Saint Boniface, Winnipeg

St Boniface Cathedral

Esplanade Riel at the edge of St Boniface

Condominiums in St Boniface, Winnipeg

Succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples lived in the area for thousands of years before European exploration. It was an area of historic Ojibwe occupation.

Fur traders and European mercenaries hired by Lord Selkirk to protect his fledgling Red River Colony were among the area's first European settlers. With the founding of a Roman Catholic mission in 1818, St Boniface began its role in Canadian religious, political and cultural history – as mother parish for many French settlements in Western Canada; as the birthplace of Louis Riel and fellow Métis who struggled to obtain favourable terms for Manitoba's entry into Confederation; and as a focus of resistance to controversial 1890 legislation to alter Manitoba's school system and abolish French as an official language in the province (see Manitoba Schools Question).

French-speaking religious orders, including the Sisters of Charity of Montreal (better known as the Grey Nuns), who arrived in 1844, founded the early educational, cultural and social-service institutions, such as St. Boniface Hospital, the first in Western Canada. Early French-speaking missionary Catholic priests in the region founded the Collège de Saint-Boniface (dating to 1818) to teach Latin and general humanities to the local boys; it is now the Université de Saint-Boniface.

St Boniface was incorporated as a town in 1883 and as a city in 1908.

The early economy was oriented to agriculture. Industrialization arrived in the early 20th century. The 165-acre (67 ha)[3] Union Stockyards, developed 1912–13, became the largest livestock exchange in Canada and a centre of the meat-packing and -processing industry. By the early 1900s, numerous light and heavy industries were established. Today the Stockyards site will be redeveloped into a housing and retail area Olexa Developments of Calgary beginning in 2020. In Phase 1 of the development, up to 600 housing units would be constructed.[3]

In the 1950s and 1960s the neighbourhoods of Windsor Park and Southdale developed into residential areas. In 2016 Windsor Park had a population of 10,050[4] and Southdale had a population of 6,450.[5]

In 1971, St. Boniface was amalgamated, along with several neighbouring communities, into the City of Winnipeg.[6][7] As one of the larger French communities outside Québec, it has often been a centre of struggles to preserve French-Canadian language and culture within Manitoba.

CCFM Building in St. Boniface

The Festival du Voyageur is held annually in February outdoors at Whittier Park and Fort Gibraltar. St Boniface is home to the Centre culturel franco-manitobain (CCFM), which features an art gallery, theatres, meeting rooms, and a community radio station.[8] The area is also home to Le Musée de Saint-Boniface Museum, a French theatre company Le Cercle Molière, a local museum dedicated to Franco-Manitoban culture and history.[9]

• Louis Bétournay – lawyer and judge
• Modere "Mud" Bruneteau – professional hockey player
• Len Cariou – Broadway actor
• Bryan Fustukian – radio disc jockey, concert promoter (as Vik Armen) and performer
• Butch Goring – professional hockey player
• George R. D. Goulet – best-selling Métis author
• Bob Hunter – Greenpeace co-founder
• Earl Mindell – writer and nutritionist
• Maurice Paquin, singer and comedian
• Dorothy Patrick, actress
• Louis Riel – Métis leader and founder of Manitoba
• Gabrielle Roy – French-language author
• Lucille Starr – (née Savoie) singer
• Jonathan Toews – professional hockey player
• Tony Gingras – star right-winger for the Winnipeg Victorias
• Jim Peebles - cosmologist and Nobel Prize winner

Winnipeg's three Francophone radio stations, CKXL-FM CKSB-10-FM and CKSB-FM, are located in St. Boniface and are licensed there, a legacy of when St. Boniface was a separate city.

The French-language weekly newspaper La Liberté is also based out of St-Boniface.

St. Boniface is represented by the St. Boniface Riels hockey team which plays in the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League (MMJHL). The St. Boniface Riels were founded in 1971. They play at the Southdale Arena and have won five MMJHL championships: 1971–1972, 1972–1973, 1984–1985, 1985–1986, 2014–2015.[10]

• Huel, Raymond Joseph Armand. (2003). Archbishop A.-A. Tache of St. Boniface: the "good fight" and illusive vision. Edmonton [Alta.]. University of Alberta Press. ISBN 0-88864-406-X

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saint Boniface, Winnipeg.

• Tourisme Riel
• Saint Boniface Heritage Centre