Editorially speaking…
By now, I’m sure, everyone must be aware that Canada’s flagship of department stores, the Hudson’s Bay Co.—Canada’s first and oldest business of all—is in the process of corporate deconstruction and will shortly vanish from the landscape. (Under American owners, it might be noted.)
But this isn’t just a business tragedy, it’s a blow to the Canadian DNA. Think of it: this business founded this country and successfully sailed the stormy seas of commerce for over 400 years!
Compare that to Apple and Amazon, to name just two of the mega corporations of this digital age, who’ve only been with us for a matter of minutes, comparatively speaking!
Everyone knows that there’s very little sentiment in the commercial world and bankruptcies, voluntary or otherwise, are as cold-blooded as you can get. Which brings me to my point: All HBC assets are to be on the chopping block—including some things that should not be allowed to be treated as ‘assets’ or commodities like mere merchandise.
Several of the HBC stores have long displayed in-house memorials to former employees who served and died in both world wars. These, apparently, have been thrown into the sales bin with the properties, the furnishing, fixtures and other sales goods.
This is dead wrong. It’s sacrilege!
Anything associated with these memorials must be removed from the various premises and the sales inventory immediately, and given gratis to appropriate government agencies for eventual disposition to museums or, perhaps, to the Royal Canadian Legion.
They must not be sold off like ordinary merchandise. Nor should museums, for one, have to pay a penny for them. They must be donated unconditionally and appropriately.
Is nothing sacred any more?
PS: I should add that the HBC also has in its possession Indigenous ceremonial artifacts. The Assembly of First Nations is asking that a “pause on the auction” until “items have been identified and returned to their communities”.
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Okay, now that I have that off my chest (and shifted it onto yours?) I do have happier things to report. One truly positive news items is that Lytton’s Chinese History Museum has arisen from the ashes and has reopened.
Owner Lorna Fandrich, with the generous help of the town, friends and fellow history buffs, are to be congratulated for rebuilding after the disastrous fire of June 2021 destroyed much of downtown Lytton, including their museum.
These Chinese artifacts are for sale online. Fortunately for posterity, the Chinese presence in pioneer B.C. was so extensive that antiquarian treasures abound and, with the help of fellow museums, the museum has reopened from the disastrous fire of four years ago. —ebay
Incredibly, 200 of the original 1600 artifacts were recovered from the ashes.
The museum has been a true labour of love for Lorna, who told the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal: “When I first built I was 65 years old, and I thought at that time I’ll start this museum and I’ll run it until I’m 72 or 73 and then donate all the artifacts to to the Lytton Museum.”
Ironically, that museum, too, was lost in the flames. When, finally, Lorna does retire, she hopes to pass on her treasures to a rebuilt community museum. ‘New’ artifacts have been acquired from private sources, regional museums and the Royal BC Museum in Victoria.
Bless Lorna Fandricks, her friends and supporters.
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I receive about 50 emails a day. Many are subscriptions, some are essential if mildly annoying, time-wise (the cost of doing business) but, almost weekly, I hear from someone responding to something I’ve written—sometimes, something I wrote years and years ago.
Recently, a lady contacted me re: her grandfather and great grandfather. I never met her grandfather, he having been killed in a helicopter crash some years before his father—her great grandfather—responded to an article I’d written about Leechtown for the Victoria Colonist. (We’re talking years ago; I’d hardly begun writing professionally.)
It was through her grandfather that I was given my first and only helicopter ride. For free! For an hour! To go wherever, within reason, I wanted!
Needless to say, I’ve never forgotten that wonderful ride to the Leech River area (where else?) and being able to view from the air the sites I’d scratched and bushwhacked on foot. So, I was more than pleased to share with her what I had in the way of files pertaining to my meeting her grandfather and the comments I received after re-writing the story of my helicopter ride on www.twpaterson.com.
BTW, I’m more than willing to assist people in their family or professional historical research when it’s possible for me to do so. With the caveat that, if I have to dig into my archives, it will take however long it will take. I do have a day job, you know.
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