About: Brian McDougall

Starting this week, I will be offering my historical walking tours as part of a six week ‘Learning in Retirement’ course at Carleton University with the title: “Walking Through Ottawa’s History: ‘Forgotten Stories’ from a Radical Tour Guide”. Teaching retirees is a new venture for me, and I’m greatly encouraged by the initial response to this...

April 24th will mark the centenary of the 1916 ‘Easter Uprising’ against English colonialism in Dublin, Ireland. Given the importance of the Irish in Ottawa history (e.g., building the Rideau Canal) and their ongoing battle against British colonialism, we would be remiss in not highlighting at least one of the Ottawa-based commemorative activities taking place. Kevin Dooley,...

For more than 200 years, colonial authorities – first the British Government and now the Canadian one – have used force and fraud to transform traditional Algonquin territory into ‘private (settler) property’. And for 200 years, Algonquin have protested and resisted their dispossession. That ongoing conflict is now assuming a more visible form in the heart...

Eighty years ago, on July 1, 1935, millionaire Conservative Prime Minister, R. B. Bennett ordered the RCMP to crush the On-to-Ottawa Trek involving thousands of young unemployed men. (That is one of the stories I tell during my Protest, Strike and Rebellion walking tour in downtown Ottawa.) The Trek brought together unemployed activists from hundreds of...

In the labour history of Ottawa-Gatineau, the ‘Match Girls’ (les allumettières) employed by E B Eddy hold a place of honour, having conducted the first two major strikes (1919 and 1924) by women workers in this region. Led by their President, Donalda Charron, the women match workers demonstrated enormous solidarity when faced in 1924 with a...

So here I am, a long-time Ottawa political activist starting a new business – something I never thought I’d do. With Peoples’ History Walking Tours of Ottawa, I aim to satisfy the needs of visitors and residents alike to know more about the history of this city.

The Peoples Social Forum which takes over the University of Ottawa campus from Thursday August 21st through to Sunday August 24th, features a number of workshops, films, meetings and other arts and culture events of interest to Ottawa history buffs.