By Peter Seixas For the Historical Thinking Project, 2013-14 was the best of times and the worst of times. It was the best of times because two of Canada’s largest provinces made the most concrete and comprehensive headway in adapting the ideas of the Project for their curricula. Ontario implemented a new K-12 curriculum that embedded the historical thinking concepts… Read more »
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” George Santayana, 1905 I hear variations of this quote all the time. Often in praise of what I do for a living: “You’re a historian, well great, cause if we don’t know history, we’re doomed to repeat it!” In the face of this good will, I never take the… Read more »
Anna Sheftel and Stacey Zembrzycki Oral historians often state that, at its core, interviewing is about relationships. This generally refers to the relationships that interviewers and interviewees build and nurture over the course of their encounters, so as to create open, safe, and respectful spaces where one side can share intimate stories, and the other can listen deeply and meaningfully… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Duffin-Historian-as-Activist.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Katherine Zwicker Dr. Jacalyn Duffin began her career in medicine, practicing hematology in Ontario. A move to France, though, prompted Duffin to pursue a Ph.D. in history and, since her return to Canada more than two decades ago, she has balanced a career as a historian and practicing physician. As the Hannah Chair… Read more »
By Victoria Freeman We do further declare it to be our Royal Will and Pleasure, for the present, as aforesaid, to reserve under Our Sovereignty, Protection and Domain, for the use of said Indians, all lands and territories not within the limits of …etc., etc.. DON’T GET ME STARTED Someone should write a PhD thesis on the number of Indigenous… Read more »
By Ken Coates It is an auspicious moment for Canadians to revisit one of the founding documents in Canada’s legal and political history. After a century of near neglect from politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers, the last forty-to-fifty years have seen this document brought to new life and vigor. The renewal of interest in the Proclamation, however, was not solely a… Read more »
By Neil Vallance and Hamar Foster [The Royal Proclamation’s] force as a statute is analogous to the status of Magna Carta which has always been considered to be the law throughout the Empire. It was a law which followed the flag as England assumed jurisdiction over newly-discovered or acquired lands or territories. It follows, therefore, that the Colonial Laws Validity… Read more »
By Robert Englebert On October 7, 1763, only months after signing the Treaty of Paris and ending the Seven Years’ War, Britain sought to confirm sovereignty over its newly acquired territories in North America through a Royal Proclamation. ‘The Royal Proclamation’ – as it is now known – was a document designed to address the challenges born of conquest. The… Read more »
By Brandon Morris and Jay Cassel The Royal Proclamation is not an ancient document but it has remained in effect for 250 years, even if it is not well known by Canadians. It became the framework for treaty-making in relation to land rights in the decades after 1763 and as such it is a core document in Crown-First Nations relations…. Read more »
By John S. Long The tensions in the Royal Proclamation have ebbed and flowed over the past 250 years and, of course, are still with us today. The treaty relationships that unite First Peoples with other Canadians are inherently problematic, due to our differing understandings (or perhaps outright ignorance) of history. Notwithstanding the Proclamation, and the gubernatorial proclamations that reinforced… Read more »
