The university is burning. Rue Saint-Denis in Montreal, a serious fire affects the main pavilion, located in the middle of the Latin Quarter. The flames threaten to explode a tank of alcohol of almost 1000 liters. The building risks being blown away. Fortunately, the worst was avoided. On November 22, 1919, there were still serious injuries.
When the smoke clears, all that remains of the public building is the walls, or almost nothing. At first with their arms hanging in the face of this ruin, university officials will hasten to launch a subscription campaign. In just a few months, more than $4 million was raised from the public. The equivalent of around 65 million in 2023.
The French-Canadian bourgeoisie and the clergy were the first to finance this reconstruction. The large French-Canadian diaspora in the United States as well as that of Ontario also contribute to the project. Everyone knows that the intellectual formation of an entire nation depends largely on it.
In the shadows, around the same time, a fight was taking place so that this branch of Laval University could stand on its own two feet in Montreal. “There will be a lot of quarrels between Laval University, the University of Montreal and the papacy in Rome over this quest for independence,” explains Professor Micheline Cambron. Can we imagine that the Pope finds himself immersed in discussions to find out what will become of an educational establishment on the banks of the St. Lawrence? However, this will be the case…
Professors Micheline Cambron and Daniel Poitras retrace these events and many other more recent ones in an imposing history of the University of Montreal. Richly illustrated, printed on glossy paper and bound in a hard cover, this book, entitled The University of Montreal. An urban and international history, has just been published in bookstores. The result of four years of cross-research at the request of the establishment, the work highlights the international networks on which this fundamental institution will rely very early on to understand the history of Montreal’s development.
A university at La Fontaine Park?
In 1920, the independence of the University of Montreal was acquired from Laval University. The educational institution obtains the right to acquire or sell real estate and create its own schools and faculties.
Too cramped in the old suburb near the Saint-Jacques church, the University of Montreal quickly considered, during the 1920s, redeploying elsewhere, but always in the name of “high Christian knowledge”. Where will its new buildings be built? There is talk of planting them at La Fontaine Park. However, some argue that it would be better to build it on a wooded slope of Mount Royal.
Those who favor the La Fontaine Park site argue, not without reason, that moving the university away from the French-speaking population is not likely to help the population as a whole. This will be the calculation made, many years later, by the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), which will be housed neither more nor less than on the very premises formerly occupied by the University of Montreal, in the heart of the so-called Latin district. Latin being the lingua franca of universities.
The plans for the new University of Montreal, finally erected on the mountain, will be entrusted to Ernest Cormier. The architect draws inspiration from the tradition of the French château and the Italian villa, mixed with modernist perspectives specific to Art Deco. Such a project takes time and money. It will take even more than expected, due to the economic crisis.
In The duty at that time, a newspaper then more Catholic than the Pope, the University was accused, in its development, of following the American model. She is denounced for her “materialism and excesses”. Why, unlike Laval University, does it accept money from foundations to help it develop? We must instead stick, we repeat in several very Catholic places, to an education adapted “to our mentality, to our needs”, within a rather narrow window…
Between the wars, the University was accused of all evils, including being in the service of communism! It is, above all, the reflection of a particular era and world. Daniel Poitras and Micheline Cambron, for example, published images of small anti-Semitic leaflets which we know circulated within the university in the early 1930s.
The development of studies
Mme Cambron says she was surprised by the international networks which, very early on, were formed for the benefit of studies and their development. “The University commits very early to negotiate the recognition of its diplomas abroad. There is also talk of sending students to study elsewhere so that they can return as teachers. »
Several foreign professors, particularly French, are invited to come and stay at the University of Montreal. “I wrongly believed that they were there mainly for reasons of prestige,” says Micheline Cambron. We realized that they had to give lessons, but also be in contact with small groups. » Among these, many women benefit from their teachings. “If women, in principle, are not admitted to higher education, the reality is quite different,” maintains the professor emeritus, in particular because of openings of this type.
Would there have been more women than we consider today on university benches? “There aren’t many!” But we were struck by the fact that in the photographs [de classe], one or two often appeared among groups of seven or eight students. We didn’t expect it. Which means that professors agreed to welcome women, to train them. » As for seeing their training recognized, that’s another story…
Women will still find themselves at the head of certain programs, although these are not considered among the most important. This is the case of Marie-Claire Daveluy, without whom the library science program would not exist. But also in so-called “public hygiene” programs.
“The University will recruit women. They are crucial for obtaining American subsidies, explains Micheline Cambron. They take evening classes in the summer. By insisting, some end up being accepted into regular classes. This goes against our sociological beliefs. But the fact is that there is a greater openness to the presence of women than we imagine. » In this regard, this book allows us to deconstruct some other commonplaces.
What training?
Officially, the University states that it does not receive any students other than those from traditional colleges, that is to say a minority of young men often from privileged backgrounds. “Another big surprise was discovering the backgrounds of several students. It’s not always easy. Let’s take the case of Brother Marie-Victorin. He didn’t do any studies. He is a pure autodidact, but he ends up at university. Let’s take again the case of Esdras Minville. When he went to the Hautes Études Commerciales, he was told that his training was insufficient. He’s on probation at most… and he’s going to become the director of HEC! »
Unlike Laval University, which goes it alone in the name of the sovereignty of the religious world, the University of Montreal does not mind the idea of being supported by public funds. For the development of science, this way of looking at things is crucial. If sciences develop first in Montreal, this would be largely due to the existence of educational establishments on the fringes of traditional colleges. At Mont-Saint-Louis college, Micheline Cambron recalls, students receive practical training that traditional colleges do not provide at all. “These are the people who then end up at Polytechnique! »
She also notes in passing that women are often much better trained in science than boys of the same age. Teachers, very quickly, will have to take this into account and act accordingly. “This is how women find themselves in science classes”, particularly with Marie-Victorin. To this it must be added that the University of Montreal promotes a certain openness to social classes, believes Mme Cambron. “A fact that we didn’t expect either,” she observes.
The idea that the University of Montreal has always been a quiet establishment, in opposition to the image projected on UQAM, does not stand up to a careful examination of its history, believe the authors of this book which goes back as far as to the student uprisings of 2012.
From the beginning of the University of Montreal, “there has been a dynamic of protest which results in demonstrations. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that the students are in the very heart of the city. They constitute a sort of ferment. »
The presence of these students for the development of Montreal’s cultural life is also crucial. “One day we should make a list of writers and journalists who have worked for the student newspaper of the University of Montreal,” says Micheline Cambron. It’s incredible ! »