Who we are

As an organization, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows aims to provide a framework that promotes personal and social development. For members, the Degrees in Odd Fellowship emphasize a leaving of the old life and the start of a better one and of helping those in need. The command of the IOOF is to“visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead and educate the orphan.” Specifically, IOOF members today are dedicated to the following purposes:

To improve and elevate the character of mankind by promoting the principles of friendship, love, truth, faith, hope, charity and universal justice.
To help make the world a better place to live in, by aiding each other, the community, the less fortunate, the youth, the elderly, and the environment in every way possible.
To promote good will and harmony amongst peoples and nations through the principle of universal fraternity, holding the belief that all men and women regardless of race, nationality, religion, social status, gender, rank and station are brothers and sisters.

A group of six elderly people dressed in traditional judge or tribunal costumes, with four standing and two seated in front, in a room with red curtains and a stage, holding spears, with a red and gold curtain backdrop and symbolic decor.

A group of men and women dressed in formal attire, some wearing medals and chains, gathered for a photo in a conference room with yellow walls and patterned carpet.

Our History

August 10, 1843 — Twenty-four years after the birth of the American Order in Baltimore, Maryland, the first Odd Fellow lodge instituted in Canada was Prince of Wales Lodge No. 1 in Montreal, PQ. It received its charter through the efforts of two American Odd Fellows living in Montreal. They petitioned the Grand Lodge of the United States for a lodge charter. That authority granted the charter after some very serious soul searching and deliberation.

Within fifteen months, there were three lodges in the Montreal area who petitioned and received a charter to operate as the Grand Lodge of Canada under the leadership of W.M.B. Hartley as Grand Master.

Learn more

Grand Lodge Officers of Atlantic Provinces, I.O.O.F. O.Y. 2025-2026