In 1968, Saint John made aviation history as the starting point for Canada’s first skyjacking: an Air Canada Vickers Viscount passenger plane headed for Toronto. This was the first of several acts of air piracy during the golden age of skyjacking in Canada. We begin our episode by discussing the golden age of commercial aviation in Canada, when passenger travel was associated with glamour, passenger comfort and convenience. Relatively expensive compared to later decades, air travel from the late 1950s to the early 1970s was not a mass phenomenon and the typical passenger was a male business executive. Female flight attendants, who tended to be young, were specially trained to look after passengers. Security was minimal; there was no screening of passengers and baggage; departure lounges were not controlled spaces and airports did not have protective fencing. Canada, with its low levels of crime, political violence and handgun ownership, seemed even less worried than the United States about airline security.

The episode next examines the golden age of skyjacking, a global phenomenon that peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was heavily reported in the media and made an impact in pop culture in terms of humour, editorial cartoons, books and movies. Dozens of U.S.-based flights were hijacked, with many skyjackers demanding to be taken to Havana. Many on the political left regarded Cuba under the Castro regime to be a socialist haven from American capitalism, racism and imperialism. The skyjacker was often viewed as a new type of social rebel produced by the tensions of the 1960s, but not all of them were politically motivated. Some were fleeing the law, others demanded ransoms, others were thrill seekers or hungry for publicity and a few were mentally ill. Airlines and governments resisted implementing expensive and intrusive security measures until actual violence threatened aircraft, passengers and crews. Canada experienced several skyjackings, only one of which was successful.

We move on to the background of the skyjacker of Air Canada Flight 303, a young African American from Texas, Charles L. Beasley, who had been involved with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Dallas. By the mid-1960s SNCC, which had taken part in the freedom struggles in the U.S. South, was morphing into an all-Black organization tied to the anti-Vietnam War and Black Power movements. Beasley’s name appeared in secret files of the FBI, which was monitoring political activities by Black activists. According to a later interview, Beasley became radicalized after the assassination of Civil Rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968. Whatever the reason, he took part in an armed bank robbery in the small Texas community of Ladonia in August of 1968 with at least two other men but escaped arrest. Wanted by the FBI, he fled to Canada. The episode ends with Mark and Greg speculating why and how Beasley ended up in Canada, and more specifically, Halifax, Nova Scotia, which he left in the early hours of Sept. 11, 1968, carrying an .22 calibre revolver and heading for the Saint John airport.

Show Notes: https://www.nothinghappenedhere.ca/post/except-for-the-first-skyjacking-in-canada

In Saint John, as in other cities, residents’ sense of geography is based on streets and neighbourhoods, but few stop to ponder why streets were given certain names or, in some cases, re-named. It turns out that many of the names of the city’s thoroughfares are a direct link to the colonial past and reflect the priorities of Saint John’s elite, as well as reflecting the power structure at the time. Simply put, the names of streets, parks and public buildings can tell us much about who dominated a community in the past and who was excluded.

Saint John, located on unceded Wolastoqey land at the mouth of a majestic river whose European name had been bestowed by French explorers and traders in the early 1600s, was incorporated as a city in 1785 in the new British colony of New Brunswick. Most of the first inhabitants were American-born Loyalists, mainly from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, who had been evacuated from New York City in 1783. That year, Paul Bedell prepared a town plan for the new community, which initially was named Parr Town after the governor of Nova Scotia. Bedell’s plan, which included a number of squares or parks, superimposed a grid pattern on Saint John central peninsula south of Union Street.

In this episode, we explore street naming in the Loyalist era (1783 to 1815) as well as the post Napoleonic Wars era when the British Empire was expanding and immigrants from England, Scotland and Ireland were settling in New Brunswick in increased numbers. In addition to the British monarchy, Britain’s involvement in the American Revolutionary War and the resulting Loyalist migrations inspired most of the first street names in a city founded by Loyalists. As new streets were laid out, new names had to be found. In 1889, the adjacent town of Portland, now known as the North end, amalgamated with Saint John. Using examples from the city’s South and North ends, as well the West side (across the harbour), we explain how a number of street names honoured controversial British political, military, naval and diplomatic leaders, some of whom opposed the abolition of slavery. We end with a brief discussion of the issue of changing street names and who should be recognized by new street names in the future.

Show Notes: https://www.nothinghappenedhere.ca/post/except-for-naming-the-streets

In this last episode of 2024, we explore how Christmas was celebrated in Saint John in during the Victorian era (1837-1901). In this episode, we are honoured to include a discussion with Saint John’s “Mr. Christmas,” local author David Goss, who has published more than twenty books on Saint John and New Brunswick history.

As residents of a British colony, Saint Johners avidly followed trends from the ‘Mother county’, but because of their Loyalist roots and economic, social and cultural connections with the United States, celebrations in the city were also influenced by trends south of the border. Printed material- books, magazines and newspapers- shaped a transatlantic culture of Christmas in the early to mid-Victorian era that emphasized December 25, Christmas Day, as a day for giving gifts and feasting. In the pre-Victorian era, some people exchanged presents as early as December 6; the days after Christmas was for donating to charity or servants and a final party often was held on January 6, the Twelfth Night.

The new approach to Christmas also emphasized domesticity- the family together at home- and was increasingly child centred. Although many people attended religious services on Christmas Day, popular culture, notably the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas (Twas the Night before Christmas) by American Clement Clarke Moore in 1823 and Charles Dicken’s instant class A Christmas Carol (1842), stressed secular themes of childhood innocence, merrymaking, and benevolence. In terms of decorations and rituals, fashion also played a role with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert helping to popularize Christmas trees in the home as early as the late 1840s. Middle-class people on both sides of the Atlantic also adopted or fine tuned other seasonal activities: sending Christmas cards, playing sometimes dangerous parlour games, feasting and in some cases imbibing alcohol to excess, singing Christmas carols (many of which were composed during the 19th century) and taking part in outdoor activities.

Our guest David Goss recalls how Santa Claus was more for children and parents until a department store in the 1880s featured him in its window, causing a sensation. Christmas trees, decorated with burning candles, which could lead to house fires, caught on gradually in Saint John, but commercialization of Christmas was evident early on as merchants realized that there was a market for children’s toys. Unlike more recent times when many Canadians get into the Christmas spirit in early December or even in November, people in Saint John in the 19th century tended to wait until close to December 25 to decorate their houses, shop for presents and special foods and put up Christmas trees. Although there was social pressure to celebrate Christmas in style, many families in a city marked by poverty struggled to match the Victorian middle-class ideal. Despite this, the holiday was no doubt valued by the community.

Show Notes: https://www.nothinghappenedhere.ca/post/except-for-victorian-christmases