'This is Acadie' - P.E.I. celebrating 300 years of French being spoken

By Daniel Brown (daniel.brown@theguardian.pe.ca) Local Journalism Initiative Reporter and published in The Chronicle-Herald on May 08, 2020 Updated: May 09 at 6 a.m.

Acadian historian Georges Arsenault holds a photo of his maternal grandfather's grandparents, Léon Poirier and Marie Bernard. they were married in Tignish in 1846 and had 16 children, six of whom died in infancy. In 1915, they celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary, and Léon died later that year at the age of 96. He was a great-grandchild of Pierre Poirier. Photo credit - Daniel Brown/Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 

Pierre Poirier had a loaf of bread to thank for getting him out of prison.

It was the summer of 1755. Recently wed and living near what's now Sackville, N.B., Poirier was one of many Acadian men in his region invited to a British-run information session regarding land.

Georges Arsenault, a P.E.I. historian and descendent of Pierre, confirmed that this was just a ploy.

"Once they got there they were imprisoned," he said.

The men were held at Fort Lawrence, N.S. during what was the beginning of what has since become known as the Great Upheaval. For about three months, Pierre waited to be forcibly deported, while his wife, Marguerite, fled to escape the same fate.

They were just some of the many early Acadians whose plight played a role in shaping the Maritime provinces. This year, Prince Edward Island is celebrating the tricentennial anniversary of these first French settlers.

"In 1720, that's when the first settlement was opened on the Island," Arsenault said. "French has been spoken on the Island for 300 years."

It might mark the first time this centennial is recognized on P.E.I. That's because it wasn't until the 1960s that the French language started to become more celebrated across the Maritimes – a shyness that may have been influenced by the hardships their ancestors faced, Arsenault said.

Léon Poirier and Marie Bernard got married in Tignish in 1846. They had 16 children, six of whom died in infancy. In 1915, they celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary, and Léon died later that year at the age of 96. He was a great-grandchild of Pierre Poirier. - Contributed

Pierre was unable to be with Marguerite during his incarceration, but some of the prisoner's wives were occasionally allowed to bring them food. With a little planning, one of these women baked her husband a large, inconspicuous loaf of bread.

Little did the British soldiers know that she had hidden a knife inside of its crust.

The prisoners used it to dig a 12-foot tunnel underneath the walls of their confinement. On a stormy October night, about 85 of them, including Poirier, managed to make their escape and avoid being deported,

He went straight home to his village to reunite with Marguerite, who by this point was about eight months pregnant with their first child. But alas, the community was deserted.

Having grown up in the community of Abram-Village, Arsenault has always valued his family's history. He believes it's important to know because it wasn't as well documented when he was in school.

"When I went to school, I couldn't speak French," he said.

His years of Acadian research led him to publish a few books, his most recent being Illustrated History of the Acadians of Prince Edward Island. It was written to act as a resource for people wanting to learn more about this 300-year journey, he said.

"There's about a quarter of Islanders who claim they have French ancestry," he said. "I'd like to encourage people to read up on the history."

During Pierre's journey, he met some Mi'kmaq people in the area, who Arsenault notes had resided in the Maritimes well before the colonies. They informed Pierre that the people of his village fled to Cocagne, N.B.

"That's where it's told Pierre found his wife," Arsenault said.

Having reunited at long last, they arranged to set sail for the colony of Île Saint-Jean as refugees. The same month Pierre escaped incarceration, Marguerite also gave birth to their daughter, Rosalie.

They settled there until 1758, when they were forced away to escape deportation a second time. Eventually they were able to return and settle down for good, but many Acadians still found it hard to secure land and stable work because of their language, Arsenault said.

