Right in the middle of this green crater that is now the largest cemetery in Montreal, is it possible to feel the pulse of the world in which we live?
At the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery, everything is going wrong. The trees and vegetation, poorly maintained in recent years, appear all the more devastated as they were hit hard this spring by the ice storm. Everything is broken, upside down, slumped. Many mausoleums and tombstones have suffered for years from an obvious lack of care. Even with the best will, how to correct all this sloppiness?
Unable to reach an agreement with their employer, the cemetery workers have been on strike since January. The same goes for office workers, who have been on strike since September last year. During the pandemic and in its aftermath, the number of employees had been reduced. Nothing, of course, to help maintain the vast gardens, lawns, monuments.
Cemetery workers find today that there are too few of them to face the tasks that the weight of death places on their lives. They can’t. The means are lacking, they say, if only to offer substantial support to bereaved families. And their salaries have not been indexed in recent years. In other words, their purchasing power has melted.
Are they, as one might be tempted to believe too quickly, the only ones responsible for the general situation that prevails in this vast cemetery, one of the most beautiful in America?
This is not the first labor dispute experienced by this cemetery. Seen as things are taking shape, this is not likely to be the last either. Why the hell is it not possible to buy peace for good in the heart of this unique cemetery doubled as a public park?
Should we think about nationalizing such a place? This could represent a solution. The expropriation of the monks deserves in any case to be considered. A cemetery does not have to rely on devotees or benefit them and their social traps. In a nationalized cemetery, the religious emblems and the practices which accompany them could very well remain on the private funeral monuments.
Although times and our society have changed a lot, this very vast cemetery has remained, since 1854, the preserve of the Sulpicians, an aging religious community that has never ceased to cost the community fortunes. How can a place of such public interest continue to be attached to a private religious corporation?
The management of the affairs of this community is now placed under the direction of its branch from South America. It is under this new direction that the Sulpicians shut down their extremely wealthy Montreal archives in 2020, dismissing all their staff overnight. Experts had pleaded the urgency of nationalizing these cultural assets, for fear of seeing them be sold or disappear abroad. In theory, the State ended up protecting them, without however managing to ensure their full accessibility.
The Sulpicians have long been men of God coupled with businessmen. Their successive failures, until today, have constantly been caught up at great cost by a public safety net.
The grip of the Sulpicians on the Montreal universe goes far beyond the framework of spiritual affairs alone. In 1663, the Sulpicians obtained the whole island of Montreal for next to nothing. They enjoy the title of lords. They lay out streets as much as rules. They keep the accounts and charge the price. In their attics, bushels of grain are stored in quantity. Their cellars are full of wine.
To ensure their survival, they eat at all the racks. Mgr Étienne Montgolfier, uncle of the inventors of the hot air balloon, negotiates the maintenance of the Sulpicians under the new English regime. In exchange, these monks will contribute to inoculate in the population the ferments of a submission to the British crown. The Sulpicians even contributed to the erection in Montreal of the first monument in the entire Empire dedicated to the glory of Admiral Nelson. They bless this sailor for having inflicted a crushing defeat on Republican France at Trafalgar.
The state quickly knew that the rich, convoluted land titles of the Sulpicians were subject to interpretation. However, he tolerates them. And these robed men will continue to exert their influence even on the bread that we eat. For a long time, no one on the island of Montreal was authorized to own the mills needed to make flour. The Sulpicians will go so far as to prosecute those who wanted to free themselves from this odious domination that prevails even over food.
In the 1920s, the Sulpicians speculated. Their money swells the coffers of British Empire Steel and the Detroit United Railway. On the eve of the war, they got so entangled in wanting to stock market that they had to be put under guardianship. But, oh miracle! their slate is erased by an operation of the Holy Spirit of Maurice Duplessis. The State absorbs for them a debt equivalent to 134 million dollars today. In fact, the government will keep their heads above water like this over and over again. Yet the Sulpicians enjoyed enormous wealth and exemption from taxation. Today, Notre-Dame Cathedral, subsidized, remains one of the most visited private paying monuments in Montreal.
We have already paid a lot for the Sulpicians. With what results? Look at this cemetery, all upside down year after year, although it is one of the richest and most important spaces in our society. Why not come to nationalize it? Even the peace of cemeteries has a price.