Category: Past Lectures

Aboriginal Human Rights: Contemporary Perspectives

Guest speaker: Ellen Gabriel, of Kanehsatà:ke

When: Thursday, September 20, 2012, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

              288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A7

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period

President of Quebec Native Women’s Association

Onkwehón:we Rights Activist, Artist Promote Indigenous Peoples Right

Category: Past Lectures

St. Lawrence Seaway:

from Procrastination to Realisation

Guest Speaker: Fred Parkinson 

When:   Thursday, November 16, 2017, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

Where:  Centennial Hall 

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

First talks between Canada and the United States were held in 1895 considering a water navigation system from Montreal to Lake Ontario. Commitment was lacking, however the discussions did lead to establishing the International Joint Commission (IJC) in 1909 to deal with questions on rivers shared by both countries. By 1949 the need for the waterway connection had become pressing, so serious negotiations were undertaken with the IJC playing an important part. Progress was hindered by vocal opposition from the railways and various other well established business and political interests, but in the end the economics of the mining, industrial and agricultural sectors out-weighed these negative arguments, so an agreement was in place, and construction of the Seaway began in 1954.
Building the two American locks and 5 Canadian locks as well as the powerhouse at Cornwall-Massena required major modifications in the river and along the shorelines. A total of 11 communities were inundated, with two being removed to locations above the final water level. Highways and railways were re-routed. The overall system was hailed as the largest navigation project ever undertaken in the world.
The Seaway was completed and operational in 1959, and in 190 days that year transited 25.1 million tonnes of cargo. Ship traffic grew steadily until 1979, when 80 million tonnes went through, but since has decreased so it now carries about 40 million tonnes per year. Lock and channel improvements have been gradually extending the navigation season, so that in 2006 ships had access for 283 days.
Annual economic benefits shared by many industries and agriculture in both countries resulting from reliable water transport to the Great Lakes provided by the Seaway have been estimated at more than $ 35 billion US.

Fred Parkinson, Retired Consulting Civil/Hydraulic Engineer, spent a 45-year career working in the fields of hydro-power development and river navigation. He was associated with a number of studies to improve the Seaway lock operations during ice conditions and participated in studies on physical hydraulic models to widen and deepen the navigation channel downstream from Montreal. At the same time, he was retained to develop new operating systems for several locks on the Rideau and Trent Canals and overseas for the Panama Canal.
Working in the hydro-power field, his first project in Québec was Carillon on the Ottawa River. Hydro-Québec was embarking on a major development programme, and Fred worked on hydraulic design studies for projects on the Manicouagan and Outardes Rivers in the Lower St. Lawrence Region and on the La Grande, Eastmain and Caniapiscau Rivers in the James/Hudson Bay Regions. He also did key design and development studies on major hydro-power schemes in British Columbia and Manitoba. This experience led to short term expert consultations overseas: Iraq, Pakistan, Nepal, Madagascar, Philippines, Viet Nam, Nigeria, Sudan, Bolivia, Belize, Venezuela and Columbia. His final consulting work was as an expert witness in court concerning the flooding along the Rivière des Ha Ha in the Saguenay Region in 1996.
Following retirement, he served for eighteen months on an International Joint Commission sub-committee to study and make recommendations on modifying Seaway operations to provide water level control of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River that was more acceptable to the many different stakeholders, in particular, environmental interests.

Last Minute special guest at the lecture:

Dr. Murray Clamen, retired Secretary of the Canadian Section of the International Joint Commission, will give a short slide presentation describing the operations of the I.J.C. and describe a few typical studies involving rivers and lakes along the border between Canada and the United States.  Prior to becoming the Secretary, Dr. Clamen was the IJC lead technical advisor for over a decade on all issues related to trans-boundary water management in the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence River System.

Category: Past Lectures

Two Loyalist Families and their Descendants

Guest Speaker: Gary Aitken

When: Thursday, October 16, 2014, 19:30 to 21:00

Where:  Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

Gary Aitken is the descendant of Loyalist ancestors from the Maritimes and Eastern Ontario and will speak about their origins in Canada and the legacy they left behind. Succeeding generations had a tendency to find themselves at the centre of major historical events: War of 1812, Politics, US Civil War, Confederation, Shipbuilding, RMS Titanic, etc.

