Active History

Toronto’s Rob Ford Phenomenon and Diversity within Canada’s Evolving Suburbs

March 3, 2014 1 Comment

Image from Wikipedia Commons.

By Jay Young

An earlier version of this post originally appeared on the History News Network in late January.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford sure is in the news a lot these days. In late December, the US liberal-leaning Talking Points Memo website announced it had awarded him their annual scandal-of-the-year trophy, marking the first time this infamous recognition went to a politician outside the United States. And in January another video appeared of a seemingly drunken, incoherent Ford ranting in a fake (and, many have argued, offensive) Jamaican patois at a local fast food restaurant. Like the previous videos, Ford’s antics were once again broadcast and mocked on American late night television for a global audience. Ford, who had previously told the media that he had sworn off alcohol, admitted that he’d been drinking “a little bit” that evening.

Despite Ford’s seeming non-stop substance abuse sideshow, polling numbers show Ford’s continued support from a core of Torontonians. The city’s residents will go to the polls later this year, so we’re bound to hear much more about Ford throughout his re-election campaign.

So how did Toronto get here? Continue reading →

Introducing the ActiveHistory.ca YouTube Channel

February 28, 2014 2 Comments

Is there anything more fun/dangerous/time consuming than unintentionally falling into a YouTube rabbit hole? You start out looking for Stephen Colbert’s Daft Punk video and two hours later have somehow landed on bloopers from Seinfeld. One of my personal favourites is mid-to-late 90s professional wrestling videos, with their over the top characters and the nostalgia of being a kid and wondering if it was real. Plus, all the Royal Rumbles from that era are readily available – what a great time to be alive.

In addition to these, I’ve also fell on some pretty terrific history videos during my trips to YouTube, which made me think that perhaps we here at Active History should put together some videos. So we did and we’re pleased to announce the ActiveHistory.ca YouTube channel.
Continue reading →

Proclamation and Commemoration: The Treaty of Niagara, Royal Proclamation, and a Critical Look at “Creating Canada”

February 27, 2014 1 Comment

By Michelle Hope Rumford

The undertaking of “commemoration” encompasses actions taken in a spirit of remembrance and honor. Choosing to commemorate acknowledges the importance of an event. It allows history to live on into present contexts. In the context of the continuous formation and re-evaluation of the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian government, 2013 was marked by a series of commemorations of the 1763 Royal Proclamation. But 2014 rings in the 250th anniversary of an event whose importance ought not be overlooked: The Treaty of Niagara. In this post, I use the 1764 Treaty of Niagara to reflect on The Creating Canada symposium, one of the largest and most significant events marking the commemoration of the Royal Proclamation. Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Thirty-Five: Preserving Canadian Logos

February 26, 2014 1 Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

By Sean Graham

The Montreal Expos are just one of many logos featured on the Northern Army Preservation Society’s new site devoted to Canadian logos.

Back in October, I was in Montreal and went to what immediately became my new favourite sports store. Apart from the obligatory Canadiens gear, the store had racks of apparel featuring many teams’ retro logos and, perhaps more excitingly, the logos of several defunct sports teams. While I bought a Montreal Expos hat and Hartford Whalers shirt, the Quebec Nordiques and Vancouver Grizzlies gear was tough to walk away from.

Walking through the store served as a terrific example of how powerful logos can be. Take the Montreal Expos logo, its meaning goes well beyond representing a professional baseball team. Depending on your personal experience, the logo can remind you of great days watching games at Jarry Park or the pain of losing your favourite team. In either case, the person looking at the logo attaches their own meaning to the symbol that goes beyond the tri-colour design.
Continue reading →

From the Classroom to the Front Lines of Heritage Preservation

February 24, 2014 No Comments

By Christine McLaughlin

Plaque commemorating the designation of the Cliff Pilkey Waterfront Trail in Oshawa Ontario. Cliff Pilkey was a past UAW Local 222 President, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour, and MPP for Oshawa.
Photo Credit: Robert T. Bell

I’ve spent many years in a university classrooms studying and teaching history. In true academic fashion, I’ve published an article that critically analyzes public history production and memory in a postwar industrial city. My recent appointment to Heritage Oshawa by City Council has offered me the opportunity to translate this theoretical engagement into concrete action. This has been a challenging and rewarding experience.

The Municipal Heritage Committee is made up of citizen volunteers who advise on matters of local heritage and assist Council in carrying out its heritage conservation program. It is governed by the Ontario Heritage Act. Unlike academic work which requires a high degree of specialization, participation on a municipal heritage committee requires broad knowledge of a diverse range of subjects: architecture, engineering, planning, construction, law, local history and heritage. Making informed decisions on such a wide array of topics can create a steep learning curve; so too does this offer learning and training opportunities on a range of topics relating to heritage preservation. Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Thirty-Four: Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch and Underground Soldier

February 21, 2014 2 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

By Sean Graham

For as much as history may fall under the ‘Humanities,’ occasionally the humanity of the past gets lost. Writing about the past can become clinical and historians can become immune to some of history’s horrors. Facts and figures of deaths in a war, for example, are faceless and can fail to elicit a strong emotional reaction. Personalize those numbers, however, and their weight is easier to appreciate.

