I have been unable to write for the last few days. Nothing could be done. I have long suffered from what is now called “long Covid.” It developed when I caught a virus that caused Chronic Fatigue Syndrome /Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, an illness I never recovered from. It could have been depression.
My siblings and I had a dog and several cats during our childhood. We learned to love animals. But as an adult, I kept a cat or two until Belaud’s death. I have been looking for another Chartreux, but there does not seem to be a breeder in Quebec. Chartreux are difficult to find. Belaud was Belaud II. He was my second Chartreux. Having a cat alleviates depression.
My most intelligent cat was not a Chartreux but a brown tabby who was an Einstein in the cat world. Mouchette was a small cat born in the dead of winter and had lost part of an ear and part of her tail to frost. She never grew into a full-size cat, but I could not see the slightest imperfection in her. I was amazed when she picked up a mushy ball and brought it to me so we could play ball. I have been thinking of her. Dear petite Mouchette.
My students knew I had a cat and were pleased to hear that I was not alone in the blue house. Teachers do not tell about their private life, but students like to hear that their teacher has a cat. They called her my sidekick.
L’École acadienne de Pomquet
I am still thinking about language laws. Outside Quebec, there are no language laws. Students living in large cities may enter a French immersion school. These schools are often described as “private schools within the public system.” They reflect the work and findings of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism and the ensuing Official Languages Act of 1969. The Official Languages Act of 1969 was revised in the Official Languages Act of 1988. These acts do not address education, but the passage of the Official Languages Act of 1969 led to the development of publicly funded French immersion schools and summer immersion programmes. Canadian Parents for French is an association that has encouraged learning French from coast to coast.
Education is a provincial portfolio, but there is federal coordination in this matter, and the University of Toronto is home to the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). The development of Acadian Schools in Nova Scotia reflects recommendations of both Official Languages Acts. One of these schools is the Pomquet Acadian School, L’École acadienne de Pomquet. Pomquet is an Acadian village with a Mi’kmaq name. It is located a few minutes from Antigonish, where I taught French at St Francis Xavier University. I will continue to discuss Quebec’s Language Laws offering education as a more promising alternative.
We have seen that the slaves in Nouvelle-France were mostly the Indigenous people of North America who themselves had slaves. Slavery between Amerindians is humiliating, but it is not racism. Amerindian nations fought one another and the better warrior enslaved rival and lesser warriors. For the purpose of this post, suffice it to know that as France grew more vulnerable. France was outnumbered. After losing the battle of the Plains of Abraham, thus named because the land where the battle was fought belonged to fisherman Abraham Martin, Montreal capitulated, but its native allies were no longer protected. (See The Capitulation of Montreal, Canadian Encyclopedia.) In fact, they were at the mercy of the inhabitants of Britain’s Thirteen Colonies. They feared a land rushes, but Chief Pontiac, an Ottawa leader, fought the Thirteen Colonies quite successfully, which he could not do indefinitely.
No authentic images of Pontiac are known to exist. This interpretation was painted by John Mix Stanley. (Photo and Caption Credit: Wikipedia)
To protect Amerindians, England issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, providing Aboriginals with a vast reserve. The territory was large and nearly impenetrable. Later, the Act of Quebec (1774) ended attempts to assimilate the former New France. A very large province of Quebec was created, which, in the eyes of American patriots, was an Intolerable Act.
The Thirteen Colonies
Upper and Lower Canadas
The light pink shows the land where the Indigenous population of Canada could live without fear of losing their land. In 1775, Louisiana belonged to Spain. In the second map, we see Quebec as it was in 1791, under the Constitutional Act. We also see part of Rupert’s Land.
United Empire Loyalists: the Constitutional Act of 1791
shift in demographics
slavery
White loyalists and Black loyalists
However, among Americans, some families and individuals did not approve of independence. They fled to the large British province of Quebec. To help United Empire Loyalists, the large Quebec was divided into two Canadas: Upper Canada and, lower down the St Lawrence, Lower Canada. The Constitutional Act, which divided the Province of Quebec, was legislated in 1791.
