Marking Colonel By Day with a Celtic Cross Ceremony

A ceremony was held on Monday to honour the workers who died while building the Rideau Canal. CTV’s Camille Wilson reports.

The annual Celtic Cross Ceremony took place on Monday to commemorate the estimated 1,000 workers and their families who died while building the Rideau Canal.

“It’s important because of the recognition our Rideau Canal has, not just to those in our city, whether it’s during the summer, or in the winter months as the world’s largest skating rink but also to the tourists as well. It’s a vision of beauty and splendor,” says Sean McKenny, president of the Ottawa & District Labour Council.

Workers suffered injury from explosions, accidents, and malaria. Many workers were buried in unmarked graves.

Several Ottawa residents, tourists, councillors and close relatives gathered near the Celtic Cross monument Monday afternoon to share prayers, speeches and a moment of silence.

“I come here every year to recognize and appreciate the work my two great-great-grandfathers did when they came to Canada in 1826 to help build this canal,” says Tom Flood. “We just appreciate the work and the freedom that we enjoy here in Canada because of their early days and their hard work.”

About 7,000 people worked to build the Rideau Canal, working 16 hours a day, six days a week while fighting brutal winters and hot summers.

“This is a deep connection because of the awareness of how courageous it was for the Irish to leave everything and literally come across in the hull of a ship,” says Norita O’Donoghue-Fleming, a ceremony attendee.

“As an Irish Canadian—in fact I’m here 37 years tomorrow from Ireland—I’m very, very interested in the history of the Irish who have been to this area before me. It’s very important to a person who is an Irish immigrant to have that connection to the people who came before us,” says Gabriel McCaffrey, another ceremony attendee.

Symbols engraved on the monument symbolize the tools used, the harsh working conditions and the diseases people died from.

“A lot of people don’t realize and recognize that the times were tough when they built this thing between 1826 and 1832 and a lot of folks got hurt and were killed as a result,” says McKenny.

Birthed from tragedy, the Rideau Canal is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the biggest tourist attractions in the nation’s capital.

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