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.

The Detroit Red Wings would take a 4-1 lead over theRocketless Canadiens

heimperious Campbell not only ignored the mayor's advice but alsomade a diva's entrance at the Forum

50 goals in 50 games

Campbell's rulingwas considered an act not of justice but of vindictiveness, theEnglish-speaking boss thwarting the aspirations of theFrench-speaking populist hero.

Richard's glare could be seen from the top row of the Forum

No athlete has embodied the soul of a city and the spirit of itspeople

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.

There are moments when life gets in the way, when sports and thereal world collide at some intersection

happened to be the corner of Atwater and Ste. Catherinestreets in Montreal.

"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.

"Maybe invite Guy Carbonneau to speak at your church, or maybe you can create a hockey team in your church. Maybe organize a hockey tournament with different ethnic or religious communities,"

"[Bauer] has really touched something deep in Quebec society, something that is so obvious nobody has taken the time to mention it," he said. "It really strikes something, and it's really fun too. Serious, but with some humour."

We don't just want to look at some games and drink beers. You have to work, but even if you're not a theologian student you can follow the class

diversity."

More Than a Game, Less Than a God: Canadian Hockey.

relationship between sport and religion,

It's a divine inspiration

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.

Graduate course set to debate whether one of Quebec's biggest passions is a religion

Supporters sent him more than 50 letters, enough money to afford his legal fees and a gold watch.

However, I want to do what is good for the people of Montreal and the team. So that no further harm will be done, I would like to ask everyone to get behind the team and to help the boys win from the Rangers and Detroit. I will take my punishment and come back next year to help the club and younger players to win the Cup.”

“Injustice au Canada Français,” “Stupid Puppet Campbell,” “Richard le persecute.” They chant, “A bas Campbell” and “Vive Richard.

This rendered Richard guilty of the “cardinal sin” of attacking with his stick a defenseless opponent, the act Campbell had earlier decried in his Murphy-Geoffrion decision. He also cited Richard’s past offenses, including the recent slap of a linesman, and concluded:

“RICHARD GOES INSANE”

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

infamous temper.

it is not just a matter of hockey

Richard went on radio and TV, asking for calm.

Garbage and various fruit rained down on the NHL boss

The president really worked for the six owners, five of whom wanted the book thrown at Richard for the Boston incident. 

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.  Laycoe's story had Thompson trying to wrestle both of them and, in order to get at the Bruins player, Richard smacked the official.

o score 50 goals in a season (in 50 games

pure disgust for losing.

"hockey was bigger than the Church, and Rocket Richard was bigger than the Pope.

believed they were more harshly treated by league president Clarence Campbell — especially Richard — when it came time to dish out suspensions and fines.

seigneurs

Sticks were high, fists flew, blood often smeared the ice, and the owners thought this was all manly and a great way to sell tickets.