The Constitutional Act did not divide the province of Quebec into an English-language Upper Canada and a French-language Lower Canada. The Eastern Townships,[1] the area of Quebec where I live, was given to the Loyalists and their slaves, whom they were allowed to bring to Canada as part of their property. The Loyalists also settled in Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The arrival of the Loyalists was a blessing and a curse. The future Canada welcomed the Loyalists, Whites and Blacks. However, the citizens of the former New France were a minority.
There were Black loyalists who had earned their freedom by fighting with Britain against the future United States had earned their freedom. They settled in Ontario and New Brunswick, but most tried to settle in Nova Scotia.
Nova Scotia would be Black slaves’ best destination. Although the Imperial Act of 1790 assured slave owners that they could retain Black slaves, in 1788, Nova Scotia abolitionist James Drummond MacGregor from Pictou “published the first anti-slavery literature in Canada and began purchasing slaves’ freedom” (…). He set an example. Many Nova Scotia Loyalists freed their slaves. (See Slavery in Canada, Wikipedia.)
However, a total of 3,500 Black Loyalists left the current United States. Nova Scotia would be home to many, were it not that white Loyalists attacked Black Loyalists. The Shelburne Riots that took place in July 1784 revealed racism. White Loyalists were given the best land, which they felt entitled to as White Loyalists. So, in 1792, 1300 Black loyalists left for Sierra Leone, where they would be free and would govern themselves.
Until recent reforms in immigration, about 37% of Canada’s Black community lived in Nova Scotia.
The Act Against Slavery, 1793 (Wikipedia)
Vrooman vs Cooley
Ontario slave owners opposed the enfranchisement of Black slaves. In Ontario the case of Chloe Cooley, is a sad example of entitlement. Chloe tried to escape an abusive owner, Sergeant Adam Vrooman. He had bound her in a boat in an attempt to take her to the State of New York, to sell her. She protested violently and the event, witnessed by William Grisley, led to the passage of the Act Against Slavery of 1793. On 14 March 1793, The event was reported to Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe. However, Vrooman had not broken the law. Loyalists could bring their slaves to British North America. He also noted that in 1760, the French inhabitants of Lower Canada had been allowed to keep their slaves. Yet, despite the reluctance of the several representatives of the government of Upper Canada, the Act Against Slavery of 1793 was legislated.
Let us read the letter Sergeant Vrooman wrote to the authorities. He used the law to perpetuate an abuse. In this respect, his letter is a classic:
[…] been informed that an information had been lodged against him to the Attorney General relative to his proceedings in his Sale of said Negroe Woman; your Petitioner had received no information concerning the freedom of Slaves in this Province, except a report which prevailed among themselves, and if he has transgressed against the Laws of his Country by disposing of Property (which from the legality of the purchase from Benjamin Hardison) he naturally supposed to be his own, it was done without knowledge of any Law being in force to the contrary.
(See Chloe Cooley and the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada. The Canadian Encyclopedia.)
Laws can be used to wrong a human being. In this respect, the fate of Chloe Clooney is a classic. In the eyes of slave-owning Loyalists, ownership had no limits. If so, what a nightmare for a woman.
The arrival of the Loyalists led to the Constitutional Act of 1791, which separated a large Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. French-speaking Canadiens lived in Lower Canada, part of which was the Eastern Townships, given to Loyalists. I cannot make sense of the Constitutional Act of 1871. It received royal assent in June 1791 and it seems an attempt to assimilate French-speaking Canadians.
The Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada received royal assent on 9 July 1793, but in Upper Canada, slavery was not abolished until 1833. However, the Underground Railroad, helped slaves flee to Canada. United Empire Loyalists had taken their slaves with them, as property. But Blacks that escaped were no longer owned.
Conclusion
I will conclude here. We must introduce the Underground Railroad, an organization that helped Black Slaves flee to Canada. I am reading The Slave in Canada by William Renwick Riddell. It is an Internet Archive publication. I have looked for videos and saw one about the Royal Proclamation of 1763. It features a rush for land which is called freedom. It is as though the proclamation deprived the colonists of their freedom. Does freedom allow human beings to displace and destroy other human beings? An Aboriginal was not seen as a person, nor was a mortal whose colour was not white. I must close.
