161-650: Kenora ( / k ə ˈ n ɔːr ə / ), previously named Rat Portage ( French : Portage-aux-Rats ), is a city situated on the Lake of the Woods in Ontario , Canada, close to the Manitoba boundary, and about 210 km (130 mi) east of Winnipeg by road. It is the seat of Kenora District . The history of the name extends beyond the time of French settlers arriving in the region. The name Rat Portage had its origin in
322-788: A 999-year lease on the O&;Q on January 4, 1884. In 1895, it acquired a minority interest in the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway , giving it a link to New York and the Northeast United States. The last spike in the CPR was driven on November 7, 1885, by one of its directors, Donald Smith. The first transcontinental passenger train departed from Montreal 's Dalhousie Station , at Berri Street and Notre Dame Street, at 8 pm on June 28, 1886, and arrived at Port Moody at noon on July 4. This train consisted of two baggage cars,
483-416: A humid continental climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfb ) with warm summers and cold, dry winters. Its climate is influenced by continental air masses. Winters are cold with a January high of −11 °C (12 °F) and a low of −21 °C (−6 °F). Temperatures below −20 °C (−4 °F) occur on 45 days. The average annual snowfall is 158 cm (62 in), which is lower than places to
644-454: A " dead man's switch ", a device utilising a clothespin, wires, battery and dynamite, where the user holds the clothespin in the mouth, exerting force on the clothespin. Should the user release the clothespin, two wires attached to both sides of the pin complete an electrical circuit, sending current from the battery, detonating the explosives. After robbing the bank, the robber exited the CIBC, and
805-744: A French official to teachers in the department of Finistère , in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process
966-431: A comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish. His criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the number of countries using the language and their respective populations,
1127-523: A corporate reorganization, each of the major operations, including its rail operations, were organized as separate subsidiaries. The name of the railway was changed to CP Rail, and the parent company changed its name to Canadian Pacific Limited in 1971. Its air, express, telecommunications, hotel and real estate holdings were spun off, and ownership of all of the companies transferred to Canadian Pacific Investments. The slogan was: "TO THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE WORLD". The company discarded its beaver logo, adopting
1288-462: A day, paid in rice mats, and not including expenses, leaving barely anything to send home. They did the most dangerous construction jobs, such as working with explosives to clear tunnels through rock. The exact number of Chinese workers who died is unknown, but historians estimate the number is between 600 and 800. By 1883, railway construction was progressing rapidly, but the CPR was in danger of running out of funds. In response, on January 31, 1884,
1449-476: A fleet of over a thousand Colonist cars , low-budget sleeper cars designed to transport immigrant families from eastern Canadian seaports to the west. During the first decade of the 20th century, the CPR continued to build more lines. In 1908, the CPR opened a line connecting Toronto with Sudbury . Several operational improvements were also made to the railway in Western Canada. On November 3, 1909,
1610-555: A foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages). French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and
1771-573: A last spike at Feist Lake, near Vermilion Bay, Ontario , the line was turned over to the newly-minted private Canadian Pacific Railway company. In 1883, the first wheat shipment from Manitoba was transported over this line to the Lakehead (Fort William and Port Arthur) on Lake Superior. Macdonald would later return as prime minister and adopt a more aggressive construction policy; bonds were floated in London and called for tenders to complete sections of
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#17327721103511932-501: A mail car, one second-class coach, two immigrant sleepers, two first-class coaches, two sleeping cars and a diner (several dining cars were used throughout the journey, as they were removed from the train during the night, with another one added the next morning). By that time, however, the CPR had decided to move its western terminus from Port Moody to Granville , which was renamed "Vancouver" later that year. The first official train destined for Vancouver arrived on May 23, 1887, although
2093-453: A million troops and passengers and four million tons of cargo. Twenty seven survived and returned to CPR. CPR also helped the war effort with money and jobs. CPR made loans and guarantees to the Allies of some $ 100 million. As a lasting tribute, CPR commissioned three statues and 23 memorial tablets to commemorate the efforts of those who fought and those who died in the war. After the war,
2254-705: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on
2415-518: A population density of 70.7/km (183.2/sq mi) in 2021. The median household income in 2005 for Kenora was $ 59,946, which is slightly below the Ontario provincial average of $ 60,455. Forestry , tourism and mining are the three largest sectors of the Kenora economy. The population balloons in the spring and summer to almost double the normal population when summer residents move in. The Lake of
2576-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in
2737-683: A result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including the United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ,
2898-789: A series of different owners since being spun off of the Canadian Pacific in 1995. The first operator was the Canadian American Railroad a division of Iron Road Railways . In 2002 the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic took over operations after CDAC declared bankruptcy. The Central, Maine and Quebec Railway started operations in 2014 after the MMA declared bankruptcy due to the Lac-Mégantic derailment. On this new acquisition, CP CEO Keith Creel remarked that this gives CP
3059-933: A significant port on the Atlantic Ocean. The CPR acquired the Quebec Central Railway on December 14, 1912. During the late 19th century, the railway undertook an ambitious program of hotel construction, building Glacier House in Glacier National Park , Mount Stephen House at Field, British Columbia , the Château Frontenac in Quebec City and the Banff Springs Hotel . By then, the CPR had competition from three other transcontinental lines, all of them money-losers. In 1919, these lines were consolidated into
