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

Léo Major: the one-eyed liberator of Zwolle

Speaker: Luc Lépine
When: Thursday, November 20, 2025, 19:30 - 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
       288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English, followed by a bilingual question period

Léo Major is the only Canadian and one of only three soldiers in the British Commonwealth to receive the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) twice in separate wars.
First DCM: Major lost the use of his left eye a few days after D-Day. However, he returned fighting with the Régiment de la Chaudière. In 1945 after a successful reconnaissance mission during the liberation of the Dutch city of Zwolle: He was sent to scout the city with one of his best friends, a firefight broke out in which his friend was killed. Major decided to liberate the town by himself. He captured the highest ranking German Officer and convinced him that the Canadian Army was surrounding the city. Thanks to his efforts, the city was spared the artillery fire that was planned the next day by the Allies.
Second DCM: During the Korean War, on November 22, 1951, the Chinese 64th Army (around 40,000 men) began their attack: over the course of two days, the Americans were pushed back from Hill 355 by elements of the Chinese 190th and 191st Divisions. The 3rd U.S. Infantry Division tried to recapture the hill, but without any success. Léo Major was asked by his commanding officer to retake Hill 355. With the help of 75 French Canadian soldiers, he held the hill for 72 hours against a force of 2000 Chinese soldiers.

Luc Lépine is a military historian and speaker. He studied at the Royal military College of Canada in Kingston. From 2003 to 2013, he taught history to officers of the Canadian Armed Forces. He has published books and articles on the French and Indian War and the War of 1812. Since 2015, he has been interested in the life of Léo Major. In 2019, he published the biography of Léo Major.

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History of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue

Speaker: Ryan Young
When: Thursday, January 15, 2026, 19:30 - 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
       288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English, followed by a bilingual question period

Ryan Young is a Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue City Councillor and a College Professor at John Abbott College who has done extensive research about the history of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. Every year, he leads a number of historical walking tours in the old village of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. His talk will cover what is known about the Indigenous history of the area, the beginnings of European settlement on the western tip of the island of Montreal, and then continuing all the way through to the present day. With the aid of historical photographs, the old village buildings of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue that still exist from the 1800s will be discussed along with the early history of Macdonald College in the early 1900s.

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The Seigneuresses: These Women of Heart

Speaker: Michel Bélisle
When: Thursday, March 19, 2026, 19:30 - 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
       288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English, followed by a bilingual question period

Presentation of the role of seigneuresses, those wives of the great landowners from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The conference features five of them: Louise de Ramezay (Sorel), Louise-Élizabeth de Joybert de Marson (Vaudreuil), Louise-Madeleine Chaussegros de Léry (Rigaud), Marguerite Dufrost de la Jemmerais, mother of Youville (Châteauguay), and Jane Ellice (Beauharnois). These ladies, through their originality and strength of character, would mark in their own way the destiny of their seigniory, shaped by the atmosphere of those times, and the environment where they lived.

Michel Bélisle, author and lecturer, was born in Montréal. He studied Anthropology - Ethnology at Université de Montréal, and Design & Environment at UQAM. He worked as assistant-curator at McCord Museum, curator at Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, curator at Trestler House in Vaudreuil-Dorion. He was guest curator for many special exhibitions and wrote several books and brochures on Montreal West-Island and Vaudreuil regions.

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