Celtic Cross Memorial Ceremony
b'Bryan Daly Past President ISNCR: Celtic Cross Memorial Ceremony Mon Aug 01 2022 at 02:00 pm Ottawa Rideau Canal at the Ottawa Locks of the Rideau Canal at the Ottawa River, just below Parliament Hill. 1 Canal Lane, Ottawa | Ottawa. Between 1826 and 1832 thousands of French Canadians and recently arrived immigrants, notably Irish, Scottish and British, were recruited to work on the Rideau Canal. Working with only simple tools, they toiled 14 to 16 hours a day, six days a week, excavating, quarrying and clearing the land to construct the locks and the dams. Many died from dangerous working conditions, malaria and other diseases at sites such as Kingston Mills and in the shantytowns where their families lived. Workers protested their predicament upon occasion but the deployment of soldiers along the canal served to inhibit such unrest. The canal was a project of the British Army but it could never have succeeded without the efforts of the civilian workers and their families.'