We were excited to gather again at the Sunnyside Branch of the Ottawa Public Library on Saturday, April 13, 2024, to hear the second installment of Phil Jenkins’ lecture series dealing with the contributions of four immigrant communities to Ottawa. In this section, Phil would complete his discussions on the Jewish community and introduce us to the history of the Chinese community in Ottawa.

The audience was delighted when Phil chose to continue his history of the Jewish community in Ottawa with his guitar and a rendition of the Leonard Cohen song Tower Of Song which was greatly appreciated and an excellent reintroduction to the topic of Jewish history in Ottawa.

Phil told us stories of a number of individuals, the first being the remarkable story of Lillian Bilsky Freiman, who was also known as “The Poppy Lady”. At the outbreak of the First World War Lillian arranged to get 30 sewing machines put into her home and organized Red Cross sewing circles to sew blankets and other clothing for the troops overseas. In 1918 she was tasked by the Mayor of Ottawa to organize a volunteer force of some 1,500 to help combat the spread of the Spanish Flu in the city. In 1921, with growing interest in using the poppy as a symbol of remembrance, she crafted Canada’s first poppies in her living room and later became the Chair of Ottawa’s annual Poppy Campaign for much of the rest of her life. She also founded Canadian Hadassah and worked tirelessly for many other charitable organizations including the Ottawa Welfare Bureau, the Protestant Infants Home, the Red Cross Society, and the Salvation Army along with many others. In 1934 she was appointed to the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by King George V, the first Jewish Canadian to be so honoured. Upon her death in 1940, among the many who attended her funeral were Prime Minister Mackenzie King and the Mayor of Ottawa, Stanley Lewis.

As a teenager, David Mirsky, the son of Ottawa's first rabbi, collected empty bottles and returned them to Brading’s Brewery. By 1920, he was filling bottles with spring water from a spring at the base of Nanny Goat Hill and selling them; he founded The Pure Spring Company in 1925 and it would become the largest independently owned soft drink company in Canada. The company remained in the Mirsky family until the mid-1960s when it was purchased by Crush.

Louis Baker was joined by his brother Jake and opened Baker Brothers at the corner of Booth and Duke Streets. It was the largest scrap yard in the area and survived in that location until the general demolition of Lebreton Flats in the mid-1960s. The business remains in operation, now located on Sheffield Road.

Phil then reminded us of the decision of the Canadian government not to offer sanctuary to the passengers of the St. Louis.

Scribe’s Note: The MS St. Louis sailed from Hamburg on May 13, 1939 bound for Havana with 937 passengers on board, mostly German Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. When the ship docked in Havana on May 27, the Cuban authorities only allowed 28 passengers to disembark. Negotiations to allow the others to land in Cuba failed and the ship was ordered out of Cuban waters on June 2, 1939. They were unable to obtain permission to land in the United States, so on June 7 the St. Louis set sail directly back to Europe, not entering Canadian waters. The St. Louis did not contact Canadian authorities requesting permission to disembark its passengers in Canada, but Prime Minister Mackenzie King did receive a petition on the evening of June 7th from a group of prominent Canadians led by historian and professor George Wrong suggesting that sanctuary be offered. At that time, Mackenzie King was on the Royal Train in Niagara and the government was not sitting. He contacted the Undersecretary for External Affairs, Dr. Oscar D. Skelton, to consult with Minister of Justice, Ernest Lapointe, and the Director of Immigration, Frederick Blair, as he “would like to be advised immediately as to powers of government to meet suggestion which communication contains”. Blair informed Skelton that the refugees could be admitted to Canada by having their names listed on an Order-in-Council but advised against so doing. As a result on June 9 Mackenzie King was informed that only people from four specified groups (family, investors, entrepreneurs, and highly-skilled immigrants) could be admitted by Order-in-Council. Thus Mackenzie King was told that the passengers of the St. Louis were inadmissible. Mackenzie King recorded in his diary that the refugees’ plight was “much less our problem than that of the U.S. and Cuba” while Blair wrote “It is manifestly impossible for any country to open its doors wide enough to take in the hundreds of thousands of Jewish people who want to leave Europe: the line must be drawn somewhere.”

The St. Louis returned to Europe and distributed her passengers to four nations, the Netherlands (181), Belgium (214), France (224) and the United Kingdom (288). The Second World War soon erupted and 254 of the former passengers of the St. Louis would die in the Holocaust, while one would die in a German air raid on London.

Source: MS St. Louis in Canadian Context | Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21

Phil then began his history of the Chinese community in Ottawa, with its very early beginnings a half of a continent away. The first 60 Chinese immigrants were brought to Nootka Sound , Vancouver Island in 1788 by British merchants. They built a schooner and what was intended to be a permanent fur trading post. An additional 80 Chinese workers were brought over the following year, but soon after, the post was taken by the Spanish and the fate of the Chinese workers remains unknown. There were two major events which spurred Chinese immigration to British Columbia. The first was the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858, which initially drew immigrants from California, but then directly from China. The second was the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway between 1880 and 1885. Approximately 17,000 Chinese labourers were employed on the construction of the section through British Columbia. The work was dangerous and conditions hard, resulting in the deaths of between 600 – 700 Chinese workers. The Chinese labourers were cheap and it is likely that the railway would not have been affordable had they not been employed. Although the bulk of the Chinese who remained in Canada stayed in British Columbia, the now completed trans-continental railway served as a means for the eastward migration of the Chinese.

With work on the railway completed, the Chinese workers needed to find another way to make a living. Hand laundry service proved a popular choice as investment was low and the hard work and long hours made it unpopular among white men, though there was some push-back from washer women. The first Chinese Hand Laundry in Toronto seems to have been opened about 1877 with the first in Ottawa being opened on Sparks Street by Wing On in October 1887. The Chinese laundries flourished, 2 more opening in 1889, offering good service at low cost due to the high level of competition. Phil told us that, by 1901, 56 of the 68 laundries in Ottawa were Chinese owned, increasing to 68 of 72 by 1914. They reached their peak at 83 in 1916. Phil explained that those who became successful would often move on to open cafes, which were seen as a higher class of business.

As the number of Chinese immigrants increased, so did the public backlash and the community was subjected to extreme racism and discrimination from the general public and through the press.

