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Sacré-Cœur Parish
In 1887, Sacré-Cœur Parish was founded as the first Roman Catholic parish to serve the French-Canadian community in Toronto. Father Philippe Lamarche came from Montreal to found the church and served as priest until his death in 1924. The Parish's first church building, located on King Street near Sackville Street, was purchased from a Presbyterian congregation in 1888. Since that time, francophones have been able to worship in their own language at Sacré-Cœur Church. This... -
Nipigon Canoe Route, The
Indigenous peoples who hunted and traded here thousands of years ago developed a water route by which they could travel from Lake Superior to James Bay via Lake Nipigon and the Albany River. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that people living in the Lake Nipigon region were part of an intricate system of trade that extended to the Atlantic coast. In the 1600s, native people began to share their knowledge of canoe travel on North American... -
Almanda Walker-Marchand and the Fédération des Femmes Canadiennes-Françaises
Almanda Walker-Marchand was the founder and president of the Fédération des femmes canadiennes-françaises (FFCF). Born in Quebec City in 1868, she moved with her family first to Montreal and then to Ottawa. Her last home overlooked this park. In 1914, days after the declaration of the First World War, Walker-Marchand encouraged a group of more than 400 French-Canadian women to form an organization dedicated to helping French-Canadian soldiers and their families both during and after... -
Father Pierre Potier 1708-1781
The first Pastor of the Assumption Church, Potier was born in Blandain, in present day Belgium. In 1721 he entered a Jesuit college and, after pronouncing his final vows in 1743, he came to Quebec. An avid scholar, Potier began an intensive study of the Huron language at Lorette. A year later, he was sent to Bois Blanc (Bob-Lo) Island to serve the Huron Mission of the Assumption. In 1748 he moved with the mission... -
Champlain in Ontario, 1615
In April 1615, Samuel de Champlain (c.1574-1635) embarked from Honfleur, upon his seventh voyage to New France. Upon arrival in Quebec, Champlain was informed of increasing tensions with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) the traditional rival of his Anishinabe (Algonquian) and Wendat (Huron) allies. He travelled west to Huronia on a diplomatic and military expedition where he visited several villages including Cahiagué, a large and important Wendat settlement. With a mixed force of 400-500 First Nations warriors... -
Le Droit
In 1912, members of the Association canadienne-française d'éducation de l'Ontario and the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate – a religious order of the Catholic Church – gathered in Ottawa to discuss the founding of a newspaper to protest Regulation 17, which – until it was no longer enforced in 1927 – severely restricted the teaching of French in Ontario schools. That initial meeting led to the establishment of Le Droit, a Catholic French-language daily newspaper... -
James Baby 1763-1833
The first member of Upper Canada's French community to gain prominence in government circles, Baby was born in British-controlled Detroit, the son of a well-established trader. He was educated in Quebec and, after returning to this area, entered the mercantile business. In 1792, through his family's influence, he received lifetime appointments to the Executive and Legislative Councils, Upper Canada's pre-eminent political bodies. Three years later Baby moved from Detroit to the south shore and in... -
French Presence in Lafontaine, The
French explorers first arrived in the Lafontaine area around 1610. An intermittent French presence of fur traders, soldiers and missionaries continued until 1650 when the sojourns ended after the Huron-Iroquois wars. Eventually a group of former French Canadian and Métis voyageurs from Drummond Island settled here in 1830 followed by successive waves of immigrants from Quebec, the three main groups originating from Batiscan, Joliette and the counties of Soulanges and Vaudreuil. The church and parish... -
French Community in Welland
The neighbourhood that became commonly known as "French Town" was established in this area in 1918, when approximately 20 French-Canadian families arrived from Quebec to work at the Empire Cotton Mills plant. The Roman Catholic Parish of Sacré-Cœur was established in 1920 and became the cultural centre of the francophone community that developed around Empire Street. Additional French-Canadian families arrived from Quebec, New Brunswick and northern Ontario throughout the 1920s. Another wave of francophones moved... -
French-Canadian Settlement and the CPR in the Mattawa Area
Francophone settlement rapidly increased in the Mattawa area with the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1881. During construction of the rail line, the local economy benefitted from the presence of thousands of French-Canadian workers, some of whom were accompanied by their families. Once the railway was operational, the local lumber industry expanded and Mattawa prospered as a community, a supply and transportation hub, and a lumber depot. Development was also stimulated in... -
French Presence in Hearst, The
French Canadians began to settle in Hearst in 1912 during the construction of the National Transcontinental Railway. Most came to farm but soon turned to the more lucrative forest industry. Sawmills established by French Canadians prospered as family enterprises for decades, before being amalgamated into large forest-product companies by the end of the 20th century. Over the years, the French-speaking community in Hearst - once a minority - grew to 89% of the population with... -
Jeanne Lajoie, 1899-1930
Jeanne Lajoie, a dedicated teacher and advocate for the establishment of French schools in Ontario, was born in Lefaivre, near Hawkesbury, in 1899. In 1923, Lajoie helped a group of francophone parents to establish the first independent French school in Pembroke. The school ensured that their children were educated in their own language. The creation of L'École Sainte-Jeanne d'Arc was one of the last major events in the Franco-Ontarian struggle against Regulation 17, which from... -
CFCL Radio
