The Richard Riot is generally considered the firstexplosion of French-Canadian nationalism, the beginning of asocial and political dynamic that shapes Canada to this day

An instant after the slap, Orlando spun the fan aroundand socked him in the jaw, scattering teeth like jujubes. Therewere shouts, invective, a rumbling in the Forum. The tear gascame 30 seconds later.

Montreal was aghast.

Whenever he stormed a goaltender,Richard's glare could be seen from the top row of the Forum--andin taverns for hundreds of miles around, where the predominantlyFrench-speaking Quebecois listening to the game on the radio hada clear picture of the man whom newspapermen covering theCanadiens had raised to mythical status

Smoke from a tear-gas canister haddriven thousands of hockey fans into the streets, sparking afour-hour rampage that yielded the requisite fires, shatteredwindows, looted stores, overturned cars and 137 arrests. Sportsriots have become commonplace, but the one in '55 was like noother because one of its central figures, Maurice Richard, was

Good to his word, though, Richard returned the next season to lead the Habs to the Stanley Cup championship, the first of five consecutive championships they would win before Richard retired in 1960 — a convincing vindication.

The mob — for by now it had become a mob — headed eastward down St. Catherine Street’s shopping district. They shattered display windows and carried away what they could. They crashed windows of banks and the post office. They terrified patrons of a restaurant and bar with the objects they flung through windows. They pulled cabbies from their taxis and beat them. Twelve policemen and 25 civilians suffered injuries.

Forty-five, maybe 60 seconds later — at 9:11 p.m. — the bomb exploded. Twenty-five feet to Campbell’s left, a canister of tear gas detonated by Latreille’s group from the auto repair shop. The acrid smoke in the building gnawed the throats and scorched the eyes of those nearby. Suddenly, fear gripped the crowd. What

The people of Montreal took Campbell’s punishment personally. A French-Canadian in the offices at The Montreal Gazette wept openly. A city bus driver was so distraught by the ruling he missed a flashing railway signal and almost killed his passengers. “No sports decision ever hit the Montreal public with such impact. It seemed to strike at the very heart and soul of the city,” Sidney Katz observed in Maclean’s.

Richard knew his temper meant trouble but felt defenseless against it. “When I’m hit, I get mad and I don’t know what I do,” he confided in one writer. “Before each game, I think about my temper and how I should control it, but as soon as I get on the ice I forget all that.”

Yet Richard had a dark side. His intensity sometimes provoked violence. His tantrums had become as legendary as his goals.

At times, he appeared superhuman. Like that night in December 1944 when he showed up at the Forum exhausted from moving furniture all day into his family’s new apartment — then scored five goals and added three assists, setting the NHL record for most points in a single game.

The Garden crowd is angry. Boston police come to the locker room. They want to arrest Richard for assault, to throw him in jail for the night. Montreal coach Dick Irvin blocks the entry to the Canadiens’ dressing room.

For five minutes, the tempest rages. The crowd, on its feet, cannot believe the madness before them. They’ve seen fights over the Garden’s past three decades in the days when players swung their sticks and fists more liberally, but nothing like this, nothing as determined and wild.

Richard thinks Thompson, who once played for the Bruins himself, holds him so Laycoe can hit him.

Laycoe lunges at Richard. His stick blade clips the Rocket above the left ear and opens a gash. The blood stains his scalp.

Out on the street, the largest riot since Conscription was passed in 1944 (bringing in the draft for the final year of the Second World War) broke out along a seven-block length of Rue Ste. Catherine, featuring overturned cars, smashed windows, a shot fired from somewhere and 137 arrests.

It went on most of the night with fears of a repeat a few hours later as it grew dark again — only quelled when Richard went on radio and TV, asking for calm. He would reluctantly take his punishment.

After the riot, the NHL began to crack down on all-out brawls (especially carrying your stick into one), though it would take another 25 years for the changes to take effect with the institution of the third-man-in rule. 

Out on the street, the largest riot since Conscription was passed in 1944 (bringing in the draft for the final year of the Second World War) broke out along a seven-block length of Rue Ste. Catherine, featuring overturned cars, smashed windows, a shot fired from somewhere and 137 arrests.

Richard's story had linesman Cliff Thompson holding him back, arms pinned, while Laycoe was allowed to smack away. Rocket said he warned the linesman three times to let him go before he finally clocked the official. 

