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 On September 7, 2006, the QFL will commemorate an unfortunate event that took place in October 1906 when two workers were gunned down by detectives hired by the very powerful MacLaren Company, while they were attempting to unionize workers at the Buckingham plant.
The QFL Outaouais Regional Council (Conseil régional de la FTQ en Outaouais) in cooperation with the City of Gatineau will inaugurate the Bélanger-Thériault monument at 10:30 a.m., at the Old Market Square on Main Street in Buckingham. The President and General Secretary of the FTQ, Henri Massé and René Roy, will attend the ceremony to officially turn over the monument to the City of Gatineau, which will be represented by Mayor Marc Bureau and municipal councillor Jocelyne Houle.
THE HISTORY BEHIND THE BÉLANGER-THÉRIAULT MONUMENT
On October 8, 1906, Thomas Bélanger and François Thériault, who were President and Secretary respectively of Local 7 of the Union des journaliers de Buckingham, were lured into a trap and shot dead by detectives hired by the MacLaren Company. Several militants were injured and imprisoned. The city was occupied by soldiers, and the company circulated a black list that prohibited the hiring of union militants and their descendants in the area. Close to one quarter of the population had to leave town. The employer had just nipped in the bud an initial attempt to unionize workers in its employ. A rigged trial found innocent people guilty and absolved the guilty of any wrongdoing. The Conseil régional de la FTQ en Outaouais wants to immortalize the sacrifice of these two “martyrs du travail” (or labour martyrs which was initially inscribed on their funerary monument) by erecting a monument sculpture in their memory in Buckingham.
CONCEPT OF THE MONUMENT SCULPTURE
An artist-sculptor from the Outaouais, Pierrette Lambert, created the sculpture, a steel plate measuring 2.75 m by 4.6 m covered with superimposed faces, which evokes memories of the companions of Bélanger and Thériault, who themselves are represented by two empty spaces symbolizing their deaths. Two log drivers on a logjam remind us of the hard and dangerous work done by our ancestors. The monument will be the key exhibit in a square measuring approximately 230 square metres. The inauguration will take place on September 7, 2006 at 10:30 a.m. Please make it a point to be there, as it will mark a unique and historic union event.
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