Active History

Violence in Early Canada

February 16, 2016 No Comments

We are crossposting this essay as part of our partnership with the new early Canadian history blog Borealia.

By Elizabeth Mancke & Scott See

Charles Beauclerk, Bataille de Saint-Eustache, 1840. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

In the months since the 19 October election, Canadians – from Justin Trudeau to church groups preparing for Syrian refugees – are reasserting one of the most recognizable tropes about Canada, that the country is an international leader in humanitarian aid and an advocate for multilateral and conciliatory approaches to international challenges. In mid-November the Globe and Mail ran an editorial referencing the Geneva Convention of 1949 and urging Canadians to reaffirm the country’s commitment to international law and humanitarian traditions; “as a leading member of the international community, [Canada] must do its part to uphold the letter and spirit of humanitarian law,” including acting as a leader in calling for an independent commission to investigate the American bombing of a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan in October. Unarticulated but central to the editorial’s argument was that ideological differences need to be set aside in the interests of international justice; the three authors were Joe Clark (former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister), Ed Broadbent (former NDP leader), and Irwin Cotler (former Liberal MP and Minister of Justice). The editorial also reaffirmed that Canadians and Americans have substantively different understandings about how to respond to violence both internationally and domestically, about when it is appropriate for a state to use violence, and what the boundaries to that violence should be. Indeed, the decision of the Liberal government to withdraw Canadian fighter jets from bombing ISIS contributed to the Minister of Defence Harjit Sajjan not receiving an invitation from the US Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter, to a multilateral meeting to discuss coalition strategies to end the threats of ISIS.

As historians of pre-Confederation Canada and the United States, we have committed a great deal of our intellectual energies, individually and collaboratively, to understanding why the two countries have such profoundly different understandings about the role of violence in defining the character of social order, from localities to the international community. We know that the frequent contrast between Canada as peace-loving and the United States as more violent can too often mask episodes of violence in Canadian history. As well, we know that Canadian history is often dismissed as irrelevant to understanding the modern world because its historical narrative is not intensely shaped and punctuated by episodes of large-scale violence. Yet as Jerry Bannister reminds us, colonialism is intrinsically violent, involving at the very least the traumatic displacement of indigenous peoples. Involving Indigenous leaders in relocating their nations, as the British did with Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) and the Mohawks after the American Revolution, does not assuage the suffering of the ordeal. And as the recent report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools tells us, cultural genocide through education is a profoundly disruptive form of social violence that echoes down the generations in Indigenous communities, hampering if not handicapping their ability to build strong nations. [Read More…]

The Future of Public History Programs in North America and Abroad

February 13, 2016 No Comments

Active History is proud to present a video each week from New Directions in Active History. The conference took place at Huron University College on October 2-4, 2015 and brought together scholars, students, professionals and community members to discuss a wide range of topics pertaining to active history.

Continuing the conversation on the future of Public History programs this week is Jean-Pierre Morin, a member of the board of directors of the National Council on Public History. Morin offers insight on the growth and decline of Public History programs in North America, as well as internationally. Morin discusses why many programs are being closed down on the regional and local levels, as well as addressing the decreasing number of students enrolling in public History Programs in Canada and the United States. Focusing on the international scene, Morin discusses the growth of public history in Europe, and how Europeans are adapting their programs to the North American models that have been established here. He also discusses the identity crisis that faces many Public History graduates and their prospects of finding work after graduation.

Activehistory.ca repost – Why “I Used to Love H.E.R,” Why I Still Love H.E.R: Hip Hop THEN, Hip Hop NOW

February 12, 2016 No Comments

As part of Black History Month every Friday in February we’re featuring some of our most popular posts and podcasts on Black History.

The following post was originally featured on March 14, 2011.

An impromptu performance held at the Hub (the area around 3rd Avenue and 156th Street) by The Mean Machine. One of the benefits of institutional neglect was that public concerts like this, common to the early days of Hip Hop, allowed artists to express themselves freely without the need for formal compliance.

By Francesca D’Amico

Chicago’s Cominskey Park on July 12th, 1979 was a scene like no other. Disco Demolition Night was a promotional event meant to protest the shift in radio programming from rock to an all-disco format. In exchange for admission, fans were asked to bring an unwanted disco LP. Following the first of a double-header game, a large crate of the collected records was detonated in center field. Against chants of “disco sucks,” 59,000 fans swarmed and vandalized the field. As the scoreboard flashed, “please return to your seats,” police in riot gear cleared the field and eventually cancelled the second game. This was the night Disco died and made way for Hip Hop.

Hip Hop had been developing in the boroughs of New York City since 1973. Black and Puerto Rican youth who had long been denied access to Disco clubs created their own recreational spaces in response. Party organizers would steal city electricity from the street lamps to connect their equipment and perform in accessible venues such as community parks and apartment recreation rooms. Borrowing from the Jamaican traditions of the soundsystem and toasting, Deejays used turntables to create new sounds, while graffiti artists used subway trains as canvas and breakdancing battles evolved from gang confrontation.

