Category Archives: Canadian history

How I Survived: Sharing Stories about Recreation at Northern Residential and Day Schools

How I Survived was also envisioned as a way to further truth and reconciliation in this country, and engage with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action.

The Global Pandemic in Saskatchewan: a history to remember

Erika Dyck and Jim Clifford The COVID-19 pandemic tested healthcare systems worldwide and pushed many of them to the breaking point. Canadians experienced the pandemic in diverse ways depending on where and how they lived, from single-family dwellings with converted virtual workspaces to long-term-care facilities with rigorous lock-down policies or First Nations reserves with inconsistent access to potable water, but… Read more »

Spotting the Difference: Comparing Canadian Sex Work Legislation from 1985 and 2014

Black and white photo of two women looking at a book with bookshelves behind them.

The countless number of sex workers, organizations, and newspaper articles all argued the same underlying premise as they had with Bill C-49: that the government’s legislation endangers sex workers.

Canada’s Sex Work Legislation Hasn’t Changed

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It is unsurprising that the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform launched a constitutional challenge to the PCEPA in 2021- brought to the Ontario Superior Court between October 2 and 7, 2022.On September 18, 2023, the Ontario Superior Court released its decision in CASWLR v. Attorney General (Canada), deciding to uphold the PCEPA.

Role and Responsibility of Historians in Fighting Denialism

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One problem is that those engaging in Indian Residential School denialism understand the important role that truth-telling about the past has on social change. If establishing the truth is, as the TRC contended, the precondition for healing, justice, and reconciliation, then denialists seek to deliberately divert attention away from the truths about the horrors of Indian Residential Schools.

Black Canadian Tap Dancer Joey Hollingsworth: Sounds of Memory

Joey Hollingsworth (b. 1936) is a tap dancer, creative force and one of the first Black performers on CBC television. Joey danced in the era of medicine shows, big bands and civil rights. He was backed by the Samuel Hershenhorn Orchestra on CBC (1954), directed by Norman Jewison – CBC Special Christmas with the Stars (1956); and acted with black… Read more »

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

Aerial image of an urban landscape.

In a reflection of the city itself, the racial, religious and ethnic dynamic of public housing had changed dramatically over the preceding decade. And for all the discussion among consultants, MTHA administrators, Community Relations Workers, and tenants themselves, Metropolitan Toronto Housing Authority managers and employees seemed oblivious to initiatives that might specifically address that transformation and how it was impacting the lives of tenants.

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

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.

key impediments made the implementation of a sound social service strategy impossible. First, and to their great credit, CRWs dreamed big on program implementation. But many (not all) harbored questionable, socially conservative assessments of tenants and their problems. That is, the socially conservative basis of their analysis of tenant lives and what programs were needed was often flawed.

Reading John Norton: The Past, Present, and Future of a Troublesome Archive

A portrait of John Norton, painted by Mary Ann Knight in 1805 while Norton was on a visit to Great Britain.

Rather than accept John Norton’s self-fashioning at face value, I explore the incongruities, counterclaims, and complexities that make it appear much more likely that Norton was an early-modern trans-Atlantic shapeshifter, stretching the truth at best, and completely fabricating his own reality at worst.