Voices From A Forgotten Tragedy

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"It has taken 50 Years to Awaken

the Memory..." Jean Grant-Page

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50th Anniversary

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Attend this Commemorative Event of

Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 831

Friday, November 29th and Saturday November 30th, 2013 in Quebec.

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Purchase the book and DVD to experience the journey of discovery into the tragic TCA Flight 831

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Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831: Our Journey of Discovery

"In the 1960’s, remembering such a tragic event as the crash of Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831 was tempered with hesitation and awe. It has taken fifty years to awaken the memory — awaken the desire to open the doors and explore the memories of the 29th of November,1963.” (Jean Grant-Page)

“For those directly touched by the lives lost on TCA Flight 831the inextricable link to the loss of John F. Kennedy undoubtedly exacerbated their loss. But for the rest of us, the very public death of JFK and the ensuing investigations distracted us from the losses of our own community. On top of this, none of us wanted to hear about tragedies, particularly those related to progress. These were the early sixties, full of optimism and good news. We couldn’t imagine emerging jet travel would be anything but a great success and perfectly safe. We still don’t! We don’t want to consider progress might be unsteady or dubious or risky.” (Ern Dick)

“When we started this project five years ago, I believed that the crash of TCA Flight 831 had been forgotten. I had no sense of its place in the development of aviation, or certainly in history. When I heeded my wife, Jean’s, urging to explore the story of TCA Flight 831, I had no idea where this project would take me. I agreed partly because I suspected we would not receive any responses to our request and imagined I could then re-compartmentalize my memories and not feel compelled to examine them any further. Voices from a Forgotten Tragedy and the sheer number of voices in it show just how wrong I was about that! Still, while I wanted to know more, a part of me would have been happy to let the memories go, and continue to live my life much as I had for the past 45 years. This was an ambivalence I found very prevalent among families of the victims.” (Bob Page)

“The crash of TCA Flight 831 took place just outside Sainte-Thérèse de Blainville, Quebec. The passengers and airline employees were almost all Anglophone, while the witnesses and the first responders, the police and army who were guarding the scene, the emergency workers, and hundreds excavating the crash site were all primarily French-speaking. There was precious little joining of these two solitudes for the next forty-five years. This journey has begun to remedy the divide through the compilation of Voices from a Forgotten Tragedy and working together for a 50th anniversary.” (Ern Dick)

“A memoir does not describe what happened in an orderly and logical fashion rather it reveals how people remember things. The book, Voices from a Forgotten Tragedy is a memoir. It is a memorial book based on personal memory generated from an exceptional historical event.

Canadian culture has shifted around disasters. We are no longer afraid to talk about difficult events. Culture shifts slightly at first through small acts by individual people. Then culture shifts dramatically by means of collective actions. Our decision to awaken the story of Bob’s father, John M. Page, was the first small act to remember the crash of TCA Flight 831. Five years after the first notice was placed in the Globe & Mail, a remarkable shift has occurred. Families of the 118 people lost are now communicating. The printing of Voices from a Forgotten Tragedy is a collaboration of many voices; many people willing to speak about their memories. This is the narrative that matters. This is the anecdote of how the culture can shift.

(Jean Grant-Page)

“Voices from a Forgotten Tragedy takes the form of an oral history. As an archivist, I believe the past is best kept alive through original records and the recounting of past experience. This is a collecting, compiling, deconstructing and reassembly of the past — as it has meaning today. We need to know the past, alive and with meaning, simply to know who we now are. It is also a virtual conversation, bringing together the images, newspaper clippings, visits, phone calls, e-mails and posts amassed over the past five years.” (Ern Dick)

“My goals for this project have been accomplished:

A hesitant decision to embark on this journey of remembrance has led me to a better understanding of the event and the people involved. I have begun to understand the impact of the deaths of so many prominent men and women on the future lives of their families and in some cases the future progress of their employers. I have been able to contact many of the families who lost a loved one at Sainte-Thérèse and with the 50th anniversary commemorative event which will occur 29 November 2013, many will have an opportunity to remember together for the first time since 1963.

The completion and publication of this book Voices from a Forgotten Tragedy will complete my 3rd goal, the formation of a permanent memorial to the men and women who died and the struggles of the family members left behind.

However the journey has had a more personal outcome for me, one I didn’t expect and one that at times was most difficult; the exploration of the emotional impact caused by the sudden loss of my father, John MacPherson Page. I have experienced emotions I repressed 50 years ago and now recognize that suppression was my method of coping with the intense trauma of that evening. My recognition of these emotions and the normality of suppression have allowed me to accept my lack of emotional expression in 1963 as normal. While I have now understood what happened, the loss I experienced is as present today as it was 50 years ago.” (Bob Page)

“This remembering, and grieving, and understanding can be profoundly nourishing and affirming, rather than painful or depressing as one might expect. Tragedy often does this for us and never at a glib or superficial level.” (Ern Dick)

“This journey of remembrance has been an undeniable act of progress in my life.

I have visited the site of the memorial in the cemetery of the parish of Sainte-Thérèse — and, more meaningful for me, the actual site of the crash in the Town of Blainville.” (Bob Page)

“In humans, memory reflects the duration of time. As the memory of our past accumulates, we are presented with a rich selection of alternative actions for every new situation. Coming together for the 50th Anniversary of the crash of TCA Flight 831 is a rich and expressive outcome of our project. Similarly, the Joseph-Filion Museum in Sainte-Thérèse is facilitating the community’s collective remembrance by hosting a solo exhibition for one year displaying a collection of photographs, artifacts and remembrances which pertain to the crash of TCA Flight 831. Air Canada is graciously providing free admission for all families and the local community to visit the Museum on 29th and 30th of November, 2013. A meet-and-greet and memorial service on 29 November 2013 will be organized by the villages of Sainte-Thérèse and Blainville, Anne-Marie Larochelle, Martin Rodgers, Gilles Charron, Bob Page, Jean Grant-Page and the religious directors of the cemetery, Michelle Grignon and Victor-David Mbuyi Bipungu.

The coming together of all people who remember the crash of TCA Flight 831 in Saint-Thérèse is a collective act of remembering, a cultural shift and a contemporary act of healing for all who attend.” (Jean Grant-Page)

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The Adolescence of an Airline. Gordon R. McGregor.

2 Stone Removed From Crash Site. Photograph: Jean Grant-Page

Inspectors Arriving. Roger Boisvert Collection, Blainville.