Seaway News
A 16-year-old Cornwall Township girl, from the Mille Roches area, was the flashpoint for a July 1948 riot at the notorious Mercer Women’s Reformatory in downtown Toronto.
The protest started when the girl, sentenced under the Female Refuge Act to the reformatory by a Cornwall magistrate for petty theft and deemed incorrigible, was thrown into the jail’s dark basement segregation unit for what was viewed by her fellow inmates as a minor infraction.
The lunch-room sit-down protest turned into a riot when it was learned that the teen was schedule to receive 10 lashes with a belt. It took 75 police officers to restore order.
While in solitary confinement – labelled ‘the dungeon’ by inmates – the teen had a tooth extracted by a guard without freezing and was refused pain medication.
The reformatory – heavy on punishment and light on reform – had a nasty reputation as a hell hole where inmates, some as young as 15, were subjected to torture, beatings, the administration of experimental drugs and questionable medical procedures.
Just prior to the ancient gaol – built in the 1880s – being shut down in 1969, a grand jury report said it found little evidence of reform, and that it should be called what it was – a jail.
The institution was torn down and the site became home to a sports stadium named after a former Toronto mayor.
ALSO IN JULY 1948: Fifth annual Howard Smith Paper Mill picnic at Sheek Island attracted 1,400 parents and children (900). Along with a lot of hot dogs, burgers, soft drinks and ice cream, the picnic featured non-Olympic contests such as cracker-eating, pie-eating, potato-sack races, three-legged races and wheel barrow races. … Thieves went to a lot of work to steal $18 from the McDermid and Barton Feed Store in Martinown. After breaking into the store overnight, they gathered up chisels, crowbars and a sledge hammer. Then they dragged the large safe 100 feet to the back of the store where they went to work on prying open the study steel safe. Police figured it probably took them a couple of hours to crack the safe. … Stormont Liberal MP Lionel Chevrier, minister of transport, announced that a new post office (federal building) and railway station for Cornwall were high on the federal government’s priority list. Well, not that high on the priority list. The new federal building at Second and Sydney streets opened in 1954. The new train station arrived in 1957. … City council said a new administration building (city hall) would be built with future expansion in mind. Cost was put at $100,000. … The city purchased two army huts (used at the Second World War basic training centre). One would be placed at Memorial Park to be used by the park custodian. … Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) signed a contract with Courtaulds that increased the hourly wage by five cents to $1.12. Dominion Day and Good Friday were made paid holidays. … Cornwall’s oldest resident, Mrs. Angus Mercier, who lived with her son, Romeo, on Belmont Street, celebrated her 100th birthday. She was, at the time, Cornwall’s oldest resident. … Cornwall police constable Calvin Scott was promoted to third class. … The price of butter increased by one cent to 73¢ a pound. … Construction of St. Columban’s Boys School at Fourth and Adolphus streets was under way. It would have eight rooms. … Cornwall Police Commission asked city council to add post-wedding horn tooting to its anti-noise bylaw. This after complaints from residents. … The commission approved the replacement of locks on the police station cell doors. Cost was $18 per lock. … The Wheeler brothers, Gabe and Tony, pride of St. Andrews, led Cornwall Seniors to a 22-15 win over Alexandria in senior lacrosse action. Gabe had six goals, while Tony helped out with four. Omer Brunet and Ian McCormick each had three for Alexandria. … CKSF Radio planned to broadcast the Glengarry Highland Games in Maxville from 2-5 p.m. with Carl Fisher and Richard Hynes providing the live coverage, a first for the station. Prime Minister Mackenzie King opened the Games. … An out-of-control locomotive engine jumped the tracks on Pitt Street, just south of Sixth, and overturned. An Edwards Electric panel truck parked in front of 524 Pitt was wrecked. The driver, sitting in the vehicle, managed to escape unscathed. Several pedestrians had to run for cover.
HITS AND MISSES: The Ottawa riding that kicked Pierre Poilievre to the curb in the federal election is heavily populated by federal civil servants who punished the incumbent for his plan to cut the civil service. Now they have a Liberal representative serving with a government that plans to slash the civil service. As some might say, looks good on ’em. … More evidence that there is life after political death. Failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris is expected to take a run at replacing California Governor Gavin Newsom (his term limit expires this year). Newsom expected to seek the Democratic nomination in the next presidential election. … The new Cornwall police station – still in the planning stage – could be the biggest expenditure in city capital spending. Final bill could top $50 million.
TRIVIA ANSWER: Income tax was introduced by the Canadian government in 1917 as a temporary tax to help pay the First World War debt.
TRIVIA: What animal embraced the Howard Smith Paper Mill logo?
QUOTED: The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for. -Will Rogers
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