Gough Barry M. Historical Dictionary of Canada

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310 • OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT OF 1969

payment of a $500,000 ransom and the release of “political prison-

ers.” It also called for freedom from police pursuit and for safe trans-

port out of the country. Also, they insisted that the FLQ manifesto be

broadcast on radio and television. Meanwhile, Robert Bourassa’s

government was pressured (unsuccessfully) by the Parti Québécois

to establish a coalition government.

The crisis mounted quickly. On 10 October, the FLQ kidnapped

Pierre Laporte, the Québec minister of labor and immigration. La-

porte was murdered on the 17th. Student rallies and sit-ins were

widespread. The provincial government, itself in crisis and uncer-

tainty, turned to the federal government, requesting that the Ca-

nadian Army be brought in to aid the civil power. Prime Minister

Pierre Trudeau and his cabinet invoked the War Measures Act by

an order-in-council, thus declaring martial law. Subsequently, 450

persons were detained; 62 cases were brought to trial, and 20 were

convicted. Protest against the War Measures Act died down after La-

porte’s murder. Cross was released after safe passage was arranged

for his kidnappers. In late October, Laporte’s kidnappers and murder-

ers were imprisoned.

OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT OF 1969. Passed by the federal

government, the act gives official status to the French language in all

federal departments and services in Canada and guarantees service in

both official languages, English and French. See also BILINGUAL-

ISM AND BICULTURALISM, ROYAL COMMISSION ON.

OFFSHORE CLAIMS AND DISPUTES: ATLANTIC, PACIFIC,

AND ARCTIC. Historically, the waters considered part of a coun-

try’s sovereign territory was 3 nautical miles, a distance based on

the range of a cannon shot. By the mid-20th century, most maritime

nations had increased this to 12 nautical miles, a limit codified by the

1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

That agreement also provided for coastal countries to claim a con-

tiguous zone of up to 24 nautical miles in which they have authority

to enforce their customs, immigration, and pollution regulations, and

an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of up to 200 nautical miles within

which the country controls all economic resources such as fish stocks

and oil fields. Naturally, conflict arises between countries over the

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OFFSHORE CLAIMS AND DISPUTES: ATLANTIC, PACIFIC, AND ARCTIC • 311

exact location of their territorial boundaries and even over the own-

ership of previously unimportant rocks and islands. Canada has had

numerous territorial and boundary conflicts throughout history, some

of which have yet to be settled. A number of these are described here.

In the Atlantic, one area of dispute has been the Gulf of Maine,

particularly Georges Bank. When Canada and the United States both

declared 200 nautical mile EEZs in 1977, the claims overlapped in

the middle of the Gulf of Maine. Control of the rich fishing grounds

on Georges Bank, which had been worked jointly by both countries

for generations, was contested. After a series of confrontations be-

tween Canadian and American fishers, the International Court of

Justice (ICJ) ruled on a boundary in 1984 that placed 84 percent of

Georges Bank under U.S. jurisdiction, but it put the most fertile areas

of Georges Bank under Canadian control. The result was that many

U.S. fishers ignored the ICJ ruling and continued to fish on the Ca-

nadian side of the line. This in turn led to further conflict in the form

of Canadian patrol vessels pursuing, arresting, and sometimes even

firing warning shots at American fishing boats attempting to flee

back into U.S. waters—activities that continued into the early 1990s.

Machias Seal Island and North Rock were specifically exempted

from the ICJ’s 1984 ruling on the international boundary in the Gulf

of Maine at the request of both countries. This dispute—really unfin-

ished business—stems from ambiguity in the 1783 treaty that ended

the American Revolution and delineated the boundaries between

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on the British side, and the Com-

monwealth of Massachusetts, of which Maine was then part, on the

American. Located southwest of Grand Manan Island at the mouth

of the Bay of Fundy, Machias Seal Island is home to a bird sanctu-

ary, a robust lobster fishery, and a lighthouse that was built by the

British government in 1832 and that has been staffed continuously

by Canada ever since. It remains, in fact, the only staffed lighthouse

on the Atlantic coast of Canada specifically because of the ownership

dispute with the United States.

