Active History

Celebration as History; History as Celebration

July 3, 2014 1 Comment

By Andrew Nurse

Celebrate: to observe (a day) or commemorate (an event) with ceremonies or festivities ~Dictionary.com

Celebrations don’t have a particularly good reputation among professional historians … and, for good reason. As a series of studies of national, regionalized, local and provincial commemorative events demonstrate, celebrations are politically fraught. Canada Day might stand — at this point in our yearly calendar — as a case in point, but so too folk festivals, “old home weeks,” and the parade of militarily-oriented events ushered in by the current government. In the place that has become my hometown (Sackville, NB), a heritage site situated in a shady, quiet corner of town overlooking a swan pond celebrates the town’s “founders.” The town holiday is replete with a parade that will do much the same thing. Sometimes there are plays telling the story of local pioneers and recently the Baptist churches in town celebrated their 250th anniversary with a series of historical enactments, a video, and a massed church service that made frequent reference to the past.

Historians have been wary of such celebratory events because they don’t really tell us much about the past. Serious study of public history has been asking probing questions of such celebrations for some time. What is actually being celebrated? Whose history is constructed as history? Who is left out of this past and hence deracinated? Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Forty-Five: Verene Shepherd and Women’s History in the Caribbean

June 25, 2014 2 Comments

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By Sean Graham

This is the first episode in our series of podcasts recorded at the 2014 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. The conference was held May 22-25 at the University of Toronto.

As an undergrad, I had the opportunity to spend a year studying at the University of the West Indies in Barbados. At the time it was a pretty easy decision to go – I love North Bay, but the chance to trade Lake Nipissing for the Caribbean Sea was too good to pass up. When I first arrived I was picked up at the airport by two students from the student’s union and I distinctly remember that as we headed towards campus, I could barely understand the two of them as they spoke to each other. Of course my initial reaction to this was that if the lectures are anything like that, I would flunk out pretty quickly. Fortunately, I managed to pick up on the accents around campus and had a productive year. Over the course of the year, things like TNT BBQ Hut, Natalie Gonzalez, and the Texaco Station were things that came to define Barbados for me personally. Academically, though, I was stuck by the high caliber work coming out of UWI.

The University of the West Indies spans three campuses – the Mona Campus in Jamaica, the St. Augustine in Tinidad and Tobago, and the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados. Each campus has its own specialty and serves students from across the region. In terms of history, between the three campuses, UWI is home to some of the top historians in the world – a list that includes Hilary Beckles and Swithin Wilmot.

Of all the stuff I came across, however, the one name that continued to show up on my reading lists was Verene Shepherd. Professor Shepherd is currently the Director of the Institute for Gender & Development Studies at the University of West Indies, Mona Campus, Her publications include I Want to Disturb my Neighbour, Livestock, Sugar and Slavery: Contested Terrain in Colonial Jamaica, and Engendering History: Caribbean Women in Historical Perspectives. She is also the host of weekly radio program entitled Talking History, which airs Saturday mornings in Jamaica and can be streamed through Nationwide 90FM.
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Politicians, Organizers, and the Making of Quebec’s National Holiday’s Public Policy, 1976-1984

June 24, 2014 1 Comment

By Marc-André Gagnon

Spreading across North America in the mid-19^th century, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day was established by French Canadian nationalist elites to signify the existence of a distinct French and Catholic society through the use of public demonstrations. The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, a patriotic association founded in Montreal in 1842, mobilized resources and used the celebration as a moment of reflection on the unique challenges posed by an anglo-dominant society in an effort to remind French Canadians of their duty to maintain their language, traditions, and faith.

