Active History

“Leveraging the Synergies” or a return to the past?: The decision to do away with CIDA

April 4, 2013 No Comments

Monument to Canadian Aid Workers. Photograph: Mike Gifford. Wikipedia Commons.

By Jill Campbell-Miller

On March 21^st, the Canadian government released the 2013 federal budget and in a paragraph did away with the 45-year-old Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The budget announced that CIDA would be amalgamated with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) to become the newly-renamed Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. The budget justified the decision by stating that “The Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development will leverage the synergies resulting from the amalgamation to maximize the effectiveness of resources available to deliver development and humanitarian assistance.”^[i] Despite its significance, however, the announcement failed to make it into the text of finance minister Jim Flaherty’s budget speech.

This decision is consistent with the direction of the Harper government’s official development assistance (ODA) policy, and is informed by its previous decision in 2006 to merge foreign affairs and trade. That change, in their words, “enhanced policy coherence across our foreign and trade objectives …. There are similar opportunities for synergies with our development assistance.”^[ii] The government sees the absorption of CIDA into DFAIT as a natural progression to bring Canadian foreign, trade, and development policy into line, with the final objective being to strengthen its business orientation.

Aid has always been a political football – a convenient way to express political decisions in a feel-good way. The current government has made no apologies for their approach. It draws from a conservative philosophy that sees the private sector as a potential resource for innovation in development. It also stems from a very concrete interest in promoting Canadian business interests in the developing world, particularly in Latin America. In November 2012, the House of Commons released a report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, “Driving Inclusive Economic Growth: The Role of the Private Sector in International Development.” In March the minister for CIDA, Julian Fantino, and the World Economic Forum co-hosted a conference entitled “Maximizing the Value of Extractives for Development.” Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Sixteen: Inclusive Histories and Katrina Srigley

April 3, 2013 No Comments

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By Sean Graham

During the CHA Annual Meeting last year in Waterloo, I went to the book launch for Finding a Way to the Heart: Feminist Writings on Aboriginal and Women’s History in Canada, during which Sylvia Van Kirk addressed the crowd. The one thing that really stuck me was how passionately she spoke of an inclusive history, one that featured the contributions of everyone. This was interesting to me because there is a perception – at least among many of the men who I knew in undergrad (my experience in a women’s history course didn’t exactly challenge that perception) – that women’s history isn’t a welcoming place to men. Unfair as it was, that mindset was common.

In this episode of the History Slam I talk with Katrina Srigley of Nipissing University about the state of women’s history, the legacy of Sylvia Van Kirk, and her own work on women during the Depression. Given my limited background in women’s and gender history, it was really interesting to sit down and discuss the issues and learn about growth of the discipline. We also touch on the perception of women’s history being hostile to men and discuss the pedagogical challenge it presents in a classroom setting.

The interview took place in North Bay on March 22 when I was lucky enough to be back in the city as part of the History Department Lecture Series at Nipissing. It was a thrill to be there and I want to thank Professors Katrina Srigley, Derek Neal, Anne Clendinning, and Robin Gendron for making the trip possible.

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.

A building by any other name: The politics of renaming and commemoration

April 2, 2013 2 Comments

Lester B. Pearson Building, Ottawa. Photo: “Ottawa Canada May 2010 – Sussex Drive East 21” by Douglas Sprott. Flickr Creative Commons.

By Kaitlin Wainwright

Recently, I was lamenting the challenges historians face in the form of changing names of various government organizations in Canada: The Canada Food Board, the Health League of Canada, and Board of Broadcast Governors are now the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Canadian Public Health Association, and the CRTC respectively. Researching the past often means paying attention to changes in name and in meaning. It is almost like stepping into a foreign country.

Renaming government organizations and buildings to fulfill a change in mandate – be it political or administrative – is not a new trend, though the current government seems to be doing more of it with less resistance from Canadians. The Toronto Star recently published an article discussing the Government of Canada’s decision to rename various government offices in Ontario and Quebec as part of the efforts to commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812. Continue reading →

Canada and the Right to Food

March 28, 2013 No Comments

Olivier de Schutter

By David Webster

“More lies from Amnesty International!” screamed a headline in a Kenyan newspaper, back in the 1990s. When assailed for their human rights records, the unimaginative response of many governments has been to attack the messenger. If Amnesty International criticizes a repressive regime, the regime tends to shout back that Amnesty is being unfair, dishonest, and even imperialist.

That’s a pattern now being followed by a regime that doesn’t like to think of itself as repressive: the government of Canada.

Ottawa failed in its bid to win a UN Security Council seat in 2010, mostly through its own poor planning and clumsy lurches away from rights-promoting policies. Ever since then, the Harper government has taken a perverse pleasure in attacking the United Nations as a dictators’ club at worst, a gang of dictator-coddlers at best.

