Victoria Island (french: Île Victoria, italic=yes, alq, Asinabka, italic=yes) is an island in the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of Eastern ...

, located north of LeBreton Flats, 1 km west of

Parliament Hill Parliament Hill (french: Colline du Parlement, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings, and their architectu ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The island is "a place of special significance" to the local

Algonquian peoples The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups. Historically, the peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. T ...

, who use the island for ceremonial purposes and for protests. It is part of an archipelago of islands below

Chaudière Falls , image = Ottawa Chaudiere Falls.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = Chaudière Falls in June 2006, at summer water levels , map_image = , map_size = , coordinates = , coords_ref = , location ...

, which also includes the former Philemon Island, Chaudière Island, Amelia Island and Albert Island. Both the

Portage Bridge The Portage Bridge (french: Pont du Portage) crosses the Ottawa River just down-river from the Chaudière Bridge, joining the communities of Gatineau, Quebec and Ottawa, Ontario. It links Laurier Street and Alexandre-Taché Boulevard in the ...

and

Chaudière Bridge The Chaudière Bridge (French: ''Pont de la Chaudière'') crosses the Ottawa River about west of Parliament Hill, joining the communities of Gatineau, Quebec and Ottawa, Ontario, linking Rue Eddy in the Hull sector of Gatineau and Booth Street in ...

cross the island, connecting Ottawa to

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's N ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

on the other side of the river. Otherwise, public access to the island is currently restricted due to an

environmental remediation Environmental remediation deals with the removal of pollution or contaminants from environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment, or surface water. Remedial action is generally subject to an array of regulatory requirements, and may al ...

project set to be completed in 2025. The project is projected to cost $13 million.

History

Indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

were inhabiting the area up to 9,000 years ago, using the island to portage and for trade. The nearby

was used for ceremonial purposes, meetings, and as a burial site. Beginning in the 19th century, the island was used for mixed industrial, commercial and residential uses, and was home to a sawmill, and ironwork and manufacturing companies. The Wilson Carbide Mill, named for

Thomas Willson Thomas Leopold "Carbide" Willson (March 14, 1860 – December 20, 1915) was a Canadian inventor. He was born on a farm near Princeton, Ontario, in 1860 and went to school in Hamilton, Ontario. By the age of 21, he had designed and patented t ...

, the inventor of the process to produce

calcium carbide Calcium carbide, also known as calcium acetylide, is a chemical compound with the chemical formula of Ca C2. Its main use industrially is in the production of acetylene and calcium cyanamide. The pure material is colorless, while pieces of tec ...

and

acetylene Acetylene (systematic name: ethyne) is the chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in its pure ...

gas, was built on the island in 1900. The mill, a four storey stone building, manufactured calcium carbide. It has been recognized as a Federal Heritage Building. Industrial use of the island has contaminated the land, resulting in the current clean up operation. This contamination was revealed through soil samples taken in 2017, revealing that the island's soil, groundwater and surface water were contaminated with ashes, lead, zinc and

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...

. The

National Capital Commission The National Capital Commission (NCC; french: Commission de la capitale nationale, CCN) is the Crown corporation responsible for development, urban planning, and conservation in Canada's Capital Region (Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec), i ...

(NCC) acquired most of the island in the 1960s, with the remainder being acquired in 2018 from

Public Services and Procurement Canada Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC; french: Services publics et Approvisionnement Canada)''Public Services and Procurement Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Public Works ...

Protests

The island has a long history of Indigenous protests. In 1974, a group of protesters known as "The Native People's Caravan" occupied the Carbide Mill, while in 1995 Aboriginal Defence League protesters broke into the mill and set up an "Aboriginal Embassy". In 1988,

Algonquins of Barriere Lake Algonquins of Barriere Lake are an Algonquin First Nation in Quebec, Canada. They primarily live on the Indian reserve of Rapid Lake in Outaouais. In 2017 the band had a registered population of 792 members. It is part of Algonquin Nation Programs ...

set up tents on the island to protest "the ravaging of their land by the federal and Quebec governments". They returned in 1990, partly in solidarity of the

Mohawk people The Mohawk people ( moh, Kanienʼkehá꞉ka) are the most easterly section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern Ne ...

in the

Oka Crisis The Oka Crisis (french: links=no, Crise d'Oka), also known as the Kanehsatà:ke Resistance (), was a land rights, land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada, which began on July 11, 1990, and lasted 78 day ...

. In 2013,

Attawapiskat First Nation The Attawapiskat First Nation ( Cree: , "People of the parting of the rocks"; unpointed: ) is an isolated First Nation located in Kenora District in northern Ontario, Canada, at the mouth of the Attawapiskat River on James Bay. The traditional ...

chief

Theresa Spence Theresa Spence (born 1963) is a former chief of the Attawapiskat First Nation in Canada. archived from original She was a prominent figure in the Attawapiskat housing and infrastructure crisis, Idle No More, and other First Nations issues. Prior ...

took up residence on the island to protest against the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

Future

Following the completion of the remediation project, the NCC plans to work with the Algonquin

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawatomi, ...

Nation to develop a master plan for the island and to re-open it to the public.

References

{{reflist Algonquin First Nations history in Ontario Ottawa River Landforms of Ottawa Uninhabited islands of Ontario River islands of Ontario