Blog #8 Politics, Prisons & Shooting Stars

Ottawa has been on our list to visit for a few years now, and finally it happened - here we are. After back and forth communications with our Calgary MP, we finally managed a visit to Question Period (QP) in the House of Commons. This was one of the must do’s for us. Disappointingly, Prime Minister Trudeau did not attend this session. It was still quite interesting to watch both Conservative and Liberal MPs, the Conservative Leader (Pierre Pollièvre), and NDP Leader (Jasmit Singh) spar on that day. Poillièvre and Singh exchanged harsh words and the speaker of the house had to turn off the microphones so the communication could not be heard by the media. This spat between these two across the aisles did make the news. Everyone were told by the speaker of the house that this was not appropriate and that Canadians are watching…. Soon after, Pierre Poillièvre left the room and did not return. A little excitement to our visit in the House of Commons!

Question Period - our view inside the House of Commons

Question Period - our view inside the House of Commons

Question Period - up close view during the tour

The Parlimentary Gargoyle oversees Question Period

The security in and out of parliament is quite intense, security was everywhere we turned. Walking in for the QP we had to empty our pockets, watches, belts, bags, phones, and walk through a full body scan, and show government issued identification. We were not even allowed to bring in lip balm - nothing that could be tossed around. After QP, wandering outside around parliament the intense security worked to our advantage as we encountered many interesting and sometimes very vocal people. People protesting their disdain for our government or voicing (or wearing signs) of their opinions on day to day issues. I guess Ottawa is the place to do that, the government city of our country.

Protesters - just another day in Ottawa

Protesters- just another day in Ottawa

We also visited the Room of Remembrance in the House of Commons which contains books full of the names of the Canadians who lost their lives at war, it is quite sombering.

Room of Remembrance

Room of Remembrance - One of the eight Books of Names

We saw the Peace Tower and the original bell. We did the free tours offered of both the House of Commons and the Senate. Each provided a bit more insight into the working world of our government. There is scaffolding everywhere on parliament hill right now due to renovations which have been ongoing since 2002. What we found quite amusing is when you ask the staff when the renovations are expected to be finished everyone keeps stating nonchalantly that the renovations are expected to be completed between 2031 - 2032. That’s like 7 - 8 years from now, our government at it finest.

Peace Tower

Original Bell from the Peace Tower

Parliament & House of Commons Tours

Parliament & House of Commons Tours

Parliament & House of Commons Tours - one of the Senate Rooms

Parliament & House of Commons Tours - One of the Senate Rooms’ area where the media, the public, and translators sit.

Parliament & House of Commons Tours - Hallway of portraits of previous Prime Ministers

Parliament Hill - Ever ongoing renovations

Justin’s office

Wandering around Ottawa we did manage to catch a few more interesting sites. The Famous Five Statues on Rideau Street, a bronze monument that honours the five Alberta women: Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby and Emily Murphy which are the women behind the 1929 Persons Case. They fought a legal and political battle to have women recognized as persons under the law.

Famous Five Statues - Enjoying a cup of tea

Famous Five Statues - Have a seat, join the group

We walked along the Rideau Canal which in 2007 was designated a World Heritage Site becoming Canada’s 14th World Heritage Site and Ontario’s first. This surviving 202 kms slackwater canal system is one of the most masterful in the world. This canal was one of the first built specifically for steam-powered boats and was built primarily for military purposes. We watched as two boats had to wait in one of the locks to fill up in order to go through. It is even more amazing how the closing and opening of the gates is still done manually.

Rideau Canal - Going for a walk

Rideau Canal Locks, manual cranks on each side

Rideau Canal - Boat exiting at one of the locks

Rideau Canal

Strolling in the famous Byward Market there is an array of restaurants, pubs, vendors, and The Tin House. The Tin House was originally designed and built by tinsmith Honoré Foisy in the early 1900’s. It was constructed from prefabricated aluminum in a Queen Anne Revival Style (Late Victorian era). The house was torn down in 1961 but the National Capital Commission saved the facade. In 1973, artist Art Price restored the facade with original and new fabricated materials and it now hangs on a building in the Tin House Courtyard by the Byward Market.

Byward Market - Welcome to Ottawa Sign

The Tin House

The Tin House Courtyard

Byward Market - Look alike Sculpture of our Treme ???

The Maman (similar French word for “Mother”) is a large bronze and stainless steel casted sculpture of a spider created by artist Louise Bourgeois. I have seen this statue in many pictures and advertisement for Ottawa over the years and always thought it interesting. It depicts a giant spider with 32 marble eggs in its abdomen. The sculpture stands over 30 feet high and over 33 feet wide. This sculpture refers to the strength of Bourgeois mother with symbols of spinning, weaving, nurturing, and protection.

