Mayor Aaron Horovitz came out swinging against the Cornwall chapter of the Communist Party of Cornwall in 1937, telling residents he would do what he could to rid the community of the “small group” of “agitators” and their “dangerous” propaganda. This came after local Commie party president Frank Love went on an Ottawa radio station and declared the city was doing nothing to help the downtrodden and urged residents to join his group and rise up against what he called corporate greed that oppressed the downtrodden. The mayor, a Romanian refugee, said the group had seized upon challenging social issues created by the Great Depression to stir up trouble. Horovitz said his council was doing its best to help make life better for poverty-stricken members of the community. “We want no Communist agitators in Cornwall. I intend to get rid of them,” he said in a statement released by city hall. He didn’t say how he planned to run them out of town.
ALSO IN 1937 An student organization with the aim to give francophone students knowledge of the French history in Canada and to encourage them to read French-language publications was formed at all-English Cornwall Collegiate. Proficiency in French was required. The group had 25 charter members. … Hospital officials said two oxygen tents supplied to Cornwall General and Hotel Dieu by the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE) were saving lives. … City council voted to spend $1,000 – less $400 for the trade-in – for a new patrol car – for the six-member police department but voted against purchasing a radio system from Marconi. Council was told that the radio system would be a huge step in improving communications between officers on patrol and the station, especially overnight when just two officers were on duty. … Council voted to close the St. Andrew’s Road (Pitt Street) dump and sign an agreement with Bruce McCourt to have city garbage taken to his Track Road farm property where it would be buried. … The oldest resident in Cornwall and the United Counties was said to be Angus Lalonde who turned 101. … The first mass at the newest local parish was celebrated at St. Felix Roman Catholic Church on Montreal Road. With 305 families, the parish served an area from Guy Street to Gray’s Creek and north to Branch Road. It had seating for 700. The pews were constructed by local contractor Alfred Belanger. … After giving a city man two months in the slammer for whacking his mother with a chair and punching his brother in the face, Mag. P. C. Bergeron told the scoundrel, “I should have given you 12 months.” … Two city pump house employees – James McKissock and Allen Brydges – who in 1932 had their wages reduced by $100 a year were given a $100 increase for an annual salary of $1,300. … Cornwall was listed as the second biggest manufacturing centre in Eastern Ontario. Its 45 industries employed a total of 4,604 people. Total value of production was $16.5 million a year.
WEIRD AND WACKY The recent (mild) earthquake and total eclipse were signs from God that America needs to do some serious knee-bending repenting. That is what wack-job Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a self-described Christian nationalists, conspiracy theorists and fierce Trump ally, told her followers. The New Post said she might be on to something. It noted that the epicenter of the quake was not far from Donald Trump’s swank Bedminster estate. As for the eclipse, it was forecast 400 years ago.
LIFE AND TIMES Bishop Eugene LaRocque had a rocky relationship with the Standard-Freeholder and it didn’t get better after his 1978 Easter message was printed in the daily. A couple of hours after the faith page deadline it was discovered that his message was left out. So, yours truly, doing desk duty, instructed the composing room to run it on an available inside page. Turned out that was the entertainment page which carried theatre ads. One of the regular ads was for a Massena drive-in known for its porn movies with racy titles. Unfortunately, after about 14,000 papers were printed, it was discovered that the bishop’s Easter message was wrapped around the drive-in’s ad. To say the bishop was not amused would be an understatement. It might have been a coincidence, but a month later the diocese faith page ad, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, was discontinued.
THIS AND THAT Couple weeks back Musings noted that in 1958 retired Cornwall Postmaster J. F. Russell had missed just three and a half days of work in 35 years. Reader Bob DiMillo (from our Water Street bureau) tells us that when Bill Wilson was driving city buses, he didn’t call in sick once in 37 years. … If a new Cornwall Police Service headquarters is built – no date set but could come in the next five years – it will be the most expensive capital project paid with local tax dollars. It is pegged at $50 million, but history warns that it could be higher. … If Trump really believes every American home should have a Bible, why doesn’t he give them away? … The Bidens – Joe and Jill, who claim to be devout Catholics, banned Christian symbols during this year’s Easter egg hunt – coined Eggucation by the First Lady – on the White House lawn. Of course. Please don’t mention anything Christian during a Christian holiday. Some agnostic might be offended.
TRIVIA ANSWER Former less-than-great major league catcher Bob Uecker – aka Mr. Baseball – was a Johnny Carson favourite, appearing on The Tonight Show 100 times.
TRIVIA Gerald Parisien, mayor of Cornwall from 1975 to 1985, achieved this mayoral milestone: 1) First Second World War veteran to be elected mayor, 2) First councillor to be elected mayor, 3) First full-time mayor, 4) Oldest candidate to be elected mayor, 5) First English-Catholic mayor.
QUOTED “Behind every successful husband …. there is a surprised mother-in-law.” – Late Senator Al Lieberman