The Chinese also fell victim to official racism from the Canadian government with the passing of the Chinese Immigration Act in 1885, which imposed a $50 Head Tax on Chinese immigrants. This was raised to $100 in 1900 and raised again in 1903 to a staggering $500. Those who paid the tax and so gained entry were issued a Certificate which carried their photo and personal information. This applied to children as well as adults. On July 1, 1923, the Canadian government replaced the Chinese Immigration Act with another piece of legislation with the same name, but more commonly known as the Chinese Exclusion Act that denied entry to Canada for all Chinese with the exception of diplomats, merchants, students and special cases. This made it impossible for Chinese men, who usually came to Canada on their own, to bring their wives, children or other family members to join them in Canada. It was not until 1947 that the Act was repealed and in 2006 Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially apologized for the discriminatory legislation and authorized token compensation payments to those who had paid the Head Tax, though not to their children.

Phil related the personal stories of a number of the Chinese immigrants to Ottawa, including that of Shung Joe, who came to Ottawa as a teenager in 1913 to work in the laundry owned by his half-brother. He worked diligently and saved enough to return to China in 1919 to marry and later in 1923, to send for his wife Kai Voon. This was a common practice among those who were successful enough to afford it. Kai Voon arrived just as the Exclusion Act was coming into force and it took the intervention of a church official in Victoria to permit her entry. Shung Joe’s own first laundry was in their home on O’Connor Street, follow by a second location on Slater Street before introducing the new service of Dry Cleaning. The couple had 7 children, one son tragically drowning near the Chateau Laurier. The family home was a welcoming place for new immigrants from China and the family would make weekly drives throughout eastern Ontario, visiting with other Chinese families to spread the news of what was happening in Ottawa and what they had heard from cChina. As a teenager in the 1940s, one of the sons, Bill, began working at two restaurants, the Canton Inn and the Cathay Chop Suey Palace, both on Albert Street. In 1950, Bill took over ownership of the Cathay and in 1958, over the objections of then Mayor Charlotte Whitton, it was granted the first liquor licence to a Chinese restaurant in the city. Bill went on to become one of the most important and influential members of the Chinese community in Ottawa, well respected for his leadership, he was responsible for the formation of the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre, and for his philanthropy.

Phil told us that Albert Street was Ottawa’s original Chinatown, the first Chinese restaurant in Ottawa opening at the corner of Albert Street and Metcalfe Street in 1904. By the 1920s many of the restaurants on Albert Streets were Chinese owned, but catered to a white clientele, employing white servers and had names such as Capital Lunch, Boston Café, Ontario Restaurant, and Harry’s, there being no taste yet in Ottawa for Chinese food. As this changed restaurants such as the Cathay and the Canton Inn, opened by Stanley Wong from Montreal, flourished. Often staff of these original Chinese restaurants would move on and open their own places, such as the Golden Palace on Carling Avenue. In the 1970s, higher rents on Albert Street forced most Chinese businesses to close or move. Many moved to Somerset Street West between Bay Street and Preston Street and now include Vietnamese, Korean, and other Asian owned businesses in what is Ottawa’s new Chinatown.

Part One: Pre-Logging

The Kichi Sipi, also known as the Ottawa River, is the thirteenth longest river in Canada. The rivers’ one hundred and forty-six thousand square miles watershed is bisected by the Sibi’s serpentine route as it curls back on itself going west from its source north of Ottawa, then heading southeast from Lake Témiscamingue to the St Lawrence River. It is the traditional unceded territory of the Anishinabe-Algonquin Nation. From the interior, sixteen major tributaries flow from various large headwater lakes to form multiple access routes into the watershed. The only major tributary to have never been dammed, settled, or industrialized save for logging, is the Dumoine. It is now protected as a Quebec aquatic reserve (2008) along with the Coulonge and Noire (2023).

The Kichi Sibi is the watershed that defined the Anishinabe-Algonquin history for time immemorial. Groups of Anishinabe families separately identified themselves as unified self-regulating custodians for ‘their tributary . ’ Together they all formed the Anishinabe-Algonquin Nation. Each family (10-20 related individuals) was assigned approximately a thousand square mile hunting territory, orally defined using natural feature boundaries, and protected by customary law. The Dumoine was a popular route for other nations to cross the Algonquin territory. The Dumoine families, of course, used it frequently to paddle to Algonquin rendezvous for social events. These events were centred on trade, religion, and customary law. The summer wanderings of the families were focused on seasonal harvesting of spawning fish and eels, birds migrating, maturing of fruit, vegetable and medicinal plants, and the gathering of raw materials. These materials were used for creating canoes, hunting and cooking tools, clothing, footwear, dwellings, baskets, and infant cradles. All these goods were often decorated with impressive artwork. The Dumoine group of families, known first to the Jesuits and Champlain as the Otaguottouemin, were identified two centuries later in government documents as the Dumoine Band. Their story is typical of those Algonquins that lived for centuries along the major tributaries.

Long before the Europeans arrived, the Dumoine Band maintained a lifestyle that involved wintering in their designated hunting territories while hunting and trapping. They used the paddling season for travelling throughout the watershed. The chiefs endorsed a few adventuresome individuals to participate in war or trade missions further afield. A wide variety of other First Nations traders brought goods to these families, most often at the trading site at the mouth of the Dumoine. These goods originated from the Mississippi watershed, the Great Lakes, the James Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean, so a variety of food, goods, and cultural ideas penetrated the interior long before the first white man arrived.

The mouth of Dumoine featured a long sandy spit that rose gracefully up into the pine forest as a grass-covered gravel bar capable of growing root crops. It formed a perfect camping and trading site. The Wolf Lake elders (2022), the direct descendants of the Dumoine families, shared with us the name Akonakwasi for this site meaning ‘a long stretch of sand extending far away’ adding Sakik for the mouth and Sibi for the river (now underwater since the Rapides des Joachims dam was built in 1950).

Canadian Geographic map of Ottawa River Watershed.

It is a challenging four day paddle up the Dumoine which rises one hundred vertical feet as falls, chutes and rapids from the mouth to Lac Dumoine. The creation of magnificent Lac Dumoine is as difficult to imagine being done by a retreating glacier, carving out this eighty-one square mile lake as it is to imagine Nenabojo (also known as Wiske’djak the Anishinabe trickster) chasing a giant beaver out of the south end churning up the land and forming the Dumoine River in the process. But both are accepted stories in different cultures. Lac Dumoine (Anishinabe name is Keewagama one of the many accepted spellings) is unique for four long outlets stretching in each cardinal direction and with a river entering or exiting each. It is a natural traffic circle and has served as an important crossroads for trade and travel since the melting glacier filled it.

French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, was one of the first white men to travel the Kichi Sibi in 1613, preceded by his youthful emissaries Étienne Brûlé and Nicholas de Vignau (1611). Some Anishinabe met white men earlier (i.e. Champlain in Tadoussac in 1603) on their travels outside the watershed. Priests often accompanied Champlain and his emissaries, reflecting that their mission to convert Algonquins (and also exploration) was a priority from France. Champlain himself functioned as both an explorer and soldier, representing New France as an ally of the Algonquins and Hurons against the Iroquois.

