Tag Archives: Canadian history

The Global Pandemic in Saskatchewan: a history to remember

Erika Dyck and Jim Clifford The COVID-19 pandemic tested healthcare systems worldwide and pushed many of them to the breaking point. Canadians experienced the pandemic in diverse ways depending on where and how they lived, from single-family dwellings with converted virtual workspaces to long-term-care facilities with rigorous lock-down policies or First Nations reserves with inconsistent access to potable water, but… Read more »

Montreal Walking Tour: Towers of Grain

      1 Comment on Montreal Walking Tour: Towers of Grain

Jim Clifford and Stéphane Castonguay will lead a walking tour on Sunday June 16 at 7pm starting at Victoria Square in Montreal. Towers of Grain: Feeding Edwardian Britain Silo number 1, built in 1902 in the Port of Montreal, linked the burgeoning wheat farms on the Prairies with the urban markets in the United Kingdom. New industrial-scale flour mills were… Read more »

Mobilizing Resistance: The “Action Patriotique” Movement within Montreal’s Haitian Diaspora, 1971-1986

Virginie Belony As the situation in Haiti becomes increasingly complex and challenging for many observers to comprehend, delving into Haiti’s past and the experiences of its diaspora here in Canada can offer valuable insights and examples of resilience, resistance, and community mobilization. The election of François Duvalier as President of Haiti in September 1957 marked the onset of a period… Read more »

A Signature Pedagogy for History Instruction?

      1 Comment on A Signature Pedagogy for History Instruction?

Paul McGuire This is the sixth entry in a monthly series on Thinking Historically. See the Introduction here. At least twice a year, we take a trip to the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. One of the most beautiful parts of the valley is Grand Pré and Hortonville. From here, you can see Blomidon and the vast expanse of the… Read more »

Who Killed the History of Canadian Multiculturalism?

      No Comments on Who Killed the History of Canadian Multiculturalism?

Daniel R. Meister In a recent op-ed, Stephen Marche claims “the foundation of Canadian multiculturalism rests on a basic piece of common sense: Leave your shoes at the door.” Picking up on this thread, Jack Granatstein countered that multiculturalism as a policy actually consists of encouraging immigrants to leave those shoes on—and march right into a polling booth. Multiculturalism is… Read more »

Trauma-Informed Teaching: Creating Classrooms that support learning

In recent years, teachers and heritage professionals have wrestled with the question of when and how to provide alerts about materials that students or users might find difficult to navigate. This is the first in a three-part Active History series on the subject of content warnings that elaborates the crucial processes and approaches that inform this work. Jo McCutcheon …to… Read more »

Thinking Historically About a Generation of Canadian Offshore Schools

Ian Alexander This is the fourth entry in a monthly series on Thinking Historically. See the Introduction here. In the 1990s a confluence of social, economic, and political conditions created a market for international education to expand in a multitude of ways around the globe. For those in communities across Canada, the internationalization of education has been most visible in… Read more »

What is Good Citizenship? Perspectives from Former Air Cadets of Diverse Identities

This is the fourth entry in a monthly series on Thinking Historically. See the Introduction here. Rebecca Evans  Our conceptions about good citizenship vary. Context, particularly space and time, matter. In citizenship education, young people participate and deepen their understanding of how to make change in their communities. They do so across various domains, inclusive of formal politics, political advocacy, civic… Read more »

Exploiting a legacy: John Peters Humphrey and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This is the second of a two-part series to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948. The first part appeared on this site previously. Jennifer Tunnicliffe On December 10, Canada will take part in celebrations of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). On its website, the federal… Read more »

Thinking Historically About Disability at the Ontario School for the Blind, 1903-1917

This is the third entry in a monthly series on Thinking Historically. See the Introduction here. Harrison Dressler “ALL THE EVIDENCE DEMANDED,” read an article published in the Toronto Globe on February 2, 1917. Written by two former students—R.F. Henderson and Byron G. Derbyshire—the article alerted the Canadian public about an investigation into the Ontario School for the Blind (OSB),… Read more »