Active History

The Purpose of Higher Education: Three National Studies

November 5, 2013 1 Comment

By Roberta Lexier

In recent months (years, really) universities in Canada have come under sustained attack. Provincial governments, especially in Alberta and Ontario, have dramatically reduced financial support for higher education and have publicly demanded that universities solely contribute to economic growth and development through their utilitarian functions. These demands are based on a particularly narrow view of the role of universities.

Conflicts over the purpose of higher education are not new. My research into Sixties student movements in Canada, for instance, demonstrated how developments in the post-World War II period, including increasing funding from federal and provincial governments, a more utilitarian focus, and the perception of universities as, in historian Philip Massolin’s words, “the focal points for the continued material and technological advancement of society,” led to significant discussions regarding their role in the post-World War II Canadian context. Continue reading →

Yonge Love: Crowd-Sourcing the History of Toronto’s Main Drag

November 4, 2013 4 Comments

By Daniel Ross

Every Torontonian has a story about Yonge Street. For nearly a century it was the city’s unquestioned commercial and entertainment hub, the place to go for everything from window-shopping and people-watching to a Saturday night out on the town. Even in today’s diverse, dispersed Toronto it remains our most iconic street. Love it or hate it, like Montreal’s rue Sainte-Catherine or Manhattan’s Broadway, it is hard to imagine the city without it.

It makes sense, then, that there has always been public interest in celebrating (and sometimes criticizing) Yonge Street. In this post I introduce an exciting new public history project organized by the Toronto Public Library, called youryongestreet. Dedicated to bringing together Torontonians to tell their stories about Yonge, the project includes four public talks this fall about Yonge’s history, as well as the creation of a website where people can share their own memories. Continue reading →

Podcast: Lost Ottawa: Facebook, Community, and History in the 21st Century. What Does it all Mean?

November 1, 2013 No Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

On September 17, the Ottawa Historical Association held its first lecture of the 2013-2014 season. Kicking things off was David McGee of the Canadian Science and Technology Museum and Founder of the popular Facebook group Lost Ottawa. McGee’s talk was entitled “Lost Ottawa: Facebook, Community, and History in the 21st Century. What Does it all Mean?”

Lost Ottawa is a group which features photographs of the nation’s capital up to 2000 – although primarily from the second half of the twentieth century. The photos highlight how the city has changed and members recall, discuss, and debate the city’s evolution. From restaurants that no longer exist, to changing uses of public places, to old NAC concert tickets, the group has become a popular destination for those interested in Ottawa’s history. But the group also raises questions about the study and marketing of history in 2013. In his talk, McGee discusses the Lost Ottawa’s growth and how historians can reach a wider audience.

ActiveHistory.ca is happy to present a recording of the address. Many thanks to David McGee and Andrew Burtch, President of the Ottawa Historical Association for their assistance.

Another Vision for the Canadian Senate

October 31, 2013 1 Comment

Pierre Trudeau with Paul and Mary Yuzyk, 1971. Image from http://yuzyk.com/contrib-can-e.shtml

By Jonathan McQuarrie

Lately, the Senate has dominated political headlines in Canada. This must mean that it did something wrong, since the only time that the Senate attracts headlines is when things go wrong. And indeed, Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, and Patrick Brazeau have all disrupted the tightly controlled messaging of the Conservative Prime Minister’s Office emphasis on fiscal responsibility and electoral accountability. To a lesser degree, reports of the now retired Mac Harb’s expense account unsettled the Liberal party. The NDP, sensing political gain and voter anger, has made abolishing the Senate one of its core messages, launching a ‘Roll up the Red Carpet’ campaign. Once again, the place of the august Red Chamber, populated by patronage appointments and part-time legislators, finds itself at the forefront of public discussion.

In a recent editorial, National Post columnist Jonathan Kay provided an interesting counterpoint to the recent discussion of the Senate, citing the work of the former Liberal Senator Yoine Goldstein. For Kay, Goldstein was a model Senator, writing a number of reports on technical yet important topics such as insolvency and patent law. A 2008 Toronto Star article credited Goldstein for advancing a bill against spamming—a law welcomed by many a person with an overburdened inbox. The general point is that, despite the multiple and pressing problems with the Senate, some Senators can indeed rise above the partisan fray to work in a broadly defined public interest.

In this spirit, it is worthwhile to recall the career of Senator Paul Yuzyk. Continue reading →

Dreaming of What Might Be: Introducing the Graphic History Project as a New Initiative for Radical History and Comics

October 30, 2013 1 Comment

By Sean Carleton

Illustrate! Educate! Organize! The Graphic History Collective (GHC) is pleased to announce the launch of their new comic book about the Knights of Labor in Canada called Dreaming of What Might Be: The Knights of Labor in Canada 1880-1900. The comic book is now available for free on the GHC Website.

Dreaming of What Might Be examines the contentious but significant history of the labour organization known as the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. The comic book shows how the organization took root in Canada and “encouraged people to ‘dream of what might be’ and take action on the job rather than give into the poor conditions and lack of control others said were natural and unchangeable.” Dreaming of What Might Be does not shy away from some of the Knights’ discriminatory practices; however, in the end, the comic book suggests: “Though not without its faults, the Knights of Labor can still be drawn upon for inspiration. Today, as we work to develop new cultures and movements of opposition, the Knights’ call to ‘dream of what might be’ reminds us that an alternative society is always possible.” Continue reading →

Modernity’s Terrible Beauty: Reflections on Marshall Berman

October 29, 2013 No Comments

By Jon Weier

When I learned that Marshall Berman, the great American theorist of modernity, died last month, it seemed appropriate to go back and reread his masterpiece, All that is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. First published in 1982 and then reissued with a new introduction in 1988, this book represented Berman’s attempt to reinvigorate discussions of modernity. In it he sought to reconcile the long-sundered ideas of modernism and modernization, to examine the modern condition and discuss how we could live in the world in the face of constantly accelerating change, to reject the advent of separate post-modernist theories and reintegrate them into larger discussions of modernity, and to return to the intellectual and literary history of modernity in order to find answers that would be useful in understanding its present and future.

