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History of restrictions in Drummondville

Gabriel Cormier, special collaboration

(Editor’s note) The Quebec government having decreed a first national curfew for the entire province, L’Express asked the Drummond Historical Society, the guardian of our memory, to bring together for its readers all of the restrictions that have affected the Drummondville region since its founding.

HISTORY. While the Drummondville population is adapting to various instructions due to the pandemic that has prevailed for almost a year, there is every reason to revisit the various restrictions that have been imposed on Drummondville over the course of its history.

In October 1918, Drummondville did not escape the Spanish flu crisis which hit the whole world. Quickly, the disease spread and affects more than a quarter of the population while the city has only about 4,000 inhabitants, killing more than fifty people. The living conditions engendered by industrialization (overcrowding of families, lack of adequate aqueducts and sewers and lack of medical care) favor the risks of contagion, forcing the municipal council of Drummondville to set up the Local hygiene office October 4, 1918 in order to stop the progression of the disease. As in many municipalities in the province, meetings and various gatherings are prohibited while schools and other public places are closed. Places of worship, more than important at the time, must also cease their services. The Garceau school is, for its part, converted into a hospital to make up for the lack of beds at the Sainte-Croix Hospital. A few weeks later, the epidemic subsides as quickly as it first appeared.

Gabriel Cormier, cultural projects officer at the Drummond Historical Society. (Photo Courtesy)

The curfew imposed for the whole province since January 9 is not the first to come to frame Drummondville life, at least for a part of the population. Drummondville, like several other cities, adopted a curfew from the 1930s in order to control youth and prevent parental neglect. During the periods concerned, children under the age of fourteen are no longer tolerated in the streets or in public places after 9 p.m. Violators can be exposed to several consequences ranging from a warning to a fine. From 1954, the curfew was put in place again, this time for children under the age of twelve.

The curfew imposed on young people is not the only restriction to disrupt the daily life of the population in the middle of the 20th century.e century. During the Second World War, precautions were taken to protect the population in the event of an air raid or sabotage. Created in 1940, the Civil Protection Committee takes charge of the “obscuration exercises” that take place periodically. The first occurred on May 3, 1942. The sirens of the City and of the main factories then sound the alarm at 10 p.m., forcing the population to turn off all visible light sources and to cover the windows so that no one can see any. light from outside. Vehicles must also park on the shoulder and turn off their headlights, while anyone caught outside must refrain from smoking. At 10:20 p.m., after a series of short sounds, life can resume its course. After a few exercises, sometimes announced, sometimes not, the Committee was dissolved for lack of real threat.

The various restrictions imposed by the authorities over the decades, sometimes similar to what we are experiencing today, had no other objective than to ensure the safety of the Drummondville population.

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