By the 1960s, however, this long-time symbol of the solidarity among members of the “French-Canadian family” started to be contested. With the changing nature of French Canadian nationalism, the rise of the sovereigntist movement in Quebec, and the greater secularization of society, organizers were forced to rethink the celebration. In addition, new actors, in particular the Quebec provincial government, intervened through its funding of the event – with a major turning point being the election of Réné Lévesque’s Parti Québécois in November 1976. Seeking to build support for its vision of civic nationalism, Lévesque’s government issued a decree in May 1977 stating that the traditional Saint-Jean Baptiste Day should be also known as Quebec’s Fête nationale. His government also decided to take a proactive stance in institutionalizing the holiday’s organization and funding through the creation of the Comité organisateur de la fête nationale and the Programme d’aide technique et financière for local events. Once based on private and community initiatives, especially those of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Societies, June 24 celebrations became instrumental at a time when the Quebec nationalist movement was a major focal point of Canada’s political life.

The historiography of Saint Jean Baptiste Day has tended to use cultural analysis to trace the contours of the PQ government’s efforts to build a new tradition around these celebrations[1].Based in part on new archival material from the Mouvement national des Québécois fonds, National Assembly debates, and newspapers, my work explores the public policies around these celebrations. It provides a descriptive analysis of these policies, their consequences on the political debate, and ultimately their demise in 1984. It accounts for how various citizen groups and St-Jean Baptiste organizers participated in shaping these policies, especially after the 1977 celebrations.
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Community Driven: Thirty Years of Science North

June 23, 2014 1 Comment

By Krista McCracken

Science North, Sudbury Ontario.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Science North in Sudbury, Ontario. The establishment of Science North is deeply rooted in the Sudbury community and represents a truly Northern approach to establishing a science centre. From the mid-1950s to the 1970s prominent community members in the Sudbury area were advocating for the establishment of a mining museum. Locally a shift occurred in the late 1970s when the community support moved toward the idea of a general science centre instead of an institution dedicated solely to geology or mining.

A large investment by Inco Limited in 1981 helped launch dreams of a science centre into a reality. This $5 million dollar capital donation to the project was the largest single corporate donation to a community project in Canada at the time. Following Inco’s donation other community organizations, individuals, and levels of government began to support the project. Science North opened to the public on June 19, 1984 and was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on October 4, 1984. A summary of the Queen’s visit and an overview of some of the early exhibits at Science North can be seen here (PDF).

In addition to the idea of celebrating local mining Science North was seen as an opportunity to diversify the economy of Sudbury. The late 1970s and early 1980s had seen a number of mining strikes that had impacted huge portions of the community. Science North was viewed as a way to mend the relationship between Inco and community members while simultaneously attracting tourists and building something that the community could be proud of. Continue reading →

Polls and the Crisis of Confidence

June 19, 2014 1 Comment

By Jonathan McQuarrie

Why do newspapers support the public-opinion polls?…Not only do the modern polls, based on a small, carefully selected cross section, provide more accurate measurements; they can be applied to give continuous and rapid measurements of public opinion at all times. -George Gallup and Saul Forbes Rae, The Pulse of Democracy, 1940, 119.

So called ‘pollsters’ should hang their heads in shame. It’s time to quit whoring out the profession and get out of the media polling game. –Allan Gregg, tweet on 12 June 2014.

What a difference sixty years makes. On the night of the Ontario election, Allan Gregg, the well-known pollster and political pundit, made his displeasure with the inaccurate polling results perfectly clear. Tweets, of course, must always be taken with a several grains of salt. A more measured critique would certainly avoid use of ‘whoring,’ an ugly verb laden with gendered, moralizing judgments, especially following debate over the Conservatives’ highly controversial Bill C-36. However, Gregg has a long track record of being increasingly critical of his former profession. Following Christie Clark’s surprise victory in British Columbia’s 2013 election, Gregg told Canadian Press that the errors “should not happen.” Gregg is not the only commentator who has been sharply critical of polling, but he is the most prolific.

