Bell tolls for Quebec City anniversary

Quebec celebrates 400th anniversary

Dozens of Winnipeggers gathered in St. Boniface last week to witness a ceremony re-enacting the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s arrival in Quebec City.

The re-enactment took place July 3 at Tache Promenade and came on the same day Quebec City celebrated its 400th anniversary. For members of the French-community in St. Boniface, it was a time to rejoice in their culture.

“St. Boniface is in many ways an ancestor of what was established with the Quebec colony 400 years ago by Samuel de Champlain on this day in 1608,” said Philippe Mailhot, executive director of the St. Boniface Museum.

“Essentially the French (colony) began 400 years ago and we’re still here continuing that commencement and continuing to expand on it.”

The day began with the actor playing de Champlain receiving an escort by soldiers from the La Verendrye Company at The Forks to the docks at Tache Promenade.

Monique LaCoste, a member of the planning committee with St. Boniface Celebrations 2008, said the crossing of the river was intended to be symbolic of Champlain’s first step onto Canadian soil.

“Champlain stepped off his canoe onto the grounds of what became Quebec. Of course, we are far away from there, but being that we are the birthplace of the French population in Western Canada we decided to recreate that moment,” LaCoste said.

Once at the docks, Champlain was led by pastor Abbe Edouard Bonnin inside the ruins of the St. Boniface Cathedral for a ceremonial ringing of the church bells commemorating Quebec City’s historic anniversary.

At 10 a.m., the exact time Champlain is thought to have landed in Quebec, more than 600 bell towers from across Canada rang out simultaneously in what was a “symbol of fraternity” uniting all Canadians.

“The harmonious resonance of the bells is to salute our shared history from the earliest settlements in New France to the present day,” LaCoste said.

The St. Boniface Cathedral was also used to highlight the essential role the church played in the development of the French language and the Catholic faith in Manitoba and the rest of Canada.

“Essentially what happened is after 1890, Manitoba had banned French as an official language in the legislature. It was more or less banned as a language for instruction in schools and Catholic schools were no longer supported by the province,” Mailhot said.

“The church had to more or less step up to the plate and be essentially the main institutional supporter of the French-speaking community and the Catholic community.”

Mailhot said the church did so by promoting religious order, constructing schools, as well as establishing seminaries and hospitals such as the St. Boniface Hospital founded by the Grey Nuns in the 1940s.

“The church played a strong role up until probably the 1960s when at that point the lay population began to assume stronger leadership roles in organizations,” Mailhot said.

“Soon after organizations like the Manitoba-Franco Society sprang forth, but up until then it was the church who assumed that leadership role.”