_______________ [1]“Under the terms of the Constitutional Act of 1791, the Eastern Townships were open to settlement and a land rush followed. Most of the 3,000 or so settlers came from the United States. A few were Loyalists, at least in spirit, but most simply wanted land and had no strong feeling about nationality. Many more immigrated from the British Isles, including Gaelic-speaking Scots.” (See Eastern Townships, Wikipedia)
I updated the blog I posted on 25 January 2013: More Thoughts on Quebec. My comments were incomplete. For me, Quebec separatism is a very sensitive subject. Several members of my family, the Quebec branch, are supporters of Madame Marois’ Parti Québécois. However, my family also has a west coast branch. They are not sympathizers of any indépendantiste (separatist) movement.
However, there was a disorderly students’ strike between March and September 2012 and my comments now reflect greater disapproval of the strike. But I do not understand why Quebec did not sign the Patriated Constitution, 1982. I love my country, but it is a house divided (Abraham Lincoln).
Bilingualism
When I was a child living in Quebec, Friday was market-day, but we sometimes shopped on rue Wellington, before going to the market. Most of the shops on rue Wellington did not belong to French-speaking Canadians and they have disappeared: an exodus. The architecture, however, is a remnant of a prosperous past.
In the past, as I walked down Sherbrooke Streets with my mother, I kept seeing the word Real Estate everywhere. Réal is a French name. So I ended up telling my mother that Monsieur Réal Estate (Es-ta-te), was probably the richest man in town. He owned so many shops! Mother told me the truth.
The Differences
We had English-speaking friends and we visited with them. I was a keen observer of interiors from a very young age. I therefore noticed that the difference between French-speaking and English-speaking Canadian citizens had to do with houses. Our English-speaking friends had a fireplace and a bay window in their living-room. How brilliant! All we had was a big stove and no hot water. I therefore decided that when I grew up, I would own an English house.
Hendrickje Sleeping, by Rembrandt
Houses
I did grow older and, by then, we lived on the west coast. We therefore had an English house, a house with a fireplace and a bay window. Victoria was a marvellous place at the time. Our house was near the sea and my mother had enrolled me in a private school for girls: St Ann’s Academy. It was located within walking distance of the house and it had an extraordinary garden, tennis courts, everything. But my father decided to move to Vancouver and they settled so far from the University of British Columbia (UBC) that I chose to complete my B.A. at the University of Victoria. I do not have a Master’s Degree. UBC suggested I enter the PhD programme.
Toronto
I left Victoria to get a graduate degree. I married and, four years after leaving Victoria, I moved to Toronto, where my husband had found employment. For two years, we lived on the lower floor of a lovely little house in an area of town I had chosen. A year later, I started teaching and it was soon possible for us to buy a house, an English house. I loved our little house.
How Micheline lost her Blue House
But my favourite English house was the Blue House, my Nova Scotia house. It was a cottage-like, two-storey house and it had 22 windows. Although it did not have a bay window, it had the essential fireplace. In fact, it was perfect and located across the street from the campus.
The New Course
A long time ago, I caught a flu and never recovered fully. I can teach three courses, which is a normal workload. But at that stage in my career, I could not be asked to teach courses in unrelated areas. My goal was to finish writing my book on Molière. I was entering a sabbatical leave that would have allowed me to finish my book, but I was told to prepare a course on animals in literature, a course I would have to teach in English. Would that I could have refused. But it was not possible. I was afraid the Chair of my Department would get angry. He once got angry to the point of making me collapse. I fainted.
When I returned to work, I realized I also had to update a language-lab component. I finished upgrading it in November. During the Christmas break, I made sure every lecture of my course on animals in literature was prepared. In February, I started to feel overwhelming fatigue. I saw my doctors who told me I could not finish my teaching assignment. I was given a note and presented it. But despite a doctor’s note, I was not allowed to leave the classroom. My students no longer had a teacher, so I dragged myself to work and completed my 2001-2002 teaching assignment while applying for permanent disability benefits.
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In the eyes of my case manager at the Insurance Company, my having completed the academic year was proof positive that I was an imaginary invalid. She had me see a doctor who requested, in writing, that I be told not to leave my home or make serious decisions as I would be able to return to work after an indefinite leave. He diagnosed Depression, not ME, myalgic encephalomyelitis. He thought I would recover. He asked my case manager to tell me not to leave my home in Antigonish or make serious decisions.
