What We Learned

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Sara Wilmshurst

Black and white photo of a man on a construction site, sighting with a surveyor's level. There are three men behind him with their backs to the camera. A bridge spans a river in the background.
“Surveyor Mr. Stayner, at Don Diversion, Toronto, Ont,” 1914.
Credit: Toronto Harbour Commissioners / Library and Archives Canada / PA-097849. Copyright: Expired.

Active History recently circulated a survey that asked readers how they use the site, what they like about it, and what they would like to see in the future. The respondents provided fantastic feedback, and we would like to thank them and share what we learned.

Our Reach

Active History has been publishing for 15 years. In that time there have been over 2.5 million site visits. The site hosts an archive of over 2,600 essays. We have readers in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Australia, Germany, France, the Philippines, the Netherlands, and Italy.

Active History’s most popular post, Crystal Fraser and Sara Komarnisky’s “150 Acts of Reconciliation for the Last 150 Days of Canada’s 150,” has been viewed over 164,000 times since it was published in August 2017. Many Active History posts get consistent traffic year over year. Timothy J. Stanley’s essay “John A. Macdonald’s Aryan Canada: Aboriginal Genocide and Chinese Exclusion” has received between 1,588 and 6,970 views each year since it was published in 2015. A post from back in 2012, “Marie-Joseph Angelique: Remembering the Arsonist Slave of Montreal” by Mireille Mayrand-Fiset, is still among our top posts of all time, with hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of visits each year.

Posts get traffic year over year in part because students access them; 80% of the educators who responded to our survey assign Active History posts in their classes.

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Consultant Woes, Community Relations Worker Doubts, and Bureaucratic Stasis at Toronto Public Housing in the late 1980s

David M. K. Sheinin

Aerial image of an urban landscape.
Lawrence Avenue West and Weston Road (site of two MTHA properties) from the air, 1974. Copyright City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 124, File 8, Item 51.

This is the third in a series of articles on Toronto public housing in the late 1980s. All entries in the series will be collected here.

In the 1980s, the Metropolitan Toronto Housing Authority (MTHA)’s tenant population shifted as the demographic makeup of Toronto changed. At the same time, Community Relations Worker (CRWs) developed big and ultimately doomed plans for social service provision. The MTHA was hampered in its unwieldy mission. Poor organizational structure and management of CRWs meant they were not equipped to deliver ambitious programming. Furthermore, since staff failed to take demographic shifts into account and sometimes held prejudiced attitudes toward tenants, they failed to identify and plan appropriate programs. A consultant report from Simon Associates and the MTHA’s response to it provide a window on these major issues in MTHA in the 1980s.

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Islam in Popular Culture – What’s Old is News

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By Sean Graham

This week I talk with Rosemary Pennington, author of Pop Islam: Seeing American Muslims in Popular Media. We discuss how Ms Marvel contributed to the book’s origins, what forms of media are included in the book, and how stereotypes of Muslims are perpetuated in popular culture. We also chat about the challenges faced by Muslim stand-up comedians, how reality show editing influences perceptions, and how popular culture reflects society at large.

Historical Headline of the Week

Anika Steffen, “‘Ms Marvel’ treats being Muslim as ordinary – and that makes it extraordinary,” NPR, June 17, 2022.

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Historia Ex Machina: An Interview with Gilberto Fernandes


“Laborem Ex Machina: A History of Operating Engineers and Heavy Machinery in Canada’s Construction Industry” is a new podcast and digital companion created by historian Gilberto Fernandes. Activehistory.ca editor Edward Dunsworth spoke with Fernandes about the project and his broader experiences in public history. Here’s an edited version of the interview.

Edward Dunsworth: Tell me a bit about Laborem Ex Machina and how the project came to be.

Gilberto Fernandes: The project results from a collaboration between the Global Labour Research Centre at York University, where I was a visiting professor, and the International Union of Operating Engineers’ Local 793, which represents workers that operate all kinds of construction machinery: cranes, bulldozers, diggers, et cetera.

The business manager of Local 793, Mike Gallagher was one of my interviewees for the documentary film series City Builders, where he spoke about his father, Gerry Gallagher, founder of the Labourers’ International Union of North America’s Local 183. He liked the work that I had done with City Builders and came in with funding for a public history project on the history of construction machinery and operating engineers in Canada.

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A Troubled Memory? The Transnational Trauma of Chile’s 1973 Coup 

by Adeline Vasquez-Parra

On September 11th, 1973, General Augusto Pinochet led a military coup in Chile, overthrowing the democratically-elected President Salvador Allende. This event marked the onset of a brutal dictatorship that lasted from 1974 to 1990, characterized by widespread human rights abuses including torture, kidnappings, and the exile of thousands of Chileans. Between 500,000 and 1 million Chileans fled the country. Between 10,000 and 15,000 found refuge in France from 1973 to 1989 while Canada welcomed 7,000 refugees between 1973 and 1978. The coup’s impact reverberated far beyond Chile’s borders, reshaping global diplomacy, inspiring human rights activism, and altering the lives of those who fled. 