Prior to contact with the Europeans, the Algonquin economy had centred on trading furs, dried foods, and hand-crafted products, like birch-bark canoes and other practical implements. After contact, the focus on trade changed to European manufactured goods for furs. From 1620-1700 the Iroquois (Haudensaunee) Confederacy attacked the region of the Kichi Sipi because of their desire to influence the beaver fur trade south to their territory. They sent their warriors north to control the Kichi Sibi trade with attacks originating along many of the major portages along the Ottawa River and as far north as the James Bay height of land. It was tributaries like the Dumoine that provided detours north then east to the French trade centres of Montreal and Trois-Rivières for those trying to avoid the Iroquois. Beginning in 1670 (Royal Charter), the new Hudson's Bay Company was attracting Cree and Anishinabe fur traders north to James Bay. In 1686, to protect the business interests of the merchants of New France, Pierre Le Moyne, Chevalier de Troyes d`Iberville, with the assistance of Anishinabe guides, led French Marines from Montreal up the Ottawa River to attack the British posts on James Bay.

The European trade and the Catholic religion influenced the Dumoine family life by the 1600s. Trade brought metal tools, pots, traps, firearms, woollen blankets and clothing, and other luxuries into the family unit. It also brought disease and alcohol. The Black Robes (Recollects, Jesuits, Sulpicians and finally the Oblates) brought Catholicism to the Algonquins. Being a Catholic (approximately half the Anishinabe population converted) required an annual pilgrimage to the Sulpician mission at Oka near Montreal to be properly baptized, married, or buried as a Catholic. However, beginning in the 1830s, the Oblates built mission churches closer to the Dumoine beside Hudson’s Bay Company posts located at Fort William, Fort Témiscamingue and Fort Grand Lac Victoria, resulting in the elimination of this pilgrimage. The route to the mission at Grand Lac Victoria was up the Dumoine from the Kichi Sibi. Oblate priests, guided by Algonquins may have named the river ‘the river the monks travel.’ This was translated onto maps as Rivière du Moine (Hawkins 1836) and later map makers anglicized this to the Dumoine River.

There were temporary trading posts set up at the Dumoine each spring. Starting with trading posts that independent traders set up in the 1700s, followed by the Northwest Company from 1790-1820, and finally the Hudson’s Bay Company, whose trading posts lasted from 1821 to 1840.

Lumberjacks mixed their French, Irish and English accents together to create the unique phrase for travelling to their new workplace “Going Up da Dumun.” Roderick Ryan was the first lumber baron who used the mouth as a base for his operations for travelling upriver circa 1840. He and John Egan lead an invasion of a new type of economy away from furs and at the expense of the Algonquin Dumoine family way of life. The story of Roderick Ryan and John Egan will be shared in Part Two this blog.

Wallace A Schaber

I am not a professional historian or Anishinabe expert. I am a collector of maps, stories, and artifacts about the Dumoine based on fifty years of guiding there by canoe, ski, and foot. Many of these stories are found in my book, Last of the Wild Rivers (2016), which is out of print but available as an e-book online.

Friends of the Dumoine

In 2016, concerned Dumoine guides and travellers formed Friends of Dumoine to keep the rivers portages and campsites clean.

Mission Statement

“To champion conservation of the Dumoine watershed, promote non- mechanized recreation and strengthen knowledge of its natural environment and human history.”

Our major achievement to date is the re-opening and interpretation of the old Anishinabe portages that existed for centuries and linking them to the Dumoine tote road used by the lumber industry beginning in 1840. This hiking trail is now open from the Ottawa River to Grande Chute as a twenty-six kilometre hiking-skiing trail www.sentierdumoine.ca. A visitor centre at Grande Chute complete with historic maps and artifacts is located at the northern gateway.

Please join us on the trail or virtually online to explore Canada's history and protect it. For more information about how to volunteer or donate write This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Friends of the Dumoine would like to thank our partners in helping to make this project a reality.

CPAWS Ottawa Valley
ZEC Dumoine
Wolf Lake First Nation

References and Further Reading

Fournier, J-L. Anishinabe Place Names for the Dumoine Hiking Trail, confirmed and sanctioned by Wolf Lake First Nation, May 2022. Prepared for Friends of Dumoine Trail Map published 2024.

Morrison, James. “Algonquin History in the Ottawa River Watershed.” Sicani Research & Advisory Services Ottawa, Ontario, Revised 2005.

Frank G. Speck. “Myths and Folklore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and the Timagami Ojibwa.” Canada Department of Mines. Geological Survey, Memoir 71, No 9 Anthropological Series. Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, (1915):1-3.

In this presentation to the Ottawa Historical Society, historian David C. Martin takes us back to the real beginnings of Ottawa’s Jewish community.

At the core of David’s thesis is the notion that the immigrant pioneers of Ottawa’s Jewish community ‘conserved’ and ‘adapted’ in equal measure, bringing with them the rituals and traditions of their homelands while simultaneously planting their roots in Ottawa prior to the outbreak of World War I.

Beginning with an overview of the city’s demographics during what he calls the “First Golden Age” of Jewish life in the nation’s capital (c. 1880-1914), David then turns to explore a handful of the community’s most influential personalities before examining some of the institutions they helped to build.

In 1881 there were about 20 self-identified Jews living amongst Ottawa’s 21,545 inhabitants, by 1914, that number had risen to almost 3,000. When compared to the number of Jews residing in the country at large however, it’s clear that despite significant growth, Ottawa was still not a major destination for the period’s Jewish immigrants. Both Montreal and Toronto offered these migrants a more established community, where synagogues, kosher food and Yiddish-speakers were far more accessible.

The vast majority of Jewish migrants to Canada during this period were refugees. Most had fled the Czarist Russian Empire following local pogroms. For survivors, at least for those who could manage, immigration became the best means of escape. Most of the era’s Jewish migrants arrived from Europe with very little. In their home countries, especially in Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire, economic opportunity was severely restricted. In fact, The Russian Empire established what it called the Pale of Settlement, where Jews were forced to live – keeping them outside of the major industrial and economic centres of Russia-proper. Professional jobs, including in the civil service, were essentially off-limits as were most educational opportunities.

To survive in the Pale, many Jews scratched out a living as peddlers, which usually involved the retail sale of wares or trade services and the purchase and re-selling of agricultural produce by traveling salesmen of generally humble means. Peddling was the most common occupation of Jews in the Pale – and indeed for Jewish migrants arriving in Canada. One advantage that Ottawa did offer over Montreal or Toronto was the more favourable cost of a peddling licence, and that alone may have inspired several of the period’s earliest Jewish migrants to arrive in our fair city. By 1939, approximately 43% of Ottawa's hawkers and peddlers were of Jewish descent.

