My grandfather Jules Crepeau, young. This is the same pic used in Michele Dagenais's book about Montreal City Hall in the first half of the century. Des Pouvoirs et des Hommes.
I scanned the book a while back and just took another look, as I write Milk and Water the free ebook about Montreal in 1927, using my grandfather, Jules, Director of City Services and my husband's grandfather, Thomas, President of Laurentian Spring Water as main characters.
Well, I dunno.
According to Dagenais, my grandfather's position was created in 1921 as an answer to Civic Corruption, patronage, pork barrel politics, I think they call it.
My summary: Elected city officials always used their influence over the budget to buy votes, but by the end of the 1800's this was bugging some people, because the City had grown hugely as had its budget - and it had grown toward the East (because of WATER supply) and now the City Council was more French than English. Another problem, there was a turnover of elected officials every election, causing a problem of continuity of infrastructure projects. (Like all this has changed, eh?)
So reformers, led by Mr Herbert Ames (the privy guy and author of the City Below the Hill, about Montreal poverty in 1887) pushed for a change. A compromise was reached and another level of bureaucracy was created, an Executive Committee with a liaison guy, the Director of Services, my grandfather.
Hmm.
So then in January 1923 (I got the date wrong in an earlier post) a Committee of 16, a lobby group launched post war, and only concerned with PROSTITUTION, decided they were getting nowhere lobbying in the usual way, so they started talking about the drug problem among prostitutes and had a Montreal doctor give a speech before the Canadian Club, condemning City Hall and the Police, saying they not only tolerated this addiction, but promoted it.
So that launched the Coderre Inquiry, where my grandfather was specifically named by Juge Coderre as someone who controlled the Chief of Police and who forced policeman to turn a blind eye to by-law infractions. Coderre seems miffed that my grandfather's job exists at all. He sees no job description in the Charter. The Chief of Police says Jules is his boss.
(So it's a bit complicated? Isn't it. Maybe Coderre, a former Alderman, wanted the system returned to the old way.)
And then a W.E. Raney, Prebyterian, anti-alcohol, anti-gambling, anti smiling on Sunday, you name it, goes to give testimony to a Senate Hearing on Prohibition and re-reads a report from the Montreal Star about the Coderre Inquiry Final Report.
My grandfather forces cops to let underage kids into theatres.. that's what my grandfather is guilty of.
Well, I just gotta figure out what my grandfather thought about his job... (for he'll be defending it to Mr. Wells, a founder of Montreal Rotary Club - one of the members of the Committee of Sixteen.)
For my first book, Threshold Girl I've did a lot of research on Ames and on the Social Evil (and how it informed the lives of 'good' girls like Edith and Flora and Marion Nicholson...For instance, working women had a hard time finding a place to live in the city as they couldn't live alone or in groups. And rooming house matrons wanted references and they lorded it over these grown women lest they be accused of running a bawdy house. (Disorderly House, they are called here.)
As far as I can see, there is no street named after Herbert Ames in Montreal, but there is a little street and a little park named after my grandfather, in Ahunsic.
From what I can see (and I've already written this into my play) the only result of this Coderre Inquiry was to have the lawful closing time of dance clubs moved back to 12.am...Raney certainly believed all bad stuff happened after 12.am.)
Meanwhile, I'll have to get in my grandmother's famous line to her daughters (passed on to me through her youngest." "You look like a girl from de Bullion Street.
Up until recently I didn't even know what it meant, exactly. It meant you look like a whore.
