- Ottawa Jewish Archives
- Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds
- Interview with Morris Cantor
Interview with Morris Cantor
Description only — contact the archiveO0045
- Held by
- Ottawa Jewish Archives via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)
- Dates
- December 13, 2000 (indexed as 2000)
- Level
- item
- Scope & content
- Subject: Morris Cantor Interviewer: Joe Murray Date: December 13, 2000 Interview Location: Ottawa, ON Length of Time: 63:15 LANGUAGE WARNING -Morris was born in Lithuania, his family is from a small town near Kovna. -in 1930 the family started to see more anti semitism and decided to immigrate to the US. He had 3 brothers living in South Africa and a brother and a sister living in the US. Morris and his brother and sister still living in Lithuania were sponsored by his family in Boston and immigrated. They could not get into the US so they came to Canada instead. -In June 1930 they arrived in Quebec City then came to Ottawa when Morris was 12 and a half years old. -In Ottawa Morris’s sister worked stringing pearls and his father worked at a wholesale market in the Byward Market. -Morris attended York Street Public School for 2 years and he discusses skipping grades and his favorite teacher Mr. Cook. -Morris left school to work with his father. He worked as a door to door fruit peddler after his father bought a horse and wagon. He discusses the prices he was selling at and how drastically prices have changed. -Morris’s brother went to Montreal for a short time to learn the butcher business and when he returned they opened a butcher store in the Byward Market. -he discusses meat prices and customer interactions, he particularly remembers the generosity of a customer who gave him new clothes in exchange for meat. -In 1936 the brothers bought a new building and moved the butcher into a bigger space. -Morris was a member of the Machzikei Hadas when it was at its Murray Street location. He speaks on his memories of the older members of the congregation and Kaddish. -In 1942 he enlisted in the Royal Candian Airforce. He worked very hard to be the best he could; he recalls shining his shoes until they looked like mirrors and sleeping on top of his made bed so it always looked neat. -Morris was promoted to Corporal where he began teaching students and eventually got made a Sergeant. He has fond memories of playing cards in the Sergeants mess hall and his colleagues drinking. -He recalls working on a base near the Alaskan Highway and selling his liquor to men working on the highway instead of drinking it himself. -He was discharged in 1945/1946 and he returned to Ottawa. -Morris went back to working at the butcher shop and met his wife Goldie Cantor. Morris and Goldie were married in June of 1946. -Morris speaks about how hard the work was in the butcher shop, he says he barely saw his children since he was always working. -He then speaks about a man in real estate coming into the shop and that is where he learnt of an auditorium that was for sale. He bought the auditorium and remodeled it. The auditorium was host to hockey games, skating clubs, wrestling matches, concerts, and midget (derogatory term) wrestling. -He discusses making deals with CBC to have tv broadcasts of events and business deals gone bad involving the auditorium. -Eventually the building was bought by the YMCA for $300,000 -Morris then touches on his family life. He had 3 daughters and one son; Elsa, Evelyn, Leslie, and Ian. Morris details each of their education and marriages. He is very proud of his children, their partners, and his grandchildren. -Joe Murray brings up rumours that Morris has a brother in South Africa who is involved in the diamond trade, Morris says these are false rumors and his brothers left South Africa some time ago. -Morris then discusses his Slaughterhouse; in 1959 he purchased a meat plant. His plant produced both beef and pork and twice a week had kosher slaughtering. He sold this plant in 1975. -Morris finishes by telling the story of when Elvis Presley performed at his auditorium and he got to meet him. He also talks about the times he had circuses with elephants in his auditorium. END OF TAPE
- Location
- rue York · street · confidence 50% · street · found as “York Street”
- rue Murray · street · confidence 50% · street · found as “Murray Street”
Where
More details
- Genre / form
- sound recording
- Format
- Audio
- Harvested
- 2026-10-17T20:12:50Z · source datestamp n/a · cjhn