Photographing History and a Desire to See the Past in the Present

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This photograph of Parliament Hill and its Centre Pavilion in the 1950s is juxtaposed against the present-day landscape. Courtesy: Dear Photograph.

This photograph of Parliament Hill and its Centre Pavilion in the 1950s is juxtaposed against the present-day landscape. Courtesy: Dear Photograph.

By Kaitlin Wainwright

At December’s public consultations on the new Museum of Canadian History, Sean Kheraj, an assistant professor of history at York University, made a comment that stuck with me: by commemorating moments in history we actually learn as much about our present as our past. In trying to see the past through a contemporary lens, we blur history with nostalgia. Situating the past in a present context gives new meaning to both, and a greater understanding of not only how the built and social environments once were, but also what they’ve become.

The American literary icon Susan Sontag noted that “Photographs turn the past into an object of tender regard, scrambling moral distinctions and disarming historical judgments by the generalized pathos of looking at time past.”[i] Over the past year and a half, several online projects that juxtapose or integrate archival images with contemporary ones have taken root. The act of creating and viewing these photographs is inherently tied to the making and remaking of place. The act of associating an archival photograph with memory or with its present-day counterpart changes how we see place. Our memory, working with the photograph, creates a link between the past and the present.  Dear Photograph is one such online project that seeks to bridge the gap between past and present, and in doing so, remakes our emotional geography. Continue reading →

Gun Control: Filling-in the Missing History in Canada

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arming-and-disarming-a-history-of-gun-control-in-canada

By Paul W. Bennett

A Review of Arming and Disarming: A History of Gun
Control in Canada
R. Blake Brown
The Osgoode Society/ University of Toronto Press
Hard Cover, 349 pages, $70.00

Guns in and around children in schools are frightening.  That is why gun culture and firearms control totally dominated the news media in the wake of the horrific shooting rampage on December 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in, of all places, the postcard perfect town of Newtown, Connecticut.

With students, parents and families in mourning or emotionally distraught, on both sides of the border, the Canadian news media was quick to jump on the “Newtown Massacre”  as the latest example of an American gun culture abhorrent to most Canadians. Sharp contrasts were drawn between the trigger-happy American republic and the reputed “peaceable kingdom” of Canada. Continue reading →

Elites, Social Networks, and the Historical Profession

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By Mark Sholdice

My research examines the role played by small groups of people working towards common ends.  In other words, I am fascinated by elites.  Having spent almost ten years of my life in several universities, I am also intrigued by the role of elites in academia.

In early December I came across a study which reported that a handful of graduate political science programs dominated hiring in that field in the United States.  Robert Oprisko’s research, published in preview in the Georgetown Public Policy Review, shows that just eleven programs account for over half of all tenure-track hiring by political science departments (or to put another way, the graduates of about 10% of all departments represent half of all new hires).  Oprisko concludes that “there is a direct correlation between institutional prestige and candidate placement.”  Yet he adds: “Of course, this is somewhat expected given that the most prestigious programs are often also the ones that have the highest numbers of students. As we move forward with this project, we will control for institution size and output.”

I wondered about how the size of these elite departments may account for their preponderance in hiring.  Using the historical profession in the Canada and the United States as roughly similar to political science, I did some quick-and-dirty calculations which I’d like to share. Continue reading →

Can Ontarians Look Forward to the ‘Right to Work for Less?’

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By Christine McLaughlin

The Hudak Conservatives have unveiled plans to bring so-called “Right to Work” legislation to Ontario. Following in the footsteps of American Republicans, Ontario’s Conservatives are seeking to unravel an agreement that has maintained relative labour peace in the province for over half a century. This has been painted as a ‘progressive’ measure that will ‘modernize’ what have been branded as ‘outdated labour laws.’ According to Tim Hudak, the goal is to “modernize our labour laws to get them out of the 1940s and 1950s and to 2012 and beyond.”

It is telling that history for Hudak here begins in the 1940s. To extend any further back would reveal this as the deeply regressive measure it is, which would pivot Ontario backwards to a period of limited working rights with lower pay and fewer protections in the workplace. Continue reading →

2013 History Matters lecture series line-up announced

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Toronto Public Library Central Library (College St. and St. George), 1923. Source: Toronto Reference Library, Baldwin Room, 979-2-2.

Toronto Public Library Central Library (College St. and St. George), 1923. Source: Toronto Reference Library, Baldwin Room, 979-2-2.

ActiveHistory.ca and the Toronto Public Library are pleased to announce the 2013 History Matters lecture series.

