Tag Archives: 20th century

Weaponizing Sound and Space: Spatial and Sonic Patriarchy as Forms of Anti-abortion Violence

Shannon Stettner[1] The space outside abortion clinics is complicated. Much of it is public and there are important discussions about the uses of public space, the right to protest, and the “ownership” of such spaces.[2] In Canada, many legal injunctions or safe access zones (theoretically) prevent protestors from occupying the area directly in front of clinics because clinics are also… Read more »

Building a Radical Space: Inclusion, Fracture, and the Limits of Utopia

By Alisha Stranges and Elspeth H. Brown T’Hayla Ferguson, digital illustration by Ayo Tsalithaba for The Pussy Palace Oral History Project, LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory. 2025. “I think the intention was to make women’s sexuality and women’s play just normal. Not such a sideshow. We want to have a place to go and get naked and fuck and play,… Read more »

How Do You Remember a Sex Party? Telling the History of the Pussy Palace

This is a black and white photograph showing four women smiling together in what appears to be a casual, friendly group portrait. They're wearing plaid or checkered shirts, giving the image a relaxed, informal feel. There's decorative artwork visible on the wall behind them - what looks like an ornate floral or scrollwork design. The photo has a vintage quality, likely from the 1970s based on the hairstyles and photographic style. The women appear to be enjoying each other's company, with genuine, warm smiles.

By Alisha Stranges and Elspeth H. Brown Ange Beever, digital illustration by Ayo Tsalithaba for The Pussy Palace Oral History Project, LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory. 2025. “When they first came in, I was pissed off that they had crashed the party. […] like these stupid men tromping through this place. I’m just like, ‘You look like idiots. You’re stupid…. Read more »

The power of oral history in piecing together archival fragments documenting 2SLGBTQ+ community histories

Meredith J. Batt I have made an error. These are not words that come easily to a historian, when evidence is the backbone of our work. However, as Tim Lacy notes in his Society for U.S. Intellectual History blog post On the Failures of Historians, “There is no question that historians in their role as content experts experience failure.  All humans are… Read more »

Rediscovering Private Hasan Amat: Canada’s First Muslim Soldier Killed in the First World War

Warrant Officer Daniyal Elahi, 337 Queen’s York Rangers Royal Canadian Army Cadets Growing up, I often felt as though Muslim Canadians were a recent part of this country — as if our connection began only in 1965, when my grandfather immigrated from Pakistan. In school, the Canadian soldiers we learned about seemed to share the same background and the same… Read more »

Between Two Worlds

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Author Carol F. Lee explores the writings of her mother Mary Quan Lee, with a focus on her experiences in the 1930s and her sense of dual Canadian and Chinese identity in the 1940s. Lee notes that her mother’s identity was shaped in large part by openings and closings in opportunities and the structural realities of exclusion in Canada.

How the History of the Anti-mask and Anti-vaccination Movements Hang Together

Thomas Schlich and Bruno J. Strasser Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is best known as a vaccination skeptic, but he is also skeptical about using masks for infection control. At the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC in May 2024, Kennedy Jr. recalled being asked during the pandemic whether he was scared of dying of COVID-19 since he wasn’t wearing a… Read more »

When Protest Becomes News: The 1970 Abortion Caravan and the Politics of Media Coverage

By Hailey Baldock With a black coffin strapped to the top of their van and a fiery determination to scrap Canada’s abortion laws, the women of the 1970 Abortion Caravan knew they had to make a scene. And they did. Over the course of two weeks, the Caravan moved across the country from Vancouver to Ottawa, rallying supporters and drawing… Read more »

Almost Destroyed: Chinese Canadian records at Library and Archives Canada

June Chow This post is a sequel to The right to remember the past: Opening Chinese immigration records in Canada’s national archives published on March 27, 2025. It is adapted from a presentation made on June 11, 2025 at the Association of Canadian Archivists conference held at Carleton University (Ottawa, Ontario) to an audience that included Librarian and Archivist of Canada, Leslie… Read more »

On Wave Relationships and Struggle at the Margins: Transfeminine Histories and Echoes in Newfoundland

Daze Jefferies and Rhea Rollmann Editor’s note: the following work by Daze Jefferies and Rhea Rollmann is a piece of creative history. Transfeminine histories are often especially difficult to recount through traditional historical writing. By engaging with archival fragments, as well as oral histories completed by Rhea for her exceptional book A Queer History of Newfoundland, this article uses the… Read more »