With the scene set, David presents short biographies of some of the city’s earliest Jewish pioneers; those that had some of the greatest impacts on population settlement and community-building including Moses Bilsky, John Dover, Archie and Lillian Freiman, the Rev. Jacob Mirsky, and Casper Caplan.

Having familiarized our audience with some of the key players, David looks at some of the institutions that these pioneers, among others, helped to create. Synagogues like Adas Jeshurun (the city’s very first), Agudath Achim and Machzikei Hadas (which continues to thrive) are followed by others of the community’s most vital institutions like the Bank Street Cemetery, the Hebrew Benevolent Society, and the city’s then-incipient Hebrew schools.

This talk offers a comprehensive look at the roots of the Ottawa Jewish community and is surely a valuable resource for anyone interested in the subject.

You can view the full presentation on the Historical Society of Ottawa's YouTube channel.

On the 6 ^th of April, 2024, the Historical Society of Ottawa in conjunction with the Sunnyside Branch of the Ottawa Public Library was pleased to present the first of a three part lecture series by noted historian, author, columnist and musician, Phil Jenkins. This is the third such series that Phil has given and this one is focussed on four immigrant communities that settled in and helped to build Ottawa. This session covered the contributions of the Irish community along with an introduction to Jewish settlement in the area. Part two will complete the Jewish community and introduce the Chinese community, while the final session will complete the discussion of the role of the Chinese community and then focus on the Italian immigrant community.

Prior to Phil’s session, Ben Weiss of the Historical Society did a Land Acknowledgement, which he used to remind the audience of over 50 attendees that apart from our Indigenous peoples, the rest of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. As such, though HSO has had a Speaker Series session on Algonquin Grand Chief Pinesi and that many of our speakers have dealt with the immigrant experience. In February 2024, for example, the Caribbean community was the subject of our presentation Ottawa's Caribbean Community , while in 2021, Indochinese refugees and Project 4000 was discussed.

Phil told us that the Irish emigrated for the same reasons that all choose to leave their homeland, to escape hardship and find a better life. The spur to Irish immigration in the mid 1800 was the famine that struck the island. Canada was a favoured destination, not only because passage was cheap, but because there was a heavy demand in England for lumber, required to build ships for the Napoleonic War, thus there were many ships from Canada that had delivered lumber and were now looking for any cargo for the return trip. The Irish were an available cargo. The trip was hazardous, not only because some 20% failed to reach port, but also because many ships became infected with “Ship’s Fever”, Typhus. In Ottawa, Elisabeth Bruyère and the Grey Nuns treated the sick. HSO held a session on this in 2023 Élisabeth Bruyère in Ottawa-Bytown .

It was the young who risked the voyage and Phil related the story of how grandmothers would hold a skein of wool at the dockside in Liverpool while her grandchild boarded the ship holding onto one end. As the ship sailed away and the wool unspooled, it would be reeled in by the departing family member and eventually made into a scarf. This being the last gift they would ever receive from their family.

Phil went through some of the contributions of some of the early Irish immigrants, such as the navvies, who built the Rideau Canal under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel John By, himself an Irishman. Perhaps as many as 1,000 workers and members of their families would die primarily due to malaria, the survivors going on to work in the logging industry. Phil highlighted many specific individuals including:

Nicholas Sparks, who became very prosperous through the purchase, sale and sometimes resale of land, as well as by providing loans and then collecting the debts.

Henry Friel, who started the Ottawa police force and was an early owner of “The Packet”, the newspaper that would become The Ottawa Citizen.

Thomas Ahearn was one of Ottawa’s earliest electrical entrepreneurs. He brought the electric streetcar and the first automobile to Ottawa. He is also credited for preparing the first meal fully cooked by electricity in his demonstration at the Windsor Hotel.

Thomas D’Arcy McGee, a noted orator and parliamentarian who was assassinated on Sparks Street. He was allegedly shot by another Irishman, Patrick Whelan, who was later executed for the crime.

Samuel Bingham, who held logging rights on the Gatineau River and drowned in it after clearing a logjam. He is also noted as opening the first city playground for boys.

Many of these individuals served on Council or as Mayor. The impact of the Irish in the late 1800s can be easily seen by the population statistics of the time: 35% Irish, 34% French, 18% English, 11% Scottish and 2% Others.

Phil reminded us that the contributions of the Irish continue to enrich our community, making special note of local author Brian Doyle, whose works were familiar to many in the audience.

Phil concluded his section on the Irish with his guitar and a wonderful rendition of “Cockles and Mussels” (aka “Molly Malone”).

Phil then went on to start his talk about Jewish immigration to Ottawa. Like others, they sought a better life, but in this case many were fleeing political persecution, especially in Russia and the Ukraine. Many settled and opened businesses in the Byward Market. These included small grocery stores, shoe stores, and, in the case of Max Cohen, a Kosher butchery. Four of Max’s sons continued in the meat business, but two decided to go into used furniture and demolition, Cohen & Cohen, becoming famous across the city.

Perhaps Ottawa’s most successful and best known merchant was A. J. Freiman, a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, who owned and operated Ottawa’s premier department store on the north side of Rideau Street, which is now the site of The Bay. Caplan’s, another Jewish-owned department store, operated for many years just a bit further east on Rideau Street.

Phil commented that most of the “Rag and Bone” men in the city were Jewish immigrants. The rags they collected going into the manufacture of paper, while the bones went to produce glue.

Phil highlighted the contributions of two particular families. Moses Bilsky ran a jewelry store and pawn shop beside the old Union Station. He was a key community organizer, welcoming new Jewish immigrants, finding them lodging and employment. He even donated and personally delivered a 100-pound sack of potatoes to each new family to ensure they had something to get them started. He also brought the first Torah scroll to Ottawa.

The Greenberg family settled outside of Ottawa on the Billings estate, south of the Rideau River where they grew vegetables for the community and eventually opened a feed store. They were also key in welcoming Jewish immigrants, providing employment and supporting Jewish education. Later, one of their number, Lorry Greenberg, would become the first Jewish mayor of Ottawa serving from 1975 to 1978.

We all look forward to next Saturday, April 13, 2024, when Phil will complete his story of the Jewish immigrants and begin his tale of the origins of our Chinese community.

