Category Archives: History in the News

April 14th Public Lecture: “From a Pastoral Wetland to an Industrial Wasteland, and Back Again? An Environmental History of the Lower Lea River Valley, the Site of the 2012 London Olympics.”

A reminder to our readers that you are all invited to the second lecture in the Mississauga Library System’s ‘History Minds’ series, co-hosted with ActiveHistory.ca. The second talk will be on Thursday, April 14th at 7:30PM in Classroom 3 at the Mississauga Central Library (see below the cut for directions). “From a Pastoral Wetland to an Industrial Wasteland, and Back… Read more »

Active History on the Grand: We Are All Treaty People

The ongoing land dispute at Caledonia, and other outstanding land claims in the Grand River Valley, as well as elsewhere in Canada, speaks to the significance of history and what Laurier Brantford’s Program Coordinator for Contemporary Studies Peter Farrugia calls “the immanence of the past in the present.”

From Fukushima to Chernobyl: Bringing the Past to Bear on the Future

A historian’s reflections on the long-term consequences of the world’s four major nuclear energy disasters.

2012 Olympic Park: Remediating the Environmental and Social Conditions

Will the 2012 Olympics force the poorer people living in the Lower Lea Valley to relocate as the environmental conditions improve.

The Revolution Will Be Rubbernecked

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While the recent protest movements in the Middle East reveal much about the present state of civic community among the people of those nations — Iran, Tunisia, and Egypt (and a growing list of others) — our reaction to them reveals more about ourselves than we should perhaps find flattering.

WikiLeaks and the End of History?

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An analysis of WikiLeaks, access to information, and the public’s right to know.

The New Huck Finn

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A new edited version of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will be published with the most offensive terms edited out. What are the merits and problems of this approach to difficult classic literature?

You Are Here: Not A Year-In-Review Post

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While many writers will be surrendering their soapboxes to reflection and summation — perhaps as the basis for trying to predict where it seems we’re headed — I’d like to offer a different sort of historically-minded meditation: a brief you are here assessment informed by two somewhat interconnected statements that recently caught my attention.

Let’s talk about race, Canada

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Talking about race in Canada is a lot like talking about sex in the old days. There is so much imposed silence on the subject. We skip around it, pretend that it is not there, and pray that it will go away.