By Suzanne Morton “Cape Breton Lobster Fishers on Strike” ran the headline. On 8 May the lobster fishermen of Gabarus, Cape Breton struck demanding a price of $3.25 per hundred lobsters instead of the $2.35 offered by the buyers. The processors said there were too many lobsters being caught and they were losing money. The Gabarus men were joined by… Read more »
By Andrew Stuhl Today marks an important turning point in Canadian history. Or does it? This morning Canada assumes the chairmanship of the Arctic Council. Formed in 1996, the Council promotes cooperation, coordination, and interaction among the Arctic states and with the region’s indigenous communities. It is a high-level governmental forum that, while limited in its decision-making capacity, has shaped… Read more »
By Christine McLaughlin While it is too soon for the historian to comment on the long-term effects of recent changes on the Canadian political landscape, the larger rightward shift is perhaps best evidenced by the federal New Democratic Party’s decision to “modernize” its constitution at its recent convention by “toning down” references to socialism. Pointing to “pragmatic” economic policies that… Read more »
From May 13-19, Toronto’s City Hall will feature “The Portuguese in Toronto,” a free photo exhibit. What follows are some reflections on how historians can engage with the public by one of the exhibit’s organizers. Raphael Costa On May 13, 2013, the Portuguese Canadian History Project’s (PCHP) photographic exhibit celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of mass Portuguese migration to Canada will… Read more »
By Ian Mosby History has a distinct taste. Actually, it also has a distinct smell, feel, sound, and look to it but – as a historian of food and nutrition – I always find myself coming back to the taste of history. No, I’m not talking about the musty, acrid taste of dust and mildew as you open up a… Read more »
By Pete Anderson I had the good fortune to facilitate a lively discussion on the role of public historians in the history wars at a ‘dine around’ session during the recent annual conference of the National Council on Public History, held in Ottawa from April 17-20. We had representatives from both Canada and the United States of various ages and… Read more »
The new history wars are not battles over the meaning of Canadian history. They are battles over public financing of historical research and historical preservation.
By Colin Coates and Daniel Ross “The rise and fall of America’s largest socialist utopian experiment” -Program blurb from the 2013 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival This post, inspired by the documentary film American Commune (2013) by Rena Mundo Croshere and Nadine Mundo, takes two different looks at the history of a 1970s countercultural commune located in the southern… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Madeleine-Kloske.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham On Wednesday night there was a screening of four documentary films as part of Northern Scene in Ottawa. The evening’s feature film was Dan Sokolowski’s Degrees Northand it was preceded by three shorts: Andrew Connors’ Come Back Little Star, Daniel Janke’s Finding Milton, and Lulu Keating’s Dawson Town Melted Down. Each… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Artists-Marketplace.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham For the first four days of Northern Scene, the Panorama Room at the National Arts Centre was transformed into a marketplace featuring some of the region’s top artists. In this episode of the History Slam I talk with three of those artists about their work and the changing face of the… Read more »