It was just coincidental, though perhaps entirely appropriate, that the presentation on March 23, 2024, at the Main branch of the Ottawa Public Library titled “Ottawa Women on Ice” took place against the backdrop of the World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal and a game between Ottawa and Toronto in the newly-formed Professional Women’s hockey League. James Powell, the speaker that afternoon, told an enthusiastic audience of 44 about Ottawa’s lengthy and often glorious history in women’s hockey and the achievements of two Ottawa women in figure skating—Barbara Ann Scott and Elizabeth Manley. James is a frequent speaker at HSO and community events; runs the blog “Today in Ottawa’s History” and was awarded the Historical Society of Ottawa’s Story Teller award in 2023 for his fine work in telling Ottawa’s history.

Few probably realize that women’s hockey started in Ottawa when Isobel Stanley, the daughter of Lord Stanley, Canada’s Governor General from 1888-1893, strapped on a pair of skates in 1889 and stick-handled around other Rideau Hall women in the first ever women’s hockey game in an outdoor rink at Government House. That same year, Isobel Stanley and other ladies from Rideau Hall triumphed over a team from the Rideau Rink in the first ever women’s hockey game covered by the press. With a vice-regal stamp of respectability helping to alleviate concerns about the appropriateness of women playing hockey, women’s hockey teams multiplied in the Ottawa-Hull area and throughout the Ottawa Valley, this included the “Alphas” of New Edinburgh, the Rideau Rink Ladies, the Vestas of Hull, and the Cliffside Ladies, also known as the “Busy Bees,” who claimed the first city championship when they defeated the Sandy Hill Ladies in 1908. Away games by Ottawa teams to play teams in Smiths Falls and Cornwall were chaperoned to keep the young ladies in line. Long skirts and tam-o-shanters were the uniforms of the day.

Women’s hockey received a major boost with the outbreak of World War I. With the men away, scarce rink time opened up for women. As well, rink owners looked for new ways to rent out the ice and fill seats. In Montreal, a women’s hockey league brought in thousands of fans attracted by the high calibre of the game. Many also came to see the Cornwall Victorias, led by their superstar Albertine Lapensée, also known as the “Miracle Maid” and “Étoile des étoiles”, and the Ottawa Alerts, the formidable team from the Capital. Lapensée was likely the first professional female hockey player.

The origins of the Ottawa Alerts are obscure but the team, captained by Edith Anderson burst onto the scene in 1916. Their most fierce local rivals were the Westboro Pats led by Tena Turner. The two teams fought for the city championship in 1917 with the Alerts prevailing in a two-game, total goal series. The Alerts then defeated the Westerns, Montreal’s hockey champions, to win the Dey Cup.

The Ottawa Alerts joined the Ladies’ Ontario Hockey Association (LOHA) in 1922 when the league formed, bringing together fifteen teams from across the province. Behind their star player, the all-round athlete Shirley Moulds, the team won two consecutive championships in 1923 and 1924. The Alerts went into decline when Moulds moved to the Ottawa Rowing Club as the team’s captain. The “Scullers” defeated the Alerts to take the city championship in 1927, and subsequently won the provincial title, defeating the Toronto Pats.

The Great Depression was the death knell for women’s hockey in Ottawa and in Canada more generally. Both the Alerts and the Scullers disappeared into history as did the LOHA and the Dominion Women’s Amateur Hockey Association, the latter founded in 1933. By the onset of World War II, organized women’s hockey was no more. However, before the end came, the 1930s saw the emergence of the most powerful women’s hockey team of the era—the Preston Rivulettes. During its short career, the team lost only two out of 350 games.

Women’s hockey didn’t re-emerge as a significant sport until the 1970s. However, leading the way in the post-war era was ten-year old Dee Dee Hamilton who stepped into the breach in 1956 when the goalie on her brother’s team, the St. Pat’s, couldn’t play in a game hosted by Ottawa’s Cradle Hockey League. So good was Dee Dee that she played in the 1957 All-Star Game. For two years, she was the only girl amidst 800 boys in the league.

With the establishment of a new professional women’s hockey league at the beginning of 2024 with a team in Ottawa, it is possible that the old “Alerts” name may be revived. In the lead-up to the formation of the league, a number of trademarks were registered for potential names of its clubs. In addition to such monikers as the Toronto Torch and the Montreal Echo was the Ottawa Alert.

Credit: Frank Royal / National Film Board of Canada / Library and Archives Canada / PA-112691.Switching to figure skating, James traced the career of Canada’s sweetheart, Barbara Ann Scott, from winning the Canadian Junior Figure Skating crown in 1940 to taking the gold medal at the 1948 Winter Olympics held in St. Moritz, France. But it didn’t come easily for Scott. Her success required long hours of practice and hard work, training at the Minto Skating Club, the skating club founded by Lord and Lady Minto in 1903. James showed a short film of her performance at St Moritz which displayed her grace and form as a gold-medal figure skater.

Returning to Ottawa as a national hero after the Olympics, some 70,000 fans met her train at Union Station, where she was personally greeted by Prime Minister Mackenzie King and Ottawa Mayor Stanley Lewis. Schoolchildren were given a half-day holiday. In honour of her victory, Ottawa gave Scott a car with the licence plate 48-U-1. She then started her professional career, ousting Sonja Henning, her arch rival, from the Hollywood Ice Review. In 1950, the most desired Christmas gift was a Barbara Ann Scott doll, complete with white figure skates, costing a steep $5.95.

Scott retired from skating in 1955 when she married Tom King. In 1991, she was appointed to the Order of Canada. Scott passed away in 2012 in Florida at age 84. She bequeathed her sports memorabilia to the City of Ottawa.

James ended his presentation with the career of another daughter of Ottawa, Elizabeth Manley, who won the silver medal at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. Like Scott forty years earlier, it took years of grit and determination to achieve perfection—and that was what she achieved in her long program in Calgary. Although she came first in that section of the competition, she lost overall by a hair to East Germany’s, Katerina Witt. At the end of a short video of her long program, people in the library auditorium broke out into applause, indicative of the power of Manley’s performance thirty-four years ago. Manley was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1988, and, following her skating career, has devoted considerable time to charity.

In the usual question and answer section that followed, three descendants of Shirley Moulds, the Ottawa Alerts’ star player, identified themselves in the audience. They indicated Moulds had been a very private person who had not talked about her hockey career. Her niece said that it was only after Shirley’s death that she became aware of her prowess as a hockey player. The only thing she knew was that Aunt Shirley was a great bowler! Shirley Moulds’ great-nephew was instrumental in Moulds being named to Ottawa’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.

William Peacock stood with dozens of people on the platform of the Almonte train station. December 27, 1942 was a miserable night with snow and freezing rain falling as the Almonte police chief joined others to see family and friends off who needed to work the next morning. It was 8:32 p.m. when the Local train pulled into the station. Six minutes later, it was about to leave.