As a child of this diaspora, I was born and raised in France and Belgium with Chilean relatives who eventually resettled in Canada. I want to reflect on how the history and memory of Chile’s September 11th, 1973 have been preserved across the Atlantic. This historical moment can provide for the re-building of a transnational memory of refuge, reinforcing its continued significance in our shared understandings of democracy. But this memory offers more than just moral “lessons.” It provides an opportunity to reflect on the intersection of history, diasporic memory, and the craft of historical memoir. As French historian Ivan Jablonka discusses in his books, blending history with personal narration helps us approach the past in unconventional ways. Rather than presenting facts as isolated elements of a distant era, this approach reveals how they actively influence our present, reflecting the wounds they have imprinted on us.

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Hugh Scott: Casualty of the Red River Troubles of 1869-70

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Albert Braz

The execution of the Anglo-Canadian expansionist Thomas Scott by Louis Riel’s Red River provisional government on March 4, 1870 is one of the most calamitous acts in Canadian history. In his 1912 Reminiscences, the one-time Liberal finance minister Richard Cartwright estimated that, from a monetary point of view alone, “the volley that killed Scott cost Canada more than a hundred million of dollars,” which would be over 2.5 billion dollars today. Much more devastating, as Cartwright himself notes, was the political cost. The event split Canada in half, largely along ethnoracial and religious lines, and considerable violence ensued. One of the lesser-known casualties of the killing of Scott was his own brother Hugh.

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Television & American Culture – What’s Old is News

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By Sean Graham

This week, I talk with Molly Schneider, author of Gold Dust on the Air: Television Anthology Drama and Midcentury American Culture. We talk about the origins of television anthologies, the transition from radio, and their popularity among audiences. We also discuss the role of anthologies in reflecting American culture, pushback from audiences and studios, and the legacy of anthologies and what they tell us about the significance of television programs.

Historical Headline of the Week

Joshua Rothman and Erin Overbey, “How TV Became Art,” The New Yorker, August 28, 2017.

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Helter Skelter: Dreams and Disappointments in Social Service Programming at Toronto Public Housing in the late 1980s

David M. K. Sheinin

This is the second article in a series on Toronto public housing in the 1980s. All entries in the series will be collected here.

Photo of a man with long hair and glasses pointing at a building model. There are other people next to and behind the central figuure.
Alderman John Sewell with Eaton Centre model, between 1978 and 1987. Copyright City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 1465, File 433, Item 16.

At the beginning of the 1970s, the Metro Toronto Housing Authority (MTHA) had a clear purpose; to house those who could not afford a home elsewhere. Over the 1970s and 1980s that mandate drifted as Community Relations Workers (CRWs) imagined grand schemes to address the many social needs of residents. This trend was in keeping with other housing authorities in Canada and the United States, and alongside the exceptional work of hundreds of independent social service agencies in Toronto. This was not the result of an overarching policy shift. It came in fits and starts. MTHA common spaces were used for childcare, extracurricular activities for teenagers, free breakfasts, and much more. In the 1980s, (CRWs) became remarkably ambitious in what they proposed, though without the resources or managerial support to set in motion their dozens of ideas.

In 1987, Metropolitan Toronto Housing Authority (MTHA) chair John Sewell struck a Committee on Social Services and Community Relations Work (CSSCRW) comprised of MTHA Community Relations Workers (CRWs) and public housing administrators. The latter included Sewell himself and director of race relations Chimbo Poe-Mutuma. The goal was to bring order to MTHA’s forays into social service provision, to create and advocate for social programs, and to figure out what exactly CRWs should be working on every day. On June 23, at the second meeting, Sewell asked four sharp questions that MTHA ought to resolve quickly. Who should determine the social needs of tenants? Who would decide on the adequacy of current services? Who would provide improved access to needed services? Should problems be solved on an individual or group basis? For years, those questions remained unanswered.

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Airports & Local History – What’s Old is News

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Sean Graham is joined by Eric Porter, author of A People’s History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport. They talk about the importance of airports, telling local stories through the airport, and how battles over airports speak to questions of power. They also get into the specifics of San Francisco’s airport, how its development shaped the city and region, and some of the major milestones in SFO’s history.

Historical Headline of the Week

Tim Fang, “City files motion to stop OAK airport from using ‘San Francisco Bay’ name,” CBS News, Bay Area, September 17, 2024.

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A Window on the Past: Introducing “The Moving Past” Streaming Website

“The upholstery department is the only place where women are employed in the Durant automobile factory.” Your Future Car (film), 1922, Library and Archives Canada, ISN 185644.

By David Sobel

For three consecutive nights in November 1921, Her Own Fault, “a realistic drama in which the heroine is a factory girl” was shown at the Madison Theatre (at the corner of Bloor and Bathurst) and the Review Theatre, in the west end of Toronto.[i] Made by the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau at the Gutta Percha Factory in Parkdale, Toronto, the government production was hoping to attract female factory workers to the theatres, not only for entertainment, but for education too.

The movie was responding to concerns about the rapid growth in employment offered to single women in Canada’s cities. Women could get into trouble, make bad choices, and become unproductive employees. Her Own Fault told the tale of ‘Eileen’ a “good” factory girl, and a “bad” factory girl named Mamie. The characters couldn’t have been more different when it came to personal hygiene, clothing styles, diet and leisure time. Central to the story, however, was how they each approached their work making rubber heels at Gutta Percha. Mamie gets “almost nothing done” in the words of her foreman, while Eileen is astoundingly productive. Eileen is soon promoted to forelady and enjoys a blossoming relationship with a male supervisor. Mamie contracts tuberculosis and is bedridden. The moral of the story was clear.

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