Archaeologists work on downtown graves
Graves have been found in Place du Canada although it isn’t really news that the area was used as a cemetery years ago.
But the writer handwaves an issue we’ve discussed here before: In the 1860s, most of the bodies at the St. Antoine Cemetery were moved [...] but the exhumations were halted abruptly in 1871 over public fears — unfounded — that raising the dead would mean raising and rekindling some of the deadly epidemics.
As recently as 2010, when Marguerite d’Youville’s remains were moved from the Grey Nuns’ mother house by Concordia, 275 other nuns were left undisturbed because of such danger – these nuns had often worked as hospital nurses during the era: Le ministère de la Santé n’a pas voulu qu’il y ait exhumation parce que certaines des religieuses sont mortes de maladie contagieuse, comme la petite vérole, explique soeur Fournier. Avant de céder l’immeuble à l’Université Concordia, la communauté devait faire couler une dalle de béton sur les tombeaux. Ce qui a été fait il y a quelques mois. «C’était une condition de la vente, résume soeur Fournier, pour éviter les risques de contamination si, par exemple, les ouvriers avaient un jour à aller réparer un dégât d’eau dans la crypte.»
Anyone know what the facts are here? Should we dig ‘em up, or seal ‘em in forever? I asked the question on Metafilter a couple of years ago and some of the responses were interesting, but it seems you can’t categorically rule out the risk.
Alex 18:45 on 2012/08/18 Permalink
Are you serious? Public Health was concerned about smallpox?! See, I didn’t know the virus could survive so long… The CFB documentary about the smallpox epidemics in Mtl is some craaaaaazy shite.
Kate 19:03 on 2012/08/18 Permalink
Don’t forget, general inoculation against smallpox was discontinued in the late 1970s because the disease is no longer endemic, so only people over a certain age have any immunity (and it’s never been tested whether if you got a smallpox vaccination at age 7, it would still protect you when you’re over 50). So if there’s any chance there’s still a risk, better not to mess with it.
Bill Binns 09:12 on 2012/08/19 Permalink
This highlights the fiction that you can have your body buried in the ground somewhere and expect it to remain undisturbed forever. I’m sure at the time those nuns were buried at the Grey nun’s mother house it would have been completely unthinkable that the building would ever be anything other than the Grey Nun’s mother house (let alone condos).
As our population grows, the temptation to turn all those beautiful, leafy green cemeteries into beautiful, leafy green housing developments will overcome our sense of duty to people long dead.
Kate 13:20 on 2012/08/19 Permalink
Bill Binns, I fear so, although I don’t know what the terms of ownership of the two big cemeteries say about their control of the land. Notre-Dame-des-Neiges belongs to the Sulpicians, who once used to own all of Montreal island and are still powers in the land. They’ve been building extensive mausoleums (or columbariums) all over the cemetery, even though the city and the province have made noise in recent years about protecting the mountain, limiting construction, etc. etc.
I’m guessing that in future if the Sulpicians wanted to build condos on some of that fallow open green land between Côte-des-Neiges Road and the first rows of graves, the city could not stop them. After all, they allowed the construction of that giant funerary complex along there, and as I recall there was no consultation of the nearby residents (lots of apartments on the other side of CDN) about whether they wanted it or not.
Mount Royal cemetery is a nicer graveyard, but it’s hilly and it has much less space to spare than NDN. I think things would have to change a lot before they agreed to plow under the private plots and allow construction there.
So my prediction is that in our lifetimes we’ll likely see some construction on land now fenced as NDN cemetery land, but not quite yet plowing under graves to do it.