By Marc Aubin
The Aubin family has been in Canada since the beginning of New France in the early 1600s. In 1891, about 20 years after Confederation, my great-great grandparents, Norbert and Emma Aubin, moved to Lowertown, Ottawa, from Montreal, and had three children: Alpha, Victor, and Adrien. Their long-time home was at 82 St. “André” Street. Norbert worked as a book binder at the National Printing Bureau, which was formerly located on the site of the current National Gallery of Canada. Later, Norbert and Alpha both worked as clerks at Ottawa’s famous A. J. Freiman’s Department Store on Rideau Street (now the Bay).
Norbert was a captain in the Independent Champlain Guard. The story goes that this ceremonial militia was responsible for keeping the peace in Lowertown whenever there were tensions between Catholics and Protestants. One account tells of the Protestant Orangemen marching up Sussex one year with a white horse at the head of the parade. As an act of provocation, the horse was led up the steps of Notre Dame Cathedral and its nose made to touch the front doors.
Adrien and Rose (née Désormeaux) were married in 1913 and had two children, Jean-Charles and Cécile. While they lived throughout Lowertown, by the 1950s Adrien and Rose were back at the house at 80-82 St. Andrew. Adrien’s main career was as a driver for Ottawa’s famous streetcar system, the Ottawa Electric Railway. He also helped in the fight for the right to a French education in Ontario after the Ontario government passed the anti-Francophone Regulation 17 in 1912. One of his main contributions to the fight was as an electioneer. His son, Jean-Charles, remembers one of the few times he saw his father cry was when a candidate he had supported lost a critical election.
Jean-Charles (my grandfather) went to the private French-Catholic school Académie De La Salle on Sussex next to the Cathedral. He later attended the University of Ottawa and studied law at Osgoode Hall in Toronto. After graduating in 1939, he joined the law firm of Lorenzo Lafleur. For a time, he was president of the French Ottawa Chamber of Commerce. Later, he also served as president of the Syndicat d’Oeuvres sociales, which owned Le Droit newspaper.
After meeting at a bowling alley on Rideau Street, Jean-Charles and Lauriette Thérrien dated and were married in 1947. They moved into an old house at 90 Bolton Street in Lowertown, on the same block as Bingham Playground, and had three children: Guy (1948-2021) and the twins, Gilles and Claude (1950).
Clément Aubin, a cousin of Jean-Charles, owned a corner store nearby at Sussex and Dalhousie facing Metcalfe Square Park, which included an old bus in the back that sold street food. Clément was also an alderman (city councillor) at the same time as the legendary Mayor Charlotte Whitton. He fought hard for bilingual traffic signs in predominantly Francophone areas of Ottawa and was a strong supporter of improving local parks.
In 1999, after 60 years of practicing law, Jean-Charles closed Lafleur & Aubin, and transferred most of his files to the practice of Vincent Dagenais Gibson on Dalhousie Street. Mme Cummings, who had been one of his secretaries for almost his entire career, also retired. Jean-Charles and Lauriette would spend the next six months as they had done the past few decades: reading, watching Lawrence Welk, cleaning and cooking, going to mass at Notre Dame Basilica, doing repairs to their rickety old house, and spending time with their three sons and grand-children. Jean-Charles died of pancreatitis in 2000, and Lauriette from Alzheimer’s in 2011.
As many of you know from other articles in this paper, I was quite involved in Lowertown in the 2000s and early 2010s. I still live at 100 Boteler by Bingham Playground. My father (Gilles) and his brother (Claude), who were both local postal workers, can often be seen in the park or at I Deal Coffee hanging out with their friends, including Marcel Gauthier, who lived across the street from them when they were growing up on Bolton!
This area of Lowertown is truly a treasure, with its humble historic homes, mature trees, and neighbours who know each other and cherish the place we live.