Tag Archives: Local History

Active History on the Grand: Rural Raids and Divided Loyalties – Southwestern Ontario and the War of 1812

Rural Raids and Divided Loyalties – Southwestern Ontario and the War of 1812 is a new documentary in the works that examines little known stories of the American raids on Southwestern Ontario.

Active History on the Grand: Brantford Up-date

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If you’ve read my previous blogs, you’ll notice that I talk a lot about Brantford, Ontario.  Since completing my PhD in History from McMaster University I’ve been working as the Executive Director of the Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre (CIHC), a not-for-profit organization in Brantford dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Canadian industrial history and the establishment of a museum… Read more »

Remembering Francis: Sharing life and sharing the past

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Over the past five years I have spent many Friday afternoons with Francis and the Club at L’Arche Daybreak in Richmond Hill. Daybreak is a community that focuses on sharing life with people with different gifts and abilities; at its heart are men and women with intellectual disabilities. On Friday afternoons at the Club, a program for retirees, we often gather around the television screen to look at old community photographs. The members of the Club tell me stories about their past experiences, and I annotate the images in a digital database with the names of the people in the picture and the stories associated with them.

“Come On Over”: Call-In Collaborative History in Northeastern Ontario

When up in the Sudbury and Manitoulin areas for a quick research trip in mid-September, driving several hundred kilometres, I became well-acquainted with CBC Sudbury. On Morning North, there was a regular program by two Laurentian University professors conducting research for their upcoming book Come on Over: Northeastern Ontario A-Z. In what sounds like a cross between an encyclopedia and… Read more »

Contextualizing G20 Policing in Toronto

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A brief trip through Toronto’s 20th century past can show us two things: firstly, that police violence and arbitrary use of power has a long history in Toronto. More importantly, however, we see that citizen action can spur meaningful regulatory change. We can do something.

Colborne Street Breakdown II: Demolition and Community History

Colborne Street is the historic downtown of Brantford and by many accounts this stretch of buildings represents the longest stretch of pre-Confederation buildings remaining Canada, but Tuesday June 8th was a dark day for history, heritage and the city of Brantford.