So it was odd to see the vitriol hurled at the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, when he visited Canada last year as part of his normal duties. On March 4, de Schutter released his report on Canada as part of this year’s UN Human Rights Council preparations. The Canadian government response, once again, was to attack the messenger and deny that Canada had anything to learn on human rights. In other words, the response was much the same as the response normally given by repressive regimes, from Syria to Cuba. Continue reading →

The 300th Anniversary of the Treaty of Utrecht and the Generosity of Governments

March 27, 2013 1 Comment

By Gregory Kennedy

I know what you are thinking. Not another commemoration of some dusty old treaty or some gruesome colonial war! Still, since both Thomas Mulcair and Thomas Peace called our attention to the 250^th Anniversary of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , it seems only fair that the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 should get its due. Continue reading →

Strangely ahistoric sensibilities at the American Museum of Natural History

March 26, 2013 3 Comments

Design of the American Museum of Natural history, 1911

By Jon Weier

When you visit New York City in late January you find yourself avoiding some of the activities that would characterize a spring or summer visit. Strolls in Central Park, though beautiful, lose some of their allure on a windy and cold afternoon. Walking from Midtown to the Lower East Side for dinner is no longer worth the effort. And visiting the Saturday morning farmer’s market at Union Square takes commitment. What a cold Saturday afternoon does lend itself to, especially for historians like myself, is visiting the American Museum of Natural History. Lucky for me, my wife agreed to go with me.

My favourite museums had always been ones which were willing to use different materials and tools, and draw from a broad variety of disciplines to tell the history of a country, a region, a people, or a theme. Three museums that come to mind are the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg, the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, all of which tell interesting and complicated histories well, while respecting those whose history they explore. While I wasn’t expecting that exact experience at the American Museum of Natural History, I was expecting something more than the very simplistic, exploitative and static history that we encountered. Continue reading →

History Wars: Terms of debate

March 25, 2013 7 Comments

By Thomas Peace

Last month, Terry Glavin wrote a syndicated op-ed piece that appeared in The Ottawa Citizen and Vancouver’s The Province, delivering a strongly worded dismissal of the historical profession in Canada. Historians and others have responded elsewhere to his indictment of the profession (see here, here and here). Today, I want to respond to the broader ideas that inform his argument.

Glavin’s essay mostly parrots a series of arguments that have been lobbed at historians since the profession began to change its focus in the 1970s and 1980s. These ideas are quite resilient. Despite their regular application (mostly in the media), his accusations are neither fair nor reflective of current historical practice and broader professional interpretations of Canada’s past. More importantly, their use is a distraction from the key issues at stake. Continue reading →

Connecting African Diasporic Peoples Through Documentary Film and Storytelling

March 21, 2013 1 Comment

By Michele A. Johnson, Funke Aladejebi & Francesca D’Amico

On February 4^th a group of academics, students and community members came together to explore the intersection of the past and the present in making African identities in the Americas. The “Contemporary Griot” event, organized by the Performing Diaspora project, combined a public lecture, documentary screenings, discussions and performances. As you will read below, the event was a profoundly moving experience for many of the undergraduate students in attendance.

Over the past four years, Performing Diaspora has worked to showcase the experiences of Africans and their descendants in the Americas through performances, including art, dance, and music. This public history project has grown out of the major research project entitled “Slavery, Memory and Citizenship” which is housed in York University’s Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples. Among other things, Performing Diaspora explores the ways in which Africans understand “belonging” and “citizenship” in Africa and the African Diaspora. Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Fifteen: Placing Memory

March 20, 2013 1 Comment

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By Sean Graham

Over the past few months, the City of Ottawa has started to make progress on its redevelopment of Lansdowne Park. The plans new condos, retail outlets, and major renovations to Frank Claire Stadium in order to welcome a CFL franchise to the capital next spring. The project has been hotly contested, however, with the Friends of Lansdowne taking the city to court over the city’s handling of the bidding process. With construction now underway, opponents see the site as a sign of government abuse and fiscal irresponsibility. For supporters of the plan, however, construction has transformed Lansdowne to a place that signifies progress and revitalization. Regardless of one’s position on the project, Lansdowne is the perfect example of how the meaning associated with places is constantly changing and being reinterpreted.

In this episode of the History Slam I talk with Jim Opp and John C. Walsh of Carleton University about their work Placing Memory and Remembering Place in Canada. What I found particularly interesting about the book was how the ideas and concepts are at work in our everyday lives – oftentimes without us being completely conscious of them. We touch on this in the episode and also chat about the meaning of place, the development of collective memory, and what it’s like to collaborate on a major project.

Toronto Public Library: A Century of Service to Canada’s Military Veterans, 1914-2014

March 19, 2013 No Comments

“Nurse and veteran sharing some good books” Image SBA-GRD-08-04-18-142 provided by Sunnybrook Archives, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

By Khayla Buhler and Phil Gold

Next year we begin to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the beginning of World War I. At the same time we can also celebrate the centennial anniversary of services provided by the Toronto Public Library to Canada’s military veterans. In 1914, the Toronto Public Library’s (TPL) Board of Trustees established a system of services provided by staff from the High Park Branch to support the needs of military personnel at the Canadian National Exhibition training camp. With the end of World War One, TPL extended services from the CNE to the Toronto Military Orthopaedic Hospital, affectionately called The Christie Street Hospital.

During the early 1940s, the Department of Veterans Affairs began to realize the inadequacy of the Christie Street hospital, as it was unable to serve the needs of both the aging veterans of the First World War and those who were now returning from the battlefields of the Second World War. Alice Kilgour had donated the Sunnybrook Estate to the City of Toronto in 1928 for use as a public park in memory of her husband Major Joseph Kilgour. With the consent of the Kilgour family, in 1943 the City of Toronto transferred Sunnybrook Park to the Government of Canada for the purpose of building a hospital dedicated to the care of Canadian veterans. Continue reading →

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