IGNATIUS EDWIN LA RUSIC

IGNATIUS EDWIN LA RUSIC, born at home in St. Margaret’s Village, Cape Breton on July 4, 1933 at 2 p.m. and died at home in Montreal on July 28, 2024 at 11 a.m.

It is not easy to summarize the long and adventurous life of Iggy La Rusic, nor to encapsulate his wide-ranging curiosity and critical interests in so many diverse areas. When this twelfth child of thirteen was born on a “three cow farm” in Cape Breton, his father Patrick was down island managing a lobster cannery. So, he sent a note home suggesting the baby be named Foch, after the WW I French general, a favourite of his Breton-born father. But the note arrived too late. The baby had already been named Ignatius, as he later said, after his aunt’s church in Boston – a piece of real estate - and not after either of the two saints of the same name. Foch became his grade school nickname, and Iggy ever afterwards.

Iggy was a Celt: Breton (La Rusic), Irish (Corbett), Scottish (MacLean) and possibly Welsh (Capstick). Over the years his red hair faded but the cadence of the accent remained. In essence, he never left Cape Breton, although he had really become urban. According to his niece Susie, “Uncle Iggy was as much a lover of his niece Charlene’s chowder, a good tea biscuit, and a Cape Breton oatcake, as he was of fine dining. He saw as much beauty in Capstick as he did in Europe, or Central America, or any of the other numerous countries he travelled. He was a hippy, a scholar, a photographer, a connoisseur of food and wine, books and art”, as well as a sharp analyst and critical thinker. “He was an uncle extraordinaire to over 75 nieces and nephews – for all of whom he somehow managed to remember their names, along with those of their partners, children and occasionally their pets.”

His memory was prodigious, bardic. His vocabulary extensive, in English and Spanish. At will, he could, correctly, recite long passages from Gilbert and Sullivan, the litany of the BVM, Shakespeare, limericks, Latin masses, Browning, English folk songs and anything else he had come across of interest or amusement. He was the historian for his extended and closely connected family. He was a great essayist.

He attended the two-room school at home until he had to leave to finish high school in St. Peters, working for his board and room. While studying at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, he held various summer jobs, including working for Frontier College laying track from Piapot to Maple Creek and teaching English in a school-room caboose in the evening. Graduating in the early 1950s, he joined the government in Ottawa, balancing being a manager during the day with evenings occupied with the Ottawa Little Theatre. After managing Riding Mountain National Park one summer, he left the civil service to travel in Europe and the Magreb with a memorable car trip to Moscow co-piloting for his good friend Jean Drouin. Then came an interesting contract for Canada in London. Switching gears and continents, through the auspices of the Coady Institute at St. Francis Xavier, he next spent years carrying out development work in Central America to organise workers’ cooperatives independent of the Catholic Church. During this time he was trained at and associated with the Centre of Intercultural Formation set up by the late Ivan Illich in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

In the mid-1960s, he enrolled in anthropology at McGill University where he became part of the McGill-Cree Project which put him in place with the early Cree organizing around the James Bay project. (Remembering 1971 (nationnewsarchives.ca)) and he remained involved with the Cree people in various ways throughout the rest of his life.

Otherwise he only worked in Canada but in many different regions and primarily focused on social development, education and/or Indigenous issues. While doing a study on food security in northwestern Ontario in 1972 he first met Jill, before he had shaved off his long red beard (the proof of which was in a photo accompanying the local news interview he gave about the study).

Although he lived most of his life in Montreal, he always returned home to Cape Breton several times a year, finally buying his great-grandfather’s house at Capstick. He liked travelling and with Jill took many trips across Canada, Mexico and Europe. Until his very last illness, he was an assiduous daily walker, preferably with one of his dogs.

Predeceased by his parents Mary Eveleyn (nee Capstick) and Patrick, eleven older siblings (Anthony, Timothy, Sister Patrice, Anne, Rita, Josephine, Emery, Mary, Theresa, Evelyn, James Joseph), his nieces Theresa, Dolores, Joyce and Marie, his nephew Willie, his in-laws Allan and Greta Torrie and Susan Torrie and his long-time friends Jean Drouin and Steven Taylor.

He leaves behind his wife Jill Torrie of Montreal and Kenora, son Alexander Burr of Mt. Tremblant, daughter-in-law Elise Desjardins of Laval, granddaughters Gabrielle, Charlotte and Lili-Jeanne Burr of Laval, younger brother Joseph of Barrier, BC, sister-niece Anne Marie Morrison of Dingwall, NS and many nieces and nephews, their children and grandchildren.

A funeral mass will be held on September 7 at 11 am at St. Margaret’s Church, Cape Breton, followed by inurnment between his parents in the cemetery (“high, dry and with a great view”) and a lunch.

In Montreal, a gathering of friends will be held on August 20 from 4 p.m. in Montreal. If you plan to attend, please contact Jill.