Shiners were gangs of Irish immigrants that formed in the early days of Bytown, later Ottawa, mainly active during the 1830s.
After the completion of the Rideau Canal in 1832, many Irish workers were left unemployed. The timber industry, the major economic activity in the region at the time, mainly employed French-Canadian labourers, who were reputed to be hard-working and better skilled. Out of frustration, some of the unemployed banded together to try to create jobs for themselves by intimidation. This started the Shiners' War. At this time, the town of Bytown did not have a permanent police force. From street fights, the violence escalated into robbery and murder. James Johnston, a prominent businessman and journalist, was beaten and his home was attacked.
One of the lumber barons, Peter Aylen, only employed Irish workers and called himself "King of the Shiners". The logger Joseph Montferrand took the side of the French-Canadians, inspiring many tales elevating him to the status of local legend.
In 1837, the town magistrates formed armed patrols to monitor the town at night. This largely put an end to the gangs and violence, although some outbreaks continued to occur into the 1840s.
Unemployment, according to the OECD, is people above a specified age not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the reference period.
Navvy, a clipping of navigator (UK) or navigational engineer (US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally to refer to mechanical shovels and earth moving machinery. The term was coined in the late 18th century in Great Britain when numerous canals were being built, which were also sometimes known as "navigations", or "eternal navigations", intended to last forever.
Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a compulsory governmental insurance system, not taxes on individual citizens. Depending on the jurisdiction and the status of the person, those sums may be small, covering only basic needs, or may compensate the lost time proportionally to the previous earned salary.
Bytown is the former name of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded on September 26, 1826, incorporated as a town on January 1, 1850, and superseded by the incorporation of the City of Ottawa on January 1, 1855. The founding was marked by a sod turning, and a letter from Governor General Dalhousie which authorized Lieutenant Colonel John By to divide up the town into lots. Bytown came about as a result of the construction of the Rideau Canal and grew largely due to the Ottawa River timber trade. Bytown's first mayor was John Scott, elected in 1847.
Irish Canadians are Canadian citizens who have full or partial Irish heritage including descendants who trace their ancestry to immigrants who originated in Ireland. 1.2 million Irish immigrants arrived from 1825 to 1970, and at least half of those in the period from 1831 to 1850. By 1867, they were the second largest ethnic group, and comprised 24% of Canada's population. The 1931 national census counted 1,230,000 Canadians of Irish descent, half of whom lived in Ontario. About one-third were Catholic in 1931 and two-thirds Protestant.
Shiner or The Shiner may refer to:
The ByWard Market, is a retail and entertainment district in the downtown core of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located east of the government and business district. The Market district includes the market buildings and open-air market along George, York, ByWard, and William street.
The Bytown and Prescott Railway (B&PR) was a railway joining Ottawa with Prescott on the Saint Lawrence River. The company was incorporated in 1850, and the first train ran from Prescott into Bytown on Christmas Day, 1854. The 84 km railway, Ottawa's first to outside markets, was initially used to ship lumber collected on the Ottawa River for further shipping along the St. Lawrence to markets in the United States and Montreal.
The Squad, nicknamed the Twelve Apostles, was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit founded by Michael Collins to counter British intelligence efforts during the Irish War of Independence, mainly by means of assassination. The Squad engaged in executing informants and enemy agents and in counterespionage.
Joseph "Jos" Montferrand was a French-Canadian logger, strongman, and folk hero of the working man and was the inspiration for the legendary Ottawa Valley figure Big Joe Mufferaw.
Peter Aylen was a timber producer and later public official who was, for a time, known as "King of the Shiners".
William Stewart was a businessman and political figure in Upper Canada and Canada West. An immigrant from Scotland, he settled in Bytown where he was active in business and public life. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, serving from 1843 to 1847. He died in Toronto in 1856, while representing the interests of the city of Ottawa.
James Johnston was a fiery-tempered businessman and political figure in Upper Canada.
Vietnamese people in Germany(Vietnamese: Việt kiều Đức / Người Việt tại Đức; German: Vietnamesen in Deutschland) form one of the country's largest groups of resident foreigners from Asia. Federal Statistical Office figures show 103,260 Vietnamese nationals residing in Germany at the end of 2020, which is the fourth largest community from Asia excluding transcontinental, Caucusus and Middle Eastern states. Not included in those figures are individuals of Vietnamese origin or descent who have been naturalised as German citizens. Other data from 2020 shows 183,000 people of Vietnamese descent, of which 117,000 have a migration background.
This is a timeline of the history of Ottawa.
Andrew Leamy was a pioneer industrialist and community leader in Wright's Town, Lower Canada, which became Hull, Quebec and is now incorporated into the City of Gatineau in the National Capital Region of Canada.
The Bytown Mechanics' Institute is an Upper Canada example of a knowledge transfer organization aimed at encouraging grassroots participation. These institutions were Victorian and moralistic in tone and class-oriented in structure which, in part, explains their failure. However, they show the tendency towards democratic institutions in the early history of Canada where the border between the United States and Canada was more fluid than in the present era and encourage such ideals. These institutions attempted to include the working class, French Canadians and women, where the British social model did not support these inclusions. The composition of the executive of the Bytown Mechanics' Institute in its various formations illustrates this and exemplifies the issues of cost and available leisure time that would eventually cause the institute's failure.
The Shiners' Wars were violent outbreaks in Bytown from 1835 to 1845 between Irish-Catholic immigrants, led by Peter Aylen, and French Canadians, led by Joseph Montferrand.
The history of Ottawa, capital of Canada, was shaped by events such as the construction of the Rideau Canal, the lumber industry, the choice of Ottawa as the location of Canada's capital, as well as American and European influences and interactions. By 1914, Ottawa's population had surpassed 100,000 and today it is the capital of a G7 country whose metropolitan population exceeds one million.
The Ottawa River timber trade, also known as the Ottawa Valley timber trade or Ottawa River lumber trade, was the nineteenth century production of wood products by Canada on areas of the Ottawa River and the regions of the Ottawa Valley and Western Quebec destined for British and American markets. It was the major industry of the historical colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada and it created an entrepreneur known as a lumber baron. The trade in squared timber and later sawed lumber led to population growth and prosperity to communities in the Ottawa Valley, especially the city of Bytown. The product was chiefly red and white pine.The Ottawa River being conveniently located with access via the St. Lawrence River, was a valuable region due to its great pine forests surpassing any others nearby. The industry lasted until around 1900 as both markets and supplies decreased, it was then reoriented to the production of wood pulp which continued until the late 1990's/early 2000's.