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History Slam Episode Seventy-Seven: Prime Minister’s Row

February 10, 2016 1 Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

By Sean Graham

Google Map of Laurier Ave E in Ottawa

Before I moved to Ottawa, my only experience with the city was a brief research trip, during which I heard about the nation’s capital radius rule. The rule holds that if you’re standing on Parliament Hill you can walk 15 blocks in any direction and still feel like you are in a national capital. That radius includes the Supreme Court, Library and Archives Canada, several museums, a variety of embassies, high commissions, and consulates, and the core of the city’s ‘business district.’ Once you wander outside that radius, however, Ottawa feels like any other town in this country, with its mix of suburban housing, strange traffic patterns, and chain restaurants.

When I first got to Ottawa in 2009, I lived inside that radius and rarely left – mostly because every time I ventured further afield, I was reminded that the radius was a pretty accurate description. More recently, however, the city has undergone a bit of a revitalization that, in my opinion, has either expanded the radius or made it an obsolete concept. The completion of Lansdowne Park, the construction of light rail, and the redevelopment of Lebreton Flatts are a couple examples of Ottawa’s newly found penchant for growth. There is work to be done, of course, as Tim Harper in the Toronto Star recently asked “Why is our Nation’s Capital so drab?”

In addition to the major projects spearheaded by the municipal government, there are plenty of grassroots groups working on improving the city’s cultural reputation. One of these is Prime Minister’s Row, a group which is conducting research on the many historical figures that lived on Laurier Avenue East in the Sandy Hill neighbourhood. Their goal is to take advantage of the city’s built heritage to create Ottawa’s first street museum. By including both cultural and political figures in their research, the group hopes to attract a diverse audience to a part of the city that isn’t on the radar of many tourists.
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A Century Long Debate over Sexual Education in Ontario

February 9, 2016 2 Comments

Michelle Hutchinson Grondin, PhD

On February 23, 2015, Ontario Education Minister Liz Sandals announced revisions to provincial sexual education program, which includes teachers explaining “gender expression” in grade five, masturbation in grade six, the hazards of sexting in grade seven, and same-sex relationships in grade eight. [1] Even though the Ontario curriculum had not been updated since 1998, the Liberal government met intense opposition to the proposed modifications. Premier Kathleen Wynne was criticized by MPP Monte McNaughton of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario who argued that “It’s not the premier of Ontario’s job, especially Kathleen Wynne, to tell parents what’s age appropriate for their children.”[2] While tensions flared at Queen’s Park, protestors clamored outside the legislature. Participants included members of the Campaign Life Coalition, an anti-abortion group, and the Roman Catholic group Parents as First Educators. Despite these protests, the curriculum was implemented in the fall of 2015. The decision to move ahead with the new curriculum can be contrasted with the Dalton McGuinty government’s revised sexual instruction guidelines in 2010, when vocal religious conservative minorities successfully prevented the Liberals from up-dating the sexual education program.[3]

While the press reported rather exclusively on both the 2015 and 2010 controversies, little was said on the history of sexual education in Ontario schools. This absence was blatantly clear when Thames Valley District School Board superintendent Don MacPherson observed that, “there will always be an element of parents that won’t be happy. But we’ve been teaching sexuality in Ontario’s schools for 50 years.”[4] MacPherson, however, was mistaken, because the subject has actually been taught in Ontario schools since at least 1905, when missionary and English professor Arthur Beall travelled to schools and taught boys that masturbation drained their “life fluid,” and the importance of Christian values and morality.[5] From 1925 to 1933, the Ontario Health Department employed Agnes Haygarth, a social service nurse, to travel across rural Ontario and give lectures on health to public school children. She showed students films on health, and mainly taught girls, unless there were no male health officers available to talk to the boys.^[6] Continue reading →

Archival Literacy and the Role of Universities in Archival Instruction

February 8, 2016 13 Comments

By Krista McCracken

Photo comic by Rebecca Goldman CC-BY-NC

Over the past few years one of the many hats I’ve worn at Algoma University has involved providing introduction to archives sessions and educational programming around our archival holdings. This work often leaves me thinking about archival literacy and the skills historians need to be successful at archival research.

Archival research is a vital part of historical research however many history programs do not offer critical training in archives and most history majors tend to learn by trial and error how to navigate archival repositories. History classes may include a visit to the archive but these orientation sessions are often superficial and do not focus on the hands on development of research skills.

