More monuments, says Mayor

Gatineau stalks its history

Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin wants Gatineau to pay tribute to certain historical figures connected to the city, especially the controversial figure Louis Riel.

“We need to pay tribute to Louis Riel. It’s one of the conversations we will have on projects in the future. Gatineau lacks certain monuments. For example, an official monument for “the allumettières” (workers) and for Louis Riel, especially on the site where he hid,” said Pedneaud-Jobin, November 16, the day in history John A. MacDonald’s government hung Louis Riel for treason.

The Métis leader has often been portrayed differently by historians in English-Canada than in French-Canada. In French-Canada, Riel is celebrated as a hero, while English-Canada used to paint him as a traitor. Today, Riel is seen as one of Canada’s founding figures by both sides. He had been accused of killing Orangeman Thomas Scott, for which he was hanged.

The pro-Protestant Orange Order, active in Ontario and in West Quebec, objected to Riel’s freedom. According to historian Simon Jolivet, Orange lodges existed in Hull and in Aylmer, as well as in a dozen smaller municipalities in Outaouais. Orange parades alternated through the small towns of the region year after year until dying out in the last twenty years.

Following Scott’s murder, tensions ran high between the Orangemen and the French community. A lodge might have existed in Hull, but Louis Riel supporters certainly outweighed the Orangemen.

According to Raymond Ouimet’s historic piece, Louis Riel et ses complicités outaouaises, a movement supporting Riel existed in Hull and in surrounding towns where some of his extended family resided. Ouimet states that a few West Quebec residents helped Riel hide while he was being tracked by the police.

The mayor wants the general lack of monuments in Gatineau corrected. “This movement of support for Louis Riel -- and the allumettières (workers) -- are important moments in our history,” he stated. “We need to celebrate those women who formed the allumettières, who defended the rights of women workers and all labourers and who founded the first women-workers union. There are no (official) places to remember them.”

The allumettières workers laboured in E.B. Eddy’s big match factories in Hull in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The women, who were paid little, pressured management to improve working conditions by organizing union activities and labour protests. Certain sectors of Aylmer and Hull, where they lived, have been declared communities honouring these women.