Confederation Splits the Nation
After Confederation in 1867, both Ontario and Manitoba attempted to claim the Lake of the Woods region as their own. Manitoba was newly-created in 1870 from the Canadian government’s purchase of vast lands from the Hudson’s Bay Company, and it was a small square in the southeastern section of the province known today; the rest of the purchase was named the Northwestern Territory.

Manitoba’s Conservative government appealed to Ottawa to expand its boundary north and east, but the appeal was abandoned when the John A. MacDonald government was replaced by the Liberal government under Alexander MacKenzie. MacKenzie was more sympathetic to Ontario’s claim to the Lake of the Woods area.

Prior to losing the election, MacDonald had passed the Keewatin Act that made Manitoba responsible for administering justice in the disputed lands, but without actual title to it. Ontario lobbied to take over the jurisdiction and the title, basing the claim on the Treaty of Paris, signed after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, in which the French ceded all territory to the British, who subsequently placed it as part of Upper Canada with the Quebec Act of 1774. This claim bases the Ontario border west of Lake of the Woods.

MacDonald’s government based the area under Manitoba jurisdiction based on an 1817 murder trial, in which the defendant’s lawyer argued that the Court could not prosecute as the crime was not committed within Upper Canada. The judge in that case concurred, accepting that the western boundary was near Port Arthur, considerably further east than Lake of the Woods.

Although Mackenzie attempted to finalize the Ontario border dispute through a Board of Arbitrators (that had no representative from either Manitoba or the District of Keewatin) that ruled in 1878 to include the Lake of the Woods in Ontario, after another election, his government was replaced by MacDonald’s. MacDonald refused to ratify the Board’s decision.

The arguments went back and forth between the federal, provincial and district governments. Both Ontario and Manitoba claimed jurisdiction, and both proceed to prosecute criminals in the region, resulting in a confusing situation.

Dangerous Situation: Alcohol added fuel to the fire. The Federal Public Works Act disallowed the sale of alcohol at any Public Work, and this was a problem at Rat Portage during the Canadian Pacific Railway construction.

When Provincial Constable Patrick O’Keefe seized illegal liquor from workers in the area, he was then convicted of possessing it by a Dominion Magistrate. He paid his fine, then arrested the Dominion Magistrate for possessing the same liquor – the Dominion Magistrate then was fined by a Manitoba Magistrate.

Ontario fought back, establishing constables and a jailhouse to rival the Manitoba force already operating at Rat Portage.

The tit-for-tat arrests continued – police making arrests under one jurisdiction, found themselves placed under arrest for acting illegally by the other. People arrested by one set of constables were set free by the other. While seemingly comical across the distance of time, the situation was dangerous for the citizens, as well as the two police forces.

In 1883, Ontario attempted to take control by incorporating the Township of Rat Portage, setting the area open to provincial elections, even though Manitoba had acted similarly. Anyone holding mining stocks in the area was entitled to vote, and Ontario accused the Manitoba government of buying deflated stock certificates, and transferring ownership of them to Winnipeg men to influence the voting. This lead to near riots at Rat Portage, and Manitoba further upset Ontario’s election call by sending sixty armed men from the Winnipeg Field Battery to the area.

Enough is Enough: After the election, Rat Portage had three different police units, two different municipal governments, and two provincial representatives, and the arresting situations continued until the two provincial leaders finally forced a compromise. Each province appointed a Commissioner of Police and both town councils were suspended, to be replaced by one Municipal Board.

The boundary dispute was taken before the Queen’s Privy Council, and was settled in August of 1884, awarding the region to Ontario. The federal government did not recognize the boundary until they passed an Act of Parliament in 1889.