In Montreal, journalist Louis-Philippe Messier is mostly on the run, with his desk in his backpack, looking for fascinating topics and people. In this city chronicle he speaks to everyone and is interested in all areas of life.
Through a combination of circumstances, the Société du parc Jean-Drapeau was able to recover a plaque from Expo 67 that may have been torn down before 1990 and then stolen from its pedestal at Place des Nations.
Two students from a high school in Hochelaga made the find during their lunch break.
The plaque awaited the garbage collectors among the garbage bags on the corner of De Rouen and Desjardins streets.
Anyone could have gotten their hands on this orphaned artifact.
“We love antiques, so the plaque caught our attention,” recalls Léa St-Denis.
“My dad is an Expo 67 fan and I texted him a photo. “He would have come quickly to pick her up, but he didn’t have time,” adds Vicky Tremblay.
The happy activity of the young women around the memorial plaque caught the attention of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve’s deputy, Alexandre Leduc, who was passing by accompanied by his political attaché.
“I told the girls that we would take the plaque to my constituency office before notifying the Société du parc Jean-Drapeau,” says Alexandre Leduc.
Of course, the two men forced themselves to wear the badge “together”.
“It was about the weight of a BIXI,” Mr. Leduc says.
Then someone from Société du parc Jean-Drapeau came by to receive the plaque.
MP Alexandre Leduc poses in front of the plaque, which he then took to his constituency office before returning it to the Société du Parc Jean-Drapeau. Courtesy of Alexandre Leduc
According to experts
Since I wrote the special section “50 Years of Expo 67” for Le Journal de Montréal in 2017, I know a little about the topic.
I sought out two truly indisputable experts, living encyclopedias of the event, to find out their opinions.
“We note that the plaque contains a date error that suggests that it was made before we knew that the Expo would take two days longer than planned to reach the 50 million visitor mark,” analyzes Julie Bélanger , president of Les Amis d’Expo 67, who has led hundreds of historical walks on the site.
“If a sign is not original, it will be noted somewhere on it: it says it is a reproduction and it states the year.”
“However, any mention of this type is absent from this plaque, which commemorates another original plaque still on the site.”
According to Ms. Bélanger, it is obviously the original sign.
Why was it stolen?
“My hypothesis is that, like so many other items from Expo 67, it was stolen to be used to decorate a living room, but that it ended up in the hands of someone who did not know what it was,” explains the historian Roger La Roche.
“The theft of parts of Expo 67 was already a problem during the event.”
Expo 67 market
As the site that became Terre des Hommes remained virtually abandoned since the 1980s, it became a site accessible to all.
Anyone with a good crowbar could rip off a plate.
There is a market for pieces from Expo 67.
“Someone has already offered to sell me the Thailand pavilion in pieces, and I bought the front of an Expo Express train that was rescued from scrap for my collection,” says Ms. Bélanger.
Ms. Bélanger’s most spectacular acquisition: an authentic, original Habitat 67 kitchen that she reassembled from scratch in her chalet in Saint-Calixte.