Ottawa's Vanier neighbourhood is a former municipality that ceased to exist in 2001 by becoming part of the city of Ottawa, Ontario. It is most notable for its large francophone population, and has 15,726 residents today (2006 census).

The Vanier neighbourhood is located in the east of Ottawa across the Rideau River from the neighbourhoods of Lowertown and Sandy Hill, and just south of Rockcliffe Park and New Edinburgh. To the east of Vanier are the suburbs of Gloucester. Vanier has a relatively small area with a high population density. Montreal Road is the main thoroughfare of the community.

In 1908, the communities of Janeville, Clarkstown and Clandeboye were joined to form the village of Eastview. In 1913, Eastview was incorporated as a town. Originally it was a popular destination for civil servants who wished to live at a distance from downtown. It later saw a large influx of French Canadians and became the main francophone area in the capital.

During the Depression, Eastview held the attention of the entire nation, as it became a public forum for national debates on birth control during The Eastview Birth Control Trial, which lasted from 1936 to 1937. Significant controversy erupted when Dorothea Palmer was believed to have been distributing birth control information to the poorer, predominantly Catholic neighbourhoods. Later, in 1963 it became a city, and in 1969 was renamed after the recently-deceased Governor General of Canada, Georges Vanier.

Ontario /ɒnˈtɛərioʊ/ is one of the provinces of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province or territory and fourth largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.

Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay to the north, Quebec to the east, and to the south by the U.S. states of Minnesota, Michigan (portions to the west), New York (portions to the east), Ohio and Pennsylvania. All but a small part of Ontario's 2,700 km (1,677 mi) border with the United States follow inland waterways: from the west at Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River drainage system. These are the Rainy River, the Pigeon River, Lake Superior, the St. Mary's River, Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario, and along the St. Lawrence River from Kingston, Ontario to the Quebec boundary just east of Cornwall, Ontario.

Jean Vanier, CC GOQ (born September 10, 1928) is a Canadian Catholic philosopher, humanitarian and the founder of L'Arche, an international federation of group homes for people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them.

Vanier is the son of the 19th Governor General of Canada, Major-General Georges Vanier and was born in Geneva, while his father was on diplomatic service in Switzerland. In his youth and during World War II he served with the Royal Navy and then with the Royal Canadian Navy. As a midshipman, Vanier accompanied the Royal Family on their tour of South Africa aboard HMS Vanguard in 1947.

In 1964, through Vanier's friendship with a priest named Father Thomas Philippe, he became aware of the plight of thousands of people institutionalized with developmental disabilities. Jean Vanier invited two men, Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux, to leave the institutions where they resided and live with him in Trosly-Breuil, France.

In 1968, Jean Vanier gave the first Faith and Sharing retreat, a worldwide movement of annual retreats where people from all walks of life are welcome.^{[citation needed]} In 1971, he co-founded Faith and Light with Marie Helene Mathieu,an international movement of forums for people with developmental disabilities, their family and friends. Today there are over 1,800 Faith and Light communities in 80 countries around the world.^{[citation needed]}

Madeleine Meilleur (born November 22, 1948) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She is a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and is a cabinet minister in the government of Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Meilleur was born in the Quebec community of Kiamika. She is both a registered nurse and a lawyer, specializing in labour and employment law. She has served on the Ottawa-Carleton Regional District Health Council, the Champlain District Health Council, the Ottawa-Carleton Children's Aid Society and the Vanier Housing Corporation. She has also played an active role in promoting tourism to the city.

Meilleur was elected to the city of Vanier's municipal council in 1991, and also served as a council member in the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton (which included members from Vanier and other local municipalities). In 2000, she became a city councillor in the newly amalgamated city of Ottawa. During her time in municipal government, Meilleur represented the council on the French-Language Services Advisory Committee. She received the United Way's Community Builder's Award in 2001 and le prix d'Excellence from the Réseau socioactif des femmes francophones in 2002. In July 2001, she was named Ottawa's deputy mayor.