Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination - September 28th, 1885

On this day in 1885, an angry crowd of more than 2,000 people marched through the streets of Montreal after the city announced a mandatory vaccination program to fight the smallpox epidemic.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that connects the dots between events of the
past and what's happening today. I'm Gabe Louzier and in
this episode, we're talking about the Montreal vaccine riot and

(00:24):
the delicate balancing act between public health and public perception.
The day was Septem an angry crowd of more than

(00:45):
two thousand people marched through the streets of Montreal, Canada,
after the city announced a mandatory vaccination program to fight
the smallpox epidemic. The ensuing riot would result in extensive
property damage, the deaths of two people, and the further
erosion of an already divided city. As you may know,

(01:08):
smallpox was a deadly infectious disease that's now considered eradicated.
It was most commonly caused by a virus called very
Ola major. It's spread in saliva droplets and through contact
with the infectious rash. It produced other symptoms included fever, headache,
and vomiting, but the rash was arguably the worst part.

(01:32):
It caused rash blisters and scabs to form, which would
then burst, leaving deep pitted scars or pock marks in
the majority of patients. Historically, smallpox caused by very ola
major had a case fatality rate of about thirty percent.
Those who survived infection developed immunity. Canada has been smallpox

(01:57):
free since the early nineteen sixties, but in the years
before widespread vaccinations, outbreaks of the disease were frequent. Montreal
smallpox epidemics started in early eighteen eighty five, when an
infected train conductor brought the disease to the city and
was then treated by several doctors while in town. As

(02:19):
the deadly virus spread in the weeks ahead, Montreal launched
a voluntary vaccination program. Inoculation against smallpox had been going
on since the late seventeen hundreds, but in Montreal, many
French Canadian residents distrusted the English run government that was
administering the shots. They believed the vaccinations were dangerous and

(02:43):
would just make people sicker. So, for this reason, among others,
many people in Montreal's French Canadian neighborhood resisted the voluntary campaign.
As the months went by, some of these fears were
seemingly confirmed when mult stable cases of erysipolis were reported
after vaccination. This infection of the surface layers of the

(03:08):
skin was most likely the result of unsanitary conditions when
the vaccine was administered. However, health officials concluded that it
might be a sign that they were using a contaminated
batch of vaccine, which was not unheard of at the time.
As a result, the vaccination program in Montreal was suspended

(03:29):
for three months, beginning in May of eight During this time,
the residents who opposed vaccination felt justified and even emboldened.
They started tearing down warning signs that health department workers
had posted on the homes of smallpox patients. Anti vaccination

(03:49):
pamphlets began to circulate, and some religious groups declared the
vaccine to be the mark of the beast, a biblical
concept that signifies loyalty to Satan. Meanwhile, as the summer
war on the epidemic grew more severe, when the city's
death toll surpassed three thousand people, the Montreal Board of

(04:11):
Health made the controversial decision to make vaccinations mandatory and
to impose a fine on anyone who refused to comply.
The chairman of the board tried to get ahead of
the opposition, saying quote It does not mean that people
are to be seized and manacled and so vaccinated by force.

(04:31):
It means that the vaccinator will go to the door
of a house and ask for proof that all residing
there are vaccinated. Needless to say, the anti vaccine crowd
was not appeased by this clarification. They viewed the compulsory
shots as a violation of their individual rights, and this
perspective was solidified when city officials began enforcing their control measures.

(04:56):
Rumors soon spread that vaccinators were forcing their way into
women's bedrooms and tying down children to make them take
the shot. The result of this misinformation was that on
the afternoon of September, the day of the vaccination deadline,
restless crowds began to form downtown. The Detroit Free Press

(05:20):
reported that three French Canadian city council members were present,
and that they threatened to burn the city and shoot
anyone who supported compulsory vaccination. As the day went on,
more and more people gathered, some of whom were armed
with stones, knives, and handguns. At seven pm, the crowd

(05:44):
stormed an office building and wrecked a branch of the
health department, before doing the same to city Hall. Then
they marched through the city, chanting and shouting kill the vaccinators.
The riotous crowd smashed up pharmacies that attributed the vaccine
and vandalized the homes of public health officials. Next, they

(06:06):
turned their anger on the central police station, where the
chief was reportedly stabbed and stoned, though he did survive.
According to the Boston Transcript quote, revolver shots were freely
fired at the police, and to scare the men, the
police returned fire over their heads, only to be received

(06:27):
by jeers and laughter. Eventually, the overwhelmed police began clubbing
the rioters, causing them to split into groups that carried
on their destruction at multiple sites. By one am, the
crowd had been dispersed and the city was quiet again.
Two protesters were reported killed in the scuffle. Although the

(06:51):
riot didn't lead to an immediate shift in views on
either side of the issue, it does seem like at
least one person changed their mind mind. Two weeks after
the incident, one of the French Canadian City Council members
who had stirred up the protesters was stopped by a
health inspector while on a train to Chicago. According to

(07:13):
the st Louis Post Dispatch. This leading advocate of the
anti vaccination movement had in fact been vaccinated. Opponents of
vaccination in Montreal continued to speak against it at city
council meetings and eventually at activist leagues and in court
rooms for decades to come, but thankfully there were no

(07:38):
further instances of anti vaccine related violence, at least not
in Montreal. I'm Gabe Louizier and hopefully you now know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
You can learn even more about history by following us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i HC show,

(08:01):
and if you have any comments or suggestions that are
not related to vaccines, you can write to us at
this Day at i heart media dot com. Thanks to
Chandler Many's for producing the show, and thank you as
always for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
for another Day in History class. For more podcasts from

(08:30):
I Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.