Sault Ste. Marie Ontario History Transportation Bilingualism

The city has made a name for itself in steel-making, and Algoma Steel is still the largest employer. Forestry is also a major local industry. The newest major industry involves business process outsourcing, with three call centres located within city limits. The city is the site of the Sault locks which let ships travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes.

Famous natives of Sault Ste. Marie include hockey great Phil Esposito and astronaut Roberta BondarRoberta Bondar is a Canadian astronaut, the first Canadian woman in space. She was born on December 4, 1945, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. She holds a BS in zoology and agriculture from the University of Guelph (1968), an MS in experimental pathology from. The NHL's Billy CoutuWilfrid "Billy" Arthur Coutu ( March 1, 1892 North Bay, Ontario February 28, 1978 Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) was the first player banned from the NHL for life. A former captain of the Montreal Canadiens (1925/26), Coutu also played for the Boston Bruins a also made Sault Ste. Marie his home.

The city is home to Sault College , a college of applied arts and technology, and to Algoma University College , a federated school of Laurentian UniversityLaurentian University Universite Laurentienne , founded in 1960, is a mid-sized university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, approximately 400 km north of Toronto. While LU's focus is primarily on undergraduate programming, the university does offer a in SudburyGreater Sudbury ( 2001 census population 155,219) is a city in Northern Ontario. Greater Sudbury was created in 2001 by amalgamating the cities and towns of the Regional Municipality of Sudbury. It is the largest city in Northern Ontario in population, an.

The city's crest contains the words "Ojibwa Kitche Gumeeng Odena" which means "Ojibway town beside large body of water" in the Ojibwe languageOjibwe Ojibwa Chippewa or Anishinaabemoowin is the third most commonly spoken Native language in Canada (after Cree and Inuktitut). It also has many speakers in the United States. Anishinaabemoowin an Algonquian language that is closely related to Cree, P.

1 History

This area was originally called Bawating meaning "rapid water" by the OjibwaFor other uses of Chippewa see Chippewa (disambiguation). The Ojibwa or Chippewa (also Ojibwe Ojibway Chippeway are the third-largest group of Native Americans in the United States, surpassed only by the Cherokee and Navajo. The major component group of t. After the visit of Étienne Brûlétienne Brul ( 1592 1632) was a French explorer in Canada in the 17th century. A rugged outdoorsman, he took to the lifestyle of the First Nations peoples with a passion, leading to some disdain by other Europeans. Brule travelled to New France in 1608 and in 1623Events August 6 Pope Urban VIII is elected to the Papacy. Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Osman II (1618- 1622) to Murat IV ( 1623- 1640). The Safavids recapture Baghdad. England first colonizes Saint Kitts and Nevis. Wilhelm Schickard invent, the French called it "Sault de Gaston" in honour of the brother of King Louis XIII of France. In 1669, French Jesuit missionaries renamed it to Sault Sainte Marie, which is French for "St. Mary's Rapids". Sault Ste. Marie was incorporated as a town in 1887 and a city in 1912.

2 Transportation

Sault Ste. Marie is served by Highway 17, which is a segment of the Trans-Canada Highway in the region. The highway connects the city to Thunder Bay to the northwest and Sudbury to the east. The International Bridge also directs traffic from downtown to the I-75 freeway in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, which runs through Saginaw, Flint and Detroit before the Michigan/Ohio border.

The city also plays an inherited role in marine transportation , with the locks in Michigan being an integral component of the St. Lawrence Seaway. However, the city also holds a small-scale lock which is used by small boats and other pleasure craft in the summer.

Sault Ste. Marie is also served by a regional aeroport, commercial rail and a city bus service.

3 Bilingualism Controversy

On January 29, 1990, the city of Sault Ste. Marie became a flashpoint in the Meech Lake Accord debate when its mayor, Joe Fratesi, shepherded a resolution through city council declaring the city English-only. Although Sault Ste. Marie was not the first Ontario municipality to pass such a resolution, it was the largest and the most controversial.

Responding to a French-language education controversy which began in 1987, the Sault Alliance for the Preservation of English Language Rights began circulating petitions to have this resolution passed by council. The group worked in concert with the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada, a lobby group which was concurrently campaigning against the provincial government's French Language Services Act. (See also Franco-ontarian.)

Although that law dealt only with provincial government services, APEC's strategy was to convince municipalities that they would be required to provide services in French, regardless of cost or benefit, in an attempt to convince the municipalities to pass this type of resolution. As a result of the schooling controversy, Sault Ste. Marie was fertile ground for APEC's campaign, and the SAPELR petition quickly garnered 25,000 signatures.

On January 27, 1990, the city's daily newspaper, the Sault Star, reported that council would debate the language resolution two days later. This triggered the attention of the national media, and with reporters from all across Canada in town to cover the debate, the resolution passed council 11-2.

Many political figures, including Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien and Ontario premier David Peterson, expressed their opposition to the city's move. Both Peterson and his successor as premier, Bob Rae, refused to meet with Fratesi on several subsequent occasions, even to discuss unrelated matters.

In particular, the resolution was seen as a slap in the face to Quebec, where it was widely viewed as racist. (One Environment Canada meteorologist sent out a weather report for Sault Ste. Marie in which the forecast called for "a chance of flurries and Nazis", although she was suspended.) Coming as it did just six months before the Meech Lake ratification deadline, the Sault Ste. Marie resolution was a direct contributor to the resurgence of nationalist sentiment in Quebec in the 1990s, and thus to the 1995 Quebec referendum as well.

Fratesi, who was viewed by Sault Ste. Marie voters throughout the controversy as standing up for the city's interests, was re-elected mayor in a landslide in 1991. He later became embroiled in a conflict of interest controversy in 1995 when he applied for the job of Chief Administrative Officer of the city, while still sitting as mayor -- and therefore in charge of the city council who were responsible for the hiring decision.

In July, 1994, a court ruling struck down the English-only resolution as ultra vires the council's authority. However, with the city's reputation badly damaged by the affair, it is widely believed that even today, the city's economy is still suffering from the fallout.

4 External Links

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