves under-
stood to the whole group. An interpreter could have
solved the problem too, if one is to believe the unbe-
lievable— that this educator knows no English.
Hon. Judge W. J. Lindal spoke for the guests on this
occasion. He chose French, but might have spared him-
self the arduous ordeal by taking refuge in the Icelandic
language. But he ended his talk in English and it is to
be hoped that our hosts understood him.
After this social venture, we lunched well in the
students’ dining room. Since it was Friday I chose fish
in the Catholic tradition, it was fresh and delicious, a
dish to be relished. From this venerable institution of
learning, we drove speedily to the airport, where our
good reliable Nordair waited. It soared upward and
circled the city, giving me a birds-eye view of the
Plains of Abraham, the scene of events that ended a
chapter of Canadian history and started another.
ARVIDA
We now flew east to the valley of the Saguenay
river, which has its source in Lake St. John and flows
south into the St. Lawrence. This scenic and fertile
valley was not settled until 1838. Yet now the valley
and adjacent districts have a population of 300,000. This
is attributable not only to the fertility of the soil, but
also to the numfoer of industries developed by reason
of the tremendous power resources inherent in its rivers
and water falls.
Here we were guests of the Aluminum Company of
Canada or Alcan, as it is popularly called. The nearest
airport to the company’s headquarters at Arvida, is at
Bagotville, where we deplaned and boarded a waiting
bus. We drove slowly to enjoy the landscape, a great
tourist attraction. Near the village of Jonquire we
noticed a unique building in the shape of an Indian
tepee. This is a church, and we left the bus to examine
it. inside and out.
The white concrete structure resembles two giant
half-cones, overlapping and joined with beautiful stained
glass windows, made by a local artist. This 198-foot
high church is finished on the inside with some soft,
grayish white substance, which prevents echoing. Black,
modernistic silhouettes of the apostles grace the sloping
walls, and the altar is hewn from polished granite. We
lingered here for only a few minutes, and it is beyond
me to convey the unique beauty of this church. A
member of our group knelt in the way of Roman
Catholics and crossed himself, and I felt a spontaneous
longing to bend my head in dedication before this in-
spired work of art.
Shortly before our arrival at Arvida, an official of
the company brought us greetings in an Irish brogue and
guided us to our destination. There we were received by
four other officials, who divided us into groups, each ex-
plaining aluminium production to his listeners. All wore
white steel helmets as they led us through the factory
which is no less than a 1% mile long, so we were driven
part of the distance.
I stayed with the Irishman’s group, for he was a
fluent and amusing taiker. He informed us that the
basic material Bauxite came from British Guiana (now
Guyana) in South America. It is shipped by water all
the way, travelling up the Saguenay river to Albert
Harbour, just beyond Bagotville. From there it is sent
by rail to Arvida. Hundreds of ships come yearly, and
about 12,000 people are employed in the aluminum
works. Only the raw material is handled here, and
when it has been wrought into bars, sheets and other
forms, it is shipped to the appropriate industries for
manufacture into pots, pans, doors, windows and a
variety of other products.
When Queen Elizabeth II visited Quebec with her
husband, they toured this aluminum factory, rated the
largest in the world, and their hosts were impressed
with Prince Philip’s understanding of the project. It
surely outstripped our understanding by a long way.
Our hosts entertained us at dinner sponsored by
Alcan at a hotel in Chicoutimi. I asked the official at
my table whether the majority of workmen were French
Canadians. He said they were, but most of the engineers
v/ere descended from other nationalities. Up to the pre-
sent, he said, most French youths had chosen to be edu-
cated for the priesthood, medicine or law rather than
the practical sciences.
Afler dinner we had the unexpected pleasure to at-
tend an art show by two young local painters — Messrs.
Villeneuve and Barbeau. The latter, if I remember cor-
rectly, designed the stained glass windows in the church
mentioned earlier. Both are renowned artists.
A band of young boys attended our departure from
the airport the following morning. In the uniforms of
the Cadets of Chicoutimi, they marched smartly back
and forth, blowing their horns and beating their drums,
a refreshing and heartwarming farewell as we took off
for Montreal.