That is exactly what Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch does in Underground Soldier. The story follows Luka, an adolescent who has escaped from a Nazi slave labour camp during the Second World War. The conditions of Luka’s escape – by lying in a truck of dead bodies as it leaves the camp – serve as a precursor to the series of unpleasant, dangerous, and risky circumstances awaiting him.
Continue reading →

Navigating archival research roadblocks

February 19, 2014 No Comments

By Jenny Prior

A whole lot of research … Mel Starkman viewing records in the Archives of Ontario’s stacks. Photographer unknown
[ca. 1968]. Archives of Ontario photographs, RG 17-43, I0009024

So you’re hard at work, creating a World War I exhibit based on hours and hours of archival research. Or maybe you’re not. But doesn’t it sound like a fascinating and daunting task?

Just ask Stewart Boden at the Archives of Ontario. As our in-house curator of three interconnected World War I exhibits highlighting our collections, Stewart’s been on a rollercoaster ride of discovery, frustration and rewards.

We wanted to share some of the research challenges he’s encountered with this intense undertaking, as well as the ways he’s navigating through them. Continue reading →

Ten Books to Contextualize Canadian Fisheries

February 18, 2014 4 Comments

By Andrew Watson, Stacy Nation-Knapper, and Sean Kheraj

Blessing of the fishing fleet, Lamèque, 1906. Source: Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. Reference number: P18-220. Click image to be brought to the archival site itself!

Last year, Nature’s Past, the Canadian environmental history podcast, published a special series called, “Histories of Canadian Environmental Issues”. Each episode focused on a different contemporary environmental issue and featured interviews and discussions with historians whose research explains the context and background. Following up on that project, we are publishing six articles with ActiveHistory.ca that provide annotated lists of ten books and articles that contextualize each of the environmental issues from the podcast series.

The fifth episode in the series looked at the state Canada’s freshwater and ocean fisheries. We spoke with Dean Bavington, Stephen Bocking, Douglas Harris, Will Knight, and Liza Piper about the history of Canada’s fisheries. We had a particularly interesting conversation that covered a wide spectrum of fisheries history and included a description of the major transformations of fisheries since Confederation.

Nature’s Past Episode 35: Histories of Canadian Environmental Issues, Part V – Fisheries, Regulation, and Science

Here are ten books that contextualize Canadian fishereis: Continue reading →

The Aestheticization of Politics at the Olympic Games

February 17, 2014 2 Comments

By Eric Wright

Disclaimer: I am an athlete and sports fan, despite what this article may lead you to believe.

The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics has been embroiled in controversy from the start. The games will be the most corrupt in history based on dollar value, with an estimated one third of the games’ $51 billion price tag attributable to corruption. Then there is the ongoing controversy over whether Russia should have been awarded the games in the first place given its homophobic laws against “gay propaganda.” Added to this is the persistent allegation that these are “Putin’s Games”—an act of personal aggrandizement.

In spite of these controversies, roughly three billion people worldwide will watch the Sochi games. So it is safe to say that the “controversies” plaguing these games are not imperilling their legitimacy. Instead, the controversies have been folded into the larger media narrative of the games, providing additional dramatic fare to the larger sporting spectacle, becoming yet another tool to market the games to spectators. A perpetually bored and channel-flicking public consumes these “controversies” as sideshows to the larger media narrative about the Olympic games.

Of course, there are those who oppose the games on the grounds of these controversies rather than simply consuming them as additional dramatic flair. Continue reading →

Opening the Academy: New Strategies for Exploring and Sharing African Nova Scotian History

February 15, 2014 1 Comment

On Friday, February 28^th, a Royal Society of Canada-funded symposium will be held in the Fountain Commons at Acadia University. This Open Academy brings together scholars and members of the general public, including high school, community college, and university students and members of the African Nova Scotian descendant community. The event’s main objective is to share recent scholarly research in African Nova Scotian history with the community, and to strategize how broad, ongoing public access to new data may be facilitated in the future.

We have engaged renowned researchers and accomplished storytellers – all well-versed in Canada’s Black past – to lead discussions that will explore heritage resources that can and should frame future discussions about everything from community history to the ongoing experiences of racial discrimination to which African Nova Scotians continue to be subjected. This symposium is an opportunity to engage scholars directly with the community in a discussion on how to establish and improve popular access to newly acquired data and how information can be made available to all Nova Scotians, to further the cause of intercultural understanding and respect.

Panel 1: 10:00 a.m.: Researching the History

Dr. Henry Bishop, NSCC Halifax/Dartmouth
Dr. Afua Cooper, James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies, Dalhousie University
Dr. Karolyn Smardz Frost, Harrison McCain Visiting Professor, Acadia University

Panel 2: 1:00 p.m.: ‘Getting it our There’ – Sharing the History

Dr. Sylvia Hamilton, University of Kings College, Halifax
Quanda Johnson, Fullbright Fellow, Dalhousie University
El Jones, Poet Laureate, Halifax Regional Municipality

Panel 3: 2:45 p.m.: Educational Strategies Going Forward

Ken Fells, President, Black Educators Association
Krishinda McBride, Race Relations, Cross Cultural Understanding and Human Rights Coordinator, AVRSB
Dr. Leslie Oliver, Professor Emeritus, Acadia University

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