Labour Day celebrates workers and the labour union movement across Canada on September 1st of each year. Here is a 5km bike ride that visits four commemorative installations dedicated to workers within the National Capital Region and beyond.
We begin our tour in Chinatown at the corner of Somerset Street and Empress Avenue where you will find the Chinese Canadian Railway Workers Memorial. This memorial pays tribute to the contribution and sacrifice of the 17 000 Chinese Canadian railway workers who helped build the Canadian Pacific Railway from 1880 to 1885.
leaving the Chinese Canadian Railway Workers Memorial, ride north along quiet Empress Avenue, then east on Primrose Avenue, and then north along Cambridge Street North which turns right and becomes Laurier Avenue. Follow the bike line along Laurier Avenue all the way to City Hall. Just beyond City Hall, before you take the bridge over the Rideau Canal, turn right on the short off-ramp, then turn left along the bike path that heads north under the bridge along the Rideau Canal. Just before reaching Sappers Bridge that passes under Wellington Street, you will encounter a short set of stairs. These have metal troughs along which you can push your bike to avoid having to carry it up the stairs. Ride under the bridge, then down the hill. The canal locks wil be to your right and Parliament Hill high up above to your left. Cross over to the other side of the canal across the second-to-last set of locks closest to the Ottawa River.
Once on the opposite side of the canal you will notice the Rideau Canal Memorial Cross dedicated to hundreds of Rideau Canal workers who died building the Rideau Canal betweem 1826-1832. An accompanying interpretive panel helps to explain the context in which these workers found themselves and the hardships they endured.
Next, head up along the road to the left of the cross. At the top of the hill, turn right into Major’s Hill Park and follow the path indicated on the map to the Canadian Building Trades Monument.
As described in the accompanying stone engraved text, ‘This monument honours and celebrates the tradespeople who build and maintain Canada every day, and commemorates the losses they have endured in the workplace’.
The two principal vertical sculptures depict plumb bobs, tools used in construction since ancient times. The engraving goes on the explain ‘..they symbolize the intersection of earthly gravity and human ingenuity’. A number of other tools are etched into the long horizontal plinths located on either side of the plumb bobs, which double as benches for resting visitors.
Our final stop on this ride is just across the Ottawa River in Gatineau. Take the boardwalk bike lane over the Alexandra bridge, cross the intersection and continue along the Sentier de l’Île pathway that runs along Boulevard des Allumettières. Slightly before reaching Boulevard Maisonneuve you will see an interpretive panel dedicated to Les Allumettières . These were female workers in the local EB Eddy plant who fabricated wooden matches from the 1800’s up until 1928 when the plant closed. The working conditions they endured were extremely dangerous and unhealthy. This interpretive panel goes into more detail on the incredible challenges Les Allumettières encountered.
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