All that is Solid Melts into Air was recommended to me by one of my undergraduate history professors and an early mentor at the University of Winnipeg, Dr. David Burley. I read it just after graduating with my BA and realize now that there’s much of it that I didn’t understand at the time. Though I may have missed some of its nuance and complexity at the time, I’ve always remembered it as an important and defining influence on my intellectual development and my continuing fascination with the modern and all that it implies.

Considering its impact on my development, I’ve always been surprised that more historians haven’t read or engaged with Berman and his ideas. Continue reading →

“Hurry Hard!” Community Connections to Curling in Canada

October 28, 2013 2 Comments

By Krista McCracken

Curling on the Dartmouth Lakes, Nova Scotia, ca. 1897. Public Domain.

The days are getting shorter and colder, areas of Canada have already had the first snowfall of the year, and curling clubs around Canada are gearing up for the season. Curling has been part of Canadian culture for centuries and is still a sport that holds popularity amongst Canadians.

The form of curling that exists today has seen substantial changes since the first incarnation of the game in the 16th century. No longer are monstrously heavy bowling ball like stones being thrown down bumpy sheets of outdoor ice. Today’s curlers use circular stones with handles. The earliest circular stones which date from the 1800s were still quite heavy, often weighing over 70 pounds.

In Canada the early circular iron curling stones are believed to have been made from metal-rimmed hubcaps from gun-carriages or from melted down cannonballs. This form of iron stone is something that only existed in Canada with many other countries using granite or whinestone for the first circular stones. Today, the curling stones in Canadian curling clubs are made of granite and weigh 40 pounds.

Curling was brought to Canada by Scottish immigrants and the first curling club in Canada opened in Montreal in 1807. In the following years clubs opened in Halifax, Quebec City, Toronto, and on numerous military bases. The earliest accounts of curling games are often connected with Canadian forces and local police forces and often regimental officers were key in the formation of the first curling clubs. Curling was considered good for morale, fitness, and as an acceptable form of socialization within a regiment. By the mid 1890s curling had taken hold in many communities across Canada with popularity being strongest in Western Canada. The originally outdoor sport of curling, that required long sheets of ice and cool weather, was a perfect fit for a Canadian climate.

Hockey tends to get a lot of the attention as a winter sport, that is deeply connected to identity in Canada, but curling has played a significant role in shaping community and national identities in this country. The Canadian Curling Association statistics from 2011 indicate that approximately 653,000 people curl across Canada. Curling clubs are typically designed so that curling can be watched from a separate area that facilities socializing. These spaces often include tables, a bar, and a TV or two. In many towns these spectator spaces are used by curlers and non-curlers alike for community functions like dances, weddings, fundraisers, etc. Continue reading →

For an Artist-Historian, Film-Making is a Sea-Change

October 24, 2013 No Comments

Roald Amundsen, Japanese postcard, 1926. Author’s personal collection.

By George Tombs

I recently completed The Blinding Sea, a 52-minute high-definition historical film about the most successful polar explorer of all time, Roald Amundsen (1872-1928). He was first through the Northwest Passage, first to the South Pole, second eastbound through the Northeast Passage and first confirmed to have reached the North Pole.

This was no armchair exercise for me. As a historian, I found that making a film destined for schools, universities and museums was like starting completely from scratch. Continue reading →

Slavery in Canada? I Never Learned That!

October 23, 2013 5 Comments

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?

African slavery existed in the colonies of New France and British North America for over 200 years, yet there remains a profound silence in classrooms and teaching resources about Canada’s involvement in the African slave trade. Continue reading →

One Island, Two Worlds: Conflict between The Dominican Republic and Haiti

October 22, 2013 17 Comments

Cristo Rey, directed by Leticia Tonos Paniagua, 2013.

By Thomas Zajac

“One Island, Two Worlds” describes the experience shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, both located on the one island in the Caribbean that is shared by two nations. Recently, the Dominican government has ruled to take citizenship away from all children of Haitian immigrants born after 1929. It is also the phrase that introduces the film Cristo Rey (2013), which recently made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The film is set in present-day Cristo Rey – a fictional slum in the Dominican Republic that is ruled by a gang leader. The main character, Janvier, is of both Haitian and Dominican descent (James Saintil, the actor who portrays him, is a Haitian who currently lives in the Dominican). In order to make money that he can send back to his mother in Haiti, he becomes a bodyguard for the gang leader’s daughter. He later falls in love with this girl in what is a classic element of cinema: a retelling of Romeo and Juliet.

Facts are not the main preoccupation with most historical films. Instead, they bring significant issues to our attention. These films motivate audiences to learn more about the issues portrayed on screen. This was particularly the case at TIFF, as Ron Deibert, a professor from the Munk School of Global Affairs, interviewed the cast about their experiences and the film’s political undertones after its screening.

Many of the current problems between Haiti and the Dominican Republic are based on the fact that millions of Haitians are currently living in the Dominican. Continue reading →

Last »