From a doomed church, a 136-year-old story of vaccine mandates and resistance

A 136-year-old piece of newsprintdiscovered under unusual circumstances highlights public health challenges that havebeen renewed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The clipping details a push to get Montreal school children vaccinated against smallpox at a time when vaccine mandateswere sparking violent riots,despite the disease killing thousands in Quebec.

The page from the now-defunct Montreal Herald is believed to have been printed in August 1885. It was found while crews were demolishing the St. Clement's Catholic Church in the southwestern New Brunswick village of McAdam last December, said Dave Essensa, who worked as project manager on the demolition.

The single sheet of newsprintwas discoloured with age and burnt around the edges when it was foundon the wet, slushy ground.

Newspaper promoting vaccines during smallpox outbreak found in N.B construction site

3 years ago

Duration 2:35

Stuffed in the walls of a McAdam church that burned down not once, but twice, then was found in a mud puddle, the article bears a poignant message from a bygone epidemic.

It might have been overlookedentirely if Dale Nason, the worker who found it, hadn't read the timely headline:"Vaccination for school children."

"The word'vaccination' caught his eye," saidEssensa, speaking to CBC's Harry Forestell.

"And he brought it over to a construction trailer that we had set up here on the site and more or less looked at me and he said, 'What do you think of that?'"

Digging into thebackground

Essensa said he brought the piece of newsprint home that night to give it a closer look.

The publication date had been lost, and the weathered text of the story was hard to read.

However, by drawing on a few key details, Essensa said he determined the story must have been about the push to vaccinate school childrenagainst smallpox during Montreal's devastating outbreak in 1885.

"The article speaks of a doctor [Louis]Laberge as being the chief medicalhealth officer for the City of Montreal," said Essensa.

"Abit of internet searching andreferencing some articles that spoke to a smallpox epidemic in the province of Quebec in 1885."

The smallpox outbreak of 1885killed 3,259 people in Montreal alone and 5,964 across Quebec.

During the outbreak, violent riots broke out in the streets of Montreal by groups opposed to the city's vaccination campaign, according to Jonathan M. Berman'sWhen antivaccine sentiment turned violent: the Montral Vaccine Riot of 1885,published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

"On Sept. 28, the Board of Health announced that vaccination was to be made compulsory," writes Berman.

"In response, a 'howling mob'surrounded the East End Branch Health Office that evening and 'wrecked'the building."

Reflection of today's challenges

The resumption of in-person classes in New Brunswick this week cameas officials, including Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell, urged parents to gettheir children vaccinated against COVID-19.

At the same time, a vocal minority of people have gathered in cities in New Brunswick and Canada in recent weeks to protest COVID-19vaccination requirements.

Given the current climate aroundvaccine mandates,Essensasaid the discovery of the clipping was an interesting coincidence.

"What I took from it was... our ancestors have been through these things before. Civilization has been through these things before," Essensa said.

"Let's just get this done. And yeah, [the discovery]was pretty bizarre, but I'm not going to read moreinto it than that."

Surviving two fires and a demolition

Essensa said he suspects the clipping had been packed into a wall of the church as insulation, which explains why it was suddenly found on the ground during the demolition.

He said the timelinematches with construction of the church in 1889.

After that, Essensa said the clipping survived two disasters.

"The church burned in 1904 the main vestry area which this [clipping] came out of, survived that first fire in 1904, was rebuilt, and then in the 1940s, it burned again," he said.

"And it appears by all accounts... that paper would have been in there as insulation. A vast majority of it would have been burned in one or both of those fires, and somehow this one little piece survived."

McAdam Mayor Ken Stannix said he thinks the clipping is a significant reminder that though people have rejected vaccines in the past, history has proven they work.

"I think it gives us a message that these vaccines, so long as they are vetted by the scientific community as they have, work to the benefit of mankind rather than against it," Stannix said.

"And I think once people come to realize the benefits of the vaccines in the current age, they will do that. They will take them."