MARS 2002

f/y/É/y fiz f/æy a; Paf—ä—fâyz

John Eldon Green

C anadians observe the constant migration of refiJgees around the world with a certain measure of detachment. It is something that happens elsewhere. t0 other people. from which we have been mercifully spared. We live here in peace. free from terrorism. unaware of its real and lasting effects. We are comfortable. our families safe, and our only threat is sickness.

Imagine our reaction then if an army suddenly invaded us this month, because of a war in a faraway continent among people of whom we know lirtle. speaking a language not our own. The strange soldiers order us from our homes at gunpoint. permitting us nothing of our possessions but what we can carry, and after a forced march of many miles gather us in fields near the administrative centre of the lsland. All the while we protest that we have done them no harm. and indeed do not have the means to harm them. We have no army. have never been warlike, and have caused trouble t0 no one.

Finally assembled in a field without the least shelter trom thc clements. we are told that we will bc transportcd from the lsland into exile w mothers and childrcn in onc boat, l'athch and single men in

anothcr. Our destination is a mallers ol'

Indillcrcnce lo those in charge ol" our cxpulsron, and so is our talc. As thc days pass we live in tcrror, hoping l'or a change

of heart. even without knowing how we would survive the coming winter if the invaders did relent. Some of us may escape and perhaps join up with the invisible Mi’kmaq people who will accommodate us, but most of us will be shipped out, many t0 our deaths. Some of our families will never be reunited.

This scenario is so far-fetched it is embarrassing even to write it. yet it describes what happened to the first French settlers on PEI. 40 long years after they became established here. Upwards of 4.000 people — some say maybe 6.000 — were gathered in the fields next to the French administrative quarters at Port-la- Joye in late October. 1758 and deported from the colony they had caret‘ully and patiently built from scratch. ln due course the British who replaccd them would establish a fort on the site. named after the British General responsible for thc expulsion.

The site of Port-la-.loye and Fort Amherst. on a picturesque point of land across the harbour from Charlottetmvn. is now recognized as a National Historic Site. The breastworks for thc Fort arc clearly visible. but it requires imagination to rccognizc anything oî‘ Port—la-Joye. A ncarby lnlcrprctation Ccntrc providcs a summary of the history ot' thc timcs and an account ol" thc expulsion. but it is a lamc account, without a scnsc ot' thc

‘ {The stheVLo—f _- _ Port-la-Joye»

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Fort? Amhersÿon a picturesqne . Wint-of land; L jacrïoSs théî f » 'harhour fmm Charlottetom A .:_—is now “ recogniZed as à National ' Historie Site.