The Local had started its journey in Petawawa three hours earlier. Extra crew and more coaches had been added because of the heavy load of passengers. It was a milk run with stops throughout the Ottawa Valley, but the passengers were singing Christmas songs, trying to make the best of a dreary holiday season that included restrictions on Christmas lights and food rations.

At the back of the train, five-year old Bernie Turcotte peeked out the back window and then turned to his mother and said, “Mommy what is that bright light?” Seconds later, at 8:38 p.m., a heavy troop train slammed into the back of the Local passenger train, obliterating the final two coaches of the train and coming to rest half-way through the third last coach.

Earlier in the evening, a 20-minute block had been initiated at the Renfrew and Arnprior stations, but with no operator working at Pakenham, the troop train continued to make up ground on the lead train. When it came around the gradual bend leading into the Almonte station, there wasn’t enough time for the engineer to stop. He was only a few car lengths away from the stopped Local train when he saw the reflection of his train’s headlights on the glass windows at the rear of the Local.

The impact was sudden and devastating. Within 24 hours, 36 people had died and more than 150 people had been hospitalized, some with life-altering injuries. Two more passengers on the Local train would pass away within a few weeks bringing the death toll to 38, making the Almonte train wreck one of the deadliest railway accidents in Canadian history.

In the weeks that followed, a coroner’s inquest held at the Almonte Town Hall, the same building used on the night of the accident as a temporary morgue, would exonerate the crews of both trains of any wrongdoing. The five-man jury blamed the Canadian Pacific Railway, primarily because the company had not staffed the Pakenham station, arguing that had an operator been on duty, the troop train could have been held back to give the Local train time to clear the Almonte station.

But Canada’s Transport Commission had a different opinion on what caused the deadly crash. The commission cited three violations of the operating rules and blamed the crews of both trains for the accident. The commission felt the troop train was travelling too fast and the engineer did not have his train under control when he arrived in Almonte. The commission also said the crew on the Local train had erred by not lighting a flare at the back of their train when they knew they were running behind on their schedule.

It's been more than 80 years since the Almonte train wreck occurred. There are few survivors of the accident still living, but there are many family members who still hold the stories of that fateful night. For them, the tragedy lives on through photographs, letters, and newspaper clippings. The family of Thomas Lynn, a survivor of the crash, keeps the train ticket he used to board the Local. Lynn badly injured his leg in the crash, preventing him from joining the Canadian military. Not being able to serve his country bothered him for the rest of his life, and when he passed away in his 73 ^rd year, his family found his ticket from December 27, 1942 in his wallet. He had kept it for more than 50 years, but no one in his family knew he had it.

In Almonte, the train station was torn down years ago, the railway tracks have been removed and in the centre of the town there are two large engraved stones that memorialize the victims of the crash. Sudden Impact – The Almonte Train Wreck of 1942 was written to ensure they are remembered.

Biography:

Jamie Bramburger, author, Sudden Impact – The Almonte Train Wreck of 1942Jamie Bramburger was trained as a broadcast journalist and spent 14 years working as a news director, assignment editor and news reporter in radio and television, before joining Algonquin College’s Pembroke Campus as its Manager of Community and Student Affairs. That was 25 years ago, but while working at the college, Jamie has retained his journalistic roots as a volunteer broadcaster with Cogeco community television and as a feature writer with Post Media. Sudden Impact -The Almonte Train Wreck of 1942 is Jamie’s second book. His first book, Go Kings Go-A Century of Pembroke Lumber Kings Hockey was released in 2018 and became a regional best seller in Eastern Ontario.

February 22 ^nd is the birthday of Baron Robert Baden-Powell, (1857-1941), the founder of the Scouting Movement. Coincidentally, it is also the birthday of his wife, Olave (1889-1977), the first Chief Guide. As such, the day has special meaning for Scouts, who call it BP Day, and Guides, who call it Thinking Day. It was thus very appropriate that the Historical Society of Ottawa used their February 24, 2024, in-person speaker session to explore the history of Scouting and Guiding. There were many members of both organizations among the 50 who gathered in the auditorium of the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library to listen to the presentations of Dave Truemner from Scouts Canada and Emma Kent from the Girl Guides of Canada.

Dave started as a Cub in 1953 and has spent most of the past 70 years in Scouting, in one capacity or another. He is currently a volunteer researcher at the Scouts Canada National Museum, located at the Scouts Canada National Headquarters, 1345 Baseline Road in Ottawa.

Dave explained that Scouting officially began in England in 1908 and spread quickly throughout the country, then through the British Empire and finally throughout the world. One of the first great events for Scouting was the 1911 Coronation of King George V, when it was decided that Scouts from around the Empire should line the parade route, providing both an Honour Gard and crowd control. Between 50 and 60 Canadian Scouts made the trip, including six from Ottawa. The Canadian contingent remained in touch over the years holding reunions every decade until 1981.

In the early years, Scouting in Canada was simply a part of Scouting in England. On June 12, 1914, however, The Canadian General Council of the Boy Scout Association was incorporated by an act of the Canadian Parliament. This gave Scouting in Canada some degree of independence while giving the government of Canada some degree of control.

Dave pointed out that this control soon came into play. Though Scouting was never a military organization, unlike Cadets, its members were pressed into service during both World Wars, though not in actual combat. During the First World War, Scouts were valued due to their First Aid training and for their fundraising. The money raised by the Scouts was used for the purchase of ambulances, it being considered inappropriate to use it to buy weapons. Dave explained that in the Second World War the role of Scouts was expanded to include many civil defense duties, including that of air raid patrol. Dave related a cute story about a former Mayor of Ottawa. J. E. Stanley Lewis (1888 – 1970) who served as our mayor from 1936 to 1948. As he was born on February 29, he celebrated his 12 ^th birthday in 1940 when he was 52 years old and the local Scouts invested him as a Boy Scout. In 1942 he participated as a Scout in Apple Day, the annual fundraiser when Scouts give away apples and accept donations. Given the state of things in the Second World War at these times, this must have provided a well needed relief from the more serious and tragic news that dominated the papers of the day.

Dave showed us two sculptures of Scouts on the Confederation Building, one accompanied by a rose and the other by a fleur de-lis. The sculptures acknowledge that this was the site of the original Scout Headquarters, expropriated in 1926. The use of two Scouts and their accompanying flowers denote that there are both English and French Scouting organizations in Canada. Les Scouts du Canada run their programs in French, primarily in Quebec, where there are also Scouts Canada groups. The World Organization of the Scouting Movement (WOSM) will only recognise a single Scouting organization per country, so today Les Scouts du Canada operates as a semi-autonomous organization under the Scouts Canada umbrella.

