Possible children's bodies in Duplessis-era 'pig' cemetery halt plans to excavate Quebec's Liquor Board

Quebec's alcohol council – the SAQ – has halted excavations at a Montreal warehouse – dubbed the “pig cemetery” – after questions arose about the existence of an “unofficial” grave where the bodies of children from the era of the “Duplessis orphans” may lie. .

A joint letter from the Comité des orphelins et orphelines institutionalisées de Duplessis and the Kanien'keha:ka Kahnisensera (Mohawk Mothers) advised SAQ of its distribution at 1501 rue Futailles in Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Montreal. The Jean de Dieu Hospital housed children in the mid-20th century, an era sometimes known as “Le Grande Noirceur”.

“Despite the 'mass exhumation' of the cemetery in 1967 and the transfer of the bodies to the Cimetière de l'Est, which became Saint-François d'Assise, further human remains were found during the construction of buildings for the community. des Alcools du Québec was found in 1975, indicating that not all the bones had been exhumed in 1967,” the letter said. “Further expansion work in the SAQ Distribution Center car park in 1999 led to the accidental discovery of human remains. The SAQ admitted at the time that its technicians and engineers had no special expertise in forensics.”

According to Clemens Beaulieu Gendron, the SAQ's media relations officer, the excavation was suspended after the SAQ received the letter.

“One thing's for sure: We want to do everything right,” Gendron said.

2000 corpses in “Pig Cemetery”.

Named after former Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis, the Duplessis orphans were mistakenly labeled “insane” by government doctors and transferred to a mental hospital run by the Catholic Church between 1949 and 1956. Some of the children who are called orphans have living parents but were born. unmarried or suffering from severe poverty and given to the church.

Some of these “orphans” wound up at Saint-Jean-de-Dieu, run by the Soeurs de la Charite de la Providence.

In a 1980 court document, sister Marie Paule Levacke said that between 1873 and 1958, about 2,000 bodies were buried in the cemetery, many of which were unclaimed by their families.

The orphans called it the “pig burial ground” because of its proximity to the public utility buildings.

“This is what the graveyard is called in Duplessis' Orphans; they call it the pig cemetery because unfortunately the children were also placed in a pig with animal waste,” said Philippe Blouin, a lecturer at McGill University. “It simply shows that the mentality of the time and the Catholic understanding of children born out of wedlock and orphans as 'children of the devil' did not have the same standards of respect for these human remains.”

Both groups believe there may still be Indigenous and non-Indigenous children on the site.

“A Deep Scar in Quebec's History”

Blouin is working with two groups and said there has never been a public inquiry into what happened to the children, who are part of a “deep scar in Quebec history.”

“There was no admission of guilt on the part of the Quebec government in creating this situation,” he said. “At that time, orphans were not necessarily orphans, a very small percentage actually had no parents, as all children born out of wedlock were taken in by the state and often given up for adoption or use in medical practice, unfortunately. , especially psychiatry, at the time in Quebec.”

Former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard issued a public apology to the orphans on March 4, 1999, but “without blaming or holding anyone legally responsible.”

Both groups want information about excavations to be made public, a qualified bioarchaeologist present during any work, and a local cultural observer appointed by the Kanien'kehá:ka Kahnistensera to be in place.

“Given the high probability of anonymous burials of Indigenous and non-Indigenous children at the site, we are seeking to establish a joint archaeological and forensic protocol to protect the human remains prior to excavation,” the letter said.

A similar installation was arranged during excavations during the operation of the former Royal Victoria Hospital.

“These survivors want closure and especially want the evidence of what happened to them to be protected,” Blouin said. “Duplessis orphans are paired with Mohawk mothers because they have identified a shared history of missing Indigenous children in Quebec's health care system, often renamed, often treated as orphans, and lumped together with orphans. ”