About the Book In 2007 the Rideau Canal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Labourers on the Rideau Canal honours the difficult, tragic lives of the workers who were instrumental in creating such a world treasure. The book includes genealogical paths to uncovering Irish and other groups´ ancestral links to the Rideau Canal.

The front cover identifies the Rideau Canal as a World Heritage Site; the four flowers, rose, thistle, shamrock, and lily, represent the racial background of the labourers: Irish, English, Scots and French.

The eight frames show the labourers at work. The water and Canal extend to the back cover which contains the Celtic Cross, in memory of the labourers, which stands at the beginning of the Canal between the Parliament Buildings and the Chateau Laurier.

About the Author Katherine M.J McKenna
An award winning historian at the University of Western Ontario, Dr. McKenna´s publications in the area of Upper Canadian history include A Life of Propriety: Anne Murray Powell and her Family 1755-1849 (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen´s Press, 1994). In 2005, she was awarded the Hilda Neatby Prize of the Canadian Historical Association for the Best English Article in Women´s History for her article Lower Class Women´s Agency in Upper Canada: Prescott´s Board of Police Records 1834-1850 (Social History/Histoire Social 36, No.72 (2003): 347-70.) She has written a number of historical reports for Parks Canada on the history of the construction of the Rideau Canal.