Our friend Deke Richards, who made the documentary on the Canadian Patriotes, the French and English-speaking rebels who were sent in exile to Australia aboard the Buffalo in 1840—the 91 English-speaking Canadians were sent to Tasmania while 58 French-speaking Canadians came to Concord, NSW—recently contacted us regarding a special event held in Quebec.

The Patriot Party was comprised of Lower Canada’s reformers, mainly French Canadians and immigrants from Ireland, who shared a profound distrust of British power. Louis-Joseph Papineau, a seigneur and lawyer, was the leader of the Patriotes.

Deke told us that he recently had the pleasure of attending an event hosted by the municipality of Saint-Cyprien-d-Napierville in Quebec, held on 19th April, for the inauguration of Joseph Marceau Street, honouring Joseph Marceau, the Patriote originally from that region.

Joseph Marceau was a Canadian Exile who remained in Australia after the exiles were pardoned and allowed to return to Canada.

He sent two photographs from the event:

  1.  Australian High Commissioner for Canada, Scott Ryan;   Diane Bramley, Australian descendant of Joseph Marceau;  and Deke Richards – with the latest issue of Australian Geographic, which featured an article Deke had written on the Patriote Exiles.
  2. The vice-president of the SJBS Joseph Marceau section Dominick Parenteau Lebeuf;  the president of the SJBS Marie-Anne Allepin, MP Brenda Shanahan, Diane Bramley, Deke Richards and the general director of the SJBS Martin Gelinas, with the 1837 Patriot flag at the newly inaugurated Joseph Marceau street sign.

 

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