Even though Juge Boyer declared no one to blame for the Laurier Palace Theatre Fire in 1927, after his exhaustive inquiry, Mayor Camillien Houde milked it for all he could in the 1930 era.
He made a 'clique' speech in April 1930 (five months before my grandfather, Jules Crepeau, the Director of Services was forced to resign over the Montreal Water and Power purchase). The speech was reported in both the French and English press.
And it gives the real reason why my grandfather, the top ranking City Civil Servant, was forced to tender his resignation after 42 years of service at City Hall.
I am writing a play Milk and Water about Montreal in 1927 that features my grandfather.
Houde said he wanted to get rid of the cliques at City Hall. When people accused him of just wanting to replace one clique with another he said "Mine is not the clique that has done the damage at City Hall. Mine did not favour the Montreal Water and Power Deal. My clique is not responsible for the typhoid epidemic or the Laurier Palace Fire. Nobody calls for vengeance against us." (This was spoken in French, no doubt and translated by the reporter from the Montreal Gazette.)
Ah Politics. As ridiculous and nefarious then as it is now. Of course that's why I am writing Milk and Water, a play about 1927 Montreal using my grandfather and my husband's grandfather (Thomas Wells, President of Laurentian Spring Water) as main characters.
A few months later, during the Council Meeting where my grandfather's letter of resignation was debated, a rowdy session, Houde also managed to make reference to the Laurier Palace Fire.
Of course, ridding Montreal of the established cliques wasn't that hard. The Chairman of the Executive Council since 1921, Alderman Brodeur, died of a heart attack in November 1927 (in New York, in a car sitting beside Mayor Martin) so that probably paved the way for Houde's surprise election win. I'm only guessing.
This Brodeur deemed the most powerful man in Montreal, in his obit. It is likely he who my grandfather served.