Looking back in my undergrad, archives were a bit of nebulous place that I didn’t know much about. I had the opportunity in the third year of my undergraduate program to visit a local archives, become acquainted with the staff, and do a project that focused on the archive. However even that project was fairly artificial – it involved visiting the archive and using reading room resources but didn’t include requesting archival materials or an explanation of how to do so. It was a good exposure to an archive but it felt very much along the lines of ‘show and tell’ and I was still left with many questions around access and how to most efficiently approach archival research. Continue reading →

The Future of Public History Programs in Canada

February 6, 2016 1 Comment

Continuing the conversation on the future of Public History programs in Canada is Dr. John Walsh, co-ordinator of the Master’s of Public History program at Carleton University. Walsh discusses the tension often present in Public History programs between theory and practice. He advocates for programs to offer a combination of reading and hands-on projects. Walsh points out that students in the program come from all over Canada and from diverse academic backgrounds. He stresses the range of projects that students can undertake apart from a traditional thesis, including documentary film making, dance and theatre, etc. He adds that graduates from the program have gone on to work in a multitude of fields including academia, government agencies and in the private sector. Lastly, Walsh raises the point that the Public History program is at an “interesting moment” as many MA graduates are choosing to complete a PhD on a Public History topic. He questions what this would mean for the structure of a PhD program in Public History versus a traditional PhD of History.

Activehistory.ca repost – Slavery in Canada? I Never Learned That!

February 5, 2016 Comments Off

As part of Black History Month every Friday in February we’re featuring some of our most popular posts and podcasts on Black History.

The following post was originally featured on October 23, 2013.

Slavery advertisement from Upper Canada Gazette, 10 February 1806.

By Natasha Henry

The highly anticipated soon-to-be-released film, 12 Years a Slave, has garnered lots of attention following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film provides a shocking but realistic depiction of American slavery. It is based on the life of Solomon Northrup, a free man, who was kidnapped from his hometown in New York and sold south into slavery. Northup is able to regain his freedom after Canadian Samuel Bass, a carpenter from Prescott, Upper Canada, writes several letters to authorities in New York on his behalf. No doubt, Canadians are proud of the usual portrayal of us as crusaders against American slavery and wear the badge of “Canadians as abolitionists” with honour. Canadians readily embrace the notion of Canada as a haven for American freedom-seekers, who were escaping the same conditions that Solomon Northup endured. Once he was freed, Northrup himself helped fugitives flee to Canada, the “Promised Land.”

But what about Canadian slavery?

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Syrian Refugees Now and South Asian Refugees Then: Marion Dewar and the Legacy of Project 4000

February 4, 2016 No Comments

By Deborah Gorham

In the biggest refugee crisis in decades, four and a half million Syrians have fled the civil war in their country. As I write, the refugees from the Syrian civil war have become a continuing media event. We can see refugees drowning; refugees boarding trains, or being prevented from boarding trains. We see victims starving in Madaya, a besieged Syrian community near the Lebanese border.

Our new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to bring 25,00 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of 2015. The number of refugees entering Canada has fallen far short of that promise. Still, many Canadians believe the government is doing its best and they were proud when Prime Minister Trudeau met the first arrivals at Toronto airport. “Welcome to Canada…You’re home now,” he said.

Almost 40 years ago, the world faced another refugee crisis. After the Vietnam War ended, and Saigon fell, three million Southeast Asians fled Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The mayor of Ottawa was then the staunch progressive, Marion Dewar. She launched Project 4000, one of the most ambitious local initiatives in Canada to resettle displaced people fleeing Vietnam. Continue reading →

Bleeding Him White: How Canada Stole an Indigenous Veteran’s Identity

February 2, 2016 26 Comments

By Lynn Gehl

In the Anishinaabeg tradition dibaajimowinan, which translates to personal storytelling, is valued as a valid and legitimate method of both gaining and conveying knowledge. The dibaajimowinan method is holistic in that it values knowledge that is more than what is rational: it is emotional and spiritual too. As most know, the oral tradition was recognized in the 1997 Delgamuukw Supreme Court of Canada decision. Remaining within my ancestral knowledge tradition, it is in these ways of knowing that I offer this Algonquin Anishinaabeg history.

CFWW Gehl Figure 1 - Joseph Gagnon (Gagne) in uniform

Figure 1 – Joseph Gagnon (Gagne) in uniform. All images are of items in the author’s possession.

Most days, and especially Remembrance Day, are a bundle of contradictions as my lived experience is laden with the genocide by colonial Canada both historical and in a contemporary sense. Through family oral history I know that my great grandfather, Joseph Gagne (also spelled Gagnon), served in the First World War (1914-1918). I was told that his mother, who is my great great grandmother, Angeline Jocko (also spelled Jacco), once resided at a mission settlement in the Lake of Two Mountains which was first established in 1721.

Figure 2 – Lynn Gehl holding wampum belt. Photo credit Nikolaus Gehl.

The Lake of Two Mountains mission settlement was a place where the Algonquin, Nippissing, and Mohawk people lived together, each nation retaining their own council houses (Day and Trigger 1994). Through the oral tradition I know there is a wampum belt that represents this relationship. This belt has three human icons encoded, as well as a cross representing the three Indigenous nations and the community as a Christian settlement.[i]

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