Being Punished
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- Medium: Video
- Owner: Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration: 2:35
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Being Punished
When caught defaulting, Mr. Huot is punished on the boat. Later, in Québec, he offered to let German prisoners escape.
Robert Huot
Mr. Huot enlisted in Québec. His mother was strongly opposed and even went to see the Prime Minister of Canada at the time, Louis Saint-Laurent, to keep her son from enlisting, but without success. He left Lévis by train for Halifax. He was paid $1.20 per day, which was good pay at the time. It was at Halifax during training that he learned English. His military service was on board the HMCS Saint-Laurent. Mr. Huot liked his experience in the Navy during the Second World War; he tells a number of stories that give a good idea of a sailor’s life during the war.
Transcription
Being Punished
I was a defaulter sometimes. You know what a defaulter is? Well. The police would take us back. They took us back onto the boat. And then, well, in the navy, they took boat mooring-lines, full of oil. You’d unravel them one by one and at night, you had to sleep on them. You didn’t know that, did you? Me, I saw . . . I was guard in Longueuil, in Montréal, in the middle of July, it was really hot. There were . . . there were soldiers and flyers. They were defaulters. They were being punished by being dressed in winter clothing with a big . . . Manchester rifles at the end of their arms but not walking – running. You try that. It was hot. Heavy winter coats, a big hood. The guys did it . . . But those who were in charge of that, they were British, to punish us. Those who . . . There were Quebeckers here . . . From Québec, from Montréal, everywhere. They sent them, they replaced them overseas. Then they changed that. It wasn’t easy, sir. I saw that with my own eyes, in Longueuil . . . A barricaded field, everything. I saw German prisoners, here, not far, on Ile d’Orléans, in Saint-Jean on Ile d’Orléans. On [inaudible] on the plains, I saw them. I guarded German prisoners there, I did. We’d say to them “Do you want to escape?” No. They didn’t want to escape; they didn’t know where they’d go. I guarded them. After awhile, they were sent elsewhere. They had to be fed, clothed, but they weren’t allowed to go out. Ile d’ Orléans isn’t far from here. There weren’t many of them there . . . There must’ve been about fifteen.
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