Canada also had a dispute with France about the Atlantic islands

of St. Pierre and Miquelon. These islands, the only pieces of the ter-

ritory of New France retained by the French under the 1763 Treaty

of Paris that ended the Seven Years War, are located 16 nautical

miles off the southwest coast of Newfoundland. French claims to a

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312 • OFFSHORE CLAIMS AND DISPUTES: ATLANTIC, PACIFIC, AND ARCTIC

200 nautical mile EEZ around the islands were contested by Canada

based on the proximity of Newfoundland, and the question was

turned over to the International Court of Arbitration. The court’s

1992 judgment resulted in the islands being granted a 12 nautical

mile territorial limit, except where this would conflict with the Cana-

dian 12-mile limit, and a 10.5 nautical mile wide panhandle extend-

ing 200 nautical miles south of the islands for an EEZ. Since that

decision was rendered, France has made new continental shelf claims

against Canada around St. Pierre and Miquelon under the terms of the

UNCLOS, which remain unresolved.

Another dispute has been the Turbot War. Following the establish-

ment of the 200 nautical mile EEZ on the east coast of Canada, foreign

fishing fleets that had previously been free to fish anywhere outside of

Canada’s 12-mile limit were now pushed beyond 200. This left only

two parts of the fertile Grand Banks of Newfoundland, areas known

as the “Nose” and the “Tail,” accessible for foreign fishers. Officially

these foreign fleets were to be regulated by authorities of the North

Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), but in practice there was

little regulation, and European fishers, particularly those from Spain

and Portugal, frequently fished in Canadian waters and used illegal

nets. What made these nets illegal was the small size of the holes in

the mesh, which did not allow for immature fish to pass through.

The collapse of Canada’s east coast fishery in the early 1990s was

a hot political topic as Nova Scotia and Newfoundland out ports

faced demographic and financial ruin. Thus, the government of Can-

ada made the decision to take action, and in March 1995 ordered the

arrest of the Spanish stern trawler Estai in international waters. Spain

responded by sending a warship to protect their remaining fleet, and

the European Union (EU) demanded that Canada release the vessel

and that the issue be turned over to the International Court of Justice.

In the end, the arrest was more effective politically and diplomati-

cally than otherwise. Although the charges filed against the captain

and owners of the Estai in Canadian federal court were later dropped,

the images of the Spanish trawler’s illegal net displayed outside of

the United Nations building in New York shamed European coun-

tries into policing their fishing fleets more effectively.

One of the Pacific disputes involves the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the

body of water that separates the south shore of Vancouver Island

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OFFSHORE CLAIMS AND DISPUTES: ATLANTIC, PACIFIC, AND ARCTIC • 313

from the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. The international

boundary, which is generally drawn equidistant from each country’s

shoreline down the center of the strait, is not contested by the govern-

ments of Canada or the United States, but rather by the government

of the Province of British Columbia. It has been arguing since the

1970s that the center of the submarine Juan de Fuca Canyon, closer

to the American shore, is the correct location.

Another Pacific dispute concerns the Dixon Entrance and Portland

Canal. The Alaska boundary dispute, which was ended through

international arbitration in 1903, identified 54 degrees, 40 minutes,

north latitude as the coastal boundary between British Columbia and

the Alaska panhandle. In Dixon Entrance, this line follows the north

side of the channel, along the American shoreline, but has never been

accepted by the United States as demarking the maritime boundary.

The same applies to Portland Canal, where the treaty specified that

the boundary was to follow the shoreline on the American side of the

inlet, a specification that the United States does not accept. On U.S.

maps and charts of the area, the international boundary is shown fol-

lowing the center of each body of water, while Canadian maps and

charts show the boundary in the locations specified by the treaty.

The Arctic dispute between Canada, the United States, and the

EU over the Northwest Passage is more about the nature of the pas-

sage under international law than it is about who controls the waters.

Canada considers its entire Arctic archipelago to be internal waters,

meaning not only that ships transiting through it are subject to Ca-

nadian laws, but also that vessels wishing to pass through it must

first acquire the permission of Canada. The position of the United

States and the EU, on the other hand, is that the Northwest Passage

is an international strait, and that as such the vessels of all nations

can exercise the right of innocent passage through it, without asking

permission. In practice, this right has seldom been tested, as few ves-

sels are currently able to transit the passage without the assistance of

an icebreaker. In 1985, the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Sea

made the transit without Canadian permission, and it has long been

suspected that American and British nuclear submarines regularly

transit through Canadian waters without permission en route to the

Arctic Ocean and the North Pole. Successive Canadian governments

have spoken of making Arctic sovereignty a top priority, and in 2007

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314 • OGDENSBURG AGREEMENT

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that a naval base would

be constructed at Nanisivik on Baffin Island, conveniently located

to the eastern terminus of the passage.

