Let’s Talk About Frank Oliver
Frank Oliver, pictured in the front row and second from the right, leads a march through Edmonton.
This is the first of many resources we’ve put together to welcome our community into uncovering the history of the Edmonton neighbourhood currently known as “Oliver” as a step toward revealing our future.
Below you’ll find a chronology of Frank Oliver, our neighbourhood’s namesake, federal Member of Parliament, and co-founder of the Edmonton Bulletin. As you’ll learn below, Oliver’s legacy embodies a period of Canadian history defined by violence, intolerance, and discrimination and we hope this timeline serves as a moment of reflection in which you can consider whether this legacy is one that represents our community’s present-day spirit of diversity and inclusion.
From our research on Frank Oliver’s history in Edmonton:
1853 - Frank Oliver was born in Peel County, Upper Canada.
1873 - Oliver moved to Winnipeg with a position at the Manitoba Free Press.
1876 - Oliver travelled to Edmonton, expecting rapid development of northwestern agriculture.
1876 - Treaty 6 is signed.
1876 - Noted starvation among many Indigenous Nations in Western Canada, notably the Papaschase Nation.
1879 - Federal Government fails to provide starvation relief to Indigenous Nations as promised in the terms of Treaty 6.
1880 - Oliver co-founded the Edmonton Bulletin.
1881 - Oliver uses the Edmonton Bulletin to encourage Indigenous land surrenders.
1881 - Edmonton Bulletin incites settlers to trespass and squat of Papaschase Territory.
1883 - Oliver is the second elected member of the 1st Council of the Northwest Territories.
1885 - Oliver loses his seat in the 1885 Northwest Territories election.
1886 - Local politicians, Edmonton residents, and the Edmonton Bulletin renew a campaign to disperse Papaschase reserve.
1888 - Oliver wins a seat back as a member of the Legislative Assembly for the Northwest Territories.
1889 - Papaschase are forcibly removed and the band is disbursed.
1891 - A railway is built on the former Papaschase territory.
1896 - Oliver runs for a seat in the House of Commons of Canada as a part of the Liberal Party.
1896 - Is elected in the 1896 Canadian Federal election representing Alberta.
1897 - Sharphead Band enfranchises and the band is disbursed.
1900 - Oliver is re-elected and retains his seat.
1903 - The Michel Band is forced to surrender portions of their land.
1904 - Oliver is re-elected and retains his seat.
1905 - Becomes the Minister of the Interior and Superintendent General of Indian Affairs.
1905 - Edmonton becomes the capital of Alberta.
1906 - The Michel Band is forced to surrender portions of their land.
1906 - Frank Oliver introduced an amendment to the Indian Act to increase from 10 to 50 per cent the amount of cash realized from sales that could be distributed to band members.
1906 - Oliver introduces the culturally and ethnically selective Immigration Act of 1906.
“We did not go out to that country [western Canada] simply to produce wheat. We went to build up a nation, a civilization, a social system that we could enjoy, be proud of and transmit to our children; and we resent the idea of having the millstone of the [undesirable] population hung round our necks in our efforts to build up, beautify and improve that country, and so improve the whole of Canada.”
Frank Oliver on Canadian Immigration, 1901.
1910 - The Michel Band is forced to surrender portions of their land.
1911 - Oliver introduced the Oliver Act to Parliament which permitted the removal, without consent, of Indigenous people living on reserves next to a town of 8,000 or more people
1911 - Oliver writes Order-In-Council 1911-1324, created to keep Black Americans escaping segregation in America, and - though approved by the Laurier Cabinet - was cancelled due to the ending of Laurier’s term.
1911 - An Edmonton school is built and named after Frank Oliver, serving as a community gathering place.
1911 - Is succeeded by Robert Rogers as the Minister of the Interior and Superintendent General of Indian Affairs.
1911 - Elected as a Member of Parliament for Edmonton.
1914 - Outbreak of World War I.
1914 - Frank Oliver acquires portions of the form Michel band territory through his son-in-law.
1916 - Appointed to a bipartisan committee investigating pensions for disabled soldiers.
1917 - Is succeed by Brigadier-General William Antrobus Griesbach, in the 1917 Federal Election.
1918 - World War I ends.
1921 - Oliver runs again politically and is defeated in the 1921 Federal Election.
1922 - Community members of the West End in Edmonton formally become the West End Community League.
1923 - Oliver is appointed to Board of Railway Commissioners.
1933 - Oliver passes away in Ottawa, Ontario.
1937 - The West End Community League officially changes their name to the Oliver Community League.
1958 - The Michel band enfranchises.
We’d love to uncover the history and future of Oliver with you. If you have knowledge or information you’d like to share about Frank Oliver or our neighbourhood, please get in touch!