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Before there were canoes,
there were cutters |
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In cooperation with Mike Martyn, an
old, old boy from the original Manitoba weekend school, bedard.com
is taking you back to 1962. Mike was kind enough to send me some
very interesting scans that I now make available for your viewing
pleasure. He is the boy standing in the cutter.
I choose to post these documents because 1) I have the bandwidth,
and 2) they are historically very, very significant to the early
development of the school and to the exposition of the St. John's
philosophy. |
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School
memoranda from 1962 (pdf) |
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Spring 1962 was a busy time for SJCBS.
A cutter trip was being planned along with the first canoe trip.
Father Turney, the chaplain, was preparing boys for confirmation.
The weekend school was in its last throes - it was announced
that the 1963 class was slated to be full time only, hopefully
turning the school into "one of the country's great religious
and educational centres." This is a must read. |
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Father
Turney, Anglican priest, school chaplain, pedestrian anarchist!!
(pdf) |
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We all know the Father Turney Road
that runs behind the school, but do you know Father Turney? The
school's chaplain, he passed away in 1962. Read his obit. According
to an old boy from that time period "he was a real character
and he made the Winnipeg Free Press in several occasions. The
picture I recall is of an elderly priest in a black cassock wailing
away with his umbrella on the hood of some hapless motorist ...
He believed that pedestrians should ever and always have the
right of way over mere automobiles and woe betide any errant
motorist that crossed his path. Red light or green light, crosswalk
or middle of the street, it didn’t matter to Father Turney." |
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Important
Letter from the Canadian Canoe Museum |
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The Canadian Canoe Museum has recently
acquired a craft significant to the history of canoeing and canoe
safety. The Pere Lallemant was one of four Chestnut Selkirk canoes
involved in the 1978 St. John’s School tragedy on Lake Timiskaming,
and was given initially to Andrew and Barbara Greaney by St.
John’s School, who asked for it and received it after losing
their son, David, in the tragedy. In May of this year, the Greaney
family gave the Pere Lallemant to the Museum, on permanent loan,
with the understanding that it will be conserved and used to
help educate people about the tragedy in particular and canoe
safety in general, particularly the changes in canoeing safety
standards and school canoe tripping policies that occurred as
a result of Timiskaming. Read
more.... |
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Still
shots from The New Boy |
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In the fall 1973, 31 years ago almost
to the week, the CBC produced a half-hour series chronicling
the English River "new boy" trip. I was there! Look
back at a St. John's tradition that goes on to this day in the
form of the new boy hikes. |
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Remembering
Nancy Cox |
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Nancy Cox was a class act! Everyone
else who met her, loved her. I was grateful to see her at the
reunion. |
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Pictures
from the '70s |
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A couple of pictures of the Stone Building
and me as a St. John's student taken in the '70s. |
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Welcome
to St. John's (pdf) |
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Fascinating documents from my "welcome"
packet from St. John's. Included are my acceptance, letter, fees
due, the clothing list, and the rules. |
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SJCBS
1974 Yearbook (pdf) |
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Written and produced by the Grade 11's
of that year, it gives you a feel for what life was like in one
of Canada's classic boarding schools. Great stuff about canoeing,
snowshoeing, selling meat products door to door and the overall
St. John's curricula circa 1974. Though I was at the school in
1974, you won't find me in any pictures. |
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Men
Wanted (pdf)
- Teacher recruiting booklet |
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This is a very readable copy of a St.
John's recruiting brochure. Note that the file is a 40MB pdf.
I went to great care to make sure all of the photos are top quality.
There's a few good shots in there of Mr. Felletti, Mr. Wiens
and others. Extremely well-written, the brochure goes into detail
about the day in life of a master and follows the hapless journey
of "that horrid Jones boy" as he wends his way through
his St. John's education. Be sure to zoom in on the text when
viewing with a browser. Give it some time if you aren't on a
high speed line. |
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God
Can Bring Good Out of It (pdf) - Reader's Digest |
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I wasn't working with original pages
so I attempted to collate scans of the Reader's Digest article
so it can be downloaded, printed, and read. Tough reading online,
since I converted jpg to pdf, but legible nonetheless. Relatively
lightweight (750K) but requires the Acrobat Reader. |
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Frank Wiens Video Available |
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I purchased the Frank Wiens DVD and
you should too! Click
here for details. Overall, it was well done and I pretty
much agreed with everything Frank said except the doom and gloom
part towards the end. But you'll have to see it to experience
it. The soundtrack is great, and everything is pretty much believable
except for Martin Denny, who looks no older than when I last
saw him and lies just as well now as he did 30 years ago! Anyway,
kudos to the intrepid team of Mackay, Benson, and Ingimundson.
