Sludge, Bugs, and Sturgeon Fry: Corporate Growth, Environmental Health and Sturgeon Populations on the Winnipeg River

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By Brittany Luby, PhD Candidate, York University

While I was growing up near the Winnipeg River, sturgeon was not part of our local diet. Given the high levels of mercury – the result of industrial dumping practices and the release of organic mercury from rotting flooded vegetation – Dad limited the size of our locally caught filets to less than two pounds. A 100 – 150 pound Grandfather Fish was far beyond our family-set “safety standards.” Of course, sturgeon filets also existed outside of the realm of possibility; according to some reports, the Winnipeg River had been barren for approximately one hundred years.  It wasn’t always this way. Continue reading →

Real Time Climate Change: Farm Diaries and Phenology in Prince Edward Island

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By Joshua MacFadyen

It is 24 April, and although some Canadians have been mowing grass for weeks the spring plants on Prince Edward Island are only beginning to overcome the cold nights and occasional flurries that visit this island in April. Still, this is an early spring by historical accounts. On this day in 1879, John MacEachern recorded the following diary entry in Rice Point:

“Ice drifting out of Harbour and Nine Mile Creek, boats can get to Town now, a Ltr [boat] from East Point [arrived] back at Governors Island Tuesday.”

The day before he had recorded a similar view from the farm:

“pulverizing lea land today & yesterday, ice still unbroken outside harbour & inside St Peters Island.”

Thirteen years earlier the ice was more fluid, moving along the South Shore of the Island on 18-19 April until there was finally “no ice in sight” on the 23rd.  This did not mean winter had passed; MacEachern noted “frosty ground, hard all day,” on 24 April, and frost deep enough to prevent stumping and ploughing all that week.  Usually we think of historical weather reports and almanacs as about as exciting as reading the phone book, but diary entries like these reveal dramatic changes in our environment and our climate when we read them in real time. Continue reading →

Solidarity Revisited: Resisting Cuts in Ontario

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By Christine McLaughlin

This past weekend I gathered with thousands of protestors at Queen’s Park who were demonstrating against pending public service cuts and wage freezes in Ontario. Spun in some quarters as a protest by organized labour, the crowd contained a multitude of groups. Many in the crowd wore “We Are Ontario” stickers, a coalition of ninety groups aiming to present a “common front” against austerity measures in the province. This is not the first attempt in Canada to unify workers and public service advocates under a unified banner. Past attempts offer important lessons for current efforts to build similar movements. Continue reading →

Is our conception of history education “evolving” or is today’s focus simply a historical trend once again in vogue?

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By Katherine Ireland

This is the first of four blog posts originally posted on THEN/HiER’s Teaching the Past blog reviewing the edited collection New Possibilities for the Past: Shaping History Education in Canada (UBC Press) and responding to the question: “Is our conception of history education “evolving” or is today’s focus simply a historical trend once again in vogue?” 

In “What It Means to Think Historically,” chapter 5 of New Possibilities for the Past, Stéphane Lévesque suggests that although historical thinking is not a recent idea, it has, until recently, been marginalized in favour of a more dominant, content-driven approach to history education. What makes it new now, is the shift on students learning to do history like historians rather than simply absorbing content by memorizing facts. But this still raises the question: Is this current focus on historical thinking in history education a trend, or an example of history education becoming qualitatively more sophisticated? Continue reading →

Cheering for Global Warming: What Europe’s Climatic Past can tell us About our Attitudes Today

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By Dagomar Degroot

Last March, 15,000 heat records were shattered across all American states. While monthly temperatures soared over 15 degrees Celsius above twentieth century American averages, unseasonal warmth also affected much of Canada. In Toronto, hushed, apologetic admissions that there might be something to climate change after all quickly yielded to unabashed celebration of global warming as spring sprung a month early. Of course, if a similar heat wave settled over the city in July or August a very different – if equally shrill – chorus might have drowned my Twitter or Facebook feeds. Still, much of the Northern Hemisphere is uncomfortably cold more often than it’s uncomfortably warm. A month ago I couldn’t help but think that individual, corporate and state responses to climate change in the west might be more serious if the world was cooling. Continue reading →

Refreshing the Site

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We’re happy to announce that ActiveHistory.ca is getting a new look! Over the next few days, we will be implementing some major changes to our website. This process should take about a week or so, so things may be in some flux.

If you have any comments about our new site, such as any features that may have been moved during our migration, or things you’d love to see, please let us know below.

A Plea for Progressive Taxation in Ontario

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By Ryan Kelly

At risk of a credit rating downgrade, Ontario is grappling with the task of closing a presumably skyrocketing debt in the coming years. In search of creative ways of closing this fiscal gap, the Liberal government has been remarkably uncreative in its proposed solutions. Most notably, the proposed budget is void of new or progressive revenues, and is decidedly austere in design. Plainly, with artificially low interest rates, and deficit resulting from the economic downturn of 2008-09, the Liberal government seeks to cut essential public services. Let there be no mistake that Ontario’s financial standing is not in any way the result of over-spending on essential services. Quite the opposite is the case. Per capita, Ontario spends less than any other province on public services. This tells the story of highly efficient programming and servicing. Continue reading →

Remembering the Night to Remember: Titanic in Public Memory

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by Mike Commito

Titanic at the docks (Wikipedia Commons)

This week marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the luxury ocean liner, R.M.S. Titanic. The vessel was on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City when it struck an iceberg on the night of 14 April 1912, sinking in the early hours of the morning.

The ship was supposed to make history through its luxury, power, and efficiency. However, after fatally colliding with the iceberg, it still made history but in a much more profound and unintended way. The incident resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people, making it one of the worst maritime disasters on record. Moreover, it was a watershed moment in human history: it highlighted the limitations of technology and the idea of human infallibility. But it also spurred a memory industry that has continued to re-remember the ship and its fateful night in April 1912. Continue reading →

The Popularity of Remembrance

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The Battle of Vimy Ridge, a painting by Richard Jack. Canadian War Museum.

By: Laura Piticco

The week of April 9-13 is important for marking two major events in history: the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and the 95th anniversary of the battle at Vimy Ridge. Both events have as of late been dominating the media coverage, one in particular, the Titanic, more than the other.

Underlying the coverage of both of these events is the actual history that seems to have gotten lost. As historians, we want to see that people are actually thinking critically and being provoked to ask questions; not simply accepting the material that is being presented. The Titanic was more than just an ocean liner sinking. It is a story that encompasses topics about class, race, and gender in a society that is not that far removed from our society today. We should be thinking about and discussing these issues in relation to how it was representative of the society of the time. Equally important, in terms of Vimy Ridge, are the countless other battles fought in World War I that showed the strength and collectiveness of our nation. Are they not as important? Can and should the battle of Vimy Ridge be the most significant representative moment of this war? Should we not honour the other battles with the same respect? Continue reading →

Gaming the Future, Parsing the Past: the EXtreme climaTe events prepaRedness and Adaption (EXTRA) Invitational Drought Tournament

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By Merle Massie

A major drought of unknown intensity and duration is about to hit the Oxbow Basin in Canada. With a population of about three million people over a landbase of 175,000 square kilometers devoted primarily to agriculture, water management will consume all levels of governance, from the farmstead to the largest city.

What are you going to do?

Send members of the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Water Security and the School of Environment and Sustainability into action! And oh yes — include an environmental historian. Continue reading →