Changes

Major opposition was not long in coming. In April 1950, a riot involving as many as a thousand local citizens broke out in the street before the meeting place where believers were gathered. The police being unable to control the crowd, an automobile was overturned, a gospel sign torn down and thrown into the river and the store-front meeting place was sacked while believers sheltered on the second floor.  News media across North America and around the world carried the report. An existing scrapbook of newspaper clippings and similar items gives proof to how widespread the coverage was. As would be said today, it went viral! North American business enterprises with representatives and/or offices in Shawinigan threatened to pull out if municipal authorities could not control the populace. The mayor was obliged to settle for damages, part of the reasonable amount paid out going toward the eventual construction of a Gospel Hall.  This proved to be a turning point in the history of the work throughout Quebec. Henceforth opposition and harassment were more subtle and significantly toned down.

==AKA==