This year’s series focuses on the themes of immigration, ethnicity and citizenship. The lectures are part of the TPL’s Thought Exchange programming.

“Beyond Orange and Green: Toronto’s Irish, 1870-1914”
Migration historian Dr. William Jenkins (York University) looks at the immigration patterns and political allegiances of Toronto’s Irish between 1870 and World War I, and how struggles at home and abroad had an impact on the Catholic and Protestant Irish communities in Toronto.
Thursday, January 31st, 6:30-8 pm
Parliament Street Branch
269 Gerrard Street East
416-393-7663

“Public Spectacles of Multiculturalism: Toronto Before Trudeau”
Award-winning migration, labour and gender historian Dr. Franca Iacovetta (University of Toronto) explores the International Institute Movement’s use of public spectacle and pageantry to promote cultural pluralism in a pre-multicultural Toronto.
Thursday, February 28th, 6:30-8 pm
Dufferin/St. Clair Branch
1625 Dufferin Street
416-393-7712

“Black Power for Black Education in Toronto, 1950s-1970s”
PhD candidate Funké Aladejebi (York University) relates the compelling story of how black organizations in Toronto used education to combat racism by making connections to “Africa” and adapting the language of Black Power to a Canadian experience.
Wednesday, March 27th, 6:30-8 pm
Maria A. Shchuka Branch
1745 Eglinton Avenue West
416-394-1000

“And Life Goes On: Japanese Canadians, Memory, and Life after Internment”
In 1941, 22,000 Japanese Canadians mostly living in Vancouver were dispossessed, torn from their homes and shipped to internment sites. After the war, they were given a “choice” between deportation to war-devastated Japan or dispersal east of the Rockies. Historical sociologist Dr. Pamela Sugiman (Ryerson University) recounts how this community rebuilt in the face of racial hostility and after such loss.
Thursday, April 25th, 6:30-8 pm
Lillian H. Smith Branch
239 College Street
416-393-7746
Note: Pamela Sugiman’s talk has been postponed until further notice.

History Matters started in 2010 as a venue for professional historians and graduate students to present their research to a broader audience outside the university and interact directly with their local communities. A successful series of lectures followed in 2011. These lectures are also accessible to the general public as podcasts featured here on ActiveHistory.ca.

We hope to see you there!

Kay on Treaty History: Well-meaning, wrong-headed

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By Christopher Moore

This post was originally published on Christopher Moore’s History News

Late in 2011, before Attawapiskat and Idle No More were as newsy as they are now, CBC Radio’s Ideas presented my radio documentary “George MacMartin’s Big Canoe Trip,” an exploration of how the James Bay Treaty was made in 1905. The radio-doc draws on the diary of MacMartin, one of the men who made the treaty for the Canadian government, but also on the work of Nipissing University historian John Long, the recent author of Treaty 9: The Agreement to Share the Land in Far Northern Ontario in 1905, and on the Cree understanding of what was done in 1905.

George MacMartin, seated, centre, at Fort Albany, 1905

George MacMartin, seated, centre, at Fort Albany, 1905

Sara Wolch, my producer at Ideas, recently pitched the Corp on rebroadcasting the program, in light of what’s going on.  I’m happy to say they got the idea. “George MacMartin’s Big Canoe Trip” will be going out on the CBC Radio One network tonight at 9:00 pm.  Catch it if you can.  And if you cannot, it’s permanently available from the Ideas website right here.

I’d been thinking about that program partly because of this piece, “To Understand How We Got to Attawapiskat…” by Jonathan Kay in the National Post. Continue reading →

Gun Violence in the United States: The Frontier Mentality

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"Gun Digest 2nd Amendment Contest." (Charles Kindel, Flickr Commons, click through for original)

“Gun Digest 2nd Amendment Contest.” (Charles Kindel, Flickr Commons, click through for original)

By Sean Graham

On December 14, 2012, a man forced his way into an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and killed 26 people. In a scene re-played far too often, that unspeakable horror led to a fresh round of debate over the reasons for why the United States suffers from gun violence at such a disproportionate rate when compared to the rest of the industrialized world. Following the tragedy, President Obama pointed out that it is a complicated issue that needs to be examined in its entirety. The debate, however, generally consists of people on the left screaming about the need for tighter gun control, while people on the right yell about a popular culture that has desensitized the nation’s youth to violence. At some level both sides are correct: guns are too easy to get in the United States and pop culture (including the news media) does glorify violent behaviour. One aspect that has been overlooked, however, is the influence of the nation’s founding mythology in promoting gun violence.  The American experience has been marked by a willingness to stand up and fight for the nation. In this context, violence is not presented as an unfortunate reality of nationhood and national defence, but rather as an expression of American strength and sovereignty. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. Continue reading →

The Effects of Early Community Development on Church Architecture

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By Dan Oliana

St. Luke's Anglican Church, Sault Ste Marie Public Library Archives

St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Sault Ste Marie Public Library Archives

Over the last couple of years, I began to take notice of the churches in my home town of Sault Ste. Marie and admired their architectural design and details. My interest spread and I started looking for other churches and as is human nature, compared them, noticing the marked differences in their range of decorative detail and size.  I realized I was looking at the church structures as they stand today but knew nothing of their origins. This architectural interest festered to the point where I ultimately took it on as a research topic.