I had applied for permanent disability benefits, not an “indefinite” leave. Therefore, when my case manager told me was that my application for disability benefits had been approved, I thought I was free to leave. Not that I wanted to, but it had been suggested to me. My mother was in a hospital and my father had moved to my brother’s house. That The companies Independent Medical Examiner (IME) was right. Under normal circumstances and despite an illness, I could work.
My benefits were terminated, but when I tried to return to work, the Vice-President did not want me to continue teaching. A friend told me they would hurt me, if I returned. I ended up accepting a concealed retirement arrangement. I regained my tenure when my benefits were reactivated, but they would not let me re-enter the classroom.
So, I no longer live in an English house. In short, my story takes one from house to house and, now, infinity…
Self-portrait with a Cap, by Rembrandt van Rijn Openmouthed Aux yeux hagards
All of Rembrandt’s paintings are featured at Rembrandt.OrgThe Complete Works. “Hendrickje Sleeping” is a drawing and the “Self-portrait,” an etching.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
The most prominent Dutch painter and etcher of the Dutch Golden Age,
the seventeenth century
The music is by L. van Beethoven (baptized 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827)
It’s one of the 32 sonatas for piano.
Against a regiment I oppose a brain and a dark horse against an armoured train.
When artist Alexander Colville heard this poem, he was inspired to paint his “Horse and Train.”
There is truth to Roy Campbell’s lines. The dark horse built the train or humans built the train, which makes humans, represented by a dark horse, more powerful than the train, which makes them: iron men.
However, it is not the train that was difficult to build, it was the railway. The train existed, but only Colville’s dark horse could build the railway and the dark horse, to a large extent, consisted of Chinese immigrants who worked for a dollar a day to build a railway through several ranges of mountains.
We cannot dismiss the territorial imperative that led to the view of a Dominion of Canada that would stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, but the dream of a country that went from sea to sea was also very compelling. The moment this dream entered the imagination of the Fathers of Confederation, it played a powerful role:
It appears the phrase A Mari usque ad Mare was first used by George Monro Grant, C.M.G. (22 December 1835 – 10 May 1902) a “Canadianchurchminister, writer, and political activist” from Stellarton, Nova Scotia, who would later serve as principal of Queen’s College, Kingston, Ontario for 25 years, from 1877 until 1902. Reverend Grant was very much in favour of Confederation, and although his book entitled Ocean to Ocean (1873) was published after Confederation, the Reverend Grant helped shape public opinion in Nova Scotia.
Furthermore the threat of annexation by the United States, despite the Oregon Treaty of 1846, was not a figment of the people’s imagination. According to Wikipedia:
[w]hen American Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the Alaska Purchase in 1867, it was part of his plan to incorporate the entire northwest Pacific Coast, chiefly for the long-term commercial advantages to the United States in terms of Pacific trade. Seward believed that the people in British Columbia wanted annexation and that Britain would accept this in exchange for the “Alabama claims”. (Wikipedia: History of British Columbia)
Consequently, within three years of the Charlottetown Conference, held from September 1 and September 9 September 1864, Confederation was achieved and it included Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. In 1870, Louis Riel had negotiated the entry of Manitoba into Confederation and on 20 July 1871, the afore-mentioned amalgamated Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia joined the Dominion of Canada.
However, they joined the Dominion of Canada on the condition that a railway be built that would stretch from sea to sea, but nevertheless entered early. Queen Victoria had also acted promptly. She was given the task of choosing a capital for the future Dominion of Canada in December 1857 and did so very quickly. She chose Ottawa.
I would like to tell of the story of the railway today, but there is no room left. So we will have a part 2 to the Iron Horse. Confederation preceded the building of the railway. Moreover, Confederation was negotiated. As for the Dominion of Canada, it had a capital before it was a country.
Moreover, Canada did not have a Wild West. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived at its the various destinations at about the same time as the settlers, if not earlier. The Royal Northwest Mounted Police (RNWMP) was founded 1873. They became the Royal Canadian Mountain Police in 1920 when there was a merger of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police with the Dominion Police (founded 1868).
