My Pop today…selecting the pictures to be sent to you!

Monday 2 September 2024

Celebrating my father’s 102nd birthday in Montreal

by Senator Bernadette Clement

My sister Catherine, my brother Joseph and my father Hubert Clement, 102, in the foreground and my uncle Errol Clement, 100, in the green shirt

My father, Hubert Clement, is the son of Joseph Clement of Trinidad, and Ada Thomas of Grenada. My grandmother Ada was already a widow with young children when she married Joseph Clement. She was illiterate and valued education and when she saw that my father was an excellent student, she insisted on keeping him in school even though he had completed the entire curriculum. My father taught his mother to read and write and eventually got the opportunity to write the exams that qualified him for entrance into Teacher’s College. After a few years of teaching, he yearned for more education. He applied to Sir George Williams University (now Concordia). His younger brother Errol Clement, also an excellent student applied as well and they were both accepted into the Commerce program.

My grandfather Joseph Clement worked in the oil fields and was able to get two passages to Canada on an oil tanker, the Regent Lion, in 1954. Today we salute my grandparents for their vision and determination in supporting their two youngest sons to seek further education. My father earned a Bachelor of Commerce from Sir George Williams (Concordia) and an MBA from McGill University.

My grandmother Ada (Thomas) Clement on the far right and my grandfather Joseph Clement, on the far left. They are the parents of my father Hubert Clement and of my Uncle Errol Clement. Seated between them is my father’s sister-in-law, Enid (Clayton) Clement (Errol Clement’s wife) and their eldest son Michael Clement, my cousin and godfather, and a resident of Ottawa

The two brothers started classes in September 1954. By October 1st, 1954, they were so cold that they were wearing all their clothes in layers under their winter coats. A student from Jamaica who had arrived a few years earlier told them to take all that off as they needed to the save their coats and layers for the real winter in January.

My grandmother Ada passed away in 1957 and my father travelled back to Trinidad, this time by air, for her burial.

Picture of my parent’s wedding,

My father worked as a Porter for CN rails and taught mathematics at a Jewish summer school so as to pay for his university fees and gain valuable Canadian experience. When he decided to find work as a teacher, he would apply at several places and would show up for interviews and upon seeing that he was a Black man, he would be told that the position had been filled.

I’m pictured with my father and my siblings visiting Pitch Lake, an asphalt lake near La Brea, in the southwest of Trinidad, where my father was born

He eventually went to his church, where he attended Sunday Mass every week, and spoke to the Priest. The Priest wrote a letter to the Catholic School Board and the following week he obtained work teaching full time at Marymount High School.

He met my mother, a Franco-Manitoban, in 1963, who was teaching at that same school, and they married in 1964.

Me and my Pop in 1965

He wanted his children to attend school in French and made sure that we also learned to skate and ski. He became a real hockey Dad, taking my brother to all of his hockey practices and games. He misses Trinidad and Tobago but he loves Canada. He still dislikes winter but is pleased to see that his children and grandchildren all manage the cold weather with the usual Canadian composure.

 Thank you, Merci, Nia:wen Hon. Bernadette Clement, L.L.L., L.L.B (she/her/elle)Sénatrice | Senator Ontario – Cornwall – Territoire Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) Territory SÉNAT DU CANADA | SENATE OF CANADAPièce 305, édifice de l’Est | Room 305, East BlockOttawa K1A 0A4 Bureau | Office : 613-944-1046[email protected]Icon Description automatically generated