Was delighted to see Anthony Bourdain praise Montreal last night on his culinary travel show but lest people believe that we actually eat beaver meat and ice fish and eat outdoors after playing shinny in public parks in St. Hank, sorry it's not entirely the case.
Nonetheless I think he has overlooked one obscure element of the Quebec diet that is rarely discussed: human flesh.
Recent news that cannibalism was practiced by American settlers has shocked some people but it's really nothing new to our part of the world.
Here is one example, written up in A.W. Brian Simpson's Cannibalism and common law: a Victoria yachting tragedy
And of course the battle for Quebec, which was part of the larger seven years war, was won largely because the Brits were able to blockade the Atlantic preventing French from sending much in the way of reinforcements but also because the Brits had the upper hand with relations with the native Indians, as some key leaders believed that the French had eaten their people, although some starving British troops also indulged in human flesh in those battles as well.
Nonetheless I think he has overlooked one obscure element of the Quebec diet that is rarely discussed: human flesh.
Recent news that cannibalism was practiced by American settlers has shocked some people but it's really nothing new to our part of the world.
Here is one example, written up in A.W. Brian Simpson's Cannibalism and common law: a Victoria yachting tragedy
A peculiarly grim case, involving in all probability both mass murder and cannibalism, occurred in 1828-29 on the island of Anticosta (sic) in the gulf of St. Lawrence. Four men landed on the island and visited a hut at Godin’s Post. Inside they found “the carcases (sic) of four human beings with their heads and legs and arms cut off, and the bowels extracted, hanging by their thighs in the room, and the others cut up in the same manner.” There was also a store in a trunk, and a pot with flesh in it. This larder had not, however, saved the last survivor, who lay dead in a hammock. The Times, at the instigation of the Lloyd’s agent at Pictou, published an account of items found at the site, where numerous other human relics were strewn about; this account derived from an affidavit sworn before a local justice of the peace. It transpired that the remains came from the Granicus, which had been wrecked on the island, then largely if not wholly uninhabited in winter, about November 20, 1828. Between 17 and 20 persons had been on board, and the last survivor was a sailor whose name was Harrington, the son of Mary Harrington of Barrack Street, Looe.The same book tells of Captain Timothy Gorman who ferried Irish immigrants to Quebec in the 1840s and brought timber back to Europe. He had eaten two ship hands but that didn't seem to slow down his career.
Bloodstains on the roof and other evidence suggested that a number of his companions had died after a violent struggle; he presumably simply froze to death.
And of course the battle for Quebec, which was part of the larger seven years war, was won largely because the Brits were able to blockade the Atlantic preventing French from sending much in the way of reinforcements but also because the Brits had the upper hand with relations with the native Indians, as some key leaders believed that the French had eaten their people, although some starving British troops also indulged in human flesh in those battles as well.