Cheer up Benson, someday Manitoba will go Dryden Liberal. |
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Governor
General's speech (pdf) |
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I love the parliamentary system of
government in Canada. Even when you lose an election, you win.
There is no better job in government than being the Leader of
the Opposition - you can be as lippy as you want without the
responsibility. The Honorable Ted Byfield, the erstwhile Governor
General, addressed the St. John's parliament on January 7, 1962.
We have obtained a copy of his speech and faithfully print it
here. |
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St.
John's kicks Soviet Ass! Read all about it! (pdf) |
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Wiens and Byfield first love was the
cutter. Young boys, proxy galley slaves, plied the Red River
and Lake Winnipeg in these archaic vessels before the pairs'
discovery of the canoe and voyageur lore. Like so many bad passages
from a Francis Parkman treatise, this 1961
mock newspaper and promotional piece has classic lines
like "Youngsters Redrew Manitoba Map and Answered Mr. Khrushchev."
Note that this was written years before the first Canada Cup. |
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All About Deep Waters
by James Raffan |
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In this section, I've posted reviews
and interesting links I've found throughout the net about the
Lake Timiskaming tragedy. Every once in a while, something new
turns up. If you ever attended St. John's, this book is a must
read, whether you agree with Raffan, or not. As with most nonfiction,
there is a fine line between opinion and fact. Some may agree
with him, some not, but James Raffan, on the whole, gives a fair
account of what happened on Lake Timiskaming in 1978. |
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Other documents about
St. John's |
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This section is a grab bag of interesting
links and articles about all things St. John's. |
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History
of the Old Stone Building |
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The old stone building, built in 1867,
is a Provincial Heritage Site. Here's a great link detailing
its history. The school site is now the Selkirk Healing Centre,
a residential school now run by the Government. I don't think
they snowshoe anymore :). One of the new teachers e-mailed me
last year and was mildly amused at how we used to be. |
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Scumbag! |
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Don't know this guy, but hopefully
he's still doing time and his roommate's name is Bubba. A brief
article about an ex-teacher from the Globe and Mail. Note:
An update as of 1 January 2007. I won't post it here, but
this guy got off with less than 2 years in slam. Not to hate
on Canada - but some of your laws suck. This guy got less time
than Ricky from the Trailer Park Boys! |
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Selkirk
Canoe Study |
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The following report was first printed
in CANEWS, newsletter of the Recreational Canoeing Association
of British Columbia, in May 1979. It examines the "Selkirk"
class Chestnut canoe. |
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St. John's of Ontario
Yahoo Group |
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Justin Dube has started a Yahoo group
for the St. John's of Ontario school. Odds are you know a lot
of the members if you went to school in Manitoba, since many
of the masters (teachers for you civilians) who staffed St. John's
of Ontario did some time in Selkirk. Email St_Johns_School_of_Ontario-subscribe@yahoogroups.ca
if you are interested in participating in the group. Some of
the postings are fascinating and there are lots of photos and
things linked to this Yahoo group. You'll need to have a Yahoo
account and the moderator's permission to join. |
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Lawsuit
City! |
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St. John's of Alberta sued after 27
years? I guess you can't please all the people all the time.
And I thought it we had too many lawyers in California ... |
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This page is dedicated to all
the students who have ever attended St. John's Cathedral Boys'
School of Manitoba in Selkirk, Manitoba. This includes two members
of the Bedard family, Marc and Pierre. The first of three penultimate Canadian
boarding schools founded in the early 1960s by Ted Byfield and
Frank Wiens, St. John's of Selkirk operated until the early 1990s.
A sister school was founded and operated in Ontario. Today, 