Arthur Milnes recalls how Jimmy Carter played a courageous role in repairing the damage from the world's first nuclear meltdown — here in the Ottawa Valley.

Over the years, the Historical Society of Ottawa has had many presentations about people who have had a significant impact on the history of Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley, and we’ve always been able to count on guest speakers who have researched their subject well, but its quite rare to have a presentation from a speaker who personally knows the subject of the presentation and has had that historic person as a guest at his Kingston home. In fact, for our Oct 26, 2022 Zoom presentation we had two speakers with first-hand knowledge of their subject.

Arthur Milnes considers former US president Jimmy Carter to be a friend. He has had many interviews with the 39th president since first attending one of Carter’s Sunday school classes in 2002, and has been invited to the home where Jimmy and former first lady Rosalynn still reside.

Arthur is the author of 98 Reasons to Thank Jimmy Carter. Arthur chose that number because his recently-published book came out soon after the former president’s 98th birthday.

So what does a US president have to do with Canada, and the Ottawa Valley in particular? Well, you may recall from a post at the HSO’s Facebook page about a year ago (the post received a million views on Facebook and millions more on Twitter!) that Carter was a lieutenant in the US Navy in 1952, and was placed in charge of an emergency radioactive clean-up at the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories, that year. In this presentation, Arthur left it to Carter himself to give the details of the event, via YouTube.

Joining Arthur for the evening was Jill Stuckey. She is the superintendent of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. She joined us from Plains, Georgia; the hometown of President Carter. Jill took us on a quick tour of the museum, which is located in the high school that both Rosalynn and Jimmy attended. Jill had a meeting earlier that day with the former president and first lady, and they asked Jill to be sure to say hello to everyone watching Arthur’s presentation.

Also on the line for the evening was Morgan Brown, who is the president of the Society for the Preservation of Canada’s Nuclear Heritage. Morgan joined us to offer some details on the technical aspects of nuclear reactors and how decisions regarding their operation affected Lieutenant Carter’s efforts at Chalk River. Brown’s society faces the difficult, but important challenge of preserving a part of history that some Canadians would like to forget, or imagine didn’t happen. But it’s important to note that Canada played an early critical role in nuclear research, with Chalk River as the centre of that activity. Without that early contribution to nuclear research, a US president might never have become an important part of Canadian history.

Thank you to all three of our guests for a lively and informative presentation.

You can view the full presentation on the HSO YouTube channel.

See also: Jimmy Carter and Canada via YouTube. And The Society for the Preservation of Canada's Nuclear Heritage for a virtual tour of their museum in Deep River.

REGISTER at http://tinyurl.com/HSO-30-Nov-2022 for our free online presentation scheduled for Wednesday, November 30th at 7pm.

The Ottawa Valley has been home to the proud Algonquin people for as many as 8,000 years. Long before the arrival of Europeans, the Algonquins lived, hunted trapped, fished, socialized and traded on both sides of the Ottawa River and along its tributaries.

Councillor Merv Sarazin, band councillor Pikwakanagan First Nation and direct descendant of the Grand Chief Constant Pinesi, explores the Algonquin people's vital connection to this history.

Here is the Zoom registration link:  tinyurl.com/HSO-30-Nov-2022

Rod MacIvor enthralled us on November 16, 2022, with tales from his four decades as an award-winning Ottawa-based photojournalist, while sharing images of some the most remarkable photographs he has captured over the years.

His seemingly endless portfolio of iconic photos included those taken of Pierre Trudeau and family (including the former PM's ground-breaking trip to Cuba in 1976), the Royal family, Wayne Gretzky, Jean Chrétien and more.

Rod shared some fascinating inside stories including dust-ups with Cuban security and providing Margaret Trudeau with photography lessons. Rod shared many humourous stories from his long career and the laughter was abundant among those of us in that afternoon's audience in the auditorium of the Ottawa Public Library's main branch.

We were also treated to a glimpse of the everyday and nature photography Rod enjoys in his retirement. (Those interested in seeing more might consider following Rod on Facebook!)