Category: Past Lectures

The Rich World of Family History Research

Guest Speaker: Gary Schroder, President, Quebec Family History Society

When:   Thursday, September 21, 2017, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Where:  Centennial Hall

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

Family History Research has become one of the fastest growing hobbies in the world. The purpose of this presentation will be to explore some of the major types of historical documents that are used in genealogical research in Canada, the US, the UK, and other parts of the world. These include civil registrations of birth, marriage, and death, church registers, census records, probate records, land records and even dog records. This evening we will see how to pursue your own family history, leap over 'brick walls', and track down elusive indigenous ancestors in Canada.

Gary Schroder is or has been
- President of QFHS, the Quebec Family History Society, since 1995.
- Chair of the 'Roots' International Conferences on Family History held at McGill University in 1997, 2002, 2007, 2011, and 2015.
- Teacher of family history courses at McGill University and Champlain College.
- Lecturer to genealogical and historical societies across North America.
- Speaker at the 2001 International Conference on Irish Family History held at Trinity College, Dublin.
- Member of the Special Advisory Board of Library and Archives Canada.
- Editor of numerous publications, e.g. Christ Church, Montreal Marriages 1766-1850.
- Frequent guest on Canadian Radio and Television answering a wide variety of genealogical questions and promoting the educational value of family history research.
- Research consultant on the American, British, and Canadian versions of the “Who Do You Think You Are” television series.
- Originator of the All Day Genealogical Seminars at the QFHS Library.

His primary research interests are Canadian, English, Irish, and British (Military) resources for genealogists.
His first known ancestor in Canada was his 3rd-great-grandfather Cornelius Flynn who arrived in Quebec City in 1805. Cornelius Flynn 1787-1861, native of Cork, Ireland, served in the Royal Navy for over twenty years and was wounded aboard the HMS Agamemnon during the Battle of Trafalgar.

Category: Past Lectures

My Experiences of Expo 67

Guest Speaker: Gary W. Sims

When:  Thursday, October 19, 2017, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Where: Centennial Hall

            288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

Our guest speaker will talk about his experiences on Centennial Events and his experiences leading up to the opening and closing of Expo 67 and afterwards.

Gary W. Sims started collecting Centennial & Expo 67 items in 1964. He put on small exhibitions at neighbours and friends house on different countries. He volunteered at the Lachine Museum, and then in 1966 at the museum, put on an Exhibition on the Centennial and Expo 67 its crown jewel. Gary was appointed by the City of Lachine in 1967 as a Director of Lachine 67 which coordinated Centennial Events and the 300th anniversary of the founding of the City of Lachine.  He wrote a weekly column on Centennial Events called Centennial Report in the Lachine Messenger. As a Director of Lachine 67 and writing the newspaper column, Expo 67 Incorporated gave Gary a special press pass that allowed him complete access to the site. During this time he met many heads of state and other celebrities. With this pass he was given V.I.P and press packages as he visited each pavilion on the Expo site as well as many other special items which he has preserved and saved over the last 50 years. Gary considers this time of his life the most exciting. The privileges he was given in 1967 were never taken for granted and will never be forgotten.

Category: Past Lectures

Quebec B C, i.e.  Before Columbus!

Guest speaker: Gérard Leduc Ph D
 

When: Thursday, January 16, 2014, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

The long accepted dogma that Christopher Columbus was the first European to settle in America is being challenged by Gérard Leduc through twenty-five years of research in the Eastern Townships and elsewhere in Quebec, Ontario and New England.

There is ample evidence of an ancient presence of Phoenicians, Celts and Vikings in our immediate environment. Numerous artefacts, mostly in stone, can be seen in undisturbed landscapes.

These foreign mariners took advantage of ocean currents to go back and forth from Europe and the Middle East to settle here. They likely arrived here on purpose, with sea-sailing ships and adequate navigation skill. They left thousands of cairns or stone mounds, petroglyphs or writings inscribed on stone. To regulate their calendar, they created stone alignments on important solar events such as the solstices and the equinoxes.

A number of radiocarbon dates on cairns confirm the presence of these stone builders as far back as 2000 and 600 years ago. In Vale Perkins, in the Township of Potton, a water mill was built around the year 1560, or about 300 years before the first settler arrived there. 

The people who built the sites described here were from an advanced culture. They mastered writing, astronomy, geometry, surveying, masonry and possessed metal tools. Very ancient copper mining is also documented. They were important populations who were permanent settlers. What happened to them? Lets pursue the research with open minds.

