CANADA,
PROVINCE OF QUEBEC,

SPECIAL SESSIONS OF THE PEACE.

DISTRICT OF QUEBEC,
City of Québec.
(Preliminary Inquiry)

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Examination of ALBERTINE GAGNON, wife of Joseph Badaud, of the parish of St.Philomène de Fortierville, --------

taken under oath on this twenty-fifth---- day of February,------in the year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and twenty,------------------in the City of Quebec, in the aforesaid district, before the undersigned, Judge of the Sessions of the Peace, in and for the City of Quebec, in the presence of the accused, Télesphore Gagnon.

Examined by Maître Arthur Fitzpatrick, Crown Prosecutor:-

Q. Madame Badaud, have you ever seen the accused beat his child?

A. No, Monsieur; I really couldn't say that at all.

Q. Now, have you ever had any conversation with him about his child?

Objection to this deposition giving hearsay evidence of things said by the accused to the witness.

Evidence admitted.

Q. Tell us then what he told you.

A. At the time of my brother’s death, five weeks ago, he told me that he arrived home at night- on the eve of his death – and that the little girl had her eyes all blackened when he
arrived, and that he figured she had fallen on the stove. After that, he started telling me:
"Don't you think it's discouraging…. I would have loved so much to have had children like the others!!! This child is hard; I can't seem to get through to her." He said: "I didn't touch her because it's no use." He said: "I don't touch her any more; it's no use." After that, he said: "That child does her business in her clothing. I work my fingers to the bone and, when I get home at night, I see all these clothes going to ruin. She hides these clothes everywhere."

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A. (continued) Other than that, I don't know anything. That’s all he told me.

Q. Did he talk to you about punishing his child?

A. He told me that he had laid a hand on her, but that he had given up on that because it was no use.

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Cross-examined by the Honourable J. N. Francoeur, K.C., on behalf of the Accused:

Q. Were you alone with him when he told you of this?

A. Yes, Monsieur; it was just the two of us.

Q. In his home?

Q. No, Monsieur; we were sitting vigil beside my brother Anthime Gagnon.

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