After leaving the arenas behind, we returned downtown to explore a few streets we hadn't seen yesterday amongst the downtown's grid system. Above is the Église Saint-Bernard, which was vacant outside of the youth centre that uses the basement hall (and that youth centre has since left). It's a grand structure, but with an aging population and factory closures in Shawinigan, I couldn't help but wonder if this place would one day meet the wrecking ball. |
On a happier note, the streets by the Église Saint-Bernard held the classic collection of funky houses and apartment blocks that dominate Quebec cities. Enjoying this morning walk, Shawinigan was quickly joining the ranks of the Baie-Comeaus and Drummondvilles that I quite enjoy. It's around here that I took the time to text my boy Holisko and tell him that he was right and that I was enjoying Shawinigan. This is because I remembered him telling me how much he loved Shawinigan, how I would love it, and how I needed to go (and stressing that I needed to go in his special Holisko way). About a minute later he bluntly texted back, "I've never been to Shawinigan." Ahahaha, wtf? I don't know where I got this idea - although I still half think Holisko may be pulling my leg - but apparently I somehow totally misremembered this Shawinigan recommendation? Hey YOU reading this, did you recommend Shawinigan to me? |
Turning to take a picture of this depanneur, that guy you can see in the background eventually caught up, smiled and said something in French as he passed. Of course I did what I do in Quebec, by smiling and acting as if I knew what he was saying. Thankfully Isy walked over and told me that the guy was saying I have to pay him a $20 modelling fee for the picture, lol. |
Alley stairs behind homes near the Église Saint-Bernard. |
There was one last thing I wanted to check out in Shawinigan. Over in the Belgoville portion of town, I'd found the intense abandoned wall of a paper mill encroaching on the QC-153 in Google StreetView and of course made a note to go over and see what's up. |
I initially had thoughts of coming here before or after the hockey game to hang out in the cool night, but I had no intel into how sketchy it was and I also wasn't looking to get Isy caught up in some kind of jackpot. That's not to mention how terribly pedestrian unfriendly it would be to walk out here in the dark, with snow narrowing the roads and nowhere to get out of the way of passing vehicles. |
Scurrying into the expansive hall after a break in the cars, we almost immediately heard others and suddenly things seemed sketchier than the wide-open exterior led us to believe. Hiding in the shadows near some of the last remnants of machinery, we quieted down and listened for the commotion. It sounded like a car crunching snow. Making my way over to a bit of light in the darkness, I peered outside to see a white beater car filled with Shawinigan teens, bombing through the rock-solid, icy ruts of a little driveway, into and out of here. Just out for a quick rip into the abandoned paper mill I suppose, haha. What good fun. |
The Belgoville Mill is not only regionally important, but also has a role in the makeup of one of our former prime ministers. Wellie Chrétien, father to Jean and 19 others (10 who died in infancy), worked here at a humble station where he was never promoted because of the Anglo ownership and Wellie's inability to speak English. His hard work here at the mill and the example set at home would achieve his goal though, of removing his children from the cradle to mill to grave pipeline here in Shawinigan. Wellie's oldest son became a gynecologist & another son would open a medical clinic, then helping out the other Chrétiens with money and not being so reliant on scholarships. This eventually lead to Jean studying law at Laval University in Quebec City, where he would rub elbows with politicians and figure out that he may want a future involving politics. |
In the summer, Jean would return to Shawinigan and work in this very mill. He skill as an orator was on display here, as he gave liberal speeches inside the plant and in the break room, even though Shawinigan wasn't the most liberal place. Regardless, the mill workers saw that Jean was on their side & long after he graduated from Laval and joined a law firm in Shawinigan, his second case involved 1000 of the Belgoville Mill plant workers who hired Jean to represent them in a case against management because they wanted overtime pay. Eventually going to Ottawa during the week as an member of parliament, Jean's father Wellie was very pleased as he was a big Liberal supporter and long wanted to see one of his children enter politics. Wellie often spoke of the time he was able to shake prime minister Sir Wilfred Laurier's hand, and Jean subsequently remembered the first time he shook a prime minister's hand, that of Louis St. Laurent in 1949 at the Shawinigan Municipal Auditorium that used to house the Cataractes. |
Only a few years prior to this, I was in a Montreal pub and asked for the Shawinigan Handshake hopfenweiss simply because it was from a QMJHL town. The waitress happened to be from Shawinigan though, and was very excited to show us a Shawinigan Handshake and tell us all of the history behind the term. On February 15th, 1996, Jean Chrétien, then Prime Minister of Canada was giving a speech at a National Flag Day of Canada event in Hull Quebec. Near the end of his speech he was drowned out by anti-poverty protestors who were upset with recent cuts to EI (Employment Insurance). Chrétien, tired of the ruckus by the end of his speech, decided to take the most direct route to his car, which was right through the crowd. (For a video link showing the incident that isn't geolocked from the US, click here.) |
In the crowd he encountered Bill Clennett, where Chrétien later recalled "some people came my way and I had to go, so you're in my way..." in his trademark French accent. As Clennett got into Chrétien's face and blocked the way slightly, Jean swiftly grabbed him by the back of the neck and the chin, and forced Clennett to the ground so he could move past. The Shawinigan Handshake was born. This is also where I could have swore my friend Holisko told me about Shawinigan since I know he's the one who told me about The Shawinigan Handshake originally (he asked if I knew what it was, then grabbed my neck to show me the meaning). |
In his youth, Jean would move between the Belgoville and La-Baie neighbourhoods of Shawinigan. Belgoville was up on the hill from here, while La-Baie was pretty much right across the street. These areas are accessed via a roadway that is dwarfed by this mill's last 3-story wall right beside the road. And while there were the normal calls to get this property cleaned up, and the government even contracted a company who failed to remediate the property, it's this tall wall next to the roadway that posed enough of a hazard that the remainder of this brick building was taken down starting in November of 2020. |
While I would have loved to see the whole mill before this half demolition, this was still a sweet little explore on this grey afternoon. I actually wished we had more time, but it was getting to the point where we needed to be in Trois-Rivières. With the short winter days, I guess it is easy enough to exhaust the daylight hours. |
