On pensait que la fille était bonne à rien': Fiola, 1917

• Author: Constance Backhouse
• Pages: 51-78



EChapterF







       

 

bloodbath sucking up millions of men, munitions, a nd supplies in the rot

   



the countryside for young recruits. In April a nd May, French crowds pelted

  

ice, and stones. While patriotic fervour held steady in English Canada, it





took centre stage.

          

    

Conscription Act        Globe newspaper ap

       

   

the woods, preferring to camp out than to risk compulsor y wartime serv

ice.  

 







     

ﾉﾆCarnalCrimes

exacerbating lingui stic and ethnic hostilities and making t he minority fran

cophone population even more anxious.

Not three weeks aer the passage of the Conscription Act, a group of

FrenchCanadian youthstooko fromVerdunon asightseeing spreePer

haps it was another way to rebel against the forces that were mounting to

press them into militar y service. There were eight of them: Léo Fiola, Al

bertLassondeGeorgesMollotArsèneLamontagneAntonioPaquinAlbert

ThivièrgeHenri PerroeandLéodore VenneTheyoungest waseighteen

the eldesttwentythre eAmongst them there weretwo automobilec hauf

feursonesteameroneplumberoneapprentice shoetackoperatorone

journeyman car penter, one munitions factory worker, and a butcher. They

came from the same small f rancophone neighbourhood in Verdun, where

they lived side by side and down the street from each other. These were the

sonsof skilledworkingclass families Only one of them, Léo Fiola, seems

to have been solidly middle class. His father owned a furn iture store in Ver

dun.It wasLéo Fiolascar aHudsonSuper Sixthatthe eightyoungmen

piledintoandheadedoutforQuébecCity

The event that drew them was the muchheralded completion of the

QuébecBridgeThetoweringed iceofconcreteand steeldesignedtospan

the banks of the St. Lawrence River had collapsed twice dur ing construc

tion, causing death and injury to nearly a hundred bridge workers. Twenty

yearsand one royalcommission aer itsrst conceptiont hebridge drew

massivecrowdseagertowatchthenalstageofcivilengineeringshuitième

merveille dumondeeighth wonderof the world Mondaymorning 

Septemberthece ntralspanwasoated outonpontoonsand gigantic

hydraulic jacks tried to haul it up into place between the cantilevered arms.

The operation would take a full thre e days to complete, and by evening the

eightyoungmenfromVerdunwerebored watchingandtooko toseethe

town. Their adventures overthe next seventeen hours oera fascinat ing

insight into the codes of masculi nity that governed a group of men looking

forsex adolescentmaleaitudestowardsfemale sexualitythe risktaking

behavi ourofyou ngworking classwom enandc orrupt ionwith inth ecrim i

nal justice system.

Sexual Assault in a Hudson Super Six

W  be en uppermost in mind, as the group circled t he

streetsof thecapitalcity between andpmonSeptemberlooking