By Claire Thomson On a warm September day, I looked down into a coulee from where my horse and I stood on a breezy prairie hill. Eight heifers crashed through the coulee, making a trail through the brush one after another. This was a tricky pasture to navigate since the hills are steep and rocky and also dense, filled with… Read more »
By Zoe Todd My research engages the relationship between people, place, stories and time. This manifests in my doctoral work with examinations of human-fish relationships in the context of colonialism in the Western Arctic. But closer to home, in amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton), my work examines people’s relationships to place through story and art — fish stories, land stories, stories of movement… Read more »
By Leanne Betasamosake Simpson The waning months of 2015 signaled a seemingly dramatic albeit likely superficial shift in Indigenous-state relations in Canada. When the fall began, the Prime Minister was steadfast in his refusal to call an inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which surprised few, as it was beautifully consistent with the contempt, paternalism and outright hatred… Read more »
By Crystal Fraser A few summers ago, I was sitting along the Nagwichoonjik (Mackenzie River) at my family’s fish camp. I had hauled nearly fifty pounds of books with me – to, arguably, one of the most remote places in Canada – to continue reading for my PhD comprehensive exams. The presence of these academic monographs at an ancient Gwich’in… Read more »
Active history is proud to present a video each week from New Directions in Active History. The conference took place at Huron University College on October 2-4, 2015 and brought together scholars, students, professionals and community members to discuss a wide range of topics pertaining to active history. This week, Wendy Rowney, Assistant General Manager at Black Creek Pioneer Village… Read more »
By Katrina Ackerman On Tuesday, January 5, Abortion Access Now PEI announced that it is filing a lawsuit against the Prince Edward Island government for failing to create access to abortions in the province. The lawsuit is one of many attempts by abortion rights activists to provide PEI women with equitable access to abortion services and reaffirms the notion that… Read more »
by Christo Aivalis If one peruses their televisions, computers, and streetscapes, they can’t help but forget that we have been in the throes of the Christmas season since November. But this form of Christmas celebration, tied so deeply with capitalism, belies the transformative optimism Christmas provided working-class socialists in the Depression, and still today. Much as Pope Francis’ criticisms of… Read more »
Henry Trim In the final part of this series on solar energy we will examine the unhappy results of solar advocates’ overreliance on optimistic simulations and the difficulty of commercializing economically marginal technology. Tragically for development of renewable energy, neither solar technology nor the energy market developed as projected. Generous federal funding combined with the installation of solar collectors on… Read more »
By James Morgan During the 1960s and 1970s, Hydro-Québec rose to prominence as a major producer and exporter of hydroelectric power. This later led to a mutually beneficial economic relationship with the State of Vermont when it needed electricity and Québec wanted to sell electricity. The exchange of power from Québec to Vermont changed diplomacy from the federal to provincial… Read more »
By Daniel Ross For more than four decades, John Sewell has been a constant presence in Toronto civic life, where he has somehow managed to combine relentless criticism of the status quo with a long record of public service. He first drew attention as a community organizer in the late 1960s, before going on to have a career in city… Read more »