The NHL was a provincial, parochial six-team affair in 1955, featuring barely over 100 players. Many of them hated each other with the type of passion only love can understand, as paleontologist Steven Jay Gould once observed of 1950s New York baseball.

"Sport is part of culture and a good way to learn about another country… To discover why people are so passionate about it, it's like, 'Tell me what your sport is and I'll tell you who you are,' " he said.

"The fans, they pray for two things. The first is that the Canadiens will win. The second thing is that they pray for the Canadiens to crush the Maple Leafs, but I think you don't need any God for that," he said with a laugh.

"We really want to see what everyone wants to say.… When you have a lot of people passionate about hockey, and not about religion, it's interesting to see people's reactions to the question," she said. "If they can make connections between religion and sport, it helps get people involved; there will be a lot of diversity."

The arena is their temple, the players are their saviours, and those who worship them pray that the sacrifices made on the ice — of blood, sweat and tears — will lead them to glory.

"How little do we know people!" was the thought that filled her mind. Since her mother had crossed the threshold of death she seemed to wear a new aspect, not of this world; and now all the homely and familiar traits endearing her to them were being overshadowed by other virtues well-nigh heroic in their quality.

At last he discovered speech. "It is a heavy loss. You were fortunate in your wife, Samuel; no one may question that. Truly you were fortunate in your wife."

Everyone had his own way of expressing relief and delight; but it was Maria who stood longest by the door, hearkening to the sweet patter of the rain, watching the indistinct movement of cloud in the dark sky above the darker mass of the forest, breathing the mild air that came from the south.

Although he came to see Maria, as all knew, it was to the father of the house that he directed his remarks, partly through shyness, partly out of deference to the manners of the country. He took the chair that was offered him.

In one of these compartments the father and mother had their bed; Maria and Alma Rose in the other. A steep stairway ascended from a corner to the loft where the boys slept in the summer-time; with the coming of winter they moved their bed down and enjoyed the warmth of the stove with the rest of the family.

Au ciel, au ciel, au ciel, J'irai la voir un jour . .

"I am glad that I saw you, for I shall be passing up the river near your place in two or three weeks, when the ice goes out. I am here with some Belgians who are going to buy furs from the Indians; we shall push up so soon as the river is clear, and if we pitch a tent above the falls close to your farm I will spend the evening with you."

"Is it Samuel Chapdelaine who has a farm in the woods on the other side of the river, above Honfleur?" "That's the man." "And the girl with him is his daughter? Maria ..." "Yes, she has been spending a month at St. Prime with her mother's people. They are Bouchards, related to Wilfrid Bouchard of St. Gedeon ..." Interested glances were directed toward the top of the steps. One of the young people paid Maria the countryman's tribute of admiration—"A fine hearty girl!" said he.

"Don't play the fool, Jean. Your wife will never let you pay a dollar for such a pig as that."

In conclusion, experience taught us long ago that the [109] blessings which have come to us from the Cross of Jesus Christ are much more effectively received and communicated by crosses and sufferings than by prosperity.

They had slashed their bodies in various parts; and, in order to increase the feeling of pain, they had thrust into these wounds red-hot hatchets.

Before their death, both their hearts were torn out, by means of an opening above the breast; and those Barbarians inhumanly feasted thereon, drinking their blood quite warm, which they drew from [51] its source with sacrilegious hands. While still quite full of life, pieces of flesh were removed from their thighs, from the calves of the legs, and from their arms,—which those executioners placed on coals to roast, and ate in their sight.

At the height of these torments, [48] Father Gabriel Lallement lifted his eyes to Heaven, clasping his hands from time to time, and uttering sighs to God, whom he invoked to his aid.

As for the other captives who were left to them, destined to die on the spot, they attached them to stakes fastened in the earth, which they had arranged in various cabins. To these, on leaving the village, they set fire on all sides,—taking pleasure, at their departure, in feasting upon the frightful cries which these poor victims uttered in the midst of those flames, where children were broiling beside their mothers; where a husband saw his wife roasting near him; where cruelty itself would have had compassion at a spectacle which had nothing human about it, except the innocence of those who were in torture,

Toward the end of the Winter, some of the more stubborn Infidels having wished, for the cure of a sick man, to have recourse to certain [22] remedies, wherein indecency is, as it were, in its kingdom,—the girls deeming it an honor, on these occasions, to prostitute their honor itself,—not one of these Christians could be found who would listen to it.