The Beaufort Sea is a part of the Arctic Ocean immediately north

of eastern Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory. Both Canada and

the United States claim a pie-shaped section of these waters, which

are believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits, as part of their 200

nautical mile EEZs. The competing claims are based on Canada’s be-

lief that the maritime boundary should, like the land border between

Alaska and the Yukon, follow the line of 141 degrees west longitude.

The United States, on the other hand, has argued that the maritime

boundary should follow the lie of the coastline, which extends to the

north as it moves west of the land border.

Another Arctic dispute involves Hans Island, a barren, uninhab-

ited rock measuring less than 0.5 square miles in total, located in

Nares Strait, which separates Greenland from Ellesmere Island. It is

claimed by both Canada and Denmark, the Danish claim being based

on a 1933 Permanent Court of International Justice decision that con-

firmed Denmark’s possession of Greenland. Canada’s claim is based

on the island’s position relative to Ellesmere, which is marginally

closer than Greenland. A Canadian-Danish commission delineated

most of the boundary down the center of Nares Strait in the 1970s

but left ownership of Hans Island in question. Government officials

and military personnel from both countries have repeatedly visited

the island to assert sovereignty since the mid-1980s, usually leaving

behind their national flags and bottles of liquor—rye whisky for the

Canadians and cognac for the Danes—but little else was done. In

early 2004, the dispute again rose to prominence, and both countries

stated a willingness to negotiate over the island’s future. As of 2009,

nothing had officially changed with regard to this dispute, except that

Canadian and Danish scientists had agreed to collaborate in locating

a weather station on the island. Satellite imagery of the area suggests

that, based on the agreed-upon maritime boundary of the early 1970s,

Hans is located half in Canadian and half in Danish territory.

OGDENSBURG AGREEMENT. At a meeting in Ogdensburg, New

York, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime

Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, on 17–18 August 1940,

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OIL SANDS • 315

agreed to form a Permanent Joint Board on Defense. This decision

was announced in a short press release—which was well received in

the United States and Canada. The meeting demonstrated a concrete

U.S. move away from isolationism in World War II and toward

open support for the Allies. The Ogdensburg agreement constitutes

the charter document and anchor of Canadian-American defense yet

is strangely unheralded in the history of international diplomacy and

North American continental security.

OIL (TAR) SANDS. Canada’s oil sands, centered on Fort McMur-

ray, northeastern Alberta, in what is historically called Athabasca

(“Where the Reeds Grow”), are one of the few places in the world

where oil production is still increasing. Oil sands account for a

major component of Canadian oil resources, which are second to

Saudi Arabia’s. Petroleum from oil sands is extracted from bitu-

men. The process is capital intensive and necessarily destructive

to the environment. Massive volumes of water are needed in the

processing. In 2007, production from oil sands totaled 1.2 million

barrels a day. Production estimates show a steady growth. In 2008,

it was estimated that 2020 production from the oil sands will be 3.5

million barrels a day.

The oil sands acquire prominence because the worldwide oil supply/

demand balance is tight, making every barrel count. The imposition

of higher royalties in Alberta, federal and provincial initiatives in cli-

mate change responses, and federal elimination of what is known as

the accelerated capital cost allowance are all factors that have slowed

extraction. This in turn has delayed the number of production ap-

plications and, in consequence, approvals. Corporations are wary in

this political environment: until federal and provincial governments

unveil clearer rules on carbon capture and storage, some corporations

have delayed expansion decisions and projects. By comparison, con-

ventional oil production in western Canada exceeded 1 million bar-

rels a day, and this is not declining as rapidly as expected, thanks to

discovery of new fields like Bakken in Saskatchewan and Sinclair in

Manitoba. Taken together, from all sources of oil in Canada—from

oil sands to east coast offshore fields—Canada produced 2.8 million

barrels per day in 2007. Estimates from all Canadian sources for

2020 are 4.5 million barrels a day. See also ECONOMY.

