Local History

The Bahá’í Faith Comes to Ottawa

The Times

The late 1940s was a period of technological innovation and international cooperation. Many women were looking for ways to maintain their public role in society after their contributions during the war. With the establishment of the United Nations and the post-war Marshall plan, Canadians redirected war efforts into more constructive and peace-oriented activities. Bahá'ís were significant contributors to these efforts, given observer status at the United Nations in 1947 and recognized the following year as an international non-governmental organization working in social and economic development the following year.

Socialist ideas and eastern religions and philosophies spread into new domains. Canadians were more outward looking and many recognized the validity of religions other than their own for the first time. People living in Canada’s capital city felt many of these new social currents and benefited from intellectual stimulation from many traveling speakers. Those investigating the Bahá’í Faith were attracted to the Bahá’í principles of world peace, elimination of racial prejudice and equality of men and women, among others.

First Bahá’í Visitors

The first Bahá’í to visit Ottawa was Queen Marie of Romania, who arrived on October 28, 1926, two days after announcing her Bahá’í allegiance in a widely disseminated interview published in the Toronto Star. The city’s second Bahá’í visitor was Laura Dreyfus-Barney of Paris, France, a prominent lecturer on social issues and the compiler of Some Answered Questions, talks of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. She addressed the central executive of the League of Nations Society in Canada and the Canadian Women’s Club, Sept. 16 and 17, 1932.

Winnifred Harvey

The real Bahá’í history of Ottawa begins with Winnifred Harvey, a dedicated and inspirational Bahá’í teacher who lived in Ottawa, Eastview and Hull through the 1940s and 50s. An extremely intelligent and well-educated woman, she has been described as a powerful personality and “the mother teacher” (in a Bahá’í sense) of Eastern Ontario, although she never married or had children. She was one of 11 children raised in rural Manitoba and earned her way through teacher’s college and university in the 1930s by scholarships.

Winnifred read widely and although she worked as a statistician she included oriental thought and philosophy in her formal education. She became a Bahá’í in Ottawa shortly after moving here in 1940. She moved out of temporary quarters at the YWCA to a rented room to be able to teach the Faith in her home. Among the people Winnifred introduced to the Faith were Lucille Giscome, a journalist and one of the early African Canadian Bahá’ís in Canada who joined the Faith in 1942 but left Ottawa shortly afterwards. By 1944 there were still only four Bahá’ís in Ottawa including Charles Nealy Murray a civil servant who had become a Bahá’í in Washington D.C., and Katherine Ferguson, the first Ottawa native to enroll. This group sponsored public meetings at the Chateau Laurier and held “fireside” gatherings in their homes to introduce the Bahá’í teachings.

In 1947 M. Irving Tredenick and his wife I. Marion Tredenick moved to Ottawa with the RCAF and the first Bahá’í group with elected officers was formed. Through the next year momentum increased in the Ottawa community as the group worked to meet an international Bahá’í goal that included the formation of 35 new Local Spiritual Assemblies in Canada by April 1948. Several Bahá’ís moved to Ottawa from other communities including Françoise Rouleau (later Smith), originally from Noranda, and Ken MacLaren who arrived from Winnipeg. Edna Hughes, originally from Hemingford Quebec, became a Bahá’í in Ottawa in 1948 as did Gladys Young (later Harvey) an astronomer with the National Research Council and daughter of a Hamilton Bahá’í. Françoise Rouleau, living in Chambly, Québec, and Marion Tredenick, in Gravenhurst, Ont., were the only two members of the original Assembly still living to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Election of the First Assembly

With nine Bahá’ís in Ottawa, the group was able to form the city’s first Local Spiritual Assembly (LSA) on April 21st, 1948, during the Bahá’í festival of Ridván. Within a few days several members of the LSA traveled to Montreal for the first election of a Canadian National Spiritual Assembly. Before this time the Canadian and U.S. Assembly had been a joint body.

Women outnumbered men in the Canadian Bahá’í Community before 1948 by a ratio of 7:3, and Winnifred Harvey was among the large proportion of Bahá’í women (33%) who never married and spent a large part of their life devoted to spreading the Bahá’í Faith. The Faith may have appealed to these independent often well-educated women partly because it does not have a patriarchal structure and has no clergy.

