On February 15, 1839, five patriots sentenced to death following the Rebellions of Lower Canada were hanged at the Pied-du-Courant prison, an event which, according to the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society (SSJB) of Montreal, n is not emphasized enough.
This is what General President Marie-Anne Alepin insisted on in an interview with The Press, Tuesday. According to her, it is time for Quebec to dedicate a “real commemoration” to this event.
“We hammer home the importance of this date every year, insists Mme Aleppo. This date is one of the most traumatic in the history of Quebec. In addition to the people who were hanged, hundreds were arrested. These victims took a long time to recover from everything that happened. Children, friends, wives, families have been affected. »
For meme Alepin, it is time that the official authorities, and more particularly the National Assembly, the schools and the media, do more to publicize not only the events that took place that day, but also what happened before as downstream.
She gives the example of the Six Counties Assembly, a gathering of a few thousand patriots from six counties on the south shore of Montreal on October 23 and 24, 1837. as if we were communicating in another language,” she laments.
PHOTO BY VICTOR DIAZ LAMICH PROVIDED BY SSJB MONTREAL
The General President of the Montreal SSJB, Marie-Anne Alepin
She also recalls that 58 patriots were deported to Australia, including Joseph Marceau, who settled permanently in this country and had many descendants. “A section of the SSJB has been created in Australia with the objective of making known what these people have bequeathed there,” says Ms.me Aleppo.
If she is delighted that, each year, the green-white-red flag flies from the flagpole of the parliament on the occasion of National Patriots’ Day, she believes that more can be done. “As a people, we are due to have a real commemoration and talk about it more in our institutions. »
On February 15, 2023, 184 years after the events, Mme Alepin will take part in various commemorative activities, including the Rassemblement pour un pays sovereign dinner, where five guests will be honoured, including the three Parti Québécois deputies in the National Assembly.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, Pascal Bérubé and Joël Arseneau will receive patriotic Grandes Palmes d’or for their refusal to take the oath to King Charles III. Frédéric Lacroix will receive the Chevalier-de-Lorimier prize for his defense of French, while Stefan Allinger will receive the Louis-Cyr prize for his work in creating Quebec national teams in all sports.
Toponymy
A quick check of The Press shows that the commemoration of the memory of the five patriots hanged on February 15, 1839 is very uneven in the toponymy of Quebec. If the name of Chevalier de Lorimier finds its place in 13 places (streets, parks, etc.) of Quebec, those of his four companions have much less resonance.
Pierre-Rémi Narbonne gave his name to two streets in Montreal, in the boroughs of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles and Saint-Léonard. Amable Daunais also gave his name to a street in the borough of Ville-Marie, and François Nicolas gave his to a park in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. As for Charles Hindenlang, his name does not appear anywhere.