3220-617: A true coast-to-coast network across Canada and an increased presence in New England. On June 4, 2020; Canadian Pacific bought the Central Maine and Quebec. On March 21, 2021, CP announced that it was planning to purchase the Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS) for US$ 29 billion. The US Surface Transportation Board (STB) would first have to approve the purchase, which was expected to be completed by
3381-547: A variant of Canadian French , is spoken in parts of New England . Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana ), but is nearly extinct today. French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower Louisiana , such as Mon Louis Island , Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi (the latter only being discovered by linguists in
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#17327721103513542-457: A working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As
3703-437: Is 95%, and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna , it is 84%. In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal (95% and 84% respectively), French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French
3864-472: Is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people , and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates , and on official buildings (alongside Arabic). Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon , with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone. The use of English
4025-489: Is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English). Given
4186-654: Is also active during the winter months as visitors come not only to observe its natural environment but also to partake in ice fishing, snowboarding, skiing (both downhill and cross country) and snowmachining. Kenora has two travel information centres. One is the newly renovated (2011) pavilion, located on the Harbourfront. The second information centre, called the Discovery Centre, opened July 22, 2011, and serves visitors year-round from its location at 931 Lake View Drive (just off of Highway 17 West, also known as
4347-598: Is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories ( Northwest Territories , Nunavut , and Yukon ). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario , the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are available in
4508-563: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English
4669-404: Is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the 8th and 14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects . The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from
4830-469: Is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in
4991-828: Is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights , the Caribbean Court of Justice , the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , the International Court of Justice , the International Criminal Tribunal for
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5152-690: Is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited , known until 2023 as Canadian Pacific Railway Limited , which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001. The railway is headquartered in Calgary , Alberta. In 2023, the railway owned approximately 20,100 kilometres (12,500 mi) of track in seven provinces of Canada and into the United States, stretching from Montreal to Vancouver , and as far north as Edmonton . Its rail network also served Minneapolis–St. Paul , Milwaukee , Detroit , Chicago , and Albany, New York , in
5313-762: Is publicly traded on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CP. Its U.S. headquarters are in Minneapolis . As of March 30, 2023, the largest shareholder of Canadian Pacific stock exchange is TCI Fund Management Limited , a London-based hedge fund that owns 6% of the company. The creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway was undertaken as the National Dream by
5474-639: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,
5635-553: Is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value. French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu , where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023. In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia , 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure
5796-483: Is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% of the population. Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg , where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco . At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in
5957-528: Is the north-easternmost section of the City of Kenora. The Township of Jaffray was founded in 1894 and the Township of Melick in 1902; the two townships were amalgamated in 1908 as Jaffray and Melick, and renamed Jaffray Melick in 1911. Compared to Keewatin, Norman, and Rat Portage, Jaffray Melick is the most rural community, with few retail stores and one golf course, Beauty Bay, on Black Sturgeon Lake. Kenora has
6118-492: Is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and New Hampshire . In Louisiana , it is tied with Spanish for second-most spoken if Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language (after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire . Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French . New England French , essentially
6279-424: Is the sole official language in the province of Quebec , where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal , which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism
6440-764: The Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands . It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa . The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland , with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French. The majority of
6601-829: The Art Ross Trophy is named. Kenora is the smallest town to have won a major North American sports title. Rat Portage is mentioned in Algernon Blackwood 's famous 1910 story, "The Wendigo". On November 22, 1965, around 400 Aboriginal protesters, inspired by the Selma to Montgomery marches against white supremacy and racial discrimination in the Southern United States , undertook a quarter-mile march against anti-indigenous racism along Main Street to Legion Hall, where they expressed their grievances to
