By Lucas Lelardoux Oliger
His activities were chronicled by us as early as the first edition of the Journal de la Rue in November 1992. The Journal de la Rue later became Reflet de Société, our francophone mother publication.
A very atypical priest, Emmett Johns fought misery and isolation up until his death in 2018. Nicknamed “Pops”, he was revered as one of Montreal’s most important community figures.
In the 1980s, Father Emmett Johns noted a big spike in the number of homeless youth on the streets. Inspired by a Torontonian he heard about on the radio, in 1988 he borrowed money to buy a motorhome to roam the streets of Montreal. His aim: to offer friendship and food to marginal young people.
The Bon Dieu dans la rue organization was born. Its operations soon expanded: an emergency night shelter, a day centre, services to families, and access to apartments. He would later shorten the name of his organization to Dans la rue to avoid any religious connotation.
Journalists tend to write the same things over and over about this man. Nonetheless, a few elements of his career are available before his founding Dans la rue in 1988.
A member of Montreal’s Irish community and a child of the Great Depression, he grew up in what was then the working class district of Plateau Mont-Royal. He studied theology, psychology and philosophy. He became interested in China and dreamed of being a missionary. He attended seminary, and starting in the 1950s, worked as a Catholic priest in Greater Montreal. He was not your stereotypical prelate: he practiced sharpshooting and became an instructor for the police.
But some of his past remains troubling.
Between 1959 and 1967, Emmett Johns worked as a chaplain in women’s detention centres. At least two of the institutions he worked at were tinged by scandal. Run by the Soeurs du Bon-Pasteur congregation of nuns, Beaconsfield’s Marian Hall, along with the Centre d’accueil féminin (women’s reception centre) in Montreal were both criticized for their cruel treatment of their detainees. Both often accommodated pre-teen girls placed under court guardianship.
Conditions in both prisons for children were horrible. These places were often mislabelled “reform houses” or “protection houses.” In 1975, journalist Gillian Cosgrove published a series of articles revealing a number of harsh practices, including: preventative isolation; the use of chains; the administration of sedatives; humiliation; lack of hygiene; and an overall climate of violence. Young girls were chained to cement slabs for hours or even days, lying in their own urine and excrement.
What was Emmett Johns’ position in the midst of this hell? Dale Douglas, a former prisoner, is cited in the 2008 book Call Me “Pops”: Le Bon Dieu Dans la Rue by journalist Katia Moskvitch and Johns himself. Douglas called Johns “the only good person in the place.” She recalls the many gestures of goodwill he offered to her and other internees, including cigarettes, rides in his convertible, and birthday parties.
Different testimonies from the victims of these institutions show that their lives were largely determined by the behavior of the personnel. And it was sometimes brutal.
In February of 1969, Johns organized a retreat for 26 young nursing students. It took place at Lac Bellevue in Ste-Adèle. Two of them, Catherine Murphy, 20, and Catherine O’Keefe, 21, wandered off and were declared lost. They were found dead in the woods beside the town of Ste-Adèle. Their bodies were covered with snow. Their cause of death was determined to be a combination of hypothermia and exhaustion.
At the time, Johns said he thought that they had gone back to meet up with friends, or had returned to Montreal. In the 2008 book, he called this “one of the greatest tragedies of my life.”
These are hard events, and it’s legitimate to ask what effect they had on his relationships with others, especially with young people. Were they motivating factors for his street work?
Photo courtesy of Archives Dans la rue
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