Our lectures take place on the 3rd Thursday of the month, starting at 19:30.

Christ Church Beaurepaire 100 yrs

Speaker: Michael Silverthorne
When: Thursday, September 19, 2024, 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

Christ Church Beaurepaire was established in 1924. Our speaker, Michael Silverthorne, member of this Church, will talk about the first 100 years of this Anglican Church.

Michael Silverthorne has always been interested in the past, to what came before what we have now and how we got where we are. He taught les études classiques at McGill for nearly forty years, especially ancient Greek literature. In his latter years he translated several neo-Latin texts on political and philosophical topics, such as works of Hobbes, Spinoza and the notebooks on religious topics of Sir Isaac Newton.

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Love in the Shadow of Rebellion

Speaker: John Kalbfleisch
When: Thursday, October 17, 2024, 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period

Why does young, reform-minded lawyer George-Étienne Cartier join an armed uprising, only to later reject violence as the way to achieve responsible government in this country? In 1837, Lower Canada seethes with discontent. After savage rioting in Montreal between hardline loyalists and dissident radicals, there is no turning back. Cartier, a future Father of Confederation, commits himself to rebellion against the Crown. At Saint Denis, Saint Charles and Saint Eustache, poorly armed Patriotes find themselves in pitched battles against the most disciplined army on the planet, battles that echo to this day.
Inspired by three of Cartier’s recently discovered letters, John Kalbfleisch deftly weaves fact with fiction in his new novel, The '37. It imagines how an affair with a beautiful and witty schoolteacher changes his life—and helps ensure the birth of an independent Canada.

Longtime journalist John Kalbfleisch wrote a Montreal Gazette column on the city’s history for seventeen years. His novel The ’37 was published early 2024. He is also the author of No Place More Suitable: Four Centuries of Montreal Stories (2018), A Stain Upon the Land (2017), Le cadeau royal: Histoire de la ville de Mont-Royal / The Royal Gift: a History of Town of Mount Royal (2013) and This Island In Time: Remarkable Tales from Montreal’s Past (2008), and is co-author of Montreal’s Century: a Record of the News and People Who Shaped the City in the 20th Century (1999).

The following books will be available for sale: "The ’37", and "A stain upon the Land".

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1885: Montreal's Annus Horribilis

Speaker: Robert N. Wilkins
When: Thursday, November 21, 2024, 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

Our speaker, Robert N. Wilkins, will highlight different events of 1885 in Montréal, including the Winter Carnival, the Election of Honoré Beaugrand as Mayor of Montréal, the Spring Floods, the Smallpox Epidemic and the Hanging of Louis Riel.

Born in Montreal in 1947, Robert N. Wilkins was educated at Concordia University, Carleton University, and McGill University. High school teacher in the Montreal area for some 35 years, he was also a contributor to the Quebec Family History Society quarterly Connections, The  Westmount Examiner, The Suburban, The Montreal Gazette, and, occasionally, other national newspapers as well. He published the books Montreal, 1909 (Shoreline Press, in 2017), Montreal Recorder’s Court, 1906 (in 2020), and Grandad’s Montreal, 1901 (in 2022).

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