As detailed in the history of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (found here), the arrival of this Order in the Ottawa area in the 1840's was the precursor of the eventual formation of the Ottawa East Catholic community. The leadership of the Oblates created institutions such as the University of Ottawa, St. Paul University and St. Patrick's College and churches such as Ste. Famille and Canadian Martyrs.

The history of Canadian Martyrs Church, reproduced below with the kind permission of Father Carl Kelly, OMI, was written by church parishioners for the 50th Anniversary and updated for the 60th Anniversary. As mentioned in the document, a Special Committee headed by Anne Burns did the original work. The document was scanned and then converted to text using Optical Character Recognition. Some of the material and photos were omitted but the material here has been reproduced as faithfully as possible. Where possible additional photographs have been added to enhance the reader's understanding. The original document is held in the church archive. We are indeed fortunate to have this documentation of an integral part of the history of Ottawa East.