Category Archives: Does History Matter?

Open-Letter calling for the release of all relevant documents related to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Last week Adele Perry, a historian at the University of Manitoba, spearheaded an open-letter by historians in Canada calling on the Government of Canada to ensure the release of all records related to residential schools and the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The letter builds on similar letters and demonstrations by First Nations communities, librarians, archivists and museum… Read more »

Digital History isn’t for everyone

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Digital History isn’t for everyone. In Canada, according to the 2010 Canadian Internet Use Survey, one-fifth of all households remain without access to the internet in the home.

History Slam Episode Twenty-Five: Budget Cuts and the Study of History

https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Lyle-and-Dominique-Cuts.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham Over the course of the past week, Ian Mosby’s work on nutritional experiments on aboriginal students in residential schools has received plenty of attention in the national media. While it will take a while before the full impact of the research is felt, there was some immediate excitement within the historical… Read more »

Canada and the New Colonialism

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By Jon Weier   The Canadian government announced this past week that Canadian forces members will no longer wear the Maple Leaf as a symbol of rank.  The Maple Leaf is to be replaced on the shoulder boards and collar tabs of Canadian soldiers’ uniforms with the crown or pip that had been used to indicate rank in the Canadian… Read more »

The Toronto Flood of 2013: Actions from the Past, a Warning for the New Normal?

By Jay Young This rain will never stop, I thought, as water cascaded from my apartment window and fell from the sky at record pace.  On July 8th, Toronto experienced the greatest amount of rainfall in a single day ever recorded in that city. A torrent of 126 millimetres of rain hit the ground, more than a whole month’s average… Read more »

The Politics of Motherhood: How Far Have We Come?

By Christine McLaughlin and Councillor Amy England We’ve come a long way from the days when women were denied the vote and barred from public office. Because of the efforts of a few willing to challenge the status quo, women won the right to vote and serve as political representatives in twentieth-century Canada. But many barriers remain for women in… Read more »

Tap Dancing and Murder – in a Grade Seven Classroom

By Merle Massie “My tap dancing just isn’t good enough,” she wrote. She: my daughter’s high school English teacher. Tap dancing: teaching (to pubescent, smartmouth, intelligent, tired kids at the end of June in rural Saskatchewan). “I remember a staff meeting conversation from some point where you were willing to come in and talk with students.” What’s the topic, Mrs…. Read more »

The Wider World in the Peripheral Vision of Historians in Canada

Luke Clossey on the state of the historical profession in Canada: 75% of historians work on the history of the West, a nebulous place containing only 15% of the global population.

What does Canadian History look like? A Peek Inside the Canadian Historical Association

Tom Peace puts this year’s CHA program to the test, comparing this year’s annual meeting with those held over the past decade.

Whose Past? A Public Forum on Harper’s Review of Canadian History

Legacy Gallery, June 3rd, 8 pm.  Broad and Yates St., Victoria, B.C. “Whose Past?   A Public Forum on Harper’s Review of Canadian History”  will be a spirited discussion about the Harper Conservatives’ recent moves to review Canadian history through a Parliamentary committee.   The forum will include perspectives from a secondary school educator, an indigenous scholar, a range of generations as… Read more »