We are not, at this point, simulcasting and/or recording our afternoon presentations in the OPL auditorium, such as Rod's, but we would very much like to begin doing so if the volunteer resources to do so come forward.

In the meantime, here are two video links that might be of interest:

• a four-minute video produced with Rod a few years ago
• a longer Zoom recording courtesy of the PROBUS organization where Rod did a similar presentation earlier this fall

Brian McDougall takes us back to the turbulent post-war era of labour unrest and explores the defeat of the radicals and the implications of that moment in Ottawa's history for our understanding of the underlying social tensions of 1919.

We returned to our in-person Speaker Series on September 14, 2022, after a two and half year hiatus, with a fascinating presentation by Rick Henderson, great-great-great-great-grandson of Philemon Wright.

Rick's presentation included not only thoroughly researched detail and a great selection of images, but also an excerpt from his recently completed "A Walk in Wright's Town in 1830" virtual tour of the Ottawa Valley's first permanent settlement.

In his talk, Rick traced how, arriving over two centuries ago, Philemon Wright and his family carved out a thriving community, launched the industrial development of the region and provided crucial support and assistance to the founding of Bytown and the construction of the Rideau Canal.

Members and guests who attended the October 2022, in-person, HSO presentation at the Auditorium of the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library were treated to a tour de force by Jean-François Lozier, Curator at the Canadian Museum of History. Jean-François told a story that, while familiar to Ottawa’s Francophone community, is mostly unknown in the city’s Anglophone community—the “Battle of the Hatpins” or la battaille des épingles. In this David-Goliath struggle, Francophone parents, in particular mothers, fought the Government of Ontario in 1916 to have their primary-aged children attending the Guigues School taught in French.

Jean-François began his account by providing useful background on the French presence in Ontario, noting that many Francophone families had moved to Ontario during the late 19th century, especially to the eastern part of the province, including Ottawa. While wanting their children to learn the language of the English majority, Francophone also parents desired that French be the language of instruction in “bilingual schools.”

Under the British North American Act of 1867, the provinces were assigned responsibility for education, with the proviso that they provide separate schools for Roman Catholics outside of Quebec, and for Protestants in Quebec. Using its constitutional authority, the Ontario Government, under pressure from those worried about the growing French presence in the Province, introduced Regulation 17 in 1912 which forbade the use of French as the language of instruction beyond Grade 2.

This sparked outrage amongst Ontario’s Francophone community, leading to, among other things, the birth of an Ottawa newspaper Le Droit that committed itself to the struggle for linguistic rights.

Jean-François explained the divisions within Ottawa’s Roman Catholic School Board between its French-speaking and English-speaking members over the issue, and how various schools responded both in Ottawa and in other parts of the Province to Regulation 17—a combination of obedience, non-compliance, and defiance.

The issue came to a head in January 1916 at the Guigues School when parents, mainly mothers, escorted two sisters, Béatrice and Diane Desloges, into the school to teach their children in French. This brought the parents into direct confrontation with the police and the government-appointed school board who were determined to block their entry and their occupation of the school. Jean-François noted that the extent to which the mothers used their hatpins to fend off the police is unclear. News reports said that in the Battle of the Hatpins, one constable had his thumb bitten, while another received a black eye.

In the end, calmer heads prevailed, with the issue going all the way to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London to be settled. While the Privy Council ruled in favour of the Ontario Government in its use of English as the language of instruction in “bilingual schools,” it ruled against the government in its treatment of Ottawa’s French-led, Roman Catholic School Board.

French continued to be used at Guigues School as a language of instruction, with the Ontario Government losing its appetite for this divisive language battle in the midst of World War I. In the late 1920s, Ontario stopped trying to enforce Regulation 17, but it remained on the statute books until 1944.

In 2016, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne apologized to the province’s Francophone community.

Bytown Museum's Collections and Exhibitions Manager, Grant Vogl, gives a snapshot of the vast collection of art works held within the museum's vault.