The Maman

Abdomen of the Maman with Marble Eggs

We visited the Royal Canadian Mint Museum Tour. To my surprise this is the only museum we visited in Ottawa - I think we are still a bit on museum overload. This museum is still in the same original building it was founded in 1908. We learnt some interesting facts on how our coins are made. In Ottawa they only produce medals, medallions, collector coins, and investment coins (gold & silver bullion). According to our tour guide, the circulation coins are now made in Winnipeg. Interesting fact is all factory employees have to go through a metal detector on entering and exiting the facility. We did observe the production line and saw, through glass, a large stack of Gold Bullions. There were also medals from the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, which we discovered are gold plated medals. There is also a replica of the world’s largest coin - a 100 kilogram coin made of 99.999% pure gold with a face value of $1 million that was made here and is listed in the Guinness World Records. Our tour guide told us that “a Saudi Arabia prince has one of these and uses it for a coffee table”. Makes for an interesting piece of conversation when people are visiting.

Royal Canadian Mint - Original Bulding

Royal Canadian Mint - The toonie bear

Royal Canadian Mint

We did take a walk along Sussex Drive and stopped at the Remember Flanders memorial. This is a statue of Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He served as a Medical Officer in World War I and is famous for writing the poem In Flanders Fields. He originally wrote the poem in May of 1915 and he published the poem anonymously in December 1915. Eventually the poem was attributed to McCrae. The poem was reprinted and used to show support for the war efforts. His use of the poppy in the poem was eventually used as the flower and symbol of remembrance for those who had died in wars. Today we still wear the poppy on November 11th Remembrance Day. McCrae died of pneumonia on January 28, 1918 and was buried in France.

Street Sign

Remember Flanders Memorial

Treme’s days were spent at the « babysitters » while we explored Ottawa. It was too hot to leave her in the Roadtrek - think she enjoyed her time?

From Ottawa we drove the 401 to Kingston where we visited the notorious Kingston Penitentiary. The tour took us inside the penitentiary where we saw the eerie hallways and cells. Some of the original drawings from the prisoners still remain on the walls. The Kingston penitentiary is the oldest Penitentiary in Canada and has been home to some very famous Canadian inmates. During the tour the guides were not allowed to talk about any specific inmates due to “Confidentiality”. The tour was well organized. We followed our guide who had extensive amounts of knowledge about the ins and outs of the prison history. It also included meeting some of the original prison guards who had actually worked inside the prison - they entertained us with many first hand stories and facts.

Boondocking on our way to Kingston

Boondocking on our way to Kingston - Rise and Shine!

Kingston Penitentiary

Inside the Kingston Penitentiary

Cell Block inside The Kingston Penitentiary

Cell Block inside The Kingston Penitentiary

One of the notorious and dangerous inmates inside the Kingston Penitentiary

Wall - Kingston Penitentiary

Exercise Yard - Kingston Penitentiary

The original size of the cells were 2.4 feet wide, 8 feet deep and 6.7 feet high. The prison was originally surrounded by a 12 foot high wooden fence and located on 8.6 hectares. At the beginning of its operation corporal punishment (torture) was being used to punish prisoners. This continued from 1835 to 1969. In 1972 the Canadian Criminal Code was amended and corporal punishment was removed as a form of punishment on inmates.

Original Cell Kingston Penitentiary

Cell upgrades over the years

Cell upgrades over the years

Prisoner’s art work

Shower Kingston Penitentiary

Before the tour we walked across the street to the Canada’s Penitentiary Museum. This museum displays an extensive collection of torture contraptions used as well as many interesting items on display like the “Identification Photo Chair”, “The Box”, straitjackets, many prisoners’ fabricated weapons, and the list goes on. This museum is located in the building that once housed the wardens of the Kingston Penitentiary.

Canadian Penitentiary Museum - Straitjacket

Canadian Penitentiary Museum

Canadian Penitentiary Museum - Ankle weight

Canadian Penitentiary Museum- Identification Photo Chair

Canadian Penitentiary Museum - Result of the Identification Photo Chair

Canadian Penitentiary Museum - The Box

Canadian Penitentiary Museum - Collection of confiscated weapons from inmates

Canadian Penitentiary Museum - Different weapons made by inmates

One of the youngest inmates to be imprisoned here was an 8 year old boy named Antoine Beauche who was found guilty for his role in a pickpocket operation aboard a steamboat on the St-Lawrence River. One of the female inmates here, Grace Marks was the inspiration for Canadian writer Margaret Atwood’s book Alias Grace. Back in September 11, 1923 on his first day as a reporter for the Toronto Sun Ernest Hemingway was sent here to cover a jailbreak that had occurred here the day before.

