Hangings in Quebec

Illustration: Michael Em, www.nutsilica.blogspot.com

 Say a toast to Mary Viau, 43, of rural Montpellier Quebec, a mother of eight who killed her husband Zephyr Viau by poisoning him with strychnine in 1929. She did it to be with her lover Philiberg LeFebvre, 33 without having old Zephyr around.
     LeFebvre was also hanged at the same time in Montreal on Fullum St. on Aug. 23, 1929.
   The state might've hampered Mary's defense by assigning her the two youngest defence counsels in the Hull courthouse. They argued that the two defendants weren't really to blame because they were raised in an atmosphere of inadequate moral instruction. As if that would work!
 Apparently a petition passed around to get granted clemency attracted exactly zero signatures. Even the kids wouldn't sign, although something about that sounds a bit apocryphal.
  Illustration courtesy the very talented Michael Em, check out his site nutsilica.
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    But of all the hangings in the history of the Kweeb, the most unjustified might have been the very first set. Sometime just before June 1542 Jean de la Rocque de Roberval, a Calvinist pirate from France hanged seven of his fellow-passengers to the new world. He came with something like 70 or 200 people, most prisoners, to see if they could find precious metals. No luck.
   Roberval was a bit of a cruel maniac, a quality attributed to his pious Calvinism, and ended up hanging seven of his men and possibly killing others through other various cruelties such as putting them in leg shackles on deserted islands. What the men did to earn the death sentence was unclear.
   One was hung for stealing during a time of rationing and six others were hanged for performing their work in an unsatisfactory manner, which might have meant insubordination or mutiny.
   Roberval later abandoned Marie de la Rocque (possible his sister, or niece) her lover, child and servant on a Quebec island as punishment for their tryst. Only Marie survived and eventually moved back to France, as did the rest of the survivors. Roberval was killed in France in 1560 by a mob who objected to his practicing Protestantism.
   Eventually French Huguenots, Calvinists, Protestants and other non-Catholics were formally excluded from the settling of Quebec and one might wonder if Roberval's personal shortcomings were partly to blame.