Margaretta Scott

            On Thursday morning I translated the sixth verse of “Barcelone” by Boris Vian.

            I memorized the first verse of “Baby Lou” by Serge Gainsbourg and revised my translation of the song.

            Just before 11:00 I logged onto my first Introduction to Canadian Literature lecture. It was confusing because it was hard to tell if I was in the right place at first. Finally a moderator texted me by name and told me to exit and log back in. Later I was asked to do it again. Then I was told that I had to leave again because I’d logged on as a moderator but I'd just clicked the same place as before. I tried entering another place called the "class room" where a few people were waiting. One very bored and confused looking young woman had video. Finally I went back to the original room and shortly after that the lecture started. We could see our professor Smaro Kamboureli in her office.

            Smaro said she’s been teaching for thirty three years and invited us to look at her website. There was suddenly a lot of background noise and she asked people to turn off their cameras. She said she’s used to dancing while teaching and not sitting in her messy study.

            She said the new syllabus and the guides have been posted.

            She said her Tuesday lecture would be on Thomas Wharton’s Icefields and that we should read what we can before that.

            She said some of the students taking the course are not even in Canada right now.

            She did the usual Indigenous land acknowledgement. The land acknowledgement is different in different parts of the country. She showed us images of wampum belts. Those who can read wampum belts can usually make them. Wampum belts are a covenant and she said that our course syllabus is also a type of covenant. But she said to day she was temporarily suspending that contract because she is on strike for two days as part of Scholars Strike Canada. Scholars Strike is a worldwide movement in solidarity with Indigenous people and with Black Lives Matter. Instead of lecturing professors are holding digital teach-ins. From that point on she considered her lecture to be a teach-in.

            Teach-ins are tools against injustice. She showed pictures of public teach-ins.

            She closed the power point and came back in the centre of the screen in a video although she had been smaller on the lower right during the power point.

            She said that the history of the Canadian nation state is the anthology of racial progress with the assertion that Canada is a benevolent state. Canada’s national pedagogy is a mythology of racial progress. It’s a product of nostalgic wilful ignorance. The myth of racial progress endures in conflict with the reality of systemic racism.

            There are 70% more African Canadians in prison than ten years ago.

            She said there are 500% more Indigenous people in prison but I can’t find a match for that figure. Unless she means that since Indigenous people represent 5% of the general population and 30% of the prison population that’s  more than a 500% difference.

            Smaro opened the session up for discussion. For a while there was nothing but finally people started texting questions. I couldn’t see where I could text. I plugged my performance mic into the computer and clicked on the open microphone icon in the lecture room and then I clicked on the "raise hand" icon. First I asked if she could hear me and she could. I said that since now more and more professors and politicians are talking about systemic racism in Canada doesn’t that mean that racial progress in Canada is not a myth after all? She admitted that there has been progress but not in a linear way and not enough.

            Only two other students used microphones to ask questions. Nobody used video but maybe we weren’t supposed to.

            It was weird not having to ride my bike downtown to a lecture but very convenient.

            I did most of my dishes before lunch and had the chicken fajita freeze dried meal that I'd gotten from the food bank.

            In the afternoon I rode to Freshco where I bought three bags of grapes; a half pint of raspberries; two cans of peaches; three bags of milk; a container of raspberry skyr; a box of spoon size shredded wheat; a bottle of olive oil; a bag of ground black pepper; some shampoo-conditioner; shaving gel; and a pack of toilet paper.

            I worked on my journal.

            For dinner I had a potato; sautéed onion and orange pepper, a my last pork chop and some gravy while watching one episode of The Count of Monte Cristo. Now that school has started I only half time for one show.

            In this story set in 1835 Princess Helene of the German duchy of Mecklenburg is betrothed against her will to Prince Frederick of Prussia. Ferdinand the Duke of Orleans has come to Mecklenburg to see Helene and to arrange for her to run away with him in six days. But as he leaves the palace he is assaulted by guards, his ring of identification is removed and he is imprisoned in the dungeon. Ferdinand’s mother the queen of France is concerned for Ferdinand’s safety and calls upon her friend the Count of Monte Cristo for help. He and his friends go to Mecklenburg to investigate. Since the only foreigners welcomed by Baron Reimer, the regent of Mecklenburg, are Prussians, the count poses as a Prussian official named Count von Nieberg. Rico is Colonel Von Rickenberg and Jacopo is Major Von Jacopostein. The count tells Reimer that he represents Frederick, who is impatient to marry Helene but has heard that the Duke of Orleans is in the region. Reimer admits that he has Ferdinand in custody and the count advises that he reveal this state of affairs to Helene and to use Ferdinand to compel her to promise to marry Frederick in exchange for his life. He suggests that after she agrees to the marriage then Ferdinand can be disposed of.  The count convinces Reimer to leave the execution of Ferdinand in his hands. The count and Reimer go to inform Helene of the situation and so to save Ferdinand she signs the document promising to marry Frederick. The count says he will keep the paper. Reimer receives word that Frederick will be there that night. Later the count comes through Helene’s window as himself and it takes some time to convince the princess that he is really the Count of Monte Cristo. He explains that no one has been rescued from the dungeon but men have been saved from the gallows. He asks her to entertain and stall Frederick when he arrives while he saves Ferdinand. He then hands her the marriage contract that she had earlier signed. Frederick arrives to meet Helene and he is quite handsome. Ferdinand is brought to the gallows with the count once again posing as the Prussian. Rico plays the part of the hooded hangman while Jacopo sits in a wagon with a casket. Just before the hanging the count shouts “Now!” and they attack the soldiers, freeing Ferdinand and riding away in the wagon. They all arrive at Helene’s chamber and she is reunited with Ferdinand. She orders Frederick to leave for the border within an hour. She charges Reimer with high treason but he draws his sword and he and the count fight until he backs over the balcony and falls to his death.

            The queen of France was played by Margaretta Scott, who performed on stage, films and television for over seventy years. She is best known for having played Mrs Pumphrey on the British television series “All Creatures Great and Small”. She was a signatory of the document that created the British actor’s trade union “Equity” in 1934. She co-starred in “Things to Come” and “The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel”.

            Helene was played by Mary Steele, who co-starred in “The Golden Disc”.

            Helene’s maid Julia was played by Julie Somers, who co-starred in “Death of an Angel”.