These delicious, newly-rediscovered photos shot at Mackay and Demaisonneuve in late-January/early-Februay 1969 were recently posted by Robert Wilkins, author of the excellent
Montreal 1909. They display rampant rubbernecking and general mayhem surrounding the
Sir George Williams affair, which saw certain students undertake a sit-in to protest what they considered unfair marks based on ethnicity. That discussion has been held elsewhere so we can focus on real important matters of fashion cars and geography.
This photo reveals a long-lost treasure of a parking lot that once adorned the southeast corner of Mackay and Demaisonneuve. Note the awesome pair of Mustang convertibles at the top of the image. Indeed a good percentage of those cars are convertibles, something far less common today. Montreal dumped a lot more salt on the roads back then than it does now so those cars likely only lasted a few years. The Hall building, at the right, where the sit-in took place, was only two-and-a-half years old at that time as it opened on the same day as the nearby metro.
The parking lot on Guy, east side, south of Sherbrooke
is still there.
Scanning newspaper articles around that time frame will reveal a general malaise throughout North America involving the Vietnam War, civil rights, etc., so it's no surprise that local wannabe student revolutionaries felt a need to emulate their southerm counterparts and find a local "issue" to focus on.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've read since, the Sir George Williams University computer room riot was essentially an excuse: a violent over-reaction to a presumed racial slur of a student by a professor and apparently a charge that was denied and never conclusively proven.
Completely false, I suggest viewing NFB film about the events before passing judgement. Students had a legitimate beef with Con U, were summarily ignored. I doubt the fire was set by the students as they were barricaded with non exit. I blame the racist MTL police
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