Maurice Richard, left, played with a fire that made him one of hockey's all-time greats but could also land him in trouble — most dramatically in March of 1955. (The Canadian Press)0 commentsEditor's note: This is part of a series of stories remembering some of Canada's WB_wombat_top sports heroes and moments as the country marks its 150th birthday in 2017. We've also revisited the lives of baseball hall of famer Ferguson Jenkins, speed skater Gaetan Boucher, skier Nancy Greene, figure skater Barbara Ann Scott, distance runner Tom Longboat, Kentucky Derby winner Northern Dancer, sprinter Harry Jerome and auto racing's Villeneuve family. We've also explored Babe Ruth's Canadian origins. Find all of CBC Sports' Canada 150 stories here. Maurice Richard said many times that, in order to understand the events leading up to the riot of March 17, 1955 that forever bears his name, it was crucial to know how violent the National Hockey League was in those days. Sticks were high, fists flew, blood often smeared the ice, and the owners thought this was all manly and a great way to sell tickets. It's also crucial to accept that you cannot really comprehend the Richard Riot unless you lived through and knew: The power of the English seigneurs in Montreal, who many angry French believed to be modern economic descendants of New France's landowners that treated their farmers as serfs before the system was abolished in 1854. How Francophone players in the NHL, almost exclusively the property of the Montreal Canadiens, believed they were more harshly treated by league president Clarence Campbell — especially Richard — when it came time to dish out suspensions and fines. How Richard himself, the Rocket, was so much a part of Quebec society that he transcended even organized religion. Red Storey, a former referee and long-time hockey commentator, once said of him that, in Quebec, "hockey was bigger than the Church, and Rocket Richard was bigger than the Pope." Roch Carrier perhaps explained it best in his famous book The Hockey Sweater. What we can know today are the basic facts. 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. Hockey's greatest player at that time was Richard, who in 1945 became the first to score 50 goals in a season (in 50 games, no less). He was a talent so large that Conn Smythe, owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, offered a million dollars to the Canadiens for him (about $10 million today). Richard's coal-black eyes glowed with defiance, danger and pure disgust for losing. At the Boston Garden on March 13, 1955, bespectacled Bruins defender Hal Laycoe had another of his endless run-ins with Richard, leaving the Habs' star cut on the head after a high stick. A brawl ensued, and the Rocket broke his CCM stick over Laycoe's back. So far, pretty normal for those days. The rest will always be disputed. Conspiracy theories 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.  Laycoe's story had Thompson trying to wrestle both of them and, in order to get at the Bruins player, Richard smacked the official. Either way, Maurice Richard was in trouble.  Campbell was already infuriated with the Montreal star, who had a column (Le Tour de Chapeau) ghost written for a French weekly in Montreal that regularly attacked the NHL boss (he was forced to drop it by the league), and No. 9 had already previously walloped a referee. The president really worked for the six owners, five of whom wanted the book thrown at Richard for the Boston incident.  Detroit's Jack Adams knew the road to the Stanley Cup ran that year up St. Catherine Street and, earlier in the season, his forward Ted Lindsay had been dispatched for four games after punching a Toronto fan. Therefore, there was precedent. Conspiracy theories now abound, especially one that says the "hearing" with the players involved a few days later was a sham because the decision had been made. But the fact was the Rocket was suspended for the final three games of the season plus the entire Stanley Cup playoffs.  137 arrests Montreal went nuts, both French and English, and with Detroit coming in for a St. Patrick's Day game at the Forum, revenge was on some fans' minds. However, nothing may have happened if Campbell hadn't made a tactical error — he showed up to the game (10 minutes late) with his secretary (future wife) and took his regular place. Les Habitants trailed 4-1 at this point as the home side had their minds on something else, and that didn't help matters either. Garbage and various fruit rained down on the NHL boss, one man raced up and smeared a tomato on Campbell, and less than a minute later a homemade tear gas bomb went off. "I have often seen Rocket Richard fill the Forum," said Dick Irvin, Jr., later the legendary Montreal play-by-play and colour man, and at that time the son of the team's coach. "But that's the first time I've ever seen him empty it." 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. CBC Radio Archive: The Richard Riot 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. Since then, larger thinkers on the Quebec scene have argued whether this was the beginning of Quebec's Quiet Revolution — officially pegged for 1960 with the election of Jean Lesage as Premier — or perhaps just the end of a time when hockey was more important than politics, as the latter began to take hold among French Canadian youth. Millions of words have been written. Millions more will be. These final words, however, are of the sport.  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.  And the Rocket, who always refused to align himself with a political party, would lead his teammates to five straight Stanley Cup victories until retiring in the spring of 1960 with 544 regular-season goals to his credit.  Unbeaten, unbowed, unrepentant — still forever proud. CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC SportsReport Typo or ErrorRelated StoriesCanada 150 Babe Ruth: Made in Canada?Canada 150 The Villeneuves: In the name of the fatherCanada 150 Harry Jerome: Race against timeCanada 150 Northern Dancer: Canadian stallionCanada 150 Tom Longboat: A man called EverythingCanada 150 Barbara Ann Scott: Queen of the iceCanada 150 Nancy Greene: Ahead by a centuryCanada 150 Gaetan Boucher: Memories of SarajevoCanada 150 Ferguson Jenkins: A life of wins and loss

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.

His glance was lifted to Maria and as quickly fell, but she did not so much as see his look of honest distress. Deep stillness weighed upon the house-upon the whole universe. Everything alive and dead was breathlessly awaiting news of such dreadful moment-touching him that was for her the one man in all the world ...

"Naturally ... I would not let New Year's Day go by without paying you a visit. But, besides that, I have news to tell."

"It is true enough, Laura, that you would have had a happier life with some other man than me, who lived on a comfortable farm, near the settlements." "No, Samuel; what the good God does is always right.

What time she attended to these things, Maria was ever raising a little higher toward heaven the monument of her Aves; but the rosary had to be laid aside and it was hard to keep a true reckoning. As the morning advanced however, no urgent duty calling, she was able to sit by the window and steadily pursue her undertaking.

and I well remember some who began to cry when told they could go home, because they thought they would find all their people dead,

The father and Da'Be took their stand face to face on either side of a tree, and their axes, helved with birch, began to swing in rhythm. At first each hewed a deep notch, chopping steadily at the same spot for some seconds, then the ax rose swiftly and fell obliquely on the trunk a foot higher up; at every stroke a great chip flew, thick as the hand, splitting away with the grain. When the cuts were nearly meeting, one stopped and the other slowed down, leaving his ax in the wood for a moment at every blow; the mere strip, by some miracle still holding the tree erect, yielded at last, the trunk began to lean and the two axmen stepped back a pace and watched it fall, shouting at the same instant a warning of the danger.

The young man did not answer; he was looking expectantly at Maria with a frank smile, awaiting a word from her.

whose icy snow-covered surface was like a winding strip of plain. The snow lay deep upon road and fields, for the April sun was powerless to send warmth through the gray clouds, and the heavy spring rains were yet to come. This chill and universal white, the humbleness of the wooden church and the wooden houses scattered along the road, the gloomy forest edging so close that it seemed to threaten, these all spoke of a harsh existence in a stern land.