A Mari usque ad Mare (“From Sea to Sea”), Canada’s motto (devise), was derived from Psalm 72:8, which reads in Latin “Et dominabitur a mari usque ad mare, et a flumine usque ad terminos terræ,” and in the King James version, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” (Wikipedia: A Mari usque ad Mare)
Alexander Colville is great artist and, among all of his paintings, this is one I truly like.
Alex Colville
It has what I call definition. There is nothing impressionistic about it. It is a portrait of a dog drawn and painted with precision. Yet the dog could not possibly have been posing. It could be that it was photographed, but I doubt it. For painters, photographs are best used to record lightness and darkness. Yet, Colville is definitely familiar with the anatomy of dogs running, or dogs sleeping in front of a fireplace.
I also like this painting because it features a beautiful dog. There are people for whom the subject of the painting is important. I love sailboats, I love paintings of elegant interiors, paintings of flowers and, obviously, paintings featuring gorgeous dogs: man’s best friend.
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I am certain Mr Colville spent a great deal of time perfecting his Hound in Field, but the composition of this painting is simple: a sloping line and curved lines (the dog), then, above the sloping line, barely articulated dark trees that give depth to the painting. The sloping line at the back is intersected by a sloping line in the portrait of the dog. And there are several golden sections. As for the colours, the painting has a monochromatic quality: black and greenish gold and white, but nothing busy.
However, the positioning of the dog is simply extraordinary. If the dog were not turning around, he would fall off the painting, except that Colville is not letting him do so. He is simply bringing to dog back to a more central point, yet not central. The dynamics of this painting are superb.
In 1942, the year he graduated from Mount Allison and married Rhoda Wright, Colville enrolled in the Canadian army, working as a war artist from 1944 until six months or so after the end of the war. He met his future wife in art class. There were only ten students in the class. They had four children.
Colville taught art at Mount Allison from 1946 until 1963 and then devoted his life to his paintings, except that he moved his family to Wolfville, Nova Scotia in the early 1970s. He was made Chancellor of Acadia University, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He now lives in Wolfville.
For further information and to see several paintings, visit Colville House, by clicking.
Crack Pot, watercolour by Anna Syperek (click on the picture to enlarge it)
Many years ago, I invited Anna Syperek to share lunch with me at my home, in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. I loved her watercolours as well as her etchings and I had begun to paint. I hoped she would look at my work.
She had suggestions to make that were extremely helpful. I had taken several courses on the history of art and a few lessons on how to do watercolours. I therefore knew the basics, but she told me that my work was good enough for me to start painting seriously, and I did.
Antigonish’s Art Gallery is Lyghtesome Gallery. So I started bringing paintings to the Gallery. It’s a very friendly place and many of its artists are very accomplished. Well, there I was showing little paintings at Lyghtesome. I participated in Group exhibitions because, usually, I was also teaching.
I have since left Antigonish. I was overworked out of the classroom, and my case manager at the Insurance Company fooled me into thinking that my application for permanent disability benefits had been accepted. She did not relay to me the instructions of the doctor she sent me to for a second opinion. He had asked her to tell me not to leave my home as I would recover. She said nothing.
When I was told me to leave the classroom, I presented a doctor’s note, but the Chair of my department did not take it seriously. I therefore dragged myself to the classroom and completed my assignment for that particular academic year. So my case manager at the Insurance Company decided I was an imaginary invalid and punished me by not letting me know that I would be able to return to work after an indefinite leave of absence. And she had not told me not sell my house.
When I left Antigonish, I no longer wanted to leave, but the process was in motion. So I moved. In other words, I was worked out of the classroom and fooled into selling my house.
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However, I enjoy blogging. There are days when I can write an informative post. And there are days, like today, when posting a lovely picture and remembering friends is all I can do, which is fine. And now I have new friends: other bloggers and readers. You are a very fine group of people. You even forgive me when I make mistakes. Besides, the internet is a miracle. Thank you WordPress.
This is the link to Lyghtesome Gallery: just press on Lyghtesome Gallery. I am not sending my work to the Gallery anymore, but I just might… Here is Anna’s website: Anna Syperek, CSPWC (Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour).
Micheline's Blog 