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316 • OKA

OKA. A 78-day standoff took place between the members of the Mo-

hawk Warrior Society from the Kansesatake Reserve, in Québec

near the town of Oka, and the Surété de Québec in the summer of

1990. The Mohawk had erected a barricade to prevent the town from

building a golf course on land that the Mohawk claimed as sacred

territory. The local police stormed the barricade, and in the ensuing

chaos, a police officer was killed. The Mohawk were highly orga-

nized and heavily armed. As barricades were erected by other Mo-

hawk, Québec Premier Robert Bourassa asked the federal govern-

ment for support. The army besieged the barricades and succeeded

in dismantling them. The Mohawk moved into an isolated building

but emerged peacefully 24 September 1990, ending the standoff. The

local, provincial, and federal governments met with the Mohawk

Warrior Society and negotiated the land agreement.

ONTARIO. One of the four original provinces to join the confedera-

tion in 1867, Ontario (the name is Iroquoian for “beautiful water”)

is bordered by Québec, Manitoba, the Great Lakes, and James Bay,

an annex of Hudson Bay. The province is the second largest in area

size. About 90 percent of the population lives within 160 kilometers

of the southern border. The Iroquois and Huron were the dominat-

ing natives in the area. With the arrival of the French fur traders,

the Huron nation became military allies and trading liaisons for the

French. Jesuit missionaries attempted to build a settlement in Hu-

ronia, but the Iroquois attacked the settlement in 1649, effectively

destroying the Huron nation.

The end of the American Revolution created an influx of Loyal-

ists from the United States. Thousands immigrated to the Ontario

region and began to colonize. The Constitutional Act of 1791 named

this area Upper Canada. The name was changed to Canada West

in 1840 under the Act of Union that combined Upper and Lower

Canada into one colony. The name Ontario was adopted in 1867

with the passing of the British North America Act (Constitution Act

of 1867).

After the War of 1812, in which Ontario was a battleground, new

immigration came from Great Britain. Much of the southern Ontario

peninsula was then opened to settlement, on a regular survey pat-

tern. Principal roads were laid down. Scottish and Irish settlement

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ORANGE ORDER • 317

came especially to the northern parts of southern Ontario, sometimes

called the Celtic fringe. Amish settled in Waterloo County, half of

them from Alsace Lorraine and half from Pennsylvania and other

American jurisdictions. After 1815, Americans crossing into south-

ern Ontario and settling there are sometimes called the late Loyalists.

After 1945, the ethnic population of Ontario changed dramatically.

Germans, Estonians, Latvians, Italians, Greeks, and others came in

increasing numbers. Asians and Arabic peoples were a feature of

population growth in the years after 1985. The majority of the On-

tario population is English-speaking, but the province also has the

largest number of French-speaking people outside of Québec. The

native population is largely of Algonkian and Iroquoian descent.

Geography gave Ontario the role of keystone in the emerging fed-

eral structure of Canada, the capital being situated at Ottawa. Eco-

nomically, Ontario is the richest province in Canada. It is the center

of the nation’s banking. The northern part of Ontario holds an abun-

dance of natural resources and the southern part is highly industrial-

ized. The primary industries in the province range from agriculture

to mining to forestry. Although a majority of the agricultural output

is produced in a small part of southern Ontario, the province is one

of Canada’s main producers of agricultural products. The primary

industries provided the foundation for the economic development

of Ontario, but the manufacturing and service industries have also

become large contributors. The province accounts for more than 50

percent of the manufactured goods in Canada, the automobile in-

dustry being the largest sector in the province. The service industry,

including tourism, is the largest element of the economy of Ontario.

The Ontario provincial parliament, with its seat in Toronto, has

125 members. Ontario is represented by 98 members in the House

of Commons and 24 senators, the largest representation of any prov-

ince. The population exceeded 13 million in 2009.