Winnifred was known as an eloquent speaker and gave a series of public speaking classes for her fellow Bahá’ís to help them to give fireside talks. By the end of the year, six of the LSA members had spoken at weekly public meetings. Winnifred’s brother Garth arrived in Ottawa late in 1948 and eagerly joined in the community giving his first public talk in January 1949. He married Gladys Young shortly afterwards and by 1950 Winnifred, Garth and Gladys had rented a house together at 36 Waverley which became the centre of Bahá’í activity in Ottawa. Many people remember the firesides and potluck suppers – and evenings of Scottish dancing - held at 36 Waverly St. A number of boarders and traveling Bahá’ís stayed at the house through the 1950s.

Helen Andrews, a longtime member of the Ottawa community remembers “a marvelous spirit existed at the old 36” and Winnifred Harvey was at the heart of it. “People would gather at her place and never leave,” said another friend. Françoise Rouleau remembered her as “very determined, very sincere.” One of the highlights of the 1950s was the first Bahá’í wedding in Ottawa (with Winnifred Harvey officiating) between Margaret Wallace and Larry Rowdon in 1952.

Eastview (now Vanier), Gloucester, Hull and Aylmer were all communities outside Ottawa where separate Bahá’í Assemblies would later be formed but there was a lot of travel and teaching between the communities in the late 1940s and through the 1950s. By 1958 there were 22 believers in the National Capital region running three national Bahá’í committees including the National Teaching Committee, the New Territories Committee and the Canadian Bahá’í News.

After supporting Bahá’í communities in Eastview and Hull, Winnifred took early retirement in 1970 and moved to the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel, where she served in several capacities before passing away in 1990. She is buried in the Bahá’í Cemetery there.

Later Developments

1950s - Ottawa Bahá’ís open or support the development of the Bahá’í Faith in neighbouring municipalities and send speakers to Montreal, Belleville, and Pembroke. In later years, Ottawa Bahá’ís “pioneer” to nearly all the municipalities in the Ottawa Valley and the Outaouais. Most of the Ottawa Bahá’ís during this period are single adults or couples. The first Bahá’í birth, to Tony and Rita Marjolais occurs.

1960s - Bahá’ís establish a popular International Friendship Club featuring pot-luck dishes from participants’ home countries. In 1967 the 19th Bahá’í national convention is held at the Chateau Laurier.

1970s - Many youth, particularly university students, join the Ottawa Community. Over the years Ottawa sends many “pioneers” (volunteer short or long-term settlers/community development workers) to overseas goals on all continents, and many of these who now work in the international development field settle in Ottawa and surrounding communities. Bahá’í Campus Clubs start at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa around 1970. Ottawa Bahá’ís begin participation in the Salon de livres, Hull.

1980s - The number of Bahá’ís of Persian background is significantly increased with the arrival of many refugees and family members of immigrants fleeing persecution in Iran. A number of families move to Ottawa, and first generation Bahá’ís start to raise children. The Ottawa community begins to become more racially diverse as does the city in general. Too large to meet in homes, the Bahá’í community uses a variety of meeting spaces before establishing the first Ottawa Bahá’í Centre at 25 Charles St. in 1980.

1990s - The community is hopping with children and youth. Bahá’í students at Lisgar Collegiate form a club in the early 90s. Bahá’ís participate in Winterlude (twice winning plaques for snow sculptures) and the Tulip Festival Regatta. A number of Bahá’ís from Arab countries immigrate to Ottawa., and the community continues to become more diverse with the enrollment of members of various ethnic groups. There is increasing community involvement in interfaith and unity in diversity activities, and presentation of Race Unity awards. The Bahá’í Information Centre and book store opens at 224 Bank St. in 1996. In 1997 Ottawa Bahá’ís play a substantial role in the organization of the interfaith service held in conjunction with the international Land Mines conference in Ottawa.

1998 - Ottawa Bahá’ís celebrates the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Ottawa. The community provides support to victims of the ice storm. Various interfaith groups make use of the Bahá’í Information Centre for meetings.

2001 - The municipal amalgamation leads to the election of a single Local Spiritual Assembly for the Bahá'ís of the new Ottawa region.

Artistic Endeavours - From 1972 to 85 Ottawa was the home of Ballet Shayda, a non-profit touring dance company whose choreography was based on Bahá’í and broad spiritual themes. Ottawa has also contributes members to children’s and youth dance groups, the Ottawa Regional Bahá’í Choir and the Bahá’í Creative Writers’ Group. Publications produced locally include The Bahá’í Voice (1987-93), and Bahá’í Perspectives bahá’íes (1997 -).