Nearly 70 years later, CFB Gagetown expropriation still resonates
CBC
Even though she was a young child at the time, Connie Denby remembers Labour Day of 1953 as if it was yesterday.
It was the day her family left Upper Hibernia, a New Brunswick community that no longer exists, having been swallowed up by CFB Gagetown.
"It was raining so hard and we were all crying," Denby said.
The family was moving to a new home built in nearby Queenstown, and she was supposed to start Grade 2 at her new school the next day.
"Everyone was crying and upset, and we put as much of the personal belongings and furniture in the back of a logging truck with sideboards that we could get."
"It was traumatic. Even though at a young age, I still remember it well because so many people were going through the same thing."
Her family was one of about 750, living in 20 communities, who were forced out of their homes by the biggest expropriation in New Brunswick's history.
Places with names like Dunn's Corner, Coote Hill, New Jerusalem, Clones, Armstrong's Corner and Summer Hill would all disappear along with Hibernia.
Denby said her hometown, like the others, was a close-knit community.
"Most of the men worked in the woods in the winter and did some farming in the summer," she said, "with just a few milk cows and a team of horses and what have you. But everybody pitched in."
"There was a community hall and churches and the schools … there was a general store that also doubled as a post office, and it was a gathering place."
"And the lady that lived there one time — we had a copy of a five-year diary that she had with not one word of gossip in it — but she recorded every day what the temperature was, what the weather was like, who stopped by, who might have been there for dinner," Denby recalled.
"I don't know how the lady kept up. Almost everybody that came stayed for dinner or stayed for tea. … People looked after one another and if there was a hardship, they were there to help."
But in July 1952, that quiet rural life would change dramatically.
CBC Newfoundland and Labrador is kicking off its annual holiday campaign, helping to raise money to support local food banks.
If all goes according to plan, at 6 a.m. AT on Saturday people working at the IWK Health Centre will become the test case for a generational change to Nova Scotia’s health-care system.
One month after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced what he called "generational" military spending, New Brunswick’s defence ecosystem is on high alert.
Miranda Mirlycourtois, 34, looks directly at the camera and makes a confession.
Saskatoon city hall says police spending is projected to be $2.6 million over budget this year. That pushes the city into a $1.2-million deficit position, according to a report that will be considered by city council next week.
Students at the University of Regina are days away from deciding whether a newly formed student association should become their official representative body.
All public schools on P.E.I. are closed Friday and thousands of Maritime Electric customers are without power as strong winds create hazardous travel conditions across the province.
Prince Rupert, B.C., residents are celebrating the holidays this year with coastal flair.
In the four years Chelsey Simmonds has worked at the Eva Rothwell Centre, she has seen the need increase every year at the centre’s community food pantry.
CBC is once again looking to make the holiday season kind in Windsor-Essex.
Acute Care Alberta has extended its contract for another year with a private surgical facility at the centre of probes into health procurement and contracting.
As food bank use continues to climb across the province, front-line workers in Thunder Bay, Ont., are working to improve both food security and education.
More ads could soon be coming to Toronto’s subway system.