(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

"Labourers on the Rideau Canal, 1826-1832: From Work Site to World Heritage Site," ed. Katherine M.J. McKenna, 2008, Borealis Press, Ottawa, 135 pages, illustrations and footnotes, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-88887-355-2

Review by Kimball Cariou

Social justice activist Kevin Dooley is a tireless advocate for the historical memory of the working class, in particular Irish workers who crossed the Atlantic to North America during the 19th century. After moving to Ottawa several years ago, Dooley became deeply involved in efforts to commemorate the Irish-born workers who played a major role in building the Rideau Canal, many losing their lives on the job.

     Thanks in part to Dooley's persistence, a new book provides insight into this story of bitter hard work and tragedies. Labourers on the Rideau Canal is a slender academic volume, but the two main essays in the book pack a powerful punch.

     Death on the job is a constant reality for Canadian workers. Here in British Columbia, an estimated 700 Chinese labourers died building the 350 miles of CPR railway connecting the west coast to the rest of Canada. When the Second Narrows bridge in Vancouver collapsed during construction in 1958 due to an engineering mistake, 18 workers were killed.

     Similarly, today's users of the picturesque Rideau Canal, stretching 202 kms. from Ottawa to Kingston, should remember that an estimated 1,000 workers died in the construction of this engineering marvel. Conceived as a safe supply route for the British in the event of war with the U.S., the Canal proved a far more difficult and expensive project than originally planned.

     The first essay, "Poverty, Distress and Disease: Labour and the Construction of the Rideau Canal, 1826-32," by William N.T. Wylie, gives the reader a graphic explanation of the problems faced by planners and builders. For much of its length, the Canal took advantage of the rivers and lakes used as a transportation system by Aboriginal peoples and then by European colonizers. But at the narrow "Isthmus" between Rideau Lake and Mud (now Newboro) Lake, extensive blasting was required to remove rocks which turned were far more extensive than first believed. The Isthmus, site of today's village of Newboro, was perhaps the worst scene of disaster for canal labourers, many of whom perished in blasting accidents or from malaria.

     Wylie gives a fascinating account of the anti-Irish racism of the British authorities, the use of the military to put down protests related to low pay and poor working conditions, and the struggles between colonial authorities and corrupt contractors over funds for the project.

     The essay examines the demographics of the workforce, which consisted mainly of Irish migrants (many from the northern Protestant areas) and French Canadians. Not surprisingly, the colonial government and contractors did their best to pit workers of different origins against each other, a tactic often used by bosses in the succeeding two centuries.

     Katherine McKenna's essay, "Working Life at the Isthmus, Rideau Canal, 1827-1831" focuses more sharply on this particular location. Her equally interesting account gives many details of the dangerous construction process, and of the daily lives of the labourers and their families.

     The book also includes an article by Bruce Elliott on "Tracing Your Rideau Canal Ancestors," with useful suggestions on important historical resources.

     Not least, the volume features over a dozen colour reprints of historic drawings and paintings from the era, bringing to life the vivid text of the authors.

     Labourers on the Rideau Canal is a well-written and superbly researched account of this important episode in Canadian history, a fitting response to the bourgeois tale of Lieutenant-Colonel John By, who supposedly "built" Ottawa and the Canal. Readers should ask local independent bookstores and libraries to order copies.