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6762-655: The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement of 1989, which liberalized trade between the two nations, the CPR's expansion continued during the early 1990s: CP Rail gained full control of the Soo Line in 1990, adding the "System" to the former's name, and bought the Delaware and Hudson Railway in 1991. These two acquisitions gave CP Rail routes to the major American cities of Chicago (via the Soo Line and Milwaukee Road as part of its historically logical route) and New York City (via
6923-818: The Conservative government of John A. Macdonald , together with mining magnate Alexander Tilloch Galt . As a condition for joining the Canadian Confederation , British Columbia had insisted on a transport link to the East, with the rest of the Confederation. In 1873, Macdonald, among other high-ranking politicians, bribed in the Pacific Scandal , granted contracts to the Canada Pacific Railway Company, which
7084-597: The Delaware and Hudson Railway in the northeastern United States. However, the new subsidiary, threatened with being sold off and free to innovate, quickly spun off money-losing track to short lines, instituted scheduled freight service, and produced an unexpected turn-around in profitability. On 1 January 2001 the StL&;H was formally amalgamated with the CP Rail system. In 2001, the CPR's parent company, Canadian Pacific Limited , spun off its five subsidiaries, including
7245-609: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of
7406-517: The Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only a second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and
7567-485: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains
7728-441: The Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically,
7889-439: The International Olympic Committee , the Council of Europe , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest , one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency , World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It
8050-442: The Kettle Valley Railway in British Columbia, was built in response to the booming mining and smelting economy in southern British Columbia, and the tendency of the local geography to encourage and enable easier access from neighbouring US states than from Vancouver or the rest of Canada, which was viewed to be as much of a threat to national security as it was to the province's control of its own resources. The local passenger service
8211-483: The Lethbridge Viaduct over the Oldman River valley at Lethbridge , Alberta, was opened. It is 1,624 metres (5,328 feet) long and, at its maximum, 96 metres (315 feet) high, making it one of the longest railway bridges in Canada. In 1916, the CPR replaced its line through Rogers Pass , which was prone to avalanches (the most serious of which killed 62 men in 1910) with the Connaught Tunnel , an eight-kilometre-long (5-mile) tunnel under Mount Macdonald that was, at
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#17327721103518372-420: The New Brunswick Railway in 1891 for 991 years, and built the International Railway of Maine , connecting Montreal with Saint John, New Brunswick , in 1889. The connection with Saint John on the Atlantic coast made the CPR the first truly transcontinental railway company in Canada and permitted trans-Atlantic cargo and passenger services to continue year-round when sea ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence closed
8533-420: The Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia , while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis ), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland , epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court , as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange . It
8694-430: The Ojibway people. Among the earliest Europeans in the Lake of the Woods area was explorer and fur trader Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye . The first European, Jacques de Noyon , sighted Lake of the Woods in 1688. Pierre de La Vérendrye established a secure French trading post, Fort Saint Charles , to the south of present-day Kenora near the current Canada/U.S. border in 1732, and France maintained
8855-438: The Ojibwe name Wazhashk-Onigam , which, roughly translated, means portage to the country of the muskrats . A shortened and somewhat corrupted version, Rat Portage, was adopted by the Hudson's Bay Company in naming their post, then located on Old Fort Island on the Winnipeg River . When the post was moved to the mainland and a town grew up around it, the name Rat Portage was assumed by the community. The town of Rat Portage
9016-422: The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario . Dave Canfield served as mayor from 2000 until 2006, when he was defeated by Len Compton in the 2006 municipal election ; Compton did not run in the 2010 municipal election , however, and Canfield was re-elected as his successor. The current mayor is Andrew Poirier. Some residents of Kenora, citing dissatisfaction with the level of government service provided to
9177-460: The Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa & Occidental Railway from the Quebec government and by creating a new railway company, the Ontario and Quebec Railway (O&Q). It also launched a fleet of Great Lakes ships to link its terminals. Through the O&Q, the CPR had effected purchases and long-term leases of several railways, and built a line between Perth, Ontario , and Toronto (completed on May 5, 1884) to connect these acquisitions. The CPR obtained
9338-525: The Rocky Mountains via the Yellowhead Pass . However, a more southerly route across the arid Palliser's Triangle in Saskatchewan and via Kicking Horse Pass and down the Field Hill to the Rocky Mountain Trench was chosen. In 1881, construction progressed at a pace too slow for the railway's officials who, in 1882, hired the renowned railway executive William Cornelius Van Horne to oversee construction. Van Horne stated that he would have 800 km (500 mi) of main line built in 1882. Floods delayed
9499-399: The Stanley Cup in 1907, making Kenora the smallest city to have ever won the trophy. Many local contemporary ice hockey clubs pay homage to the team by using its name, including the town's amateur, junior, and senior-level men's team. Kenora is represented in the House of Commons by Conservative MP Eric Melillo , and in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by MPP Greg Rickford of
9660-428: The Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by
