In the second half of the 19th centurye century, many North Americans questioned the dangers of alcohol.
This firewater is put in the dock. It is accused of creating urban poverty. For many, it seems the source of all social excesses. It was in this context that a vast temperance movement spread to our southern neighbors, particularly the American states to the north. Prohibition is gradually imposed. By 1916, it became a crime to manufacture, sell and consume alcohol in more than 50% of states. This ideological trend is spreading, other countries such as Russia and Finland are decreeing similar laws.
Mgr Bruchési, bishop of Montreal, takes the lead in a temperance crusade to eradicate alcoholism.
Photo Domaine public
In Quebec, the Catholic clergy is in favor of these temperance measures, they consider that alcohol is the evil of the century, that it provokes vice and that it transforms good fathers of families into drunkards.
Photo Domaine public
UNITED STATES ON A DRY DIET
In the United States, the law Volstead (1919) imposed, from the beginning of 1920, a ban on the production, distribution, sale and consumption of alcohol of more than 0.5 degree. Even if this criminalization is scary, you can find something to drink thanks to a smuggling network set up around notorious criminals like Al Capone or Lucky Luciano. These gangsters will get gigantic quantities of alcohol here in Canada.
PROTECTING CITIZENS AGAINST FIREWATER
Here in Canada, management is different. Temperance laws are not enforced unilaterally. Already, in 1878, the federal government of John A. Macdonald allowed municipalities the power to exclude the sale of alcohol on their territory, thus, the responsibility for the prohibition fell to the cities and not to the federal government.
“Are you of the opinion that the sale of beers, ciders and light wines, as defined by law, should be permitted?” During the Quebec referendum on alcohol prohibition in April 1919, the yes vote won with 78.62% of the votes cast.
Photo Domaine public
In Quebec, in 1918, the Taschereau government passed a complete ban which was to apply from May 1919, but a referendum opposed the prohibitive measure. A majority of Quebecers do not want a unilateral American-style prohibition. The legislator will have to exclude beer, wine and cider from his law to have his restriction accepted. Despite the adoption of the Alcoholic Beverages Act, the Taschereau government grants Quebec cities the power to pass even more restrictive local regulations. Temperance campaigns against this “devil’s water” were so influential that after the First World War, nearly 90% of Quebec cities banned its consumption on their territory. Major cities like Quebec and Trois-Rivières become completely dry, but not Montreal. Consequence: in the space of a few months, at the beginning of the 1920s, Montreal remained the only large city in North America where you could have a drink with friends, in public.
The police and authorities will turn a blind eye to these illegal practices for a long time, corruption being well established by the mafia.
Photo Sûreté du Québec
It wasn’t long before the metropolis was renamed “the Paris of the North” or even “the Babylon of America” for example. Hundreds of Broadway and jazzmen from Chicago then migrate to us.
SUPERVISION FOR BETTER CONTROL
Photo Historical Society of Cap-de-la-Madeleine, André Montplaisir Fund
The creation of the Commission des liqueurs du Québec gave it a monopoly on the importation, sale and issuance of sales permits and it imposed surveillance. To ensure compliance with the law, the State created its liquor police, more than thirty agents on the lookout for alcohol smugglers and clandestine bars. Collaboration between different police organizations is crucial to stemming illegal cross-border trade.
Photo Société des alcools du Québec
DRY CITIES AND PROUD OF IT
Gradually, the majority of cities in Quebec will lift this prohibition, but some will resist for several decades. This is the case of the small municipality of Saint-Placide-de-Béarn in Témiscamingue, which is putting an end, after three referendums, to its status as an alcohol-free town.
Photo The Gazette (November 1965)
On the island of Montreal, Verdun is the last to partly impose prohibition. The small municipality has long been proud of this particularity. It must be said that one of its first municipal regulations passed the day after its creation in 1875 was to prohibit the sale of alcohol and to threaten consumers with a $50 fine or even three months’ imprisonment. . Verdun residents had to wait until 2015 for the sale of unrestricted alcohol to become possible throughout the territory of Verdun and, by extension, throughout Quebec.