DID YOU KNOW?
Many P.E.I. communities inherited their names from the early French settlers, Arsenault said. These include:

Morell
Crapaud
Souris
Bay Fortune
While some used to have French names but have since been translated, such as:
St. Peter's Harbour (Havre-Saint-Pierre)
Wood Islands (Île à Bois)
Cape Bear (Cap à l'Ours)
North River (Rivière du Nord)

Alvina, left, and Alcide Bernard lead the parade and showcase their Acadian pride during the Acadian Festival in Evangeline in 1992. - Photo credit, Georges Arsenault/Special to The Guardian

Today, Île Saint-Jean is known as P.E.I., and French is looked at much differently.

P.E.I. Lt.-Gov. Antionette Perry is part of a committee planning celebrations for this year’s Acadie 300 Î.-P.-É. While it has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be events offered to some extent soon, likely via virtual platforms, she said.

Like Arsenault, she is a descendent of Pierre Poirier.

"We're all connected some way, there," she said.

That's because, according to Arsenault's research, Pierre was likely the first to change his surname as it was difficult for the English to pronounce. He changed it to Perry, Arsenault said.

Pierre and Marguerite's lineage still lives on today. Their children were among the pioneers of Tignish, and many of their descendants made names for themselves, whether as the first Maritime Acadian to be ordained a priest or the first elected into the House of Commons.

Acadian on both sides, Perry is grateful for the sense of freedom she feels in living her heritage on P.E.I., where the French language has since become a vibrant and lively part of Island life, she said.

"I know that I would not be able to live my culture as fully as anywhere else in the world. Because this is Acadie, after all."

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GUEST OPINION: Many connections to Holland

As published in The Guardian on June 23, 2020

This clipping from Jan. 26, 1943, shows Princess Julianna of the Netherlands at her Ottawa home with her children. - islandnewspapers.ca - Contributed

Travel restrictions this spring limited overseas activities that would have involved Islanders as part of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Holland, yet it remains important to recognize the close connections that exists and grows between the Island and Holland. Within agriculture alone, studies show that 53.8 per cent of Prince Edward Island's immigrant farm population in 2006 was from Holland.

Canada and Holland also share a unique royal connection as our respective heads of state have been primarily women for the last century and a half. In Holland, three queens have served in the role for 133 of the last 140 years while Canada has seen two queens serve for 132 of the last 183 years.

During the Second World War, Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, third daughter of Princess (later Queen) Juliana and Prince Bernhard was born in Ottawa cementing a bond with Canadians celebrated annually with tulips. In 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs in gratitude for Canadian hospitality in sheltering the future Queen Juliana and her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Out of this grew the Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa. Festival founder and photographer Malak Karsh appreciated that royal gesture of thanks, "The gift of tulips brought colour back into a very gray world. We celebrate this gift, the spirit of spring renewal."

P.E.I. also played a war time role as CFCY radio station in Charlottetown was the location Princess Juliana used in 1941 to convey a message of hope to Dutch citizens at home as well as a birthday greeting to her mother in Britain. The recorded message was intended to bolster hope for the Dutch Resistance and those attempting to survive the harsh Nazi occupation. After the message was recorded at CFCY, it was broadcast over shortwave radio while the Dutch government-in-exile, headed by her mother Queen Wilhelmina, was based at Stratton House near Piccadilly in London.

Unlike the Vichy French government which in defeat accepted a policy of collaboration with Hitler, Holland was the third largest oil producer in the world and crucial war resources were at stake. When Prime Minister Dirk Jan de Geer proposed a return to the Netherlands and a similar approach, Queen Wilhelmina realized that collaboration with Nazi Germany would mean the oil-rich Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) would be surrendered to Japan and fuel the Axis war machine. A puppet government she would not accept; as head of state she replaced key members with a cabinet prepared to lead their occupied nation from a distance.

Lt. Col. Keith Rogers was the founder of CFCY and the story of the 1941 royal recording session was told by his daughter, Betty Rogers Large in her award-winning book Out of Thin Air in 1989. Full disclosure – Betty was my mother-in-law and after learning of the story, I sent a copy of her book to the Dutch royal family and received an appreciative response.

