History pieces for a mellow Sunday
Gazette history spots this week included the chaos of the 1969 police strike. Not mentioned in the item is that the incident led to the creation of the Essential Services law that binds police never to walk out en masse again (and also holds back the labour actions of other public employees like bus drivers and nurses).
The Gazette also shows us a photo of the Queen’s Hotel when it had already been abandoned for ten years. Item doesn’t tell us who the owner was or why they saw fit to let it fall down.
The Centre d’histoire piece this weekend is about Hôtel-Dieu, its long history and the uncertain future of the old building on Pine Avenue.
Radio-Canada looks at a new French magazine (a new magazine, in this day and age?) called Nouvelle-France (text and audio). They’re also launching a new podcast called L’Histoire ne s’arrête pas là which discusses historical incidents and their consequences.
I mustn’t forget to mention the city’s own history site, which this week presents the origins of Ste-Justine hospital.
Michael Black 11:00 on 2019-10-13 Permalink
I think a kid at school lived at the Queen’s Hotel, his father having some important role at the hotel. But I’m not certain which one it was now. I do remember him taking us in thefe after it had closed down.
So the Gazette piece sounded odd, since I knew it had closed down a decade or so earlier.
I thought they were going to demolish it for some other purpose. So maybe there wa a challenge, or a money issue, so it was long abandoned.
Michael
Kate 11:12 on 2019-10-13 Permalink
My only connection with the Queen’s Hotel is that I recall being told my parents’ wedding reception was held there. I believe they’d got engaged over dinner at Mother Martin’s, which is also mentioned in the Gazette article, so they were thoroughly typical anglo Montrealers of their era.
Baru 06:05 on 2019-10-14 Permalink
Is that really the actual origin of that Essential Service law? It was just pretty recently successfully challenged in Saskatchewan (http://lawofwork.ca/?p=4759)