To mark Ottawa’s 200th anniversary, the Centretown BUZZ community newspaper has commissioned Jack Hanna to pen an eight-part series reflecting back on the history of our city.

Jack Hanna is a retired teacher and journalist, amateur historian, and heritage chair of the Centretown Community Association.

“Lake Allumette on the Ottawa River in Ontario”, by Alfred Holdstock (1820 1901), painted circa. 1870. (Library and Archives Canada, W.H. Coverdale Collection of Canadiana)

As a (non-Indigenous) Centretown resident, Jack Hanna reflects on the devastation caused to the Algonquin Anishinaabe people following the establishment of Bytown.

• Ottawa 200: Chief Pinesi and the founding of Bytown – Centretown BUZZ

The charge of the Fenians at the Battle of Ridgeway, near Niagara, Canada West, on June 2, 1866. LAC.

Jack continues his look at local history by examining the threat posed by Americans over the years.

• Ottawa 200: The Ever-Present Threat to Canada – Centretown BUZZ