By Celia Hunter
Mark Starowiczhas called the story of his hunt for the bell that was once housed in our Legion Hall at Branch 402, Millbrook, “a modern day thriller”.
The distinguished documentary producer is the special guest speaker at the Historical Society’s first event of the season on Thursday, October 22.
Starowicz, an officer of the Order of Canada, is an award winning journalist, director and producer, and has owned a home and farm in the northern part of Cavan Monaghan for many years. Passionate about history, as evidenced by the phenomenal success of his celebrated series Canada: A People’s History, the Bell of Batoche on exhibit at the Millbrook Legion Hall immediately captured his interest when he first moved to the area. “No way,” he remembers thinking, “What were the chances of one of the legendary artifacts of Canadian history, from the last battle ever fought on Canadian soil, finding itself here, three thousand kilometres away?”
That bell went missing in 1991 and reappeared 22 years later when it was returned to Batoche in Saskatchewan by “The Keeper of the Bell” in a ceremony attended by 3,000 Métis. Mark Starowicz was there to witness and record the event, with many questions swirling around in his head; questions that had been brewing after long talks with Robert Winslow who had spent many months researching the origins of the bell and tracking down who was probably responsible for its disappearance from the glass case in the Millbrook Legion. As Mark said, Robert did the “hard-slogging detective work”.
The “Back to Batoche” Festival in 2013, when the bell reappeared, set Mark onto the trail that Robert had initiated, taking him and his CBC colleague Wayne Chong on a six month exploration through four provinces, a dozen cities and towns, down prairie roads, into archives and crypts and up rickety steeple steps. As Mark described it, the story is “a Canadian Da Vinci Code with a touch of Maltese Falcon”. And Millbrook plays a part.
Mark Starowicz credits Robert Winslow with inspiring him to dig into this mystery where, in Mark’s words, “there are very surprising twists and turns and discoveries that will rewrite a page of Canadian history”. It is fitting then, that we make this the inaugural Robert Winslow Memorial Talk, to bean annual event that will shine the spotlight on an aspect of our local history that resonates in the broader context of Canadian society.
Join us on Thursday, October 22 at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall, 9 King Street East in Millbrook to discover answers to the Mystery of the Bell with Mark Starowicz. Doors open at 6:45. All welcome; admission is free for members, by donation for all others wishing to attend. The Legion hosts a cash bar.