Given the local nature of the project, I expected the collection of information on the various churches would be a simple task. Merely organizing their construction dates chronologically would probably explain the progression from simple church buildings to more ornate and larger structures. This was not the case for either documentation or explanation. The most surprising outcome of this project was how much of the community’s early development influenced church construction. Consequently, an understanding Sault Ste. Marie’s history was the key to my understanding of local building history.

Ultimately, the answer to the question of variations in church architecture had less to do with when the church was built but more to do with who was involved. I found that churches reflected the congregation at the time of construction. As institutions, churches are different by their very function. Their congregations, although sharing a common faith, represent cross-sections of the community. As members of both the community and the church, congregants were the link; thereby what affected one, influenced the other. Continue reading →

#IdleNoMore in Historical Context

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By Glen Coulthard
The post was originally published on Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society

Much has been said recently in the media about the relationship between the inspiring expression of Indigenous resurgent activity at the core of the #IdleNoMore movement and the heightened decade of Native activism that led Canada to establish the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) in 1991. I offer this short analysis of the historical context that led to RCAP in an effort to get a better sense of the transformative political possibilities in our present moment of struggle.

The federal government was forced to launch RCAP in the wake of two national crises that erupted in the tumultuous “Indian summer” of 1990. The first involved the legislative stonewalling of the Meech Lake Accord by Cree Manitoba MLA Elijah Harper. The Meech Lake Accord was a failed constitutional amendment package negotiated in 1987 by then Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney, and the ten provincial premiers. The process was the federal government’s attempt to bring Quebec “back in” to the constitutional fold in the wake of the province’s refusal to accept the constitutional repatriation deal of 1981, which formed the basis of the The Constitution Act, 1982. Indigenous opposition to Meech Lake was staunch and vocal, in large part due to the fact that the privileged white men negotiating the agreement once again refused to recognize the political concerns and aspirations of First Nations. In a disruptive act of legislative protest, Elijah Harper initiated a filibuster in the days immediately leading up to the accord’s ratification deadline, which ultimately prevented the province from endorsing the package. The agreement subsequently tanked because it failed to gain the required ratification of all ten provinces within 3-years of reaching a deal.

Continue reading →

Performing Diaspora 2013: The History of Urban Music in Toronto – CFP

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See below for a Call for Papers.

Performing Diaspora 2013: The History of Urban Music in Toronto, is a one day conference event focused on the development of the African Canadian Urban Music culture industry of post-WWII Toronto. In keeping with its mandate, “Spotlighting and Promoting African Canadian Experiences” (S.P.A.C.E.), a collaborative research and social innovation programme of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, will use this conference as a way by which to collect and provide access to individual and collective memories and contemporary records about members of the African Diaspora in Canada. As such, this one day conference will feature the work of academics, and experiences of musicians, industry and media professionals, in an effort to highlight the development and sustenance of African Canadian music in Toronto, as well as throughout Canada.

The conference will include four sessions, each of which will consider the histories and developments of Urban Music within the greater Toronto area. The two morning sessions (the first, a presentation of academic papers and the second, a roundtable that features notable artists and music production professionals) will focus on the personal and professional experiences of racialized artists across the course of Urban Music’s development in Toronto and across Canada. The two afternoon sessions, (the first, a presentation of academic papers and the second, a roundtable that features notable journalists, record label executives, radio and television personalities) will focus on the development of a genre-specific Urban Music industry within the broader Canadian culture industry. Though the focus of this conference will be music, each panel will use the genre of “urban culture” in order to explore the genre’s relationship to issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, the body, immigration, multiculturalism, discrimination, urban development, notions of citizenship (both within the nation and within the musical community of Canada), and the benefits, challenges and poltics of creating, sustaining and performing music that represents people of African decent in Toronto.

This is a public event hosted at York University in Toronto on May 25, 2013. Check the website for information about the program and registration in the months ahead: performingdiaspora.wordpress.com Continue reading →