Back to the future at annual Heritage Day
Posted Feb 26, 2010 By Desmond Devoy
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Tweet ThisEMC Events - Everything old is new again.
At least, it was for participants of last week's Heritage Day at Ottawa City Hall, where the past came back to life, where Col. John By walked the halls with the likes of Jim Watson, where the United Empire Loyalists remained true to the crown, and where participants were welcomed to Andrew S. Haydon Hall by Irishman Kevin Dooley and his traditional Irish musicians, on accordion, fiddle and flute on Tuesday, February 16.
All manner of museums and associations were on display, and dropping by any number of them offered a glimpse into the lives of Ottawans that have gone before us, and of entire communities, and ways of life here in our own backyard.
"My great-grandfather was the first Jew in Ottawa," said Anna Bilsky of her ancestor, Moses, in front of the display for the Ottawa Jewish Archives in the west end. "My father used to tell me stories about my great-grandfather...He was in San Francisco when Lincoln was shot. He was in Mexico when Maximilian was on the throne...He was in Ottawa when they laid the corner stone of the Parliament building."
Bilsky is also the compiler of the new book A Common Thread: A History of the Jews in Ottawa, a project that "turned out to be a very hard project!" But, ultimately, the project proved fruitful and a second edition may be in offing with the Jewish community rediscovering some of its forgotten history.
"It helps people appreciate their own history and stories," said Bilsky.
While her great-grandfather was the National Capital's first Jewish resident, the Jewish line in the area did not end with him. He and his wife later had 11 children together, and other Jews came to settle here.
By 1900, Ottawa was home to about 100 Jews, and two synagogues, "because no one could get along!" she joked. Bilsky stated that her father was instrumental in securing the services of Ottawa's first rabbi, Reverend Mersky.
The display also prominently featured a tribute to her aunt, Lillian Freiman (1885-1940) who was the first Canadian Jew to be awarded the Order of the British Empire for humanitarian service.
While Ottawa's Jewish community has been around the area longer than the peace tower, other local institutions are relatively new, and are still trying to make their presence felt.
"I've just had a few people stopping by saying 'I've never heard of you guys,'" said Casie Sherwin, an intern at the Worker's Heritage Centre Museum, 306 Cyr Avenue in Vanier, which launched in 2006. "You have to explain what you're about, do the whole mandate speech."
Her placement at the museum, which ends in April, is part of her museum studies course at Algonquin College, but already the third year student has discovered just how much collaboration is a part of the job.
"The dress is from the Bytown Museum! We like to share things," she said with a smile of the pretty 1920s era dress she wore.
For Sarah Benfield, of Cumberland's Vintage Stock Theatre company, borrowing clothing from a museum was not an option for her. She had to replicate a 1950s era teenage girl costume, complete with poodle skirt.
"I made the skirt, the shoes. It's hard to find a lot of the stuff," she admitted. She was channeling her inner Grease vibe for the company's third annual fashion show, entitled "Some Like It Hot: Fashions of the 1950s" on Thursday, March 25, at 7 p.m. at the Shenkman Arts Centre's Black Box Theatre, 245 Centrum Blvd., in Orléans. (For information, click on vintagestock.on.ca, mail@livingstock.on.ca, or phone 613-860-0603.)
During the formal Heritage Day ceremony at noon, host Claude Naubert noted that the 2010 theme for Heritage Day was focused on sports and recreation and "it is fitting, it is appropriate, as we have just started the Winter Olympics in Vancouver."
Following the singing of O Canada by the Lisgar Singers from Centretown's Lisgar Collegiate Institute, and a dramatic vignette by Vintage Stock, Ward 12 (Rideau-Vanier) City Councillor Georges Bedard, on behalf of Mayor Larry O'Brien, officially declared the day Heritage Day in the city of Ottawa.
"Heritage touches us all," he said. In fact, it was Ottawa's living heritage, specifically its architectural treasures, which were coming under attack, that made him go into public life in the first place. He told the crowd that he had been talking with a businessman that very week and the entrepreneur had taken him to task for supporting building conservation.
"Why would you do that? Why don't you tear it down?" the man had asked. "Why are you always interfering with supply and demand?"
"Maybe I come from a different time," said Coun. Bedard.
He told the crowd that he was born on Bruyere Street in Lowertown, where "we were poor but nobody knew that we were poor because we were all poor."
The neighbourhood was made up of French, Irish and Jewish kids, and everybody got along well.
"Heritage, to me, was always around me. It surrounded me. It felt good," he says of his old neighbourhood. Later on, his family moved to Sandy Hill, into a home that "had character."
In 1972, he was returning home from an event, when he came upon the intersection of Cumberland and Rideau Streets, where a wrecking ball was slamming into the side of the Convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, built in 1887.
"They were doing this at midnight. It stopped me dead cold. Why are they doing this at midnight?" he said. However, "we managed to save the chapel," that was within the convent's walls and now the Rideau Street Convent Chapel is housed in the National Gallery of Canada at 380 Sussex Drive. "That was a turning point in my life, when I decided to get involved in politics." He was elected to City Council two years later, after getting involved with the heritage preservation movement first.
"I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being there for heritage, for culture and our museums. It is all thanks to you," he said.
"People in this city truly care about their history, and to share their stories," said Megan Hamilton, Executive Director of the Council of Heritage Organizations in Ottawa. "The thousands of hours that citizen volunteers contribute every year are an extremely vital and valuable part of life in Ottawa."
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