Category: Past Lectures

The Knights Templar Take to the Sea towards Nova Francia

Guest speaker: Gérard Leduc 

When:    Saturday, June 25, 2016, from 10:00 to 12:00

Where:   Herb-Linder Annex (BowlingGreen)
              303 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A7

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

Octagonal foundations of a tower at the Coteau-du-Lac National Historic Site. It represents a Knights Templar architectural tradition.

An original lecture by Gérard Leduc Ph. D., from Potton

The Order of the Temple was created in Jerusalem in the year 1099 and its armed branch, the Knights Templar, have the mission to protect the pilgrims worshipping the Holy Land. They adopt the red pattée cross as their emblem. In addition to this mission, they conquer Palestine, establish a multinational enterprise in Europe and raise a large fleet. They take to the sea, reach other continents and, in less than two centuries become immensely rich. In 1314, the King of France, Philip le Bel, orders their arrest and many are condemned to the stake. Thousands others escape and reach other countries for a better life.

At the height of their peak, they sail to Nouvelle-France and they leave many vestiges in the archives and in several buildings over the Quebec territory, and elsewhere in the American Northeast. One can recognize their ancient presence through the red pattée cross on ancient layout plans of Ville-Marie (Montreal) and Quebec City and in the sophisticated stone works in Montreal, as well as on the New England Coast and in Newfoundland. A major discovery was that of a Knights Templar religious outpost on the Island of Chekoutimi , on the Saguenay River, across from the present Town of La Baie (Chicoutimi). This mythical island has since physically disappeared but my research has rediscovered it.
Architects and well experienced craftsmen imbued with astronomy and with mysticism, these pioneers Templar left traces of their buildings, tunnels and secret chambers.
What happened to them? The Little Ice Age, beginning around 1300 A. D? The Bubonic plague? Indian hostility?
Renaissance arriving, the European powers launch the Great discoveries era. From France, the Kings send secret agents looking for the Knights Templar sites abandoned some two hundred years earlier in Nova Francia. One can thus follow the paths taken by our discoverers searching for the bygone Knights.
Today, the Fee Masons’ links with the Knights Templar tradition are fascinating to discover.

Gérard Leduc

Following studies in Biology at the University of Montreal, Gérard Leduc entered Oregon State University where he obtained a Ph. D. in Fisheries, in 1966. He joined the faculty of Concordia University in Biology as professor, and retired in 1990. After moving to the Eastern Townships, he founded the Potton Heritage Association which he presided for fifteen years. He pursued research on stone works of Celtic and of Viking origins. He wrote many press releases on the local archaeology and history, authored one video, produced exhibitions and wrote a book on the Potton History in 1997. He also animates field excursions and gives public lectures.
At the same time, he undertook research on the ancient presence of the Knights Templar in Nouvelle-France long before the French Regime of the 17th century. A book is in preparation on this subject, and he writes on the Free Masons’ enigma.

Category: Past Lectures

Nouvelle-France, un « rêve d'empire » français

( Nouvelle-France, A French « Empire Dream »)

Guest speaker: Gilles Laberge

When: Thursday, January 17, 2013, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A7

PowerPoint Lecture in French followed by a bilingual question period

In March 2009, Gilles Laberge spoke to us about the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. This time, he will make a very well illustrated introduction to our new theme for 2013, Nouvelle-France :

A French « Empire Dream » in the 17th and 18th centuries in the young America

As much as this young colony would gradually reach colossal growth on this new continent, the drawbacks were its small population and its weak economy. In this large stretch of wilderness, covered with seemingly endless forest, the three main economic leaders were the fur trade as a very well exploited natural resource, and later in the 18th century, the military constructions’ network and the agricultural surplus. To bring back plenty of fur, harmonious relations were developed with the different First Nations tribes while colonial goal was relegated to second place.

This lecture will take you through the crucial era of the pioneers and the setting up of the current Canadian socio-economic thread. This presentation will supply a brief overview, with plenty of pictures, of the different aspects of the socio-economic life in the colonial era: geography, population, politic, economic, military, religious, on top of the physical world aspects: architecture, food and clothing. In short, a good introduction to the subject.

