ROUYN-NORANDA - A Quebec author’s newest novel is shedding light on the rich and tumultuous history of Northern Ontario and Quebec during the 1960s and '70s, exploring the intertwined narratives of crime, hardship and resilience.
Through archival research and real-life stories, author Nicole Lemay’s book Rouyn: Going through the 60’s and the 70’s Volume 1, paints a vivid portrait of life in the region’s mining and logging towns and the impact of social and economic challenges on residents.
“The book talks about how morals and customs were in those days. How it was hard for women to survive when their husbands were gone to hotels, which it often happened anywhere, but also how hard men were working,” she said.
“One woman in particular, the one that’s the subject of my book, she was married to a man that was a logger. One day he didn't come back home and she didn't have money and back then, there was no social insurance, so she had to prostitute herself. A lot of women had to do that to survive and to feed their families.”
For about three years, Lemay said she went through the archives in Rouyn-Noranda, a city on Osisko Lake in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region about 30 minutes from the Ontario border.
“I went through every paper that I could find during the year of 1960 and 1978 and I wrote it down. And then I spoke with people who were about 80 to 85 years old who talked about their life during that time. Then I created a story around all of it,” she said.
Part of the book focuses on Edmund Horne, a Canadian businessman and prospector who headed to Northern Ontario following the discovery of copper and gold on the shores of Lake Osisko.
“Mr. Horne had no money to develop a mine, so a syndicate of New Liskeard financed the initial mining development. And it was in 1923 that Noranda Mines Ltd was born,” Lemay said.
“In that year, 66 per cent of prospectors from all over Canada arrived in the area. There were French and English Canadians, Russians, Italians, Chinese, Ukrainians, and Germain immigrants.”
The book also highlights crime and poverty in Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Northern Ontario, with a chapter about colonization.
“In the '70s, Rouyn was pretty much like a little Montreal. There was crime, shooting on the street. It was pretty rough. In the colonization, it was like in the far west here. Booze, prostitution, and gangsters,” Lemay said.
“And during the '70s, many families moved to Ontario. I believe it might have had something to do with the Parti Québécois of René Lévesque who wanted the separation of Quebec.”
Lemay, who began writing in 2016 and has since published seven novels, said that this English version was requested by members of a Rouyn-Noranda Facebook group, as well as by her children and grandchildren so they could learn more about the eras highlighted in her book.
Writing in English also fulfills a personal goal of connecting with the English-speaking community, reflecting her own journey of learning the language later in life.
After growing up in Rouyn-Noranda, Lemay was 26 when she moved to Ontario to learn English.
“If you want something in life, just go for it, and don't bother about the others that say, no, no, no, you're not good enough. I wanted to do this to show them that you can do something that you want to do,” she said.
Before taking up writing, Lemay was a photographer.
“My goal was to freeze a perfect moment when I was doing photography, and now that I'm writing, it's to make the past relived,” she said.
“Our generation is on the verge of disappearing completely. Although times were pretty rough in both cities, especially Rouyn, it goes without saying that they were the best years of my life, as it was for many others too.”
Lemay's book can be purchased here.