As Daniel J. Robinson’s book The Measure of Democracy: Polling, Market Research, and Public Life 1930-1945 (Toronto, 1999) makes clear, George Gallup and Saul Forbes Rae’s spirited defence of polling as serving public interests needs to be taken with as much salt as Gregg’s tweet. Early pollsters like Gallup’s American Institute of Public Opinion (AIPO) — and its Canadian branch — were soon shaped more by commercial research and committed to market metaphors than by any idealistic commitment to representing the voice of a broad public opinion. In that sense, Gregg’s position is a more honest representation of polling firms and their major function, which is market research. Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Forty-Four: Pierre Savard Conference Keynote Speaker Robert Englebert

June 18, 2014 2 Comments

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By Sean Graham

On Wednesday April 23, the tenth edition of the Pierre Savard Conference kicked off at the University of Ottawa. Through the years the conference’s keynotes have included such prominent historians as John Ralston Saul, David Hackett Fischer, and James Bartleman. But this year the organizing committee decided to bring the conference full circle and invite the University of Saskatchewan’s Robert Englebert to deliver the keynote address. For it was Robert Englebert who chaired the inaugural conference when he was a graduate student in the Department of History at the University of Ottawa. Seeing him back at the conference he founded was really interesting – particularly because Mme Savard (Pierre Savard’s widow) was so excited to meet him.

In this episode of the History Slam I talk with Robert Englebert about the conference, returning to Ottawa, and his research on French North America. We also talk about the book he co-edited with Guillaume Teasdale entitled French and Indians in the Heart of North America, 1630-1815.

Sean Graham is a doctoral candidate at the University of Ottawa where he is currently working on a project that examines the early years of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He has previously studied at Nipissing University, the University of the West Indies, and the University of Regina and like any red-blooded Canadian his ultimate dream is to be a curling champion while living on a diet of beer and poutine.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come: A City Museum for Toronto

June 17, 2014 8 Comments

Figure 1: One of the more dramatic past concepts for a Toronto Museum, by Sandro Thordarson.

By Daniel Ross and Jay Young

The Toronto Civic Museum, Humanitas, the Global City Museum: over the last forty years Toronto has seen a number of bold proposals for a city museum, but up until now there has been a distinct lack of shovels in the ground (or exhibits in the halls, as the case may be).

That may change soon. A workshop on June 3^rd marked the launch of the Museum of Toronto (MoT) project, an attempt to breathe new life into an old—but still very relevant—cause. What does it mean to create a city museum for a diverse metropolis like Toronto? How can this new initiative reach its potential? Continue reading →

Rescued by the Americans: the Story Ottawa Conservatives would prefer Canadians not know

June 16, 2014 6 Comments

By Veronica Strong-Boag

First of all three disclaimers: I like many Americans; I love digital records; and I value the efforts of independent on-line initiatives to serve the public good. Why then my reservations when I read the website http://parkscanadahistory.com? Two generous residents of the lower forty-eight, with significant expertise in the US National Park Service,[1] have provided free access to a rich trove of “electronic publications, covering the cultural and natural history of Parks Canada and the national parks, historic sites and marine conservation areas of the Canadian park system.” Full texts are available, although only in English. As Harper’s Conservatives sack information services and access, anyone interested in Canada’s parks and historic sites and monuments has reason for gratitude. We would be much poorer without such initiatives to preserve access to critical information about our past and present.

But after we have thanked our American friends, we should ask some questions, beginning with why is such an external source of public data on Canada necessary? The US site explains that it is “not affiliated with Parks Canada.” This seems a bit strange surely? All the linked documents were paid for by Canadian taxpayers and all were inspired by Canada’s own priorities with regard to national parks and historic sites and monuments. Indeed the various units within Parks Canada have a distinguished history of professional research conducted by historians, archaelogists, anthropologists, and a range of natural scientists. Their studies have contributed significantly to what we know about human exploration and settlement and changes in the natural environment and climate. They have been essential in ensuring that we better understand our part of North America.