The first French-language radio station in Ontario, CFCL-Timmins, began broadcasting in December 1951. The event was greeted with enthusiasm by Franco-Ontarians who until then had heard limited programming in French over the airwaves. The station reached listeners from Kirkland Lake to Hearst, showcasing local talent and creating a sense of community among the widely dispersed francophone population of northern Ontario. Daily features on French life in the region taught cultural pride, the love of one's... -
Marie-Rose Turcot 1887-1977
Born in Laurierville, Quebec, Marie-Rose Turcot moved to Ottawa around the age of 20 to work in the civil service. Later, working as a journalist, Marie-Rose Turcot published in the daily newspaper Le Droit, as well as in several other weekly and daily publications in Ottawa and Montreal, sometimes using the pseudonym Constance Bayard. She also worked in broadcast journalism for the French radio station CKCH in Hull, Quebec. Turcot was the author of a... -
Elisabeth Bruyère 1818-1876
In the 1840s, Bytown (Ottawa) was a growing timber-trade village with a substantial French-Canadian population but no Catholic schools and few social services. In February of 1845 the Sisters of Charity of Montreal (Grey Nuns) sent four nuns here. Led by Élisabeth Bruyère, a devout, well-educated young woman, the sisters quickly established a bilingual school for girls, a hospital and an orphanage. They helped the poor, the elderly and the sick, including hundreds of immigrants... -
Timber Rafting on the Ottawa
The rafting of square timber down the Ottawa River, begun in 1806, reached its peak during 1861-91 and ended in 1909. Pine "sticks" from .1 to .2 square metres and 12 to 15 metres long were floated down tributary rivers such as the Petawawa, Madawaska, Bonnechere and Mississippi to rafting points on the Ottawa. There "cribs" were made up, containing 20 to 40 pieces of timber, and as many as 200 cribs, were in turn... -
Moose Factory — Môsonîwi-Miništik
Môsonîwililiw oral tradition describes an ancestral couple, lowered here from a sky world, who were shown how to survive and thrive by animals who also gifted their lives for this purpose. The Creator’s laws, including honesty, courage and šawelihcikewin — sharing with gratitude and generosity — were reinforced over generations by lived experience of the benefits or consequences of upholding or ignoring these principles. After receiving hospitality at this Môsonîwililiw summer gathering site, Hudson’s Bay... -
Canoe Route to the West, The
The French River formed a vital link in the historic canoe route via the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers and Lake Nipissing, which connected the settlements on the St. Lawrence with the upper Great Lakes and the far West. Most of the famous Canadian explorers, missionaries and fur traders of the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries followed this waterway. Here passed: Brûlé, discoverer of Lake Huron; Champlain, "Father of New France"; the Jesuit martyrs, Brébeuf... -
De Puisaye Settlement 1799, The
In the fall of 1798, some 40 exiled French Royalists under the leadership of Joseph-Genevieve, Comte de Puisaye (1754-1827), emigrated from England to Upper Canada. The following year, they were given rations and agricultural implements and settled along Yonge Street in the townships of Markham and Vaughan. However, these members of the nobility and their servants were unable to adapt themselves to a pioneer existence and, by 1806, their settlement, known as Windham, was abandoned. De Puisaye lived for a time on an estate near Niagara, but returned to England in 1802. -
Fort Kaministiquia 1717
A small fort was established near here in 1717 by a French officer, Zacharie Robutel de la Nouë. First of a projected series of bases en route to the "Western Sea," it replaced a structure built in 1679 by Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Dulhut, on another branch of the Kaministiquia River delta. It served as a trading post and base of operations, 1727-43, for Pierre Gaultier de la Vérendrye, the famous explorer. Following the conquest of... -
Fort Lac La Pluie
Erected on or near this site, sometime between 1775-1787 by the North West Company, and abandoned in 1821 at the union with the Hudson's Bay Company. The establishment included "Athabaska House," the depot where, owing to the distances to be covered during the short travelling season, the traders from Montreal met those from the Athabaska country and exchanged lading with them. -
Grand Portage, The
Circumventing 21 miles of falls and rapids, this portage ran some nine miles from this vicinity to a point upstream on the Pigeon River. It was first mentioned in 1722 by a French trader named Jean Pachot. Following its use in 1732 by La Vérendrye, it replaced the Kaministiquia Route as the canoe route to the West. About 1767 the Grand Portage became a rendezvous for Canadian fur traders and, after 1778, the North West... -
Pain Court
Settlement of this region began in the 1780s when English and French-speaking squatters from the Detroit area moved on to the Indian lands along the lower Thames River. By the 1820s, in the nearby "Pain Court Block," one of the earliest French-speaking communities in southern Ontario had developed. Named "Pain Court" by Catholic missionaries in reference to the small loaves of bread which was all the impoverished parishioners could offer, the settlement was surveyed in... -
Reverend Charles Alfred Marie Paradis 1848-1926, The
Born in Kamouraska County, Quebec, Paradis studied at Sainte-Ann-de-la-Pocatière College and taught art in Ottawa. Following his ordination in 1881, he was posted to Lake Timiskaming as missionary of the Oblate Congregation. Paradis' travels as a missionary provided the information for his pamphlet "From Temiskaming to Hudson Bay". In it, he strongly recommended the colonization of the region. After leaving the Congregation in 1890, he encouraged many French-Canadian farm families from Michigan to settle in... -
Seigneury of L'Orignal, The
This area, the present township of Longueuil, was granted in 1674 to François Prévost, Town Major of Quebec, and was the first seigneury in what is now Ontario. Known originally as the seigneury of "Pointe-à-L'Orignac", it was not developed until the Hon. Joseph Le Moyne de Longueuil, seigneur since 1778, granted portions to settlers during 1784-90. Nathaniel Hazard Treadwell purchased the seigneury in 1796, built mills and roads and expanded settlement. A United States citizen...