Category: Past Lectures

ASTRONOMY: Canada's Stonehenge in 3200 BC,

and Gregory's Bologna in AD 1575

Guest speaker: Gordon Freeman 

When:    Saturday, June 25, 2016, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Where:   Herb-Linder Annex (BowlingGreen)
              303 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A7

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

Mr Freeman and his wife discovered the Sun Temple near Majorville in southern Alberta on 21 August 1980. Since then they have lived on the site for many days in Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring, in all months except February. A total of about 250 days.
The Temple contains accurate solar and lunar calendars, marked with long lines of stones or cairns that point exactly to rise and set points of the Sun and Full Moon at calendrical hinge dates: the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Fall Equalday/nights. (In Old English, henge means hinge, hence the name Stonehenge.)
The most exciting discovery was that the dates when the day and night are each exactly 12.0 hours long, the Equalday/night, are NOT the dates of the so-called Equinoxes in our calendar, the Gregorian Calendar.
Mr Freeman will show how the solar calendar worked on the Great Plains in 3200 BC, and in Gregory’s Bologna in AD 1575. And tell why Pope Gregory XIII deceptively gave a wrong dates to the Equinoxes (Equalnights) in AD 1582.
New discoveries are still popping up as he analyzes the 13,000 photographs of the site.

Rocks that speak without sound and know without words.                             

The Sun rose at a time and place that changed our history.

Gordon Freeman was born in 1930 in Hoffer, Saskatchewan, and was introduced to Stone Age artefacts at the age of six. His father collected stone projectile points and stone tools from the Saskatchewan prairie after dry winds had blown away tilled soil.
He obtained an M.A. from the University of Saskatchewan, a Ph.D. from McGill, and a D.Phil. from Oxford. He is a Chemical Physicist, was for ten years Chairman of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Alberta, and for thirty years Director of the Radiation Research Centre there. He is now a Professor Emeritus. For fifty years he has pioneered interdisciplinary studies in chemistry, physics, archaeoastronomy, and human societies. He has more than 450 publications in chemistry, physics, archaeoastronomy, and other subjects.
As a hobby he visited many archaeological sites in Canada, the United States, Britain, Ireland, Europe, and Asia. In 1980 he and his wife Phyllis discovered a 5200-year-old Sun Temple in southern Alberta, and have studied it ever since. In 1989 they took observation techniques they had developed in Alberta to England, to resolve the controversy that surrounded a possible calendar in Stonehenge. The astonishingly beautiful, nearly the same, ancient calendars in southern Alberta and Stonehenge have far ranging implications for international prehistory and history. 

Relevant book by this author:  HIDDEN STONEHENGE: Ancient Temple in North America Reveals the Key to Ancient Wonders, London, Watkins Publishing, 2012

Category: Past Lectures

REMEMBERING SCOTLAND’S CONTRIBUTION TO MONTREAL

ON THE OCCASION OF ITS 375^th ANNIVERSARY

Guest Speaker: Rev. J.S.S. Armour, D.D.

When: Thursday, February 16, 2017, from 19.30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by question time also in English

Category: Past Lectures

Céramique du Québec, une passion!

(Collecting Quebec Ceramics, a Passion!)

Guest speaker: Jacqueline Beaudry Dion

When: Thursday, May 16, 2013, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Media room of the Beaconsfield Library,

             303 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A7

PowerPoint Lecture in French followed by a bilingual question period

Jacqueline Beaudry Dion is the President of the Association des collectionneurs de céramique du Québec and will introduce us to the history of Quebec 19^th and 20^th century pottery.

Jacqueline Beaudry Dion, B. A., B. Ped. acted as director for a South Shore Contemporary Art Gallery for nearly twenty years, holding twelve Art exhibitions each year. With her husband, Jean -Pierre Dion, Ph. D., and for the last forty years, she developed a fond interest in Canadian Heritage, mainly in Quebec Ceramics but also in Canadian Glass and Mycology : as such, she was involved in research, collection, guest speaker, author and curator of exhibitions. For the last fifteen years, she developed her photography skill, first with macro photography of mushrooms then with Ceramic.
Sharing a joint passion, the couple wrote numerous articles on 19th and 20th century Ceramic in Quebec and the United States. They published La Poterie des Dion (1984) and Céramistes du Québec 1940-1970 (2010, with a revised and enlarged second edition in 2011). As curators, they are authors of two exhibition catalogs : Maîtres céramistes formés à l’École du meuble de Montréal (Musée des maîtres et artisans du Québec, 2011) and Gilles Derome potier et humaniste (Musée du Haut-Richelieu, 2012). Again, for Spring /Summer 2013, they are guest curators for an exhibition on Wanda Rozynska and Stanley Rozynski, within the hearth of Eastern Township Ceramic at Musée du Haut-Richelieu.
Jacqueline Beaudry Dion is also the author and photographer of the first Repertory of Quebec Ceramic Marks : 580 marques de céramistes du Québec, edited in June 2011 by the Association of Ceramic Collector of Quebec (ACCQ) for which she is President.