*
We returned to a Montreal that basked in glittering
sunshine on Saturday, Oct. 22, our last day in Quebec
province. A waiting bus took us to Ile Ste. Helene in
the St. Lawrence River. We came to a large military
fort, and someone whispered in my ear that Montreal’s
late mayor Houde had been housed there when he was
removed from cireulation during World War II.
This historic place has now been renewed and re-
paired, and it is often used by the city to entertain offi-
cial guests. I had noticed that the French take pains to
preserve old buildings. As an example, the Quebec pro-
vincial government feted us in the historic Maison
Chevalier residence on Rue Champlain in Quebec city.
Ir. the house is kept a large collection of mementoes and
relics from the early days of settlement.
My thoughts turned involuntarily to the apathy of
Winnipegers, who suffered few qualms when our city
council decreed destruction of our old city hall, and
allowed its furnishings to be scattered hither and yon.
That building may have been an architectural oddity,
but it had a history, and I see no greater beauty in the
boxy structures that replaced it.
Ontario cannot be said to excel Manitoba when it
comes to a sense of history, for they have torn down
the home of Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A.
Macdonald, and sold the lot on which it stood — pro-
bably to be utilized as a parking lot. Yet lauding Sir
John as the moving force toward confederation is the
order of the day in this Centennial year.
Bút here we were, at the old Fort Ste. Helene, to be
entertained at luncheon by the city of Montreal. We
descended a few steps to an elegant reception hall,
where fires burned cheerily on two ancient hearths, for
there was a chill in the air. Mellowed old pictures hung
on the walls, polished copper vessels graced the mantels,
and flowers centred the tables. We were received by
representatives of the city council, who brought us
greetings from Mayor Drapeau, who could not be pre-
sent as elections for mayor and council were taking
place the following day.
This good feast and attendant addresses over, we
were taken by cars to the Jacques Viger Hotel.
THE SCANDINAVIAN PAVILION
Tours such as this are slightly strenuous, because one
must stay with the group all hours of the day, leaving
little time for attention to private affairs. A few of our
comrades had dropped from the league during the last
days, and at 5 p.m. on our last day we were to meet at
a cocktail party given by Montreal newsmen in Hotel
Mount Royal.
But a week previously, I had contacted Mr. and Mrs.
Jcn Fridriksson, who reside in Montreal, and they had
kindly offered to take me to the Scandinavian pavilion
at Expo for a longer and more penetrating look. Jon
is a member of the Scandinavian Expo committee in
Montreal. Now I telephoned the Fridrikssons to inform
them of my retum to the city, and they soon picked
me up at the hotel. Jon had obtained special per-
mission to show me the pavilion, for public traffic to
the place had by this time been forbidden.
The Scandinavian nations were first to erect their
pavilion and make it weatherproof. Scandinavians in
Montreal had already held gatherings there. It is a well
located, handsome structure of clean, uncluttered lines,
built on pillars, so that the lowest floor is elevated from
the ground, leaving room between the pillars for statues
and flower beds.
The pavilion is entered by way of escalator, and a
balcony on the first floor, with room for multitude of
people, gives a wide and beautiful view of the islands
and the St. Lawrence River. Inside, beyond the balcony
are the information offices of the five Scandinavian
nations; reception rooms for distinguished guests, and a
dining room, where national dishes will be served; all
furnishings will be from Denmark, Finland, Iceland,
Norway and Sweden.
The next floor houses the exhibits and does not in-
clude a balcony. The space is divided into 400 square
metres for each of four nations, with 115 square metres
alotted to Iceland. Plans for the Icelandic display were
not yet finalized, but I recently read an item concerning
the matter in the daily newspaper, Timinn, and have
taken the liberty of reprinting it elsewhere in this issue
of Lögberg-Heimskringla.