Dave explained that the National Headquarters didn’t move far, just over to the historic Birkett Castle at 306 Metcalfe Street, now the Embassy of Hungary, where it would remain from 1931 through 1960. He then related a couple of stories about the site. A large addition was added onto the house and served for many years as the Scouts warehouse for uniforms, books, and all other Scouting materials. Later one of the local volunteers, E. R. Fisher who ran a successful retail clothing business, convinced Scouts to allow him to sell uniforms through his four local stores. This proved so successful that it led to uniforms being sold through 142 different stores across the country. The Scouts National leadership realized that they could open their own stores instead, and so, in 1975 began to open Scout Shops. As times changed, and finally due to the pandemic, the world switched to online shopping, so uniform sales have, in a sense gone full circle, back to a warehouse. The second story involved a “totem pole” which stood outside Birkett Castle from 1935 to 1960. This was, in fact, a fake. A local volunteer worked for Bell Telephone and got them to donate a telephone pole, which he and other volunteers carved. When Scout Headquarters moved, this pole was cut down and into four sections, three of which are now preserved in the Scout Museum.

This led to another story of another totem pole, this one genuine. The totem pole that stands outside the current Scout Headquarters was carved by Chief Mungo Martin in 1960 and donated by the British Columbia Scouts to celebrate the opening of the new headquarters building. It was erected in 1961, with 60 feet above ground and 10 feet below ground anchored by 78 tons of concrete. When originally erected, Baseline Road was just 2 lanes, a few years later, in 1966, however, it was widened to 4 lanes with a median, and the totem pole had to be dug out again and moved back 15 feet. Today, with work-from-home being common, Scouts Canada no longer needs its headquarters building and is in the process of having the 4.5 acres on which it sits rezoned for sale. Coincidentally, the City of Ottawa is planning a further widening of Baseline Road, which will necessitate the totem pole, now fragile, be moved once more. At this time, the ultimate fate of this landmark is unknown.

Scouts Canada does have other land holdings in the greater Ottawa area. Camp Opemikon on Christie Lake near Perth is the largest and most developed Scout camp in the area. Opened in 1937 with 100 acres, it has since grown to cover 200 acres. Now accessible by road, the Scouts originally took the train to Christie Lake and crossed on a flat-bottomed cargo barge, which was still on the property, though unused, into the 1960s.

Dave told us of a number of other Scout adventures that have taken place in Ottawa. These range from a Scout hockey league that operated in the 1940s to participation in the first tour of Canada by Princess Elizabeth in 1951. Connaught Ranges was the home to three of the first Canadian Jamborees in which Scouts from across the country, and often from other nations, gather for a week or more of activities and fellowship. These took place in 1949, 1953, and 1961. Over the years, Scouts have also provided services to the community, including toy repair and distribution, Lost Children services at the Central Canada Exhibition, Canada Day and during Winterlude, and tree planting.

Scouting in Canada strives to remain relevant. In 1971 it started its move to become co-ed when girls were officially accepted as Rovers (ages 18 – 26). By 1992 all Scouting Sections were made co-ed. It has created specialized programs for some older youth. Dave explained that in Ottawa there are PoliceVents, who work with the police, FireVents, MedVents, who provide First Aid services at many community events and even SARVents, who are learning Search and Rescue. Although the Venturers (ages 15 – 17) are not directly involved in the actual work, they do learn the skills, provide support and prepare themselves for careers in these fields.

Scouting is still a major activity in the world with over 200 countries and territories participating. Dave noted how the movement of the World Headquarters has mirrored the politics and membership within the movement. Originally in London, it was moved to Ottawa in the 1960 so that it would be less British. Later it was moved to Geneva and Dave said that it is now being moved to Kualalumpur in Malaysia which better reflects the dominant numbers of members outside of North America and Europe.

Emma’s mother, a long-time Guider herself, enrolled her as a Spark at age 5 and she has never left, with now more than 25 years in Guides. She is a graduate in history from Carleton University, a frequent HSO Speaker and the current President of the Historical Society of Ottawa. Emma led us on a virtual walking tour of downtown Ottawa using various locations to tell the story of the Gul Guides.

Emma started us off at the South African War Memorial in Confederation Park. It was while serving in South Africa that Baden-Powell first became aware of how useful boys could be if they had received some training. Returning to England he discovered that a book he had written for military training, “Aids to Scouting” had become popular with boys. He rewrote the book as “Scouting for Boys” and the two movements soon followed. The Memorial was paid for by donations from 30,000 local school children, many of whom would become Ottawa’s first members of Scouting and Guiding. Many veterans of the war also became Ottawa’s first leaders in the movements, some like the Woolsey family becoming active in both. Camp Woolsey, Ottawa’s Guide camp which operated from 1937 to 2021 was named in their honour.

She then took us to the Laura Secord statue at 53 Elgin Street. Laura Secord was viewed as an inspiration and role model for girls because of her courage and especially her patriotism and loyalty to the British Empire. An early Guiding Pamphlet written by Agnes Baden-Powell, the sister of Robert, was entitled “How Girls Can Help to Build Up the Empire”. Emma pointed out the importance of recognizing the colonial roots of Guiding, a theme to which she would return. She also noted that the first official Guide Company in Canada, formed in St. Catharines in 1910, focused many of their activities around a statue of Laura Second in Queenston Heights Park in Niagara.

We then “walked” on to the National War Memorial. Emma reminded us that wars affect all members of a society. This ranges from a loss of normal opportunities, Camp Woolsey was closed for the final two years of the Second World War, through to involvement on the home front, and in some cases, overseas activities. Among other things, Guides rolled bandages, raised funds for the Red Cross and worked in Red Cross canteens. A National War Service Project called “The Guides Overseas Gift Project” saw the Guides sew and knit some 30,000 pieces of clothing for English children who had endured The Blitz.

We then moved down Wellington Street to the statue of Terry Fox. Each fall the running community in Ottawa hold “The Great Big Cookie Run” which raises funds for local Guiding, especially camperships to allow all girls the opportunity to participate. Emma noted that this was the first 5K she ever ran and that one of the best things about the event is that runners get a cookie as they cross the finish line.

