Glenn Sweazey and June Girvan explain why attempts to abolish slavery in Upper Canada failed and why it required a revolution decades later in Jamaica before slavery finally came to an end throughout the British Empire.

In 1793, a young Black woman named Choe Clooey, against her loud protests, was forced into a boat and across the Niagara River to be sold in the United States. Several witnesses, horrified by Cooley’s plaintive cries for help, resolved to petition the Executive Council of Upper Canada for her immediate return and the arrest of the perpetrators.

Lord Simcoe, Lieutenant Governor of the newly founded jurisdiction of Upper Canada, had for many years been a strong opponent of slavery and was outraged but powerless to intervene once Cooley had been removed across the border. Simcoe did, however, vow to introduce a bill to abolish slavery in Upper Canada. Simcoe's bill did eventually pass, but only after it had been weakened significantly by members of his own government, of which approximately half were enslavers of Black people themselves (or were members of families that enslaved people).

Simcoe's bill limited slavery Upper Canada, but not until further world events, including a revolt in Jamaica decades later, would slavery finally be abolished in Upper Canada and the rest of the British Empire.

Jayeur Joseph performs as Chloe Cooley

Ben Weiss receiving the Black History Ottawa President’s Award from BHO President June GirvanThe Chloe Cooley story was portrayed on stage at this year's opening event for Black History Month on January 28, 2023 at the National Gallery of Canada. Ben Weiss of the Historical Society of Ottawa was honoured to be asked to play the role of Lord Simcoe and, as he admits, was thankful to be surrounded by a cast of much better actors. It was, nonetheless, moving to be asked to take part in the performance.

Canada Post's 2023 stamp for Black History Month was also unveiled that afternoon, to great applause from the audience, featuring none other than Chloe Cooley herself.

Ben Weiss has for several years been the Historical Society of Ottawa's representative in its efforts to partner with Black History Ottawa and increase awareness of Black history. Ben was much honoured, during the afternoon's ceremonies, to be the recipient of Black History Ottawa's President's Award in recognition of ongoing contributions.

In celebration of our 125th anniversary, the Historical Society of Ottawa was recognized and honoured by being invited to contribute this year’s special Heritage Day “2023 Great Ottawa History Challenge”.

How well do you know Ottawa history? Take the challenge! https://ottawacitizen.com/news/heritage-day-try-the-2023-great-ottawa-history-challenge

Our in-person speaker session of February 8, 2023, hosted by the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library, featured two speakers – double the pleasure, double the fun! One of our speakers related fascinating stories of places, many of which we can no longer see, while the other encouraged us all to get out and look at what we still can, at least for now.

We welcomed Hagit Hadaya as our first speaker of the afternoon. Hagit holds a Master of Canadian Heritage Conservation and a High Honours BA in Architectural History, both from Carleton University. Since the completion of her formal education, she has been researching, writing, and lecturing on a variety of topics dealing with Canadian architectural history and currently serves on the National Capital Commission Advisory Committee on the Official Residences of Canada.   

Laurier House. Photo: Suwannee.payne, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.After a visit to the grave of Lester B. Pearson and his wife Maryon (Moody)​, Hagit became interested in the family life of our Prime Ministers and so began her quest to discover how and where in Ottawa they lived.  Hagit focused her extensive research on the period prior to the adoption of 24 Sussex Drive, as the official residence in 1952.  Limited by available time, she centered her talk on five of our Prime Ministers, Alexander Mackenzie, John Abbott, Wilfred Laurier, R. B. Bennett and William Lyon Mackenzie King, but also included some materials on Charles Tupper and Louis St. Laurent.  Working forward through time, she described through words and images where in the community each had chosen to live, whether that be a private home or hotel.  Many of the locations she revealed have vanished and so were likely previously unknown to many of the members of the audience.  Blending details of the individual lodgings, historical and community context and humorous incidents, Hagit both informed and entertained.   

In her presentation, Hagit noted that many of the Prime Ministers faced a degree of financial hardship, as they needed to maintain both a home in Ottawa and in their own riding, at their own expense.  She did point out, however, that one of them was able to afford a monthly rent of $400 when the average Canadian family could only afford $27 per month.  To learn his identity, along with the details of the residences of the remaining Prime Ministers and other fascinating stories of those covered, we strongly recommend her book, At Home with the Prime Minister: Ottawa Residences of the Prime Ministers Prior to 1952, available through the HSO for $30.

Our second presenter for the afternoon was Emma Kent. Emma, a graduate in History from Carleton University, is the current President of the Historical Society of Ottawa and a self-confessed art-nerd.   

Photo by Emma Kent.Emma discussed the role and evolution of Public Art in Ottawa, highlighted by a virtual walking tour through the Street Art of Hintonburg.  She explained that public art, aka street art, is any piece of art, whether indoors or out, that was created or funded through a public process and is accessible for everyone to enjoy.  Emma pointed out that the distinction between street art and graffiti is only one of legality, not quality. 

Emma provided some historical context to the development of street art, which was initially predominated by statuary, such as the statue of Colonel By funded by the HSO. More recently, limitations of open space, coupled with technical developments in spray paint and the availability of vertical surfaces, have led to the evolution of tagging, (placing your name on a surface), throw-ups, (quick and simple designs), and murals.  She explained that the artist community generally respects this hierarchy and will normally only cover one piece with another of a higher quality.