Peribonka.

Reverend Father, After the death of little Jacques Douard, [98] who was assassinated last year, I remember that I offered to God, as a burnt-offering, the dearest thing I had in this world. I did this, in the thought which came to me that there was nothing, however precious it might be, the annihilation of which we ought not to delight in, provided that some glory accrued from the same to God. Among other things which I was offering to God, as those which I cherished the most in the world, were the Christians of la Conception,

Their tortures were not of the same duration. Father Jean de Brebeuf was at the height of his torments at about three o'clock on the same day of the capture, the 16th day of March, and rendered up his soul about four o ' clock in the evening. Father Gabriel Lallement endured longer, from six o'clock in the evening until about nine o'clock the next morning, the seventeenth of March.

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,

She had so constantly adhered to this duty, even against the wishes and the prohibitions of her parents, that we could not refuse her Holy Baptism,

The number of those who have received [19] holy Baptism within a year is about eighteen hundred persons, without including therein a multitude of people who were baptized by Father Antoine

Meanwhile the enemy, already victorious, had set everything on fire, and the blood of even the women and children irritated their fury

arrived at Montreal on the 3rd of November,

AUGUST.

I ended the Lecturing at the Friday Assemblies held during the winter, with a general review of the actions for warning in regard to faults; and the two last, by reading the rules for priests and Coadjutors,—but the latter, on a feast-Day or Sunday. At these usual Friday Lectures, I read the rules or the last treatise of rodriguez, which is excellent and very suitable.

like beasts through the forests

Savages from Tadoussac also bring items of information which they have gathered from the fishermen on the coast

not only the priests, but their servants—are ready to lay down their lives, if need be, for the sake of the little Indian church which they have there founded.

Three Rivers, September 21, 1649.

ruly there is reason here to admire the secret judgments of God

I referred the [page 307] matter to their judgment; that they were good and wise, and could talk over the affair among themselves.

To encourage them, I made them a present of a dozen cakes of Tobacco, and some skins.

Now having arrived within musket-range,. they stopped and began to sing; those of the Village replied. From the evening of their arrival, they danced, in order to get an understanding of the disease; the sick man was in the middle of the Cabin, on a mat.

we are not yet at the end of their superstitions

They believe that the Sky is angry, when any one is drowned or dies of cold; a sacrifice is needed to appease it, but, good God! what a sacrifice, or rather what a butchery! The flesh of the dead man is the victim who is to be immolated

Thus it is the devil deceives them in their dreams; thus he speaks by the mouth of some, who having been left as dead, recover health, and talk at random of the other life, according to the ideas that this wretched master gives them. According to them the Village of souls is in no respect unlike the Village of the living,—they go hunting, fishing, and to the woods; axes, robes, and collars are as much esteemed as among the living. In a word, everything is the same; there is only this difference, that day and night they do nothing but groan and complain. They have Captains, who from time to time put an end to it and try to moderate their [102] sighs and groans. God of truth, what ignorance and stupidity! Illuminare his qui in tenebris, et in umbra mortis sedent.

They say that, in the beginning of the world, the land was quite covered with water, with the exception of a little Island on which was the sole hope of the human race,- to wit, a single man, whose sole companions were a Fox and a little animal like a Marten, which they call Tsouhendaia. The man, not knowing what to do, seeing himself cut off in so narrow a range of country, asked the Fox to plunge into the water, to see if there were any bottom to it;

perhaps to give the women to understand that there ought to be nothing rough or coarse in their words or in their manners, but that the grace and law of gentleness ought to be upon their tongues,

I make bold to say that if there is any place in the world where this so precious virtue is safe, for a man among us who wishes to be on his guard, it is here

Especially I would not dare to speak of the danger there is of ruining oneself among their impurities, in the case of any one whose heart is not sufficiently full of God to firmly resist this poison. But enough of this; the rest can only be known by experience.

hope in this way more easily to avoid confusion, and to satisfy more fully those who are curious to know the manners and customs of these Tribes.

But God dispenses such favors when, how, and to whom he pleases; and perhaps he wishes us to wait for the harvest of souls with patience and perseverance

if they would obtain what [page 39] they desired, I urged them to address him who made everything, and who alone is the Author of all blessings, of whom we had so often spoken to them, and to whom we would teach them to pray.

They confess that we speak the truth, and that indeed there is a God; they declare that henceforth they will recognize, [page 17] serve, and honor him; and, desiring to be promptly instructed, they ask us to teach them the Catechism every day; but, as I have said, their occupations and amusements do not permit that.

how old France is burning with ardent desires for the New

Louis de Sainte-Foi (Amantacha), who had been educated in France during 1626-28, is praised for his intelligence, fidelity, and Christian character; [page 2] and he greatly aids the labors of the missionaries.

Their great hope is in the conversion of the children, who, they report, show surprising aptitude and willingness to learn the doctrines of the Christian faith; and, through them, many parents have been reached.

savages

the conversion, baptism, and happy death of some Hurons