9821-436: The World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin
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#17327721103519982-508: The last spike was driven at Craigellachie, British Columbia . Four days earlier, the last spike of the Lake Superior section was driven in just west of Jackfish, Ontario . While the railway was completed four years after the original 1881 deadline, it was completed more than five years ahead of the new date of 1891 that Macdonald gave in 1881. In Eastern Canada, the CPR had created a network of lines reaching from Quebec City to St. Thomas, Ontario , by 1885 – mainly by buying
10143-497: The provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco; the Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to
10304-450: The " Crow Rate " was permanently replaced by the Western Grain Transportation Act , which allowed the gradual increase of grain shipping prices. The Crowsnest Pass line opened on June 18, 1898, and followed a complicated route through the maze of valleys and passes in southern British Columbia, rejoining the original mainline at Hope after crossing the Cascade Mountains via Coquihalla Pass . The Southern Mainline, generally known as
10465-427: The ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in
10626-427: The 1950s, the railway introduced new innovations in passenger service. In 1955, it introduced The Canadian , a new luxury transcontinental train. However, in the 1960s, the company started to pull out of passenger services, ending services on many of its branch lines. It also discontinued its secondary transcontinental train The Dominion in 1966, and in 1970, unsuccessfully applied to discontinue The Canadian . For
10787-455: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;
10948-474: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed
11109-430: The 4th Viscount Gort . Later, a highway was built through Kenora in 1932, becoming part of Canada's first coast-to-coast highway in 1943, and then part of the Trans-Canada Highway , placing the community on both of Canada's major transcontinental transportation routes. The original barrier to the completion of the highway concerned the crossing of the Winnipeg River at two locations. The single-span arch bridges are among
11270-464: The CPR Act of 1874, work began in 1875 on the Lake Superior to Manitoba section of the CPR. The ceremonial sod-turning at Westfort on June 1, 1875, was prominently reported in the June 10 edition of the Toronto Globe . It noted that a crowd of "upwards of 500 ladies and gentlemen" gathered to celebrate the event on the left bank of the Kaministiquia River in the District of Thunder Bay, about four miles upriver from Fort William. Once completed in 1882 with
11431-421: The CPR, into independent companies. In September 2007, CPR announced it was acquiring the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad from London-based Electra Private Equity . The merger was completed as of October 31, 2008. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. trains resumed regular operations on June 1, 2012, after a nine-day strike by some 4,800 locomotive engineers, conductors and traffic controllers who walked off
11592-485: The CPR, to action. During this time the railway land grants were formalized. The Great Depression , which lasted from 1929 until 1939, hit many companies heavily. While the CPR was affected, it was not affected to the extent of its rival CNR because it, unlike the CNR, was debt-free. The CPR scaled back on some of its passenger and freight services and stopped issuing dividends to its shareholders after 1932. Hard times led to
11753-703: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French
11914-544: The Canadian government to build the railway, the CPR was granted 100,000 square kilometres (25 million acres). Canadian Pacific then began an intense campaign to bring immigrants to Canada; its agents operated in many overseas locations, where immigrants were often sold a package that included passage on a CP ship, travel on a CP train and land sold by the CP railway. Land was priced at $ 2.50 an acre and up but required cultivation. To transport immigrants, Canadian Pacific developed
12075-917: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,
12236-765: The D&;H). During the 1990s, both CP Rail and CN attempted unsuccessfully to buy out the eastern assets of the other, so as to permit further rationalization. In 1996, CP Rail moved its head office from Windsor Station in Montreal to Gulf Canada Square in Calgary and changed its name back to Canadian Pacific Railway. A new subsidiary company, the St. Lawrence and Hudson Railway , was created to operate its money-losing lines in eastern North America, covering Quebec , Southern and Eastern Ontario , trackage rights to Chicago, Illinois , (on Norfolk Southern lines from Detroit ) as well as
12397-538: The Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of
12558-528: The Federal government created Canadian National Railways (CNR, later CN) out of several bankrupt railways that fell into government hands during and after the war. CNR would become the main competitor to the CPR in Canada. In 1923, Henry Worth Thornton replaced David Blyth Hanna becoming the second president of the CNR, and his competition spurred Edward Wentworth Beatty , the first Canadian-born president of
12719-484: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained
12880-691: The Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as
13041-755: The Kicking Horse River just after the Trans Canada Highway overpass. The three crew members on the lead locomotive were killed. The Canadian Pacific Police Service (CPPS) investigated the fatal derailment. It later came to light that, although Creel said that the RCMP "retain jurisdiction" over the investigation, the RCMP wrote that "it never had jurisdiction because the crash happened on CP property". On January 26, 2020, Canadian current affairs program The Fifth Estate broadcast an episode on
13202-451: The OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as a second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and
13363-464: The Quebec government added the CPR, along with lessor World Fuel Services (WFS), to the list of corporate entities from which it seeks reimbursement for the environmental cleanup of the Lac-Mégantic derailment. On July 15, the press reported that CP would appeal the legal order. On October 12, 2014, it was reported that Canadian Pacific had tried to enter into a merger with American railway CSX , but