Category: Past Lectures

Fleury Mesplet (1734-1794) and the Birth of Freedom of Expression in Quebec (1776)

Guest Speaker: Jacques G. Ruelland Ph.D.

When:   Thursday, May 18, 2017, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where:  Centennial Hall

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

Born in Marseilles, educated in Lyon, the printer Fleury Mesplet (1734-1794) one day decides to flee the intolerance that reigns in France at that time to seek refuge in England. He meets Benjamin Franklin, who recruits him as a Francophone printer of the American Continental Congress, fighting against the English. He prints the Letters sent by the American Congressmen to the inhabitants of the Province of Quebec to incite them to join against their common enemy: the English. In order to reinforce this purpose, Franklin arrives in Montreal in 1776; Mesplet accompanies him: he shall be the instrument of the North American rebellion against the European oppressor. But the project fails; the American patriots are decimated by the English. However, Mesplet decides to remain in Montreal, despite a “preventive” imprisonment of almost a month. With the aid of a few friends as enlightened as he was by the philosophy of the Enlightenment (Valentin Jautard, Pierre du Calvet, etc.), he founds in 1778 the first journal of opinion in the country, the Gazette littéraire, and the first think tank, the Montreal Academy - which perhaps hides a French Masonic lodge. After another hard imprisonment of three years, Mesplet recovers his wife, his friends, his workshop, his values ​​and his fights; he creates in 1785, on a new basis, a second newspaper, the Montreal Gazette, which survives him even today. Beyond the centuries, between the American War of Independence and the French Revolution, Mesplet’s story reminds us that the struggle for freedom of expression is still valid.

Born in Spa (Belgium) in 1948, Jacques G. Ruelland immigrated to Canada in 1969, holding a printer technician diploma from Liège (Belgium). He holds presently a BA and an MA in philosophy of science, a second MA in history, a third one in museology and a Ph.D. in history of science. He taught philosophy at the Collège Édouard-Montpetit (Longueuil) for 31 years (1979-2010), and he currently teaches history as an associate professor in the History Department of the University of Montreal. He also works currently as a museologist for the Musée des Maîtres et Artisans du Québec (Saint-Laurent), and the Museums (a set of five museums) of Mont-Saint-Hilaire. He signed some fifty books published in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia, and translated into various languages. He chaired la Société de philosophie de Montréal and la Société des écrivains canadiens; he was secretary of la Société historique de Montréal and la Société de philosophie du Québec. He won several awards for his works, including twice the Percy-W.-Foy Prize awarded by la Société historique de Montréal in 1987 and 1988, as well as the Special French Prize and a Special Mention at the awards ceremony of the Minister of Education of Quebec in 1995. In 1999, Dr. Ruelland was awarded the Gold Medal of Cultural Enlightenment in French Literature by La Renaissance française (a French association sponsored by the Government of France) for the multicultural character of his work, and was knighted in the Order of Academic Palms in 2003 by the Government of France for the quality of his teaching and writings. Web site: www.ruelland.ca

Category: Past Lectures

Category: Past Lectures

Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, King's Engineer

Guest speaker: Jean-Pierre Raymond

When: Thursday, March 21, 2013, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period

Jean-Pierre Raymond, Engineer and history enthusiast, resident of Dorval, will impersonate the first Canadian born engineer in his 1758 King Engineer’s outfit. He will describe the career and political thought of Michel Chartier de Lotbinière who participated in the War of Austrian Succession, the 7-year War, the American Independence War and the French Revolution. In 1763, he owned 7 seigneuries, 5 in the new Province of Québec including the seigneuries of Lotbinière, of Vaudreuil and of Rigaud and two in New York State. He was involved in London, England, in the debate concerning the Quebec Act convincing the House of Commons to adopt the French Laws (Coutume de Paris), the French language and the Catholic religion, which gave the Province de Québec its difference in status.