History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 263

the bilingual schools that operated in the province between 1897 and 1916 and the
limited French instruction in the public system thereafter. In the North-West Territories
(present-day Manitoba and Saskatchewan), Bellegarde had the first francophone
Catholic school, and after the province of Saskatchewan was established in 1905, the
school successfully resisted provincial regulations designed to limit French instruction.
The parish priest at Prud’homme, Maurice Baudoux, became a staunch supporter of
French rights and campaigned successfully for radio broadcasts in that language in
western Canada, before he became archbishop of Saint-Boniface.
Belgians created only one educational institution serving their own community alone,
Scheppers College at Swan Lake in rural Manitoba. Brothers of Our Lady of Mercy in
Mechelen planned a boys’ boarding-school and college offering basic agricultural and
manual training, together with academic subjects and religious instruction, in Dutch for
Flemish students. Classes began in an imposing brick structure in the autumn of 1920.
Each year there were between sixty and seventy-five boys in boarding, in addition to
local day scholars. The Depression played havoc with this experiment, and by 1929
the institution was in financial trouble, registration was dropping off, and immigration
schemes to bring out more Flemish settlers were on hold. The school closed three
years later, leaving an empty building on the outskirts of the village as the sole
reminder of this attempt at Flemish education in Canada.

Community Life and Culture
From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Belgians/Cornelius J. Jaenen

In addition to holding important positions in universities, academies, learned societies,
libraries, archives, and museums, Belgians have made significant contributions in
music, the theatre, and the fine arts. Behind the founding of the Académie des BeauxArts in Montreal in 1873 was the colonizing priest P.J. Verbist. Guillaume-Joseph
Mechtler, said to have been the first Canadian to be paid for his compositions, was
organist of Notre-Dame church in Montreal from 1792 to 1832. Famous organists in
the twentieth century included Benoît Verdickt at Lachine, Auguste Leyssens at Sorel,
and Joseph Vermandere at St Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal from 1919 to 1937. The
renowned violists Jules Hone and Frantz Jehin-Prume settled in Montreal in the
1860s. Jehin-Prume in 1891 founded the Association Artistique de Montréal, Quebec’s
first professional chamber music society, among whose members were gifted
compatriots Erasme Jehin-Prume and Jean-Baptiste Dubois. The latter gave classes
for the general public paid for by the provincial government. Sohmer Park, inaugurated
in 1889, featured Belgian musicians in its concerts, and many of them remained in
Quebec to teach music. Joseph-Jean Goulet, for example, played an important role in
the founding of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, which began with a core of Belgian
musicians in 1894. His brother Jean conducted choral productions in Montreal until
1955 for the Société Canadienne d’Oérette and the Variétés Lyriques. In 1933 Henri
Vermandere started and for many years directed the choir school called the Petits
Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois. At about the same time, pianist Severin Moisse and
violinist Maurice Onderet began their distinguished careers as soloists and teachers in
Montreal.
The internationally known paintings of Henri Leopold Masson, a native of Namur,
reflect his love of the Gatineau region near Ottawa. Among the other artists of Belgian
origin who have attained regional fame are Francis Coutellier, Guy Gosselin, Michel
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