13524-664: The Trans Canada highway). The Lake of the Woods Museum and Douglas Family Art Centre are located at The MUSE. Harbourfront, a park on the shore of Lake of the Woods, hosts the city's annual winter and summer festivals, as well as concerts. Huskie the Muskie, a 40 feet (12 m) statue of a fighting muskellunge , is located in McLeod Park. The city's downtown core has a public arts project, with 20 murals depicting
13685-402: The United States. The railway was first built between eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1875 and 1885 (connecting with Ottawa Valley and Georgian Bay area lines built earlier), fulfilling a commitment extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871; the CPR was Canada's first transcontinental railway . Primarily a freight railway, the CPR was for decades
13846-667: The Woods District Hospital, has three facilities in the city: the hospital itself, Morningstar Rehabilitation Centre, and Mental Health and Addictions services, located in St. Joseph's Health Centre. Since Kenora is one of two judicial districts in Northwestern Ontario , it has disproportionate housing shortage as people from across the region with little to no social support in Kenora are unable to find places to stay after release from prison or while waiting in
14007-438: The Woods and numerous smaller lakes situated all around Kenora are the major draw for cottagers who summer here. Many are from the neighbouring province of Manitoba and the state of Minnesota. Kenora, a site of natural attractions, has visitors from all over the world year round. In the summer months visitors come to the area to undertake activities including swimming, biking, fishing, hiking, and boating. Kenora's tourist industry
14168-571: The city before their court dates. The situation worsened in 2013, when the judge in the Rainy River District moved and the position and its responsibilities was transferred to Kenora. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from
14329-542: The city centre. M.S. Kenora is a cruise located at the waterfront. Highway 17 passes through Kenora's urban core, and the Highway 17A Kenora By-Pass goes around the city. Both routes are designated as part of the Trans-Canada Highway . Highway 658 extends northerly from Kenora to Redditt. Kenora Transit operates three routes, from Monday to Saturday, 7:00am to 6:30pm. Kenora's hospital, Lake of
14490-589: The city's mayor and councillors. This march became widely referred to as Canada's first civil rights march. In 1967, the year of the Canadian Centennial , Kenora erected a sculpture known as Husky the Muskie . It has become the town's mascot and one of its most recognizable features. A dramatic bank robbery took place in Kenora on May 10, 1973. An unknown man entered the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce heavily armed and wearing
14651-545: The company owns the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad , a Hammond, Indiana -based terminal railroad along with Conrail Shared Assets Operations . CPR purchased the Kansas City Southern Railway in December 2021 for US$ 31 billion . On April 14, 2023, KCS became a wholly owned subsidiary of CPR, and both CPR and its subsidiaries began doing business under the name of its parent company, CPKC . The CPR
14812-673: The controlling interests of the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway (TH&B) from Conrail and molded it into the Canadian Pacific System, dissolving the TH&;B's name from the books in 1985. In 1987, most of CPR's trackage in the Great Lakes region, including much of the original Soo Line, were spun off into a new railway, the Wisconsin Central , which was subsequently purchased by CN . Influenced by
14973-572: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway ( French : Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique ) ( reporting marks CP , CPAA , MILW , SOO ), also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), was a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway
15134-583: The country of the muskrat") — the community kept that name until 1905, when it was renamed Kenora . Kenora was once claimed as part of the Province of Manitoba, and there are early references to Rat Portage, Manitoba. There was a long-lasting argument between the two provinces known as the Ontario-Manitoba boundary dispute. Each province claimed the town as part of their territory and the dispute lasted from 1870 to 1884. Although Ottawa had ruled
15295-617: The country. Additionally, 22 of the CPR's ships went to war, 12 of which were sunk. After the Second World War, the transportation industry in Canada changed. Where railways had previously provided almost universal freight and passenger services, cars, trucks and airplanes started to take traffic away from railways. This naturally helped the CPR's air and trucking operations, and the railway's freight operations continued to thrive hauling resource traffic and bulk commodities. However, passenger trains quickly became unprofitable. During
15456-510: The country. The CPR and the CNR shared the honours of pulling the royal train across the country, with the CPR undertaking the westbound journey from Quebec City to Vancouver. Later that year, the Second World War began. As it had done in World War I, the CPR devoted much of its resources to the war effort. It retooled its Angus Shops in Montreal to produce Valentine tanks and other armoured vehicles, and transported troops and resources across
15617-632: The creation of new political parties such as the Social Credit movement and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation , as well as popular protest in the form of the On-to-Ottawa Trek . One highlight of the late 1930s, both for the railway and for Canada, was the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during their 1939 royal tour of Canada , the first time that the reigning monarch had visited
15778-519: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French
15939-604: The derailment, and the next day the Canadian Transportation Safety Board (TSB) called for the RCMP to investigate as lead investigator Don Crawford said, "There is enough to suspect there's negligence here and it needs to be investigated by the proper authority". On February 4, 2020, the TSB demoted its lead investigator in the crash probe after his superiors decided these comments were "completely inappropriate". The TSB stated that it "does not share
