HISTORY THROUGH OUR EYES

Jan. 24, 1940: ‘Remarkable family’ gets larger

The headline over this photo on Jan. 24, 1940 read “A remarkable family.” It seems even more remarkable to us now than it did then.

In the centre was Police Lieut. J. Aza Filiatreault. Surrounding him were his second wife, right, and his mother, along with 18 of his children.

The previous night, two more had joined the family shown in this earlier portrait. Twin girls had been born to Mrs. Filiatreault — her first name was not given, although she was clearly a key player in the remarkableness. The births made the already “proud parent of the largest family in the Montreal Police Department” even prouder, the Montreal Gazette reported.

Filiatreault’s first wife had 12 children before her death 13 years earlier. Two died, as did one of his 11 children by the Mrs. Filiatreault in the photograph.

For the first half of the 20th century, Quebec had a very high birthrate, a factor often attributed to the poor education of many Quebecers at the time and the influence of the Roman Catholic church, whose teachings prohibited birth control and abortion.

After the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, the influence of the church waned. By the 1980s, the province had the lowest birthrate in the country.

In 1990, the Quebec government began offering incentives to parents to have more children. The province also introduced a low-cost universal child-care system in 1997 and more generous parental leave in 2006, all measures intended, at least in part, to make child-rearing more financially affordable for Quebecers. And now, Premier François Legault promises to increase financial support for families.