Shiners' War

In 1835, Shiners began interdicting timber rafts owned by French Canadians going down the Ottawa River to Montreal.[5]

More than just gaining the lumber industry, Aylen set his sights to taking over Bytown. Aylen ordered his Irish supporters to attack the French Canadian and drive them out of the area, thus guaranteeing jobs and high wages to the Irish, especially the Shiners.[4] Though special constables were assigned as peacekeepers, they either looked the other way or were on Aylen's payroll. Even if pursued, all that the hooligans would have to do was cross the border into Lower Canada, where they would evade arrest. As there was no jail or courthouse in Bytown, those who were captured had to be transported to Perth, Ontario, for trial; however, poorly-paid officers were reluctant to make the 50-mile trip given the great chance of being ambushed along the way.[5]

The Irishmen also controlled the Union Bridge at Chaudière Falls, where lumberman Joseph Montferrand was ambushed and supposedly fought off over 150 Shiners.[6] This event would be one of many examples of Montferrand's tough defense of French rights, making him the natural leader of the French Canadians against Aylen's Irishmen.[5]

In August 1835, Bathurst District Agricultural Society's one-dollar membership fee allowed Aylen and his Shiners to overwhelm authentic members, after which they would vote in Aylen and his friends as directors.[5][4] This, however, would be one step too far. On 20 October that year, a group of prominent Bytown citizens formed the Association of the Preservation of the Public Peace and appealed to town magistrates for 100 guns in order to arm citizens. To combat the Shiners, the town formed a volunteer force called the Bytown Rifles. Unfortunately, the Rifles would quickly disintegrate as nobody was willing to serve under its disciplinarian commander, Captain Baker. In an attempt to control the violence and keep the peace, vigilantes made nightly patrols. While these vigilantes had some success in maintaining order, the Shiners continued to terrorize the citizens of Bytown.[5]

In March 1836, the leading lumbermen of the town founded the Ottawa Lumber Association as an additional step in suppressing violence in their industry. With Aylen as one of its officers, however, the first act of the new organization was “to improve the movement of timber” on the Madawaska River where Aylen had operations, which likely meant protecting Aylen's timber interests from upset French Canadians.[5]

The violence would peak in 1837, when the area saw the highest annual Irish immigration to date, and during a time of financial crisis, rising prices, and increased unemployment in the lumber camps.[1]

In early January 1837, Aylen and his cronies disrupted the election of councillors to the Nepean Township Council, held in Bytown at John Stanley's Tavern. Aylen was elected as one of the three councillors. Nonetheless, he demanded that the other two positions be filled with his men as well, so a gang of 40 to 60 of his men stormed the meeting room. As result, several of Aylen's opponents, including James Johnson—who founded Bytown's first newspaper, the Bytown Independent and Farmer’s Advocate—were violently beaten with sticks and horse whips in both the meeting room and the Tavern's courtyard. The meeting ended with legitimate attendees fleeing, as well as having the provincial statutes and other important papers destroyed.[5] Order would only be restored by intervention of the military.[3][5]

Ten days after the incident, an official inquiry into the riot was held by 4 Bytown magistrates. Most of the 12 or so witnesses who testified blamed Aylen for the affair; Aylen and his men did not testify. Concluding that intense measures were necessary in order to prevent such breach of the peace from occurring again, the magistrates recommended the establishment of a municipal police force as well as the building of a courthouse and jail in Bytown.[5]

In early March 1837, armed men went to the house of James Johnson, who had been beaten in the January riot, on the pretense of searching for a man. Shots were fired into the upstairs rooms, but nobody was hurt. Only a short time later, Johnson was ambushed on Sappers’ bridge by three assailants armed with guns and whips. The assailants nearly succeeded, but Johnson managed to jump into deep snow to save himself. This time, Shiners were not able to act with impunity: the three men who committed this act were captured and taken to Perth to stand trial.[3] Aylen did break them out of jail, but they were subsequently recaptured in late 1837 and served 3 years with hard labour in a penitentiary for attempted murder.[5]

By this time, Bytown citizens themselves were becoming better organized. Aylen, who had been charged with a number of offences over the years without any apparent consequence, either sold or rented out his properties on the Upper Canada side of the Ottawa River, and moved to Aylmer in Lower Canada, where he continued in the lumber business and apparently became a respected member of the community. He died in 1868.[5]

Occasional violence still occurred by groups claiming to be the Shiners until 1845.[1] Nonetheless, while the terrorism continued into the late 1840s, the Shiners began to fade without Peter Aylen to lead them.[5]