While this is celebrating Canadian history, we can’t deny that sometimes events outside of the country impact us at home. On this day, in 1963, American President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, and the Yorkton Enterprise reacted to the events.
Within Yorkton, many people stayed home on the following Monday to watch Kennedy’s state funeral, and the area churches included Kennedy in their Sunday services.
The assassination has been a pet project of conspiracy theorists in the over 50 years since, and the conspiracies began seemingly moments after it happened. The Enterprise itself was not immune to speculation.
“Was it the dastardly deed spawned in the warped mind of a young man who wouldn’t conform? Was the young man merely a pawn in the hands of some larger hate group or even antagonistic country? Was the night club owner who killed the young man acting out of a twisted sense of duty to his president or was he fronting for some hate group in shutting forever the mouth of the assassin?” asked the Enterprise.
In an editorial, the Enterprise also lamented the state of journalism south of the border, questioning the sensationalizing of the incident, the invasion of privacy of many reporters, and blaming a desire to play to the cameras for the death of Oswald.
“As a result of this accommodation and the bumbling ineptitude of the Dallas town clowns it is doubtful that the world will ever know of the true story behind this assassination,” said the Enterprise.
Within Yorkton, the big news was that St. Joseph’s College was now affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan, meaning that first year Arts and Science courses would soon be available in Yorkton, with the first classes planned for September of 1964.
“This affiliation crowns the educational efforts of the Christian Brothers in Yorkton, which started with the opening of the College in 1919 as an elementary and high school,” said Rev. Bro. Isidore, then director of the College.
Reaction in the city was positive, with Mayor W.E. Fichtner, Dr. C.J. Houston, chairman of the Yorkton Collegiate Institute Board, Don F. Matheson, local University senator and G. Drummond Clancy, M.P., all issued messages of support to the city and to the Brothers who ran St. Joseph’s. They also spoke to the additional education being good for the city as a whole, as young people could stay longer and more people would come into town for their first year of University classes.
At Russell Studios, you could buy a Canonet 2.8 for $79.95, something of interest to this writer in particular, who has just purchased a Canonet 28 – a later model. The Canonet was a way for the Japanese camera giant to go a downmarket and attract the eye of a casual photographer. The selling point was the “electronic eye” light meter which surrounded the lens, and the relatively easy to use nature of the device. Of course, some people just think they look really cool...