Unfortunately, the deep knowledge available in the research records of every federal department has become a target for Canada’s current Conservative government. It is routinely suspicious of expertise and scholarship in the social sciences and sciences in particular.[2] Like all federal agencies and institutions, Parks Canada has been stripped to the bare bones by several decades of neo-liberalism, culminating in today’s wide-ranging assault on data collection and access. Federal websites generate growing frustration as materials disappear entirely or fail to be updated. The loss of significant departmental libraries and collections, like the general retreat from support for Canadian Studies, has become a commonplace tragedy that beggars future generations. The elimination in 2014 of the Depository Services Program (initiated 1927), which made government documents available to Canadians, is the critical context in which Parks Canada’s diminution and the value of http://parkscanadahistory.com needs to be understood.[3] Continue reading →

Eye of the Storm: History, Past and Future at the University of Saskatchewan

June 12, 2014 1 Comment

By Merle Massie

The University of Saskatchewan has been front and center in national and international news this past spring, owing to the public fallout of an ugly internal battle regarding the university’s past and future directions.

And historians have been active generals and foot soldiers on all sides of the battle. Because when you’re talking about shaping past and future, there are historians in the room.

A quick précis of events: Robert Buckingham, then Executive Director of the School of Public Health, released an open letter entitled ‘Silence of the Deans,’ accusing University of Saskatchewan senior administration of demanding a code of silence and conformity surrounding the controversial priority planning process TranformUS underway on campus. In response, the University of Saskatchewan fired Buckingham and stripped his tenure.

The ensuing public outcry – across campus, Saskatchewan, alumni, Canada, and beyond – was loud, outraged, and embarrassing for USask. The next day, part of the decision was revoked and Buckingham’s tenure reinstated. President Ilene Busch-Vishniac candidly admitted: “we blundered.” But soon the dominoes fell. Provost and Vice-President Academic Brett Fairbairn, who signed the firing letter, tendered his resignation. Two days later, the Board of Governors fired the President and hired a new interim President, Gordon Barnhart, to skipper the USask ship out of the shoals.

The key context to the story is, of course, money. Long prior to the Buckingham fiasco, the U of S has been wracked with controversy. To combat a projected future budgetary shortfall, the program prioritization process is leading adjustments and strategic cuts, rather than an across-the-board slash. This process has been messy, painful, and sad. University of Saskatchewan has been in ‘crisis mode’ for two years. The events of this spring merely brought the festering mess to a public explosion.

There is both storyline and characters in this battle: they read like a ‘who’s who’ of the History department. Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Forty-Three: Congress 2014 Recap

June 11, 2014 3 Comments

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By Sean Graham

Aerial view of Brock University. Photo via www.brocku.ca

Between May 24 and 30, Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, hosted the 2014 Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities. For three of those days the Canadian Historical Association held its annual meeting. This was my third year attending the CHA and I have to admit that it’s always an interesting experience. Between meeting people for the first time, seeing old friends, attending panels, and checking out the myriad of non-CHA events (Hello My Cousin Vinny’s in Niagara Falls!) the three days somehow manage to simultaneously go by really quickly and really slowly.

That dynamic was particularly evident for me this year as I spent the four days preceding the CHA at the 2014 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. I very much enjoyed my time at the Berks – there was an energy to the Berks unlike anything I’d ever experienced – but, when combined with the CHA, it led me to wonder if the limited resources available to those of us who study history are best spent on conferences. Between email, Skype, and the seemingly countless other digital options, I can’t help but wonder if the work being done in conference sessions could be replaced.

The problem with that, however, is the presupposition that the value of conferences lay exclusively in the panels, keynotes, and other ‘official’ events. Things like the beer tent, Cliopalooza, and the brief interactions between panels all have immense value. The opportunity to have genuine human interaction is fun – particularly after spending the better part of the past few years breathing in dust at the archives. For instance, putting faces to the names you know from Twitter is great. There are also the stories of book and article projects that were born out of conversations had at conferences. Those are the things that can’t be replaced.
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