Davies presses Ottawa to add Ridgeway Nine to Books of Remembrance

Niagara South MP Fred Davies has asked Veterans Affairs Canada to enter the nine militiamen killed at the Battle of Ridgeway into the Books of Remembrance, 160 years after they died defending what is now Fort Erie.

In a July 28 letter to Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight, Davies asked the department to formally review the case, decide whether the names could join the existing War of 1812 Book of Remembrance or require a supplementary volume, and set out a process and timeline.

His request also covers the Canadians who later died of wounds or disease contracted during the 1866 Fenian Raids campaign, a toll his office puts at 32 by the campaign’s end.

The Books of Remembrance, held in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, list Canadians who died in service to their country.

Davies argued the men’s deaths one year before Confederation cannot disqualify them.

He pointed to the War of 1812 Book of Remembrance, unveiled in 2019, which commemorates more than 1,600 people who died defending the colonies that became Canada, and to the Newfoundland Book of Remembrance, which honours more than 2,300 Newfoundlanders killed in the two world wars before Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949.

“Parliament has already recognized that Confederation is not the dividing line when determining whose sacrifice deserves national remembrance,” said Davies. “The proper test is whether these men gave their lives defending the people and territory that became Canada.”

Veterans Affairs Canada has not yet responded publicly to the request.

The Battle of Ridgeway was fought June 2, 1866, on Limestone Ridge in present-day Fort Erie, after Irish-American fighters known as Fenians crossed the Niagara River from Buffalo. It was Canada’s first modern battle, the first fought entirely by Canadian troops and the first led exclusively by Canadian officers.

“These young men–many of them students, clerks and apprentices–answered the call to defend their communities and their country,” said Davies. “They were the first combat dead of what would become the Canadian Army, yet their sacrifice has never been given a permanent place in the Memorial Chamber on Parliament Hill.”

Veterans of the battle campaigned for years for official recognition and founded Decoration Day, observed each June 2. It became one of Canada’s earliest national commemorations of its war dead and helped shape the Remembrance Day traditions that followed.

Historian Peter Vronsky, author of a book on the battle, spoke at the 160th anniversary ceremony at Ridgeway Battlefield Park in June, saying that the push for inclusion began at the 150th anniversary in 2016 and had gone nowhere.

“One hundred and sixty years is too long,” Vronsky told the crowd.

“The precedent already exists,” said Davies. “This is not a request to rewrite Canada’s commemorative practices. It is a request to apply them fairly and consistently to Canadians who made the ultimate sacrifice defending this country.”

Davies said he wants meaningful progress toward permanent national recognition before Fort Erie gathers for its next annual Ridgeway ceremony in 2027.

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