A charming couple, the Fridrikssons first returned
me to the hotel, then would not part with me until
they had seen me safely to the door of Auberge du Vieux
St. Gabriel, another house of historic vintage and tradi-
tion in the old section of Montreal, which has been re-
modelled just enough to be suitable for entertaining.
HON. JEAN MARCHAND
Here our group were invited to dinner by the federal
governments’s Department of Immigration and Man-
power and the Society of French Journalists. This was
the farewell party, well attended and sparkling with
ltvely table conversation. The talk revolved mainly
around co-existence of French Canadians with other
groups, and a man sitting opposite me told me that
his three sons spoke English, but the youngest had
vowed not speak that language as he was a Separatist.
I could only respond that this was tragic, as the boy
could not make the most of his talents in other parts
of the continent if he limited himself solely to the use
of the French language.
The president of the group of journalists, Mr. Louis
Martin, chaired the program, but Hon. Jean Marchand,
federal minister of Immigration and Manpower, gave
the main address. He is a gifted man and fluent speaker,
a leader among French Canadians in the federal Parlia-
ment. Currently the French representation in the House
forms a markedly distinguished group, including such
men as Pelletier, Trudeau and Maurice Sauve.
Before Marchand entered the last federal election
campaign he was a member of the Bilingual and Bi-
cultural Commission and travelled throughout the coun-
try with the group, meeting large numbers of people
of all ethnic origins. And he appeared to have attained
a far broader vision of his nation than many others we
had heard on this tour. He stressed the importance of
communication between the ethnic groups comprising
the Canadian nation if they are to reach a plane of
understanding. He warned that one segment in Canada
could explode national unity, and I felt that he was not
singling out French Canadians for this admonition, but
tliat he referred rather to other ethnic groups, suffi-
ciently strong in number to gain advantages with their
voting power, without regard to the welfare of the
nation as a whole. He then turned to the government’s
new policy concerning immigration, and frankly de-
clared that in this age of scientific technology, Canada
could not afford to accept newcomers solely in sym-
pathy with the pleas of relatives who were citizens of
the country. A prime requisite, he said, must be an
immigrant’s qualification as a skilled workman.
Hon Jean Marchand is not a Separatist, not just
Quebecer. He is a Canadian. He appealed to mé as a man
who could possibly evolve into a statesman of Sir Wil-
fred Laurier’s stature, who retained leadership of the
Liberal party for 32 years and was Canada’s prime
minister for 15 years.
This stimulating evening brings my travalogue to a
close. After my return to Winnipeg I learned that Jean
Drapeau was re-elected mayor of Montreal with an
impressive majority, and that his supporters had also
scored their own victories at the polls. This I regard
as good news.
REFLECTIONS ON THE TOUR OF QUEBEC
PROVINCE
I believe it unlikely that any of the 42 Western
editors who travelled in Quebec October 16—23, 1966,
were able to study the province or its people in depth,
or form any well reasoned opinions about them. Few
of us had more than the most superficial knowledge of
the language of their daily speech and were therefore
handicapped in conversation with most of them. In an
attempt to make this travelogue more readable, I for
one, have tried to relate my experiences on the tour to
what I have read and heard through the years.
In relation to continuous residence, French Canadian
History goes farther back than any other into Canada’s
past. As readers are well aware, the Icelander, Leifur
Eiriksson, discovered the country at the turn of the
tenth century. Thorfinnur karlsefni later attempted to
establish a settlement on the East coast, but unfortu-
nately did not did not succeed.
John Cabot, a mariner of English and Italian parent-
age, landed in an undetermined spot on the east coast
in 1497, and staked a claim in the name of the British
monarch. In the year 1534 Jacques Cartier, a mariner
from St. Malo in France, sailed up the Gulf of St. Law-
rence and placed a cross on the Gaspe Peninsula, at the
same time declaring the land a possession of the King
of France. He made three voyages to the country, and
his explorations included the St. Lawrence River. —
Samuel de Champlain, explorer and geographer to the
king of France, established the first permanent settle-
ment in Canada at Port Royal, Nova Scotia, in 1605,
and in 1608 he founded a colony in Quebec. So the