16100-774: The derailment. Part of the compromise was to accept GO Transit commuter rail service along the Galt Subdivision corridor up to Milton, Ontario . Limited trains ran along the Milton line on weekdays only. Expansions to Cambridge, Ontario may be coming in the future. In 1984, CP Rail commenced construction of the Mount Macdonald Tunnel to augment the Connaught Tunnel under the Selkirk Mountains . The first revenue train passed through
16261-414: The east as it is influenced by the dry air of continental high-pressure zones, resulting in relatively dry winters. Summers are warm with a July high of 24 °C (75 °F) and a low of 15 °C (59 °F) and temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) occur on 5.3 days. The average annual precipitation is 662 mm (26 in), with most of it being concentrated in the summer months with June being
16422-448: The economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged." Knowledge of French
16583-594: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as
16744-516: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of
16905-915: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,
17066-829: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being
17227-726: The government passed the Railway Relief Bill, providing a further $ 22.5 million in loans to the CPR. The bill received royal assent on March 6, 1884. In March 1885, the North-West Rebellion broke out in the District of Saskatchewan . Van Horne, in Ottawa at the time, suggested to the government that the CPR could transport troops to Qu'Appelle in the District of Assiniboia in 10 days. Some sections of track were incomplete or had not been used before, but
17388-647: The government-owned Canadian National Railways . During the First World War, CPR put the entire resources of the "world's greatest travel system" at the disposal of the British Empire , not only trains and tracks, but also its ships, shops, hotels, telegraphs and, above all, its people. Aiding the war effort meant transporting and billeting troops; building and supplying arms and munitions; arming, lending and selling ships. Fifty-two CPR ships were pressed into service during World War I, carrying more than
17549-429: The job on May 23, stalling Canadian freight traffic and costing the economy an estimated CA$ 80 million ( US$ 77 million ). The strike ended with a government back-to-work bill forcing both sides to come to a binding agreement . On July 6, 2013, a unit train of crude oil which CP had subcontracted to short-line operator Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway derailed in Lac-Mégantic , killing 47. On August 14, 2013,
17710-401: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French
17871-479: The language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English. A former French mandate , Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The French language in Lebanon
18032-612: The language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario . Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa ,
18193-479: The last to hold onto Gaulish. The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke langue d'oïl while the population in the south spoke langue d'oc . Langue d'oïl grew into what
18354-597: The line had already been in use for three months. The CPR quickly became profitable, and all loans from the federal government were repaid years ahead of time. In 1888, a branch line was opened between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie where the CPR connected with the American railway system and its own steamships. That same year, work was started on a line from London, Ontario , to the Canada–US border at Windsor, Ontario . That line opened on June 12, 1890. The CPR also leased
18515-706: The longest of their type in North America. During the Prohibition era in the United States, the Lake of the Woods served as a smuggler's route for the transport of alcohol. In December 1883, there was a large fire in Rat Portage, rendering 70 of the town's then population of 700 homeless. The Stanley Cup was won by the Kenora Thistles hockey team in 1907. The team featured such Hall of Famers as Billy McGimsie , Tommy Phillips , and Art Ross , for whom
18676-456: The middle of 2022. However, a competing cash and stock offer was later made by Canadian National Railway (CN) on April 20 at $ 33.7 billion. On 13 May, KCS announced that they planned to accept the merger offer from CN, but would give CP until May 21 to come up with a higher bid. On May 21, KCS and CN agreed to a merger. However, CN's merger attempt was blocked by a STB ruling in August that
18837-420: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by
18998-492: The new Multimark (which, when mirrored by an adjacent "multi-mark" creates a diamond appearance on a globe) that was used – with a different colour background – for each of its operations. On November 10, 1979, a derailment of a hazardous materials train in Mississauga, Ontario , led to the evacuation of 200,000 people; there were no fatalities. Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion threatened to sue Canadian Pacific for
19159-460: The next eight years, it continued to apply to discontinue the service, and service on The Canadian declined markedly. On October 29, 1978, CP Rail transferred its passenger services to Via Rail , a new federal Crown corporation that is responsible for managing all intercity passenger service formerly handled by both CP Rail and CN. Via eventually took almost all of its passenger trains, including The Canadian , off CP's lines. In 1968, as part of
19320-549: The only practical means of long-distance passenger transport in most regions of Canada and was instrumental in the colonization and development of Western Canada. The CPR became one of the largest and most powerful companies in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975. The company acquired two American lines in 2009: the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad (DM&E) and the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad (IC&E). Also,
19481-534: The other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF). French was the official language of French India , consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry . It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of
19642-512: The port of Montreal during the winter months. By 1896, competition with the Great Northern Railway for traffic in southern British Columbia forced the CPR to construct a second line across the province, south of the original line. Van Horne, now president of the CPR, asked for government aid, and the government agreed to provide around $ 3.6 million to construct a railway from Lethbridge, Alberta , through Crowsnest Pass to
