On pensait que la fille était bonne à rien': Fiola, 1917
Author | Constance Backhouse |
Pages | 51-78 |
EChapterF
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CarnalCrimes
exacerbating lingui stic and ethnic hostilities and making t he minority fran
cophone population even more anxious.
Not three weeks aer the passage of the Conscription Act, a group of
FrenchCanadian youthstooko fromVerdunon asightseeing spreePer
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
bertLassondeGeorgesMollotArsèneLamontagneAntonioPaquinAlbert
ThivièrgeHenri PerroeandLéodore VenneTheyoungest waseighteen
the eldesttwentythre eAmongst them there weretwo automobilec hauf
feursonesteameroneplumberoneapprentice shoetackoperatorone
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
sonsof skilledworkingclass 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 wasLéo Fiolascar aHudsonSuper Sixthatthe eightyoungmen
piledintoandheadedoutforQuébecCity
The event that drew them was the muchheralded completion of the
QuébecBridgeThetoweringed iceofconcreteand steeldesignedtospan
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
yearsand one royalcommission aer itsrst conceptiont hebridge drew
massivecrowdseagertowatchthenalstageofcivilengineeringshuitième
merveille dumondeeighth wonderof the world Mondaymorning
Septemberthece ntralspanwasoated outonpontoonsand 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
eightyoungmenfromVerdunwerebored watchingandtooko toseethe
town. Their adventures overthe next seventeen hours oera fascinat ing
insight into the codes of masculi nity that governed a group of men looking
forsex adolescentmaleaitudestowardsfemale sexualitythe risktaking
behavi ourofyou ngworking classwom enandc orrupt ionwith inth ecrim i
nal justice system.
Sexual Assault in a Hudson Super Six
W be en uppermost in mind, as the group circled t he
streetsof thecapitalcity between andpmonSeptemberlooking
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