ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½

And that’s the problem with the Orange Order. It’s a sectarian organization whose historical goal was the preservation of the power and social position of Protestant men of British descent throughout the British Empire. This was largely accomplished through violence and discrimination. Though the Orange Order in Canada today emphasizes other values — its website says it’s for “like-minded Protestant men and women who, concerned about their Faith and Heritage, wish to preserve ... principles of democracy upon which all Canadians may enjoy equal rights” — it has not publicly reckoned with its troubling history.

The Order was founded in the north of Ireland in 1795. Then a part of Great Britain, Ireland was experiencing a period of heightened republicanism and revolutionary sentiment. The Orange Order was created specifically to protect the supremacy of Protestant Irishmen who sought to maintain Ireland’s union with Great Britain and their preeminence over the Catholic majority.

Also in the 1790s, with the founding of Upper Canada and its capital of York (now ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½) as a haven for loyalist refugees of the American War of Independence, Canada became a prime destination for British immigration. This was particularly the case for Irish Protestants, thousands of whom came to Upper Canada (the future province of Ontario). Many transferred their Orange Order memberships to the new lodges appearing throughout the province.

Irish Catholic immigration to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ also increased during this period, and in the 1840s became a veritable wave. The Great Famine caused 1.5 million to leave Ireland and many came to Canada. In 1847 alone, 38,000 Irish immigrants arrived in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, which at the time had a population of about 20,000. By 1851, as William Smyth writes in his , “ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½: The Belfast of Canada: The Orange Order and the Shaping of Municipal Culture,” half of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½â€™s population was Irish born.

It was at this moment that the Orange Order rose to prominence here. Orangemen worked tirelessly to bolster Ontario’s British, Protestant identity, and to maintain Protestant hegemony in the face of massive Irish Catholic immigration. And the Order was entirely successful. As the Star article noted, membership became a necessity for political and professional advancement. From the 1830s to 1955, every ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ mayor was a Protestant man of British origin, almost all of them Orangemen. (Even today, the city has yet to elect a Catholic mayor.)

The Order had become so powerful in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ by the late 19th century that its official day of celebration, Orangemen’s Day, held the second Sunday of July, became an unofficial civic holiday. This holiday commemorated the victory of an English Protestant army over an Irish Catholic army at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. The victor of that battle — William of Orange — is the namesake of the Order. In ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, Orangeman’s Day featured a massive parade in which the various lodges and affiliated organizations paraded through the streets.

The Orange Order wasn’t just about grand displays of pageantry. Orangemen were more than willing to use violence to maintain their hegemony. In the period from the 1850s through to the 1870s especially, the Order regularly targeted Irish Catholics with mob violence. Most notoriously, in 1875 mobs of Orangemen and their supporters attacked Irish Catholic ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½nians participating in a succession of pilgrimages to various Catholic sites in celebration of the papal jubilee.

As ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ became increasingly diverse, especially after the end of the Second World War, Order membership declined precipitously. As noted in the Star, Orange Order memberships number about 3,500 nationwide. This past weekend, the Orange Order marched through East York on Orangemen’s Day. But while the Order in Canada has recently made some effort to distance itself from its less palatable past, these efforts have not included recognition of past harms done in its name.

Community organizations are an important part of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½’s social fabric. And there are numerous religiously affiliated groups in our city that do community work, provide social supports, and reaffirm identity. Considering the Orange Order’s history of oppression and discrimination, perhaps some public contrition should precede any future parades.

Jonathan Weier teaches ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and labour history at George Brown College.