Canal workers’ ceremony to finally proceed

By Don Butler, OTTAWA CITIZEN June 12, 2013

OTTAWA — Kevin Dooley was ecstatic when Environment Minister Peter Kent announced last November that the workers who built the Rideau Canal in the early 19th century would finally be recognized as historically significant.

Dooley was part of an ad hoc group that pushed for the recognition for six years, overcoming initial rejection by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board, which declared that the work of the 5,000 to 6,000 Irish and French-Canadian labourers was “not unusual, nor was it remarkable.”

Irish society hosts celebration for Rideau Canal workers Posted Mar 21, 2013 By Michelle Nash

Posted Mar 21, 2013 By Michelle Nash

Ottawa West EMC

Michelle Nash, Metroland

Kevin Dooley plays some traditional Irish music to get the celebration started at the Rideau Canal Workers Designation at St. Brigid's Centre of the Arts on March 14. The event welcomed dignitaries, families and friends to commemorate the Irish immigrant workers who helped build the canal. Two plaques marking the contribution will be placed at both ends of the canal in August by Parks Canada.

http://www.emcottawawest.ca/20130321/news/Irish+society+hosts+celebration+for+Rideau+Canal+workers

EMC news - It was an old-fashion good time as members of the Irish society, family and friends gathered to officially celebrate the designation of the contribution made by Irish workers to the construction of the Rideau Canal. 

St. Brigid's Centre of the Arts was packed on March 14 at a celebration of the official designation from Parks Canada. 

Kevin Dooley performs Canadian Museum of Civilization

Published on Dec 23, 2012

Kevin Dooley performs Canadian Museum of Civilization

Contact: dooleyfamily@rogers.com

Thank you to David Finkle for the video and upload

Charlie and the Dooleys

A Nation Once Again - played by Charlie and the Dooleys

Fields of Athenry - played by Charlie and the Dooleys

Rising of the Moon - played by Charlie and the Dooleys

Mac Beattie - Renfrew County Home - played by Charlie and the Dooleys

Workers who built Rideau Canal finally get recognition By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen November 2, 2012

Six years after they were nominated, the workers who built the Rideau Canal will finally be recognized as historically significant, Environment Minister Peter Kent has announced in a news release.

Photograph by: Chris Mikula , The Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA — Six years after they were nominated, the workers who built the Rideau Canal will finally be recognized as historically significant.

Environment Minister Peter Kent, the minister responsible for Parks Canada, announced Friday that the thousands of labourers — mostly Irish immigrants and French-Canadians — who carved the 202-kilometre waterway through a wilderness of bush, swamps and lakes will be formally recognized by the government of Canada for their contribution.

In a news release, Kent said the labourers “worked in extremely difficult and dangerous conditions, and hundreds paid for it with their lives.”

Labourers who built Rideau Canal likely to get recognition soon

Photograph by: File photo by Bruno Schlumberger , Ottawa Citizen

Historic recognition of as many as 4,000 labourers who built the Rideau Canal between Kingston and Ottawa during the period of 1827 to 1831 is likely to come before the end of the year, the Citizen has learned.

After years of denial and delay, historic recognition of the thousands of labourers who built the Rideau Canal could be just months away.
Emails between Environment Minister Peter Kent’s office and Ottawa resident Kevin Dooley — spokesman for a group that has sought recognition for the canal workers since 2006 — disclose that officials in Kent’s office are “expediting” the request.

Historic designation for workers who built Rideau Canal lost in limbo

BY DON BUTLER, OTTAWA CITIZEN SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Photograph by: Chris Mikula , The Ottawa Citizen

Kevin Dooley, a member of the Canal Workers Commemorative Group, says 10 months have passed since a Parks Canada committee said it would pass a recommendation on recognizing the efforts of thousands of mainly Irish and French-Canadian labourers who built the Rideau Canal to Environment Minister Peter Kent. The minister’s chief of staff said earlier this month she would ‘check with Parks Canada on where this is.’


OTTAWA — They came in their thousands nearly two centuries ago, to carve out a new waterway through the malarial swamps of Upper Canada. As many as a thousand succumbed to disease and accidents.

Now, after a couple of false starts, it appears that the Historic Sites and Monuments Board, an agency of Parks Canada, finally agrees that the labourers who built the Rideau Canal deserve to be recognized as historically significant.