19803-415: The post until 1763 when it lost the territory to the British in the Seven Years' War . Until then, it was the most northwesterly settlement of New France . In 1836 the Hudson's Bay Company established a post on Old Fort Island, and in 1861, the Company opened a post on the mainland at Kenora's current location. In 1878, the company surveyed lots for the permanent settlement of Rat Portage ("portage to
19964-401: The preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union , where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture . Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union. A leading world language , French
20125-454: The railway in British Columbia. American contractor Andrew Onderdonk was selected, and his men began construction on May 15, 1880. In October 1880, a new consortium signed a contract with the Macdonald government, agreeing to build the railway for $ 25 million in credit and 25 million acres (100,000 km ) of land. In addition, the government defrayed surveying costs and exempted the railway from property taxes for 20 years. A beaver
20286-421: The railway were both important in the community's early history: gold was first discovered in the area in 1850, and by 1893, 20 mines were operating within 24 km (15 mi) of Rat Portage, and the first Canadian ocean-to-ocean train passed through in 1886 on the Canadian Pacific Railway . Among the entrepreneurs attracted to the town was the Hon. JEP Vereker, a retired British army officer and youngest son of
20447-447: The region by the provincial government, have proposed that the region secede from Ontario to join the province of Manitoba . Via Rail offers passenger service to Redditt on the CN transcontinental rail line, approximately 30 minutes and 20 km (12 mi) north of Kenora. The CP transcontinental rail line passes directly through town. Kenora Airport is located 5 nautical miles (9.3 km; 5.8 mi) east northeast of
20608-413: The region's history painted on buildings in the business district. The city is home to a major international freshwater bass fishing tournament. Kenora is sometimes stereotyped as an archetypal " hoser " community, evidenced by the phrase "Kenora dinner jacket" as a nickname for a hoser's flannel shirt . St. Alban's Anglican Cathedral is in Kenora. The now-defunct Kenora Thistles ice hockey won
20769-407: The rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language , Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles . French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in
20930-412: The south shore of Kootenay Lake , in exchange for the CPR agreeing to reduce freight rates in perpetuity for key commodities shipped in Western Canada. The controversial Crowsnest Pass Agreement effectively locked the eastbound rate on grain products and westbound rates on certain "settlers' effects" at the 1897 level. Although temporarily suspended during the First World War , it was not until 1983 that
21091-505: The start of the construction season, but over 672 km (418 mi) of main line, as well as sidings and branch lines, were built that year. The Thunder Bay branch (west from Fort William ) was completed in June 1882 by the Department of Railways and Canals and turned over to the company in May 1883. By the end of 1883, the railway had reached the Rocky Mountains, just 8 km (5.0 mi) east of Kicking Horse Pass. The treacherous 190 km (120 mi) of railway west of Fort William
21252-438: The suspect was never positively identified. The importance of the logging industry declined in the second part of the 20th century, and the last log boom was towed into Kenora in 1985. The tourist and recreation industries have become more important. In addition to the former towns of Keewatin and Jaffray Melick, the city includes the neighbourhoods of Norman, Rabbit Lake, Rideout, Pinecrest, Minto, and Lakeside. Keewatin forms
21413-415: The time of its opening, the longest railway tunnel in the Western Hemisphere . On January 21, 1910, a passenger train derailed on the CPR line at the Spanish River bridge at Nairn, Ontario (near Sudbury ), killing at least 43. On January 3, 1912, the CPR acquired the Dominion Atlantic Railway , a railway that ran in western Nova Scotia . This acquisition gave the CPR a connection to Halifax ,
21574-414: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In
21735-427: The town part of Manitoba in 1881, the issue was finally taken up with the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which eventually decided in Ontario's favour. Kenora officially became part of the province of Ontario in 1889. Boundaries were drawn up for the provinces and the Northwest Angle on Lake of the Woods which definitively drew the borders between Ontario, Manitoba, and the U.S. state of Minnesota . Gold and
21896-458: The trip to Winnipeg was made in nine days and the rebellion quickly suppressed. Controversially, the government subsequently reorganized the CPR's debt and provided a further $ 5 million loan. This money was desperately needed by the CPR. Even with Van Horne's support with moving troops to Qu'Appelle, the government still delayed in giving its support to CPR, due to Macdonald pressuring George Stephen for additional benefits. On November 7, 1885,
22057-481: The tunnel in 1988. At 14.7 km (nine miles), it is the longest tunnel in the Americas. During the 1980s, the Soo Line Railroad , in which CP Rail still owned a controlling interest, underwent several changes. It acquired the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway in 1982. Then on February 21, 1985, the Soo Line obtained a controlling interest in the bankrupt Milwaukee Road , merging it into its system on January 1, 1986. Also in 1980, Canadian Pacific bought out
22218-619: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French
22379-508: The urban intellectual elite. The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization . Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by
22540-425: The use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons , which are German-speaking ) and one of
22701-488: The view of the lead safety investigator". The CPPS say they did a thorough investigation into the actions of the crew, which is now closed and resulted in no charges, while the Alberta Federation of Labour and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference called for an independent police probe. On November 20, 2019, it was announced that Canadian Pacific would purchase the Central Maine and Quebec Railway from Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors . The line has had
