From bootleggers to the SAQ how Prohibition shaped the way Quebec drinks

By the time the teenager from faraway Quebec stepped off thetrainin Chicago, Al Capone was alreadybuilding one of the largest clandestine trafficking operations in North America.

It was 1920. Paul Lafrenais wasn't yet20 years old when he left Lvishis hometown on the south shore of Quebec City insearch of adventure, yes, but alsoto avoidthe local constabularyafter a bank robbery gone awry.

"Lvis was a small place, with 10,000 residents, you couldn't keep a secret for very long. So he left,"said Lafrenais'snephew, Dan Gosselin.

The timing was impeccable: Lafrenaisarrived in the United States the same yeara constitutional amendmentbanning the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol wentinto effect.

As a youngster, Gosselin would sit at his uncle's kitchen table, in the old house he bought uponreturninghome, on Cte du Passage. He wouldlisten to Lafrenais recount his escapadesdelivering crates of moonshine across the border to Chicago.

Those tales are compiledin a 2018book Gosselin wrote calledFrenchie, in honour ofthe nickname Lafrenais carried during his time in the Windy City.

Looking back, Gosselin said Lafrenais "never talked about the things he did with pride. The only thing he was proud of is that he was never arrested."

While digging througharchives and hunting down documents to support his uncle's claims, Gosselinbecame immersed inachapter of Quebec history he knew little about: the province's unique position during North American Prohibition. It wasthe only Canadian jurisdictionto forgo a complete ban on alcohol.

Historian Laurent Busseau said the decision made by the Quebec government to grabcontrol of alcohol sales, rather than banning them, proved to bea lucrative one.

In1898,thefederal government held a referendum to askvoterswhether they wanted a countrywide ban on alcohol. While 51.3 per cent in the rest of Canadavoted in favour of Prohibition, 81.2 per per centin Quebec voted against.

Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier didn't pressthe issue any further, leaving the provinces to drafttheir own legislation.

Quebec's landedten years later.In early 1918, Premier Lomer Gouinopted for a compromisefollowing a vigorouslobbying campaign fromthe brewing industry.

Driving for Capone

Beer, cider and wine remained legal, and could be sold in restaurants. Hard liquor would only be sold at the Commission desliqueurs, which came into beingin 1921. The proposal sailed through by way of referendum inApril of 1919, as the U.S. travelled the opposite path.

"It brought in a lot of revenue that Quebec was able to invest in social programs and to build roads Quebec definitely benefited from Prohibition," Busseau said.

It still does, in a way. The Commission desliqueurs eventually became the Socit des alcools du Qubec (SAQ).In 2019, the SAQ brought in net earnings of $1.146 billionto the Quebec government.

The province also escaped muchof theviolence and organized crime that escalated in the U.S. during the 1920s, said Busseau, despite its direct role in providing millions oflitres of alcohol to thirsty Americansthanks to the effortsofyoung men like the teenagerfrom Lvis.

Lafrenais workedin warehouses in Chicagoand ran deliveries across the border, loaded with bottles of counterfeit hooch.

Gosselin was onlyfive years old when his uncle firsttold him he had also worked as adriverfora certain Al Capone.

"The name meant nothing to me at the time of course," said Gosselin. Capone ruled over organized crime in Chicago between 1925 and 1931, and became one of the most infamousgangstersin Americanhistory.

Despite his success withCapone's crew, and despite earning gargantuan sums of money,Lafrenaisdecided to return to Quebec after eight years in the Windy City.

"His nerves were shot, he could no longer stand it,"said Gosselin.

Back in Lvis, Lafrenais used the lessons he'd learned in Chicago to build his own empire.

Even though Prohibition had never formally been proclaimedinQuebec, the temperance movement had enough of a toe-hold that thepossibilities wereendless for an experiencedbootlegger.

So Lafrenaisusedtaxi driving as afront for his deliveries.

Tourism haven

Not only did Prohibition benefit the illicit alcohol trade, italso provideda source of steady income for legitimatebusinesses thatwanted to attract American tourists.

The Eastern Townships region, with its close proximity toVermont and Maine, becamea prime location for Americans in search of a good mealthey could wash down with a beer.

But tourists weren't necessarily after alcohol Hollywood films, whichwere banned in certain states, were screened in restaurants like the Selby Lake Innin Dunham, said Busseau.

"There was this cultural renaissance in Hollywood at the time. Movies starring women that were pushing boundariesand they weren't being screened in many States," he said.

While some businesses were able to make a buck while abiding by the law, others continued to sell hard liquor.

Busseau says there werecodes to let customers know. For example in Sutton, people knew to look for businesses that sold "soup".

Others decided tomake their cash onthe border, in some instancesliterally.

That was the case for Lilian Miner, who opened Queen Lil'sPalace in 1911. The legendary establishment was perhaps better known as the Palace of Sin.

The hotel,which in actual fact wasa brothel and tavern, straddled the border betweenGlen Sutton and Vermont.

"It was a gold mine, because customers could come in through either door," said Busseau. The handy locationalso allowed Miner and her staff to evade police, whenever they showed up,by escaping to the other country.

While Quebec didn't have formal Prohibition,the 1864 Canada Temperance Act later known as the Scott Act allowed Canadian municipalities and counties to hold referendumsto determine whether they wereto bewet or dry.

Manydidn't choose a campuntil the FirstWorld War. But by 1918, fully 90 per centof municipalities in Quebec were dry including Trois-Rivires, Verdun,Sainte-Agatheand, asLafrenaiswould later exploit, Lvis.

The last speakeasy?

Regionslike alcohol-free Charlevoixsaw a major proliferation ofspeakeasies clandestine taverns where people could enjoy a drink but had to talksoftly, so as to not attract scrutiny and unwelcome law enforcement attention.

Johanne Brassard owns what maybe one of the last real speakeasies in the province,located in abuildingthat was used to sell alcohol illegally in the 1930s.

La Maison du Bootlegger, in La Malbaie, was named after the black markettraders,who carried the precious bottles inside their boots. It still attracts tourists from around the world.

"You can really feel the atmosphere when you walk in,just because it was always a party place," said Brassard, who purchased the building in 1996.

The originalhouse was bought in the 1930sby a richPennsylvanian namedNorie Sellar.

Sellar created a maze of corridors and hidden roomswhere he could hide his customers while they playeda game of illegal poker.Trap doors also allowed bootleggers to discreetlyhidebottles inside walls, wherestaff would pick them up the next morning.

Brassard left the infrastructure intact when she bought the building in 1996. She said interest in the Prohibition erais definitely still there in a typical year she welcomes more than 17,500 people.

"Every time they come here, they can't get over it. You can hear them get off the bus and yell 'Yeah, the Bootlegger'," she said."It's like they're at Walt Disney [World]."