Liner Notes – Richard de Candole’s Toughest School in North America

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You can buy the paperback worldwide at your favo(u)rite Amazon site (amazon.ca is popular!) or get the kindle version free if you are part of kindle unlimited.

The Book

Toughest School in North America, by Richard de Candole was published by ennui.press on 18 May 2022. The book was serialized on bedard.com from 17 January 2022 to 25 March 2022 without fail on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays  – a full three-month run. 

Production of the book subsequent to the last chapter posted took less than two months. We had our first of two proof runs of the book by early May and were able to go live in mid-May.

Richard de Candole has been working in British Columbia and Alberta as a reporter and editor for over 40 years. Toughest School in North America is about his time as a student at St. John’s Cathedral Boys’ School in Selkirk, Manitoba from 1962 to 1968. Richard lives with his wife Wendy in Qualicum Beach, British Columbia.

Richard first finished Boys’ School Ballads in 1988. Toughest School in North America is the next revision, the next rewrite of the original book. The book never found a publisher, so the manuscript lived as a photocopy, passed around for anyone who wanted read it. 

After reading a few chapters of Boys’ School Ballads,  I realized two things.

First, it was the best book I had ever read about being a St. John’s boy (I am #722, graduating from Manitoba in 1975). The book needed to find the light of day into the hands of readers where it might make a difference — the 5,000 who attended.

Richard was one of the first full-time St. John’s Cathedral Boys School of Selkirk, Manitoba (#107 – though the early numbers didn’t have that much significance) from 1962 to 1968. 

His observations are uniquely significant because most, if not all, backed up by contemporaneous notes. He relies on notes, letters he sent, letters he received, and diaries. His sources are fantastic and credible. In the United States, contemporaneous notes are usually good enough to be considered evidence in a court of law.

His boy’s view of the world of St. John’s is as real as it got. Objectively speaking, the school reflected Canadian society at its best and worst in the 1960s. 

This book is more than about life at St. John’s. Toughest School in North America also delves into the Beatles, Christianity, Canadian history, auto theft, selling meat, smuggling, general theft, corporal punishment, canoeing, snowshoeing, and Ted Byfield. For instance, Richard talks about seeing Ian and Sylvia in New York at the height of the folk era. Richard writes about having Ted Byfield as a teacher and canoe brigade leader, unique and unforgettable experiences. These were documented then and recounted here. Richard’s attention to detail lends credibility to his narrative.

Toughest School in North America was the title of the Knights of Columbus magazine article my father flashed at me, crowing about the virtues of the school and how it would do me good to go back to Canada from Laos. Toughest School was also used by Ted Byfield to recruit teachers to work for the Company of the Cross. 

I started reading Richard’s book, and kept reading, and reading, and reading. I repeatedly said to myself “shit, most of this happened to me.” But the one emotion I did not expect to feel was relief. I was relieved that I wasn’t the only one. 

Richard’s book let me know I was not alone, and our job was to bring that same feeling to others. If you ever had a laundry number sewn into your gotch, the book will help you as much as anything else come to grips with some of your experiences. If you still need help, seek help, but know you will never be alone. Your socks will be waiting to be “sold” back to you at study hall, one swat at a time.

Factoids (the obvious and not so obvious)

Over 5,000 students attended long enough to be issued laundry numbers. That’s a bunch of us. I never realized the number was that high until I read Richard’s book.

No names have been changed to protect the innocent. This surprised me when Richard told me. When he wrote the book, he did extensive, documented interviews. In American jurisprudence, Richard’s notebooks could qualify as evidence, based on their being written close to or at the same time as the events they describe. History is often gossip that’s backed up. 

This book, to my knowledge, is the first from a student’s point of view. I’ve been running into others that incorporate the St. John’s story into a greater book – see Robert Pelton Young’s The Adventurist – My life in dangerous places. He gets into his St. John’s interspersed with his many, unreal adventures, but his book is not specific to the school experience. I highly recommend it.

Importance of music. One thing that I wish we could capture more is Richard’s true talent – music. If he could be convinced to score an Anglican Mass, perhaps he could write Toughest School in North America, the rock opera. The author would be key to any soundtrack you listen to as you read this book.

I’m writing a script very loosely based on this book. The script calls for only Canadian music – the Guess Who, Neil Young, and of course, Frank Zappa, who wasn’t really Canadian but should have been made one after the Apostrophe album.

Swats. Swats are a subject that should be off on their own to discuss. Eventually outlawed at the Alberta school, the swat regime reigned supreme as a judicial system. Some argue it got out of hand with certain teachers. There’s no argument. It got out of hand. Abuses, as minor as some might assume them to be, are well documented in and out of the Canadian court system. 

Forfar. By far, my favorite character is Forfar, Richard’s best friend. Don recently passed, and in many ways, his story lives. Of all the St. John’s boys I have known (save anyone named Jackson or Mackay), he strikes the best chord, what it was about.

The nature of the title. I remember my father holding up a copy of a Knights of Columbus magazine which declared “Toughest School in North America.” As it turns out, there were ads, no doubt written by someone named Byfield, which christened the school with that moniker, used to recruit new teachers in the 60s.

Famous alumni. Most boys’ schools are blessed with alumni. St. John’s was no different. Robert Pelton Young, made his bones going to and writing about the most dangerous places and people in the world. Michael Rowe writes horror. Richard de Candole. There will be others.