Commissioned street art is an easy way for a community to reflect its heritage and values, to add colour to drab areas and even enhance safety.  The great variety of forms it offers, including decorated hydrants and traffic boxes, stickers, murals, and countless others, provide a feast for our eyes.  Ottawa is fortunate to have many talented artists working in the field and Emma highlighted the works of Arpi and Daniel Martelock in particular.

Emma’s invitation to us all is to become explorers of the art in our communities, to spend a summer’s afternoon strolling through Hintonburg, the Glebe, or other parts of the city to view the art that is now on display. The transient nature of street art means that there will always be something new to see and enjoy.

 Check out Prime Ministers' Row for a photo gallery of residences located in Sandy Hill of past prime ministers.

Check out this Capital Current arts & culture story about Emma's presentation: History Society 'tour guide' explores how street art enlivens city neighbourhoods

The Historical Society of Ottawa’s first speaker series of 2023 was an exciting debate on who was Ottawa’s most remarkable mayor: Charlotte Whitton or Marion Dewar? In one corner we had Dave Mullington, a former journalist, author, and long time member of the HSO defending Whitton. In the other corner, defending Dewar, we had a last-minute substitution of Robert Fox. Fox was Dewar’s chief of staff, Oxfam Canada’s representative in Central America, Communications Manager for CUPE, National Director of the NDP, and is presently co-chair of the Ottawa People’s Commission on the Convoy Occupation. Both experts in their chosen champion, the audience was really in for a treat. 

Mullington was up first and jokingly pointed out it’s lucky that the subject of the debate was Ottawa’s most remarkable mayor rather than its kindest because in this debate of saint versus sinner he had chosen the sinner. He gave the audience great details on Whitton’s life and career before she became mayor. Whitton was elected to the Ottawa Board of Control in 1950, and, after the mayor Grenville Goodwin’s unexpected death the same year, she was immediately appointed acting mayor, becoming the first woman mayor of a major Canadian city. For those wishing to learn more about Whitton’s achievements it’s worth checking out Mullington’s book ‘Charlotte: The Last Suffragette’ published in 2010, which the HSO will have a few copies for sale at the next in-person speaker series. 

Fox was up next and came dressed in two campaign buttons he wore while campaigning with Dewar back in the late 70’s and early 80’s. As Dewar's Chief of Staff, Fox spent a lot of time with Dewar and spoke emotionally about her love of the city and its people. Dewar served as mayor from 1978 to 1985 and is well known for leading Project 4000, where in 1979, when Ottawa pledged to sponsor 4000 Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian refugees. For those wishing to learn more about the project the HSO has a recorded speaker series from co-authors of the book "Running on Empty" by Michael Molloy and Robert Shalka, and Rivaux Lay, former Cambodian refugee, on the HSO YouTube page. 

To finish up the afternoon, the two joined together on stage for a question period with questions from the audience. Both were incredible speakers and I was left unable to choose a winner. Special thanks again to Robert Fox, who filled in at the last minute for Elisabeth Arnold, Ottawa City Councillor, Somerset Ward, 1994-2003.

As most of our older members, but few of our newer members know, the Historical Society of Ottawa is in strong financial shape because of former president George Neville’s prudent leadership. And now the next generation of directors are having fun finding meaningful projects to support around town that showcase local history.

On September 30, 2022, on only the second ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Ottawa Historical Society partnered with the Ottawa-based First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and Beechwood Cemetery for its annual educational activities.

Our donation provided a ride in style on the Lady Dive between Beechwood and Sparks Street where hourly walking tours were led up to St. Andrew’s at the corner of Wellington and Kent Streets.

Over 100 participants gathered at Beechwood at 10 am on the beautiful fall day, including HSO president Emma Kent and myself. First, we took in a children’s film produced by the First Nation Child and Family Caring Society to educate little ones about the history and enduring legacy of residential schools.

After the film we took the Beechwood tour which started off at Nicholas Floor Gavin’s memorial and ended at Peter Henderson Bryce’s. What most impressed me was the speaker’s focus on both their contributions and shortcomings. Gavin was a proponent of both women’s suffrage and the removal of Indigenous children from the “influence of the Wigwam”. Bryce documented and reported health abuses and high death rates in the residential school system while the chief medical officer of the Department of Indian Affairs; however, didn’t follow up on his observations with the publication of “The Story of a National Crime: An Appeal of Justice to the Indians of Canada” until after he had retired from the public service. Along the path down to Dr. Bryce’s memorial, there were 93 signs bearing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action.

We then headed over to Sparks Street on the Lady Dive where we learned more about the upcoming installation of the plaque “Reconciling History: Dr. Peter Henderson Bryce” – a trilingual (Algonquin, English, and French!) text that will be installed where his offices were located at 61 Sparks Street. The downtown tour ended at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, which was built in 1828, and which is now a strong supporter of the Every Child Matters movement. We were also provided with snacks and chats at St. Andrew’s and had the chance to take in the beautiful interior.

Many thanks to Nick McCarthy, Beechwood’s Director of Marketing, Communications and Community Outreach, for all of his support, and we hope to participate again next year!

You can see a very nervous yours truly and sincere Emma speaking about her experience on that day in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgpI0INDgKo

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