Category Archives: Canadian history

Environment and Citizenship in Canadian History

      1 Comment on Environment and Citizenship in Canadian History

By Sean Kheraj This is the second in a series of posts originally presented as part of a roundtable entitled “What’s the Use of History? Citizenship and History in Canada’s Past and Present,” held in Toronto on October 16th 2012.  The event was organized by the People’s Citizenship Guide Project. In 2009, many historians criticized the federal government for its… Read more »

An Historic Voyageur in Modern Times

      1 Comment on An Historic Voyageur in Modern Times

By Jay Bailey Early in my career as a French teacher in Manitoba, I took students to the Festival du Voyageur in St. Boniface, Winnipeg. There I was fascinated by the life and times, the strength, stamina and joie-de-vivre of the voyageurs. In addition, I was intrigued by the fact that the fur trade was dependent on the vagaries of… Read more »

Towards a History of the Americas: Thoughts and a Podcast

By Benjamin Bryce Canadians frequently draw comparisons to the United States, but they rarely extend their gaze further south. Nevertheless, in a number of areas, Canadian history has been connected to that of several other countries in the Americas. For example, the Canadian government’s policies toward aboriginal people find many analogies in other parts of the Western Hemisphere. In areas… Read more »

The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, Research, and the Public

By Donald W. McLeod Next year will be the fortieth anniversary of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA), which began as a single filing cabinet in the Toronto office of the newsmagazine Body Politic, and has grown into a dynamic organization. We presently have a volunteer board of nine members, a paid general manager, seventy volunteers (forty of whom… Read more »

Archives and Social Justice

      No Comments on Archives and Social Justice

By Tim O’Grady In 1993 Verne Harris, a records management archivist at the South Africa State Archives Service, discovered some junior officials in the transitional Apartheid government had been told by the state’s security secretariat to destroy certain classified records in contravention of the nation’s Archives Act. After official efforts proved fruitless, Verne told a journalist, as well as the… Read more »

Remembering the War of 1914

      5 Comments on Remembering the War of 1914

By Jim Clifford It is very strange to celebrate the start of a war. Nonetheless, this is exactly what we have done here in Canada over the past year. The War of 1812 spanned from June of 1812 through to February of 1815, but this did not stop our government from starting their celebrations of the “Fight for Canada” during… Read more »

Crumbling Communities: Declining Service Club Membership

      1 Comment on Crumbling Communities: Declining Service Club Membership

The development of service clubs in Canada and the current decline of membership in these once vibrant community organizations.

Swimming Against the Current: Sexual Citizenship After Harper and Homonationalism

By Steven Maynard This is the first in a series of posts originally presented as part of a roundtable entitled “What’s the Use of History? Citizenship and History in Canada’s Past and Present,” held in Toronto on October 16th 2012.  The event was organized by the People’s Citizenship Guide Project. In Canada, “we let our gay people swim.” So quipped… Read more »

Beyond the Classroom: Taking a Large University Class on a Field Trip

By Britt Luby At all levels of classroom instruction, history teachers are faced with the challenge of meeting the needs of tactile learners in an environment that favours auditory learners. Large classes – York University’s Keele Campus averages 57 students per class – mean that lectures remain the most effective means of relaying information. This year, I was assigned to… Read more »

History Slam Episode Eight with Aaron Boyes: Anti-Americanism in Canada

https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Anti-Americanism-Take-Two.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham Has there been a week in recent memory that has been this scary? Start off with an earthquake in the Pacific, then the ‘Frankenstorm’, and top it off with Halloween. Given the fear associated with these events we wanted to do a podcast that really addressed some of this country’s greatest… Read more »