Sunday and Monday morning we woke up and looked out the window to have our vision of this beautiful Ottawa Valley severely obscured by dense smoke created by forest fires in Quebec. The view of the parliament buildings in Ottawa that we got on the evening news was also behind the same smoke screen. I was reminded that some of the information that we receive in the news media is also filtered by a smoke screen.
Eventually the wildfires that create this smoke will be extinguished, rain will wash the skies clear again and the beautiful views of our Ottawa Valley will be clear again.
Throughout the settling of our Ottawa Valley, the Irish had a pivotal part in developing both sides of the Ottawa River valley, from a forest wilderness, into the home of the proudest people in Canada.
The Irish left Ireland because of political oppression, religious fighting and famine, when the rulers took most of the very scarce food and left the farmers with not enough to feed their families. Scotts, English, French, German and Ukrainian people, from what would become the United States, and hardworking people from other countries, all chose the Ottawa Valley where there was plenty to eat if you worked hard.
Most of the fights were with the multitude of trees that had taken over Canada, and the occasional skirmish on the hockey rinks in winter, but after the game, both teams celebrated together at the local “watering hole”.
Although our First Nation People’s had been beaten back onto reserves, they came to the rescue of many a sick or endangered settler.
When we look back through our ancestors, we soon find out that our ancestors often chose a life-long mate from a different heritage. For many years, some religious leaders tried to impose very strict conviction to their specific faith, but our ancestors soon thought back on why they had come to Canada.
Many of the wars and unrest in the world were because of religion or language. Early settlers often sent their children to the closest school, so the little children didn’t have to walk too far. Sometimes it was a French school, sometimes it was an English school. Once when nice straight rafters couldn’t be found for a new Protestant church, a local Catholic family donated the rafters, which are still perfectly straight today after a hundred years, for that little white church.
Now after a couple hundred years of Ottawa Valley people working together, playing together, enjoying each other’s culture and music, both the provincial and federal governments are creating a “smoke screen” to mask both our history, truths about what actually happened and economic consequences that are ahead.
In Ireland and in other countries, both the governments and religious organizations stirred up the people, created animosity, and even wars, for political gain, while the common people had to pay with their lives.
We, the common people, must not let the governments divide us after two hundred years of harmony. If anyone is to pay for this “smoke screen”, it must be those who created it. Never let any government divide this “hard fought for” harmony in our valley.
History tells us that the old way to win an election was to “divide and conquer”. After they have divided the people into two camps, they pick the side with the most votes and side with them, right or wrong.
That’s not how the Ottawa Valley became what it is today.