From here, Emma took us to the other side of Wellington Street, to the Confederation Building at the corner of Bank Street. She showed us the two sculptures of Scouts on the building and recounted an early incident in the history of both the Scout and Guide Movements that led to their separation. With the growing popularity of Scouting in England, Baden-Powell decided to hold a gathering at the Crystal Palace in September 1909. There he was confronted by a troop of girls who proclaimed themselves to be “Girl Scouts”. Baden-Powell soon responded. He believed that boys would object to the name Scouts being used by the girls and also felt that the name Guides represented a more traditional and nurturing role, so the would-be Girl Scouts became the Gil Guides. Baden-Powell also stepped away from the Guides, turning the new Movement over to his sister Agnes. These changes of name and leadership were not universally accepted, many preferring the name “Scouts”. In the United States, the movement rejected the change and returned to the use of the name “Girl Scouts”. Internationally, WAGGGS is the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

Emma then took us back to gather around the Centennial Flame, which she pointed out was originally intended as a temporary monument for 1967 but has remained due to public demand. Parliament Hill has witnessed many gatherings of Guides, dating back to as early as 1917. More recently it hosted large gatherings to celebrate the 95 ^th and 100 ^th anniversary of Guiding, which took place in 2010. This celebration featured a campfire sing-along around the Centennial Flame led by two local Guiders which has now become an annual event in the early fall.

In Major’s Hill Park, we stopped at the statue of Lieutenant-Colonel John By. Funds were raised for it by the Historical Society of Ottawa and it was erected in 1971. The current Historical Society of Ottawa came into being as the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa in 1898. It and the Girl Guides were only two of a number of organizations that were founded and run by women in the late 19 ^th and early 20 ^th centuries that focussed on social improvement, reform, and patriotism. Among the other organizations that appeared at the same time include the May Court Club, the YWCA, and the International Order of the Daughters of the Empire. Like Guiding, these organizations were formed by affluent women, wives of successful husbands who had time to give to the service of others who were less fortunate. Emma noted that today’s volunteers are not so privileged and we need to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions they make today.

Emma then took us to see the Three Watchmen on Sussex Drive, which is a casting of an original work in wood by sculptor and Haida Chief, James Hart. It is carefully positioned so that it can watch the Parliament Buildings, the American Embassy, and Notre Dame Cathedral, representing groups that have done great harm to Indigenous peoples. Emma pointed out, that by extension, they watch all of us who come from a settler background. She explained that the Girl Guide program was used in 34 Residential Schools between 1910 and 1970, as were many other recreation programs. Girl Guides of Ca nada officially apologised for this in 2021 and has since created their National Indigenous Advisory Circle to ensure that Guiding is a welcoming place for Indigenous girls and women.

Emma ended our tour at the National Gallery at Maman, one of six sculptures made by Louise Bourgeois as an ode to her Mother. Maman, a mother herself, symbolizes the role of the Guiding Movement in creating a safe, caring and nurturing space for all girls, women and openly transgender and non-binary people who feel comfortable in a space focused on girls and women.

Emma, an experienced tour guide, made sure to have a snack to share with all her participants at the end of her presentation, Girl Guide cookies, of course.

On February 7, 2024, the Historical Society of Ottawa was pleased to feature Dave Tulloch on our Zoom Speaker series, who spoke to us about the history of Ottawa’s Caribbean Community. Dave came to Ottawa from Jamaica as a student in 1970, graduating from Algonquin College, the University of Ottawa, and finally received a Masters of Business Administration from Concordia University in Montreal. He has worked as a computer engineer, information systems consultant, and as a lecturer and tutor. He is also a columnist, author, and a volunteer musician and cameraman. Dave’s interest in the history of the Caribbean community in Ottawa was sparked by a visit, some years ago, to the Gloucester Branch of the Ottawa Public Library. He had taken his daughter to the library to help her with her school research project on black history in Canada, and discovered that the library had no resources on the subject. The situation remained at the back of his mind, and some years later, he took action.

Dave started us off with a brief background of early black settlement in the Ottawa area. Philemon Wright led five families to this area in 1800. His own, that of his brother, those of his two sisters, and a fifth headed by London Oxford, our first black settler. Relatively little is known about Oxford, he was a land owner and a raftsman, but left the region around 1809. Our next known black family, headed by Robert Richardson, arrived in Bytown about 1836, and may still have descendants in the area. A third followed in 1844 led by Perry Adams and later still, in 1885, Paul Barber arrived in Ottawa, where his family has remained. Dave pointed out that all these families came from the United States not the Caribbean.

Dave explained that Canadian government policy largely prevented black immigration until 1952, with some restrictions remaining for another decade. Thus it was not until 1952 that Herbert Brown, who was born in Jamaica but served with the Canadian Armed Forces during the Second World War, moved to Ottawa, after short stays in Montreal and Hull. He opened Browns Cleaners in 1957, growing the business, which he finally sold in 1978. At one time he maintained a book with information on black residents of Ottawa that he had met, but this has vanished.

Dave explained that there were three groups that came from the Caribbean to Canada starting in the 1950s. There were domestic workers, who came to Canada under the West Indies Domestic Scheme, there were students, primarily those with some economic means seeking post-graduate degrees and finally there were professionals, who from 1967 were granted entry based upon a point system. No matter the group, nor the variant processes they needed to follow to become citizens, they shared a common goal, to find a better life for themselves and their families, members of whom they could then sponsor.

Dave then gave us some examples of individuals who had come from the Caribbean, taken advantage of the educational opportunities available to them, and went on to make major contributions to their community and the country. Dr. Jean Augustine, who came to Canada under the West Indies Domestic Scheme, obtained degrees from Carleton University and undertook a career in education. She went on to be the first black woman elected to Parliament, and later served as the Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Dr. Rudolph Gittens was born in Trinidad and came to Canada as a student in 1953. He would go on to be the team doctor for the Ottawa Rough Riders for over 20 years and then for Canada’s National Soccer teams. Gilbert Scott came to Canada in 1968 as a meteorological technician. As a community builder he was the first president of the Jamaica-Ottawa Community Association, and professionally, he joined the Federal Public Service and eventually served as the Commissioner of the Public Service between 1988 and 1994.

Although the Caribbean immigrants found success, it was rarely easy. Most relate instances of opportunities denied to them because of their race. They persevered and thrived, building their own support networks and associations.

Dave then gave us three examples of children of Caribbean immigrants that had gone on to extraordinary success. He noted that as the years pass, the new generations simply consider themselves to be Canadian, though they still value their heritage.

You can watch Dave’s full presentation on the HSO's YouTube channel .

Dave has also written a book based on personal interviews with many of the key community members, and, when necessary, on secondary sources. We highly recommend “Ottawa's Caribbean Community History and Profiles - since 1955”, which can be purchased at the following link: Dave Tulloch Ottawa's Caribbean Community since 1955 by Dave Tulloch, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters | The Pen Centre