Many special tulips have been in bloom across the province thanks to the Liberation 75 organization which exists to generate celebration ideas related to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Europe. The colourful displays across Canada have been a fitting way to remember the personal sacrifice of more than 7,600 Canadians who died in the Netherlands as well as those in the larger European operations. After a long fall and winter of 1944 leading to the renewal of spring in 1945 tulips have become a symbolic reminder of how Canadians liberated Holland following the “hunger winter” when even tulip bulbs were resorted to as food for residents.

Great respect for Canadians continues today in Holland with various school events; family connections abound both from the 1,886 Dutch women who married Canadian soldiers after the liberation, and also among those families who found a new beginning in Canada through immigration since.

Veseys in York previously honoured the 70th anniversary with 100,000 tulip bulbs given to organizations across Canada for planting. John Barrett of Veseys commented at the time that, "We're sort of hoping to try and keep that memory alive in Canada to the same degree that it's been kept alive in Holland." Hopefully this year will bring more awareness of the connections between Holland and Canada that grew from such difficult circumstances. Kudos to everyone working hard to commemorate this milestone.


Ian Scott is a past executive director of the P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation who lives in Charlottetown.

GUEST OPINION: 1918 and today

Published: May 11, 2020 -- by The Guardian, Charlottetown, PEI -- Ian Scott, Guest opinion

The Spanish influenza epidemic on P.E.I. led the provincial health officer to close schools, cancel worship services and prohibit public gatherings. A notice was published on page 2 of the Oct. 26, 1919 Guardian edition. - Contributed

Guardian coverage has mentioned two interrelated topics: past epidemics (April 8), and the strong leadership bringing us through the current time. Readers may also be interested in knowing that 400 Islanders died with the pandemic influenza of 1918 (aka the Spanish flu). As many Islanders died within months on peaceful P.E.I. as had died in four full years of the First World War – the bloodiest war the world had yet seen.

Perhaps a few names, first published by Boyde Beck, will put a face on those Islanders who died in the 1918 pandemic.

Nan Downey, a nurse at the Prince Edward Island Hospital, died nine days after falling ill; she was just 28 and before it was over, two doctors and several more nurses would die. Frank Cameron went to work at the Bank of Commerce on Monday but was too sick to work by Wednesday and dead by Sunday, at age 25. Mrs. Horace Smith a mother of five, died as her husband lay recovering from war wounds in England. James Trainor the well liked, 36- year-old barber, left a wife and five children. Multiply those four tragic stories 100 times and you get a sense of the family impact in every community across our close-knit province.



Unfortunately some local voices that could have supported the push to defeat the disease tended to diminish its impact and considered it just another seasonal flu or bad cold. We now know the enemy was an H1N1 virus that would eventually kill in various waves at least 50 million people worldwide. To get a sense of how deadly, one isolated Alaska village saw 72 of the 80 adult inhabitants dead in five days.

Fast forward 102 years and the leadership we see across our country in public health officers who include many talented women with great ability and knowledge. They are an example of choices made for careers in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and medicine) which require advanced degrees and years of study, something that was not always available to young women. Dr. Bonnie Henry in B.C., who has deep Island roots, is the daughter of Bill and Susan Henry of Charlottetown and is a graduate of Dalhousie. Cutting her teeth working for the World Health Organization and Toronto Public Health with SARS, Ebola, and H1N1, she is widely recognized for her leadership in B.C.

Our own Dr. Heather Morrison’s career as a UPEI graduate and Rhodes scholar was well covered in Jim Day’s article on April 25. The two continue to play exemplar roles in “bookending the country” if you will, and are examples of successful career choices in STEM fields that are making a difference for the public. Thankfully, with the benefit of science and public health policies built on knowledge of pandemics in the past, we are in good hands – but don’t forget to wash yours.


Ian Scott is a past executive director of the P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation who lives in Charlottetown.

Operating room at the old Charlottetown Hospital [pre-1920]. Contributed photo/Public Archives and Records Office, Acc2320/32-12