Kingston Penitentiary

Kingston Penitentiary

Over the years the Kingston Pen experienced 3 major riots. The first one in October 1932. The second riot happened in August 1954 and destroyed the grand dome and a fire started by the prisoners burnt the stables and prison shops. The prisoners were ordered to repair the damage they had caused - needless to imagine how they were treated while doing these repairs. The third and most famous riot happened in 1971 and involved taking staff as hostages. We were told details about this riot by one of the tour guards. There were inmates murdered and the damage caused was so extensive in the south wing where the riot happened never reopened as a cell block. After the 1971 riots the Kingston Penitentiary became the Regional Reception Centre for receiving and assessing all inmates in the Ontario region. The penitentiary eventually closed down on September 30th 2013.

Kingston Penitentiary

Canadian Penitentiary Museum - Aftermath of 1971 Prisoner Riot

From Kingston we drove to Picton County to visit the Birdhouse City. We discovered this place from home in Calgary while watching The Amazing Race Canada on television. This stop is where the teams had to complete a specific challenge - can’t quite remember what that was now. It seemed like an interesting place so it stuck with us and we decided it was worth visiting. There are many creatively built birdhouses here such as motels, cabooses, grain elevators, churches, known buildings from the village there is even a Leaning Tower of Pisa Birdhouse. Not many birds flying around here now though, but you can imagine the flutter of spring activity that must take place here as many of these houses look well used.

Birdhouse City

Birdhouse City

Birdhouse City

Birdhouse City

Birdhouse City

We did find a couple fun and interesting Harvest Host stops. The first one was an Ostrich Ranch located in Carrying Place Ontario not too far from Kingston. This place was so much fun. Ostriches are interesting birds. There is an incubation room on display showing the eggs. The females mature at 2 years old and start laying eggs then. A female ostrich can lay between 40 -70 eggs per season (May to September). Each egg weighs around 3 lbs. The eggs are collected each day and stored for 7 days. After that they are placed in the incubator for 39 days. They are then transferred to the hatcher unit and will hatch within 1- 3 days. Baby ostriches will start to walk around 2 - 3 days after they hatch and will start feeding themselves instinctively so no parents needed. We were able to observe all of these stages. As a fun challenge we even stood on an ostrich egg which can withhold 300 pounds. Male ostriches mature between 3-5 years old. Males are usually around 7 - 9 feet tall and weigh between 220 - 290 lbs. The females are usually around 6 feet tall and weigh around 200 - 240 lbs. Full grown ostriches do not have predators, it is said that an ostrich can kill a lion with its front claw kick as ostriches kick forward. Ostriches need to peck 20,000 times a day - not always at the ground, they peck at the fence, at each other, even just standing there pecking at the air. They are omnivores and their intestine when stretched out is up to 46 feet long. They also have amazing eyesight and have the largest eyes of any land animal. Their eyeball is the size of a billiard balI. They can go several days without water and have one of the best immune system of all animals. They can reach speeds of up to 70-80 km an hour and maintain this speed for up to 2 km. Their running is helped by the fact they have only 2 toes and their wings help them balance. Personally I can not get over their feet and legs, they are huge and they look as tough as cement.

Ostrich Ranch - Hello!

Ostrich Ranch - Look at those eyelashes

Ostrich Ranch - And here we come!

Feeding the Ostriches

Feeding the Ostriches

Ostrich Ranch feeding time

Ostrich Eggs Incubation

Standing on an Ostrich Egg

Standing on an Ostrich Egg

Up close Ostrich legs and toes. Look at those toes!!

The second Harvest Host stop was at the bottom of the Bruce Peninsula called Rural Rootz Nature Reserve. The place turned out to be a bit of a quirky spiritual nature place. Very nice and friendly hosts. Many trails to walk on their property including portions of the famous Bruce Trail which crosses the back end of their land. They have a Dragon Trail to walk, gardens to enjoy, a sound tunnel, and a labyrinth on which to walk and contemplate. We stayed here for two nights as it was such a nice quiet place to catch up on sleep and zen.

Rural Rootz Nature Reserve - Labyrinth

Rural Rootz Nature Reserve. Dragon Trail

Rural Rootz Nature Reserve

Rural Rootz Nature Reserve - Walking trail

We visited the Bruce Peninsula in Tobermory, north-west of Toronto. This area is really quite scenic with the Bruce Trail which totals 900 km and has over 450 km of side trails. We did not, of course, complete the entire trail - not quite that adventurous of hikers. But we did do a few side trails which included beautiful views. We hiked to the Grotto located amongst the limestone cliffs overlooking Georgian Bay. The hike is a bit challenging scrambling over slippery rocks and boulders and walking on the edge of cliffs but the views are spectacular. The water around the Grotto is turquoise in colour and reminds you more of a tropical destination than an area in the Georgian Bay in Ontario.