At the March 2026 award ceremony, from left to right: Brendan Ray, Kevin Ballantyne, Allison Margot Smith, Jean-François Lozier, Ben Weiss, Christine Jackson, Janet Uren, Jane Waterston, Kathy Krywicki - Photo by David McEvoy.

The auditorium of the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library was packed to capacity on the afternoon of Saturday, March 28, 2026, when the Historical Society of Ottawa, prior to its scheduled Speaker program, presented their 2026 François Bregha Storyteller awards. Since its founding in 1898, it has been the mission of the Society to increase awareness of Ottawa’s history. For over a century and a quarter they have told the stories of Ottawa and the surrounding area, but they have not been alone in doing this.

Long-time Society member, Ben Weiss, assisted by Christine Matamoros, who created and leads the Society’s French language speaker series conducted the ceremony to present this year’s Francois Bregha Storyteller Awards. The award was created to recognize individuals, both from within and from outside the HSO, who are considered to have made an outstanding contribution toward increasing awareness of the history of the Ottawa area.

The award is named to honour the late François Bregha, a former HSO member and, posthumously, the inaugural recipient of the award. The Society honours the memory of François Bregha for his legacy and his intense passion… for history and heritage and for the sustainability of the world around us.The HSO was pleased to welcome back Jane Waterston to help present these awards that honour her late husband.

Previous recipients of the HSO François Bregha Storyteller Award have included Albert Dumont, Phil Jenkins, James Powell, Bryan Cook, Dianne Pepall, Paul Weber, Dave Allston, Rick Henderson, Ben Weiss, Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Denise Chong, Glenn Clark, Linda Seccaspina, and professors Sarah Templier and David Dean. 

The bulk of this year’s awards are being presented to individuals whose contributions have aligned with the Society’s Bytown200 Bicentennial themes around Bytown and the Rideau Canal. The first 2026 recipient was Ken Watson, who was unable toattend.

The 200th anniversary of the Rideau Canal cannot be celebrated without recognizing the gargantuan efforts of Ken Watson, not only in preserving the history of the Rideau Canal, but also in his passion for preserving the Rideau Canal from an environmental perspective.

Christine then detailed the contributions of the next two recipients, Alexandre Pampalon and Isabelle Regout, who were also unable to attend. They had travelled to Ottawa to speak at the November 2025 French language presentation on the history of raftsmen, and had taken the extraordinary step of bringing a reproduction raft along with them, that was displayed in the parking lot of the St. Laurent Branch of the Ottawa Public Library.

After these absentia presentations, Christine entertained the audience by singing part of a song about Ottawa she had discovered during her own research. The song was written in 1856, by a Hamilton resident who had been born in France. It was originally published on the front page of Le Journal de Montréal and Christine rediscovered it in a book of political songs. Christine pointed out that at that time, with no electronic mass communication, songs, based on well-known tunes, were a frequent and popular way of spreading news and opinion. Christine’s song was very well received.

The next awards were presented to a very special group. When the HSO created a special web page to collect stories along the Bytown200 themes, they were surprised when they were approached by the Ottawa Olde Forge Rug Hooking group last fall, saying they wanted to participate. It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and do the Rug Hookers ever make pretty pictures! Their amazing work, which was on display at the event and attracted a large crowd, can also be enjoyed online at: Ottawa Olde Forge Rug Hooking – Bytown200 Challenge - The Historical Society of Ottawa

The members of the Old Forge Rug Hookers were: Marion Agnew, Elaine Armstrong, Pat Bonn, Joanne Dickert, Nora Lee, Julie de Loë, André Pinard, Carol Pugsley, Jane Smith, Chris Tibelius and Lara Wellman.

Telling stories effectively in the modern world frequently requires more than just the talents of the storyteller. Thus, the next two recipients were both HSO volunteers, being recognized for the skills they possess and the quality of the work they perform in support of all who tell stories through the HSO. These were Christine Jackson, the HSO’s publications editor, and Kathy Krywicki, curator extraordinaire of the Society’s website.

The Society then honoured Janet Uren, who began collecting the stories of New Edinburgh more than 20 years ago. Janet met with and reached out to New Edinburgh’s residents, and descendants of residents to record their stories, and scoured newspaper accounts from the past, tracing New Edinburgh’s history all the way back to 1826, and the days of Thomas Mackay. The result was a book Janet launched a few months ago , The Villagers: History of the People and Life of New Edinburgh.

Brendan Ray has taken on the task of telling all of Ottawa’s history. To this end, he has so far released almost two dozen weekly podcast episodes.Brendan’s podcasts have taken us from the prehistoric era of the Champlain Sea… to the first Indigenous inhabitants and the first European intruders… and we’ve just now arrived at the point where the Rideau Canal is about to be built. Each episode is lively and informative and with an occasional dose of humour. To get more people to want to learn our history, we need to make it interesting and fun. Brendan has excelled at that with his Ottawa History Hub podcast series.

Kevin Ballantyne’s Forgotten Ottawa shorts and videos have been viewed and enjoyed by thousands. Often in videos as short as two or three minutes, Kevin ensures that fascinating aspects of Ottawa history are, indeed, not forgotten.Kevin’s Forgotten Ottawa videos are frequently shared on the Society’s Facebook page and the Society has been pleased to include Kevin’s 5-minute video on the Shiners in its special Bytown200 collection. In his latest video, in just 5 minutes, Kevin shared the story of the early landscape artists who so importantly left us a panoramic window through which to view Bytown’s early days by their skill with their pallets.

The Historical Society was honoured to include Jean-François Lozier among this year's recipients of the HSO François Bregha Storyteller Award. Dr. Lozier is a professor at the University of Ottawa, author, and curator at the Canadian Museum of History. All who encounter his work come away with a deeper appreciation of the foundation of history that lies beneath where we are today. Amazingly, in addition to all this, Jean-François has also found the time to twice share his passion and knowledge through the our Speaker Series.

This year’s final recipient was Allison Margot Smith, who was also the guest speaker for the afternoon. Allison’s great work has been previously recognized by the Ontario Historical Society who presented her with their Presidents Award in 2023. She has already produced numerous documentary films pertaining to the Rideau Canal and other important history. In response to the Historical Society of Ottawa's Bytown200 Storytelling Challenge, Allison has produced a new film for the Society.In fact, last fall, WPBS-TV caught wind of Allison’s films and has begun airing them on WPBS. They’re going to air Allison’s new film too, but she insisted that they do so after its presentation to the audience that afternoon.

The Historical Society of Ottawa would like to thank all of this year’s recipients of the François Bregha Storyteller Award for their many and varied contributions to the awareness and understanding of the history of Ottawa and its surrounding areas.