Students of Laval Parading the Streets of Montreal.
The Montreal Star, 6 mar., 1900, p. 1. This illustration, based on a picture which appeared in both La Patrie and The Montreal Star, depicts a different reaction to news of the Paardeberg victory and the Relief of Ladysmith. It shows an angry French Canadian crowd on its way to Viger Square where a few participants tore, trampled and burned a Union Jack to demonstrate not so much their hostility to British actions in the Transvaal but more their dissatisfaction with their English-speaking compatriots' behavior in the city of Montreal. The day before, intoxicated McGill students celebrating the British-Canadian victories had indiscriminately attacked the offices of La Presse and Le Journal, both nominal supporters of the war, and then turned their wrath on Laval University of Montreal, later the University of Montreal. This unprovoked attack invited retaliation from the Laval students. The Laval counter-demonstrators, however, remained essentially peaceful and confined themselves to singing "La Marseillaise" and waving the tri-colour. They cheered the Queen's statue on Victoria Square "but on one occasion at least," the weekly McGill Outlook piously reported, "men in their procession were heard to utter very uncomplimentary remarks - not to use a stronger adjective - about Her Gracious Majesty as well as their 'enemies' at McGill." At this point the affair seemed no more than a student prank gone sour, but in the evening a more serious situation developed. An English-speaking mob composed of students, citizens and town ruffians, armed with frozen potatoes, sticks, iron bars and according to one report, guns, decided to re-visit Laval where they received an icy welcome. The students, professors and police, anticipating further violence, turned the water hose on the crowd which retaliated by breaking every window in the building. After this demonstration the City called out the Militia to aid the less than competent municipal police force.
