Tag Archives: Canada

Restrictive Immigration – What’s Old is News

By Sean Graham Restrictive Immigration | RSS.comSince Confederation, Canada has implemented a number of restrictive immigration policies, including on Jewish immigrants during the 1930s. Norm Ravvin, author of Who Gets In: An Immigration Story, joins the show to talk about one story of a Jewish immigrant coming to Canada and challenging those restrictions, We talk about researching what was a hidden… Read more »

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923: Settler Colonialism and the Structure of Racism in Canada

By Timothy J. Stanley Until its 1947 repeal, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, effectively barred Chinese people from immigrating to Canada and required all Chinese, including the Canadian-born, to register with the government. Failure to register made them liable to fines, imprisonment and deportation. The Chinese are the only group to which… Read more »

How Can We Reckon with a Future that Never Was

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By Henry Yu On July 1, the “Paper Trail” exhibit curated by Catherine Clement detailing the impacts of the legal Chinese exclusion of Chinese from Canada in 1923, will open at the new Chinese Canadian Museum located in Vancouver Chinatown. Having spent the last seven years of my life helping in some capacity or another to envision, consult, plan and… Read more »

Alberta and Abyssinia

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By David Webster One textbook on Canadian foreign relations sums up the 1930s with the chapter title “Alberta, not Abyssinia.” Canada was more concerned with domestic politics affairs, not overseas crises such as the Italian invasion of Ethiopia (previously called Abyssinia) in 1935. “All these European troubles are not worth the bones of a Toronto grenadier,” in the words of… Read more »

Fighting Racism Through Sport

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By Sean GrahamFighting Racism Through Sport | RSS.comWe’re back with new episodes and this week I’m joined by Ian Kennedy, author of On Account of Darkness: Shining Light on Race and Sport, which explores how athletes from Chatham-Kent in southwestern Ontario fought racial discrimination through sports. We discuss Ian’s interest in sports, Chatham-Kent’s history as a terminus of the underground… Read more »

Where’s the beef (coming from)?

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by Nicholas Fast For the public at any grocery store, the most shocking part of choosing any meat package is usually the price. It is no secret that the price of meat, especially beef, has skyrocketed during the pandemic. The sticker shock prevents many from looking beyond the plastic wrapping to really consider where the beef—or chicken or pork—comes from…. Read more »

“Absurd Quackery”: The Canadian Women’s Health Movement, Vaccine Attitudes, and Healthsharing

A magazine page titled "Shots in the Dark: The Risk of Infant Vaccination." The page includes a picture of a child in a crib.

Kathryn Hughes In 1989, the popular Canadian women’s health magazine Healthsharing published an article entitled “Shots in the Dark: The Risk of Infant Vaccination”. Echoing the anti-vaccine movement of this period (the title borrows from the 1985 influential anti-vaccine text DTP: A Shot in the Dark), the article discussed the risk of the DPT-P vaccine, quoted personal stories from mothers… Read more »

Film in Canada – What’s Old is News

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By Sean Graham Film in Canada | RSS.comFor over a century, Canadians have maintained a love affair with Hollywood, both as producers and consumers. This week, we look at how that has played out with Mary Graham, author of Stunning Backdrop: Alberta in the Movies, 1917-1960, and Michael Gates, author of Hollywood in the Klondike: Dawson City’s Great Film Find…. Read more »

Black & Immigrant Communities in Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley

By Sean Graham Black & Immigrant Communities in Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley | RSS.comIn the 1930s, Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver was home to a vibrant community, which was slowly displaced through the construction of the Dunsmuir and Georgia viaducts. This is the settling for Junie, a historical fiction that explores the complexities of community, race, sexuality, substance abuse, and, most importantly,… Read more »

Family Immigration to Canada – What’s Old is News

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By Sean Graham Family Immigration to Canada | RSS.comAuthors Linda Peterat (From Denmark to the Cariboo: The Epic Journey of the Lindhard Sisters) and Michael Andruff (The Russian Refugees: A Family’s First Century in Canada) join Sean to talk about how familial stories can shape our understanding of immigration to Canada. They discuss their respective stories, the push/pull factors that… Read more »