ORANGE ORDER. In 1830, the First Grand Lodge of the Orange

Order was established by Irish Protestants in Canada. Its growth to

2,000 lodges and 100,000 members in the 1880s made it a power-

ful pressure group, reinforcing pro-British and Tory sympathies and

opposing French Canadian “papists.” In 1848, Louis Lafontaine

introduced a Secret Societies Bill, designed to check such actions. In

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318 • ORDER OF CANADA

the 1860s, the Order sought a relationship with the monarchy, but this

was declined. Orangeman Thomas Scott, from Ontario, was killed

during the Red River Rebellion, leading the Order to campaign for

protection of rights. D’Alton McCarthy’s Equal Rights Association

was one such group; the Manitoba Schools Act was an indirect re-

sult. Sectarian strife continued in Canada. In 1877, during a parade

in Montréal, an Orangeman was murdered. Rising resentment, ex-

ploited by John A. Macdonald, allowed for a Conservative victory

in 1878. In return, Macdonald included the grand master, Mackenzie

Bowell, in his cabinet.

ORDER OF CANADA. Created on 1 July 1967, the Order of Canada

is the centerpiece of the national honors system, which includes

orders, decorations, medals, and heraldic devices. The Order is a fra-

ternity of merit that recognizes significant achievement in important

fields of human endeavor. There are three levels of membership: the

Companion (C.C.) level recognizes international service or achieve-

ment, or national preeminence; the Officer (O.C.) level recognizes

national service or achievement; and the Member level (C.M.) rec-

ognizes outstanding contributions at the local or regional level or in

a specialized field of activity.

The queen of Canada is the sovereign of the Order. The governor

general is the chancellor and principal Companion of the Order of

Canada and presides over its affairs, in accordance with the terms of

its constitution. An advisory council, chaired by the chief justice of

Canada, recommends to the chancellor the names of those considered

to be worthy of appointment. Federal and provincial politicians and

judges are not eligible while holding office. There are no posthumous

appointments to the Order, and the number of persons who can be

appointed is limited by its constitution. Officers and Members may

be elevated within the Order in recognition of further achievement.

The badge of the Order is a stylized snowflake bearing the crown, a

maple leaf, and a Latin motto: desiderantes meliorem patriam, which

proclaims the aspirations of members of the Order who, in their lives

and work, have demonstrated that “they desire a better country.”

OREGON TREATY. Officially the Treaty of Washington, this

Anglo-American treaty, finalized 15 July 1846, divided the farthest

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OTTAWA CONFERENCES • 319

west between the two powers along the 49th parallel to the middle of

the straits leading to the Pacific, leaving Vancouver Island in British

hands. The Oregon Treaty gave Great Britain navigation rights in the

Columbia River, which were later abandoned. The water boundary

was confused and led to the San Juan Boundary dispute, eventually

resolved in 1872 in the United States’ favor by arbitration. Oregon

now refers to the state of that name in the United States, but in the

1820s through 1840s, the term referred to a much larger area west of

the Rocky Mountains. Historians sometimes refer to it in that time

as Old Oregon. Canadian historians note in particular the unrivalled

dominance of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in Old Oregon,

until American settlers arriving overland established communities

and provisional government after 1843 and called for U.S. annexa-

tion of land. Peaceful resolution of these difficulties was effected by

the Oregon Treaty. HBC possessory rights south of the boundary

were the subject of protracted, successful negotiations.

OSLER, WILLIAM (1849–1919). Physician and professor of medi-

cine Sir William Osler was born in a hamlet north of Toronto. En-

ergetic, small, and wiry, he had tremendous compassion for children

and for patients. He was educated at Trinity College School then

McGill University, where, after travels in Europe, he became a pro-

fessor of medicine. Later was appointed to Pennsylvania University

and Johns Hopkins University. In 1905, he was appointed Oxford’s

Regius Professor of Medicine. He wrote the classic medical textbook

Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892), in print until 1947. In it,

and in his medical lessons, he taught physicians that they were treat-

ing individuals not diseases. Doctors, he insisted, should cultivate

cheerful inscrutability with the sick and dying—and keep written

records. He died of a respiratory infection and was, in accordance

with his wishes, autopsied at home. He expressed many aphorisms,

including “Go slowly and attend to your work, live a godly life, and

avoid mining shares.”

OTTAWA CONFERENCES. In 1894, a colonial conference was

held in Ottawa to promote communication between portions of the

British Empire. In 1932, the Ottawa Economic Conference, chaired

by Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, considered the possibility of

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