History pieces for solstice weekend

Radio-Canada has a feature this week on the days when Montreal was a capital of disco.

On a somewhat less frivolous theme, they also look back to 45 years ago when the heart of Brother André was returned to St Joseph’s Oratory after being in the hands of thieves for almost two years. Who they were, and how the return was managed, remains a mystery.

Lawyer Frank Shoofey, mentioned for his involvement in getting the heart back, was murdered a decade later, a killing that was never solved.

Also I’m wondering why they’re calling Brother André a thaumaturge.

Most of the Gazette’s pieces this week were Christmas fluff, but there’s also a rather grim photo from 1963 of investigators working on parts of the plane that had crashed in Ste-Thérèse in late November that year.

The Centre d’histoire piece this weekend shows a 1937 painting by Adrien Hébert of a tabagie of the era, and reminds us how ubiquitous tobacco advertising used to be.