22862-415: The westernmost section of the City of Kenora. Norman was a small community halfway between the village of Keewatin and Rat Portage. The Village of Keewatin was founded in 1877 while the Village of Norman was founded in 1892; both communities amalgamated with Rat Portage in 1905 to form the Township of Kenora. Keewatin eventually separated and was founded as a Township in 1908. The Jaffray Melick neighbourhood
23023-470: The wettest month and February the driest. During the winter Kenora will get precipitation mostly in the form of snow, other forms of winter precipitation include ice, sleet, and freezing rain. Snow cover usually lasts from November to March, about 154 days or 42% of the year. The city frequently gets late spring and summer thunderstorms, only on occasion severe, averaging 24 days a year with thunderstorm activity. The highest temperature ever recorded in Kenora
23184-481: The workplace. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese . In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of
23345-402: The world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories can speak French as either a first or a second language . This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as
23506-446: The world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share the official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in
23667-430: Was 40.6 °C (105.1 °F) on 11 July 1936. The coldest temperature ever recorded was −43.9 °C (−47.0 °F) on 20 January 1943. In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , Kenora had a population of 14,967 living in 6,510 of its 7,637 total private dwellings, a change of -0.9% from its 2016 population of 15,096 . With a land area of 211.65 km (81.72 sq mi), it had
23828-409: Was chosen as the railway's logo in honour of Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal , who had risen from factor to governor of the Hudson's Bay Company over a lengthy career in the beaver fur trade. Building the railway took over four years. The Canadian Pacific Railway began its westward expansion from Bonfield, Ontario , where the first spike was driven into a sunken railway tie. That
23989-419: Was coined by combining the first two letters of Ke ewatin, No rman and Ra t Portage. The traditional Ojibwe name of Kenora is Wazhashk-Onigamiing , meaning place of the muskrat portage , corresponding to the older English name of the settlement, Rat Portage . The nearby First Nation band of the Anishinabe of Wauzhushk Onigum retains this name as well. Kenora is situated on the traditional territory of
24150-650: Was completed by Purcell & Company, headed by "Canada's wealthiest and greatest railroad contractor," industrialist Hugh Ryan . Many thousands of navvies worked on the railway. Many were European immigrants. An unknown number of Stoney Nakoda also assisted in track laying and construction work in the Kicking Horse Pass region. In British Columbia, government contractors eventually hired 17,000 workers from China, known as " coolies ". After 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 months of hard labour, they could net as little as $ 16 ($ 485 in 2023 adjusted for inflation) Chinese labourers in British Columbia made only between 75 cents and $ 1.25
24311-531: Was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj , numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero). Within Old French many dialects emerged but
24472-400: Was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti. This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Arpitan . The evolution of Latin in Gaul
24633-469: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates
24794-426: Was preparing to enter a city vehicle driven by undercover police officer Don Milliard. A sniper, Robert Letain, positioned across the street, shot the robber, causing the explosives to detonate and kill the robber. Most of the windows on the shops on the main street were shattered as a result of the blast. Later, Kenora Police submitted DNA samples from the robber's remains to a national database to identify him; however,
24955-416: Was re-routed to this new southerly line, which connected numerous emergent small cities across the region. Independent railways and subsidiaries that were eventually merged into the CPR in connection with this route were the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway , the Kaslo and Slocan Railway , the Columbia and Kootenay Railway , the Columbia and Western Railway and various others. Under the initial contract with
25116-480: Was renamed in 1905 by using the first two letters of itself and the neighbouring towns of Keewatin and Norman to form the present-day City of Kenora. In 2001, the towns of Kenora (including Norman) and Keewatin as well as the Township of Jaffray Melick amalgamated under the Municipal Act . Kenora is the administrative headquarters of the Anishinabe of Wauzhushk Onigum , Obashkaandagaang Bay , and Washagamis Bay First Nations band governments . The name " Kenora "
25277-411: Was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language , which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of
25438-437: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,
25599-427: Was the point where the Canada Central Railway (CCR) extension ended. The CCR started in Brockville and extended to Pembroke. It then followed a westward route along the Ottawa River and continued to Mattawa at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa rivers. It then proceeded to Bonfield. It was presumed that the railway would travel through the rich "fertile belt" of the North Saskatchewan River Valley and cross
25760-418: Was unrelated to the current company, as opposed to the Inter-Ocean Railway Company, which was thought to have connections to the Northern Pacific Railway Company in the United States. After this scandal, the Conservatives were removed from power, and Alexander Mackenzie , the new Liberal prime minister, ordered construction of the railway under the supervision of the Department of Public Works. Enabled by
25921-426: Was unsuccessful. In 2015–16 Canadian Pacific sought to merge with American railway Norfolk Southern . and wanted to have a shareholder vote on it. CP ultimately terminated its efforts to merge on April 11, 2016. On February 4, 2019, a loaded grain train ran away from the siding at Partridge just above the Upper Spiral Tunnel in Kicking Horse Pass . The 112-car grain train with three locomotives derailed into
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