Your very humble and obedient servant in our Lord, Paul Ragueneau.

We see a great number of our Christians, who have died by the edge of the sword;

The ship Næuf, which sailed from France in the month of march, not having arrived, was accounted lost. We lost thereby the value of 4000 livres.  

"The Iroquois came, to the number of twelve hundred men; took our village, and seized Father Breboauf and his companion; and set fire to all the huts. They proceeded to vent their rage on those two Fathers; for they took them both and stripped them entirely naked, and fastened each to a post. They tied both of their hands together. They tore the nails from their fingers. They beat them with a shower of blows from cudgels, on the shoulders, the loins, the belly, the legs, and the face,—there being no part of their body which did not endure this torment. "

On the 1st of June, we arrived at Montreal. On the third, which was the Day of Corpus Christi, we made no procession anywhere, on account of the rain; but on Sunday one was made at Quebek, also at Montreal, where I bore the Blessed Sacrament; 12 soldiers marched in front, their heads Covered,

The Hospital nuns sent us a cask of Spanish wine, and two Capons.

A chapter is devoted to " the blessed deaths " of Fathers Brebeuf and Lalemant;

The long-delayed fleet finally arrives, August 23 and 24; it brings a new missionary, Charles Albanel. Another ship had, in March, left France for Canada; but, as it has not arrived, it is accounted lost; the Jesuits thus incur a loss of 4,000 livres.

They hold that fish are possessed of reason, [115] as also the Deer and Moose; and that is why they do not throw to the Dogs either the bones of the latter when they are hunting, or the refuse of the former when fishing; if they did, and the others should get wind of it, they would hide themselves, and not let themselves be taken. Every year they marry their nets or Seines to two little girls, who must be only from six to seven years of age, for fear they may have lost their virginity, which is a very rare quality among them. The ceremony of these espousals takes place at a fine feast, where the Seine is placed between the two virgins;

Some time after, as she was with child when she fell, she was delivered of a daughter, who almost immediately became pregnant. If you ask them how, you puzzle them very much. At all events, they tell you, she was pregnant. Some throw the blame upon some strangers, [89] who landed on this Island. I pray you make this agree with what they say, that, before Aataentsic fell from the Sky,

Instead of being a great master and great Theologian as in France, you must reckon on being here a humble Scholar, and then, good God! with what masters!—women, little children, and all the Savages,—and exposed to their laughter.

On the thirteenth of the same month, we had news of a troop of Hurons who had gone to war, and who were encamped at the distance of a musket-shot from the last village, a day's journey from us; after having passed two nights in singing and eating, they were overtaken with so profound a sleep, that the enemy, coming suddenly upon them, cleft open the heads of a dozen without resistance, the rest escaping by flight.

On the fifteenth of October, we went to the village of Wenrio, to visit some sick people, in which our Lord helped us by means of a young girl of our village who was there, and who so opportunely dispelled the fear of a poor sick woman that Baptism would shorten her life, that she at last gave way, and another with her.

and lasted the whole month of June, It is one of the most fitting times for such fear, inasmuch, as then the Country is stripped of the men, who have gone trading, some one way, some another.

The novels idealized a bond with the homestead and farm life.

the rural homestead (agriculture), the family, the language, and religion.

“Oh! It must beclearly understood: if we want to preserve our French-Canadian institutions and customs, wemust not discard the beautiful language of our fathers in order to adopt another language.

If only the population aged 10 and over is examined, 6.2 per cent of men and 3.3 per centof women in Québec were illiterate in 1931.

The Church’s influence over society increased. It was able to eliminate the InstitutCanadien because it had refused to remove from the shelves of its library books and newspaperson the Index.

rench-speaking Canadians should confine themselves to the bare necessities, because those wholose their language also lose their faith

Between 1850 and 1961, despite the exodus to the United States, the population of Québec grewfrom 890,000 to 5,259,000.

certain crucial events – such as the hanging of Louis Riel,

The observers of the period are unanimous: towards the end of the French Regime, Canadiansspoke a pure French without an accent.

At its apogee, New France extended from Newfoundland to Louisiana, and beyond the GreatLakes.

They were not alone. In order to become interpreters, a numberof people spent prolonged periods among the native populations.