by Ryan O’Connor On October 31st the United Nations announced the birth of the seven billionth person. Many stories were published on this event, but to me the most revealing was by David Suzuki, the venerable leader of Canada’s environmental movement. As Suzuki pointed out, the human population has increased three-fold during his lifetime. Nonetheless, he refused to blame population… Read more »
November’s Parler Fort speaker series at Fort York takes places on Monday November 14th, 2011 and features the theme The Monarchy in Canada – Why?
By Cate Prichard “Ottawa looks at rewriting rules on charitable giving,” the Globe and Mail announced last Friday, kicking off a running series on the evolution of philanthropy in Canada and abroad. Federal charities policy is front page news. According to the Globe’s reporting, the federal government is proposing, among other reforms, to make changes to the tax rules governing… Read more »
Ma’s grinning. “We can do anything now.” “Why?” “Because we’re free.” – Emma Donoghue, Room (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2010). Free of “Room” – a locked garden shed with a single skylight, the primary setting of Emma Donoghue’s award-winning fiction novel, Room. In Room, Donoghue brings readers into Jack’s world, an eleven by eleven ‘cell,’ that he shares with Ma and a… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Harris-History-Matters-lecture.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadHistorical Geographer Richard Harris recently presented a talk entitled “The Making of Dufferin-St. Clair: 1900-1929” at a local library located in this Toronto neighbourhood. Following his talk, a room full of community members shared their personal memories of the area’s social and physical development. Harris’s talk comes from research for his book, Unplanned Suburbs:… Read more »
Discovering Constance Margaret Austin and the Value of Experiential Learning with Spadina Museum
Trees are a common symbol for genealogy. Like lines of ancestry, trees contain many branches that are united through a common trunk but grow in their own direction. And like family history, we often only see the complexity of their roots when we start digging. In a previous post, I outlined strategies on conducting the research of one’s home, and offered… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Rumiel-History-Matters-talk.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadHistorian Lisa Rumiel recently presented a talk entitled “Three Mile Island to Bhopal: the Life and Work of Environmental Activist Rosalie Bertell” in front of an engaged audience at Toronto’s Parkdale library. Bertell, who has a PhD in biometrics, has long spoken out about the environmental consequences of nuclear power. Rumiel’s talk is available… Read more »
By Raphael Costa PhD Candidate, History, York University Coordinator, Portuguese Canadian History Project Like many initiatives, the Portuguese Canadian History Project (PCHP) started with a conversation over coffee. Brews in hand, historians of the Portuguese-Canadian experience, Susana Miranda and Gilberto Fernandes, hashed out the basis of the PCHP. It was 2008, with Susana knee-deep in her research on Portuguese-Canadian workers… Read more »
Upcoming events: Approaching the Past workshop 5 Oct. 2011; Parler Fort 24 Oct. 2011; Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Conference 15 Oct. 2011.
