Death, politics and the memory of Jack Layton

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Nathan Philips Square, August 27 2011. Photo by author.

The passing of Jack Layton has unleashed a tremendous amount of mourning across the country.  Saturday’s state funeral, usually reserved for current or former prime ministers, Cabinet ministers, and governors general, attracted thousands of attendees inside and outside of downtown Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall.   Many more people gathered at events held this past week across Canada to remember the man.  Possibly the most dramatic act was the striking facelift of Toronto City Hall, where people etched their thoughts about Jack in coloured chalk on the concrete of Nathan Philips Square.

Mourning is about memory.  And memory is not just about the past, but also aspirations for the future.  Canadians responded to Layton’s death in diverse ways, from skepticism of its media coverage to participation in his funeral.  The contribution Layton made to public life didn’t end as the crowds dispersed on Saturday.  In fact, the memory of his life promises to influence Canadian politics and society in upcoming years. Continue reading →

Returning Home: Repatriation and Missing Children

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Last week the remote Northern Ontario community of Peawanuck First Nation welcomed home Charlie Hunter.  Charlie passed away in 1974 while attending St. Anne’s Residential School in Fort Albany.  He died while saving a fellow student who had fallen through ice near the school.  Following his death Charlie Hunter was buried in Moosoonee without the consent of his family.

The Hunter family has struggled for years to bring Charlie home. Earlier this year the Hunter family, the National Residential Schools Society, Keewaytinook Okimakanak, Nishnawbe Aski Nation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Toronto Star began a campaign to raise money to bring Charlie to Peawanuck. Continue reading →

History Matters Fall 2011 Lecture Series, Toronto Public Library

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Toronto Public Library is pleased to announce the 2011 History Matters series.

This year these lectures focus on two themes—labour and environmental history in the Toronto area and beyond. Part of TPL’s Thought Exchange programming, these lively talks will give the public an opportunity to connect with working historians and discover some of the many and surprising ways in which the past shapes the present.

The series has been curated by Dr. Lisa Rumiel, SSHRC Post Doctoral Fellow at McMaster University. Dr. Rumiel is also the Book Review Editor for Canadian Bulletin of Medical History. We are especially grateful for the generous grant provided by The History Education Network (THEN/Hier), which has made the series possible. Continue reading →

Watch The Throne as It Re-Defines Black Power

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By Francesca D’Amico

Watch the Throne Cover (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_the_Throne)

Kanye West argues, “It’s time for us to stop and re-define black power.” Shawn Carter, declares, “Power to the people, …when you see me, see you.” But who exactly are the self-crowned Kings of Hip Hop seeing when they re-define Black Power in their track Murder to Excellence as, “ black tie, black Maybachs. … opulence, decadence. Tuxes next to the president” ? Even with references to Malcolm X and Fred Hampton, and music samples from Nina Simone and Curtis Mayfield, it appears as though visions of pride and power in their album Watch The Throne is not the sort of ‘Black Power’ that activists and culture-makers of yesteryear would recognize. Continue reading →

What Do You Want to Know (about history)? Wolfram Alpha and the Computational Knowledge Engine.

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What do you want to “calculate or know about,” asks Wolfram Alpha. Voted the best computer innovation of 2009 in Popular Science‘s “Best of What’s New,” Wolfram Alpha lets users interact with over 10 trillion pieces of information curated by a large research team. You just type in what you want to know, the engine tries to figure out what you’re asking it, and you’re presented with a remarkable array of information (as well as ways to refine your subsequent searches). This has tremendous historical applications, both for teaching and for historical research. I’ll show off some of these possibilities in this post, and hope that you take a moment to try it out yourself. If you find anything of particular interest, please let us know in the comments below. Continue reading →

Bringing history into current immigration debates…one post at a time!

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As I write, I am supposed to be hard at work on the last chapters of my doctoral thesis… The final throes are not an attractive sight to behold. And the situation is made worse by the recent rhetoric on refugees, illegal aliens and war criminals in Canada. As someone studying the history of 20th refugee policy, much of the recent debate has left me frustrated with the loose and casual way in which people, often politicians, refer to war criminals, refugees and illegal immigrants as if they were one and the same. Instead of concentrating on my final chapters, I keep having recurring conversations with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews in my head. Again, not a pretty sight. What I keep saying to them/myself is that the issues are far more complex than they make them out to be and that with their casual use of seriously loaded terms like war criminals and illegal immigrants in the same sentence, they are creating a climate of injustice with the potential for serious harm both here in Canada and abroad. Continue reading →

Stepping into the Past: Everyday Places that Awaken the Historical Imagination

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Like many other types of high school romances, I fell in love with history in my parents’ backyard.  A series of trails behind their house opened the door to worlds decades and centuries past.  These trails at the Head of the Lake (Dundas, Ontario) introduced me to Aboriginal canoe routes, Ontario’s nineteenth-century industrial heritage, and the area’s transportation history.  The places I visited on these trails are places with a deep connection to the past that people pass by daily, often without notice.  As summer days begin to wane, I thought that it might be interesting to compile a list of under recognized everyday places that have awakened our historical imagination.  Below, I’ve included a few of the places that cultivated an interest in the past among my friends and family.  I would like to add more places to this list.

If you have an everyday place that has helped you to engage with the past more deeply or more critically, send an e-mail to tspeace[at]gmail.com and I will add it to this post. Continue reading →

Recreation to Re-creation: Restoring Natural Heritage in Public Parks

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Outdoor swimming hole in Soper Park.

Growing up in Cambridge next to Soper Park, the park became an extension of my backyard.  I spent many days exploring the park, wading in the creek, catching crayfish and racing home-made boats.  As a child the creek seemed mysterious and ancient.  It was dammed with stone and concrete dams, and walled in with massive stones, broken by sets of concrete stairs that led down into the water.  I used to image they were ancient ruins.  Only as I grew older did my father tell me that the creek had been dammed and walled as an outdoor swimming hole, which he used to visit as a child.  Under the silt of thirty years, you could still uncover the concrete floor of the swimming hole.

Today the ruins of the swimming hole in Soper Park have been replaced with a vibrant, naturalized creek, which has become a thriving ecosystem for significant species such as the brown trout.  Between 1995 and 2001 the City of Cambridge undertook a naturalization of the creek in Soper Park in an effort to bring the creek back to life from a “sterilized” swimming hole, to a cold water creek.  The stone walls of the creek were largely removed, and where the creek had been straightened and dammed, the project attempted to return the creek to a more natural and historical route.  Indigenous grasses, trees and shrubs were planted alongside the creek to prevent erosion and provide habitat for animals. Continue reading →

Announcements: We Demand Conference and Call for Papers Cultural Histories Conference

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We Demand: History/Sex/Activism in Canada Conference is being held August 25-28, 2011 at the Coast Plaza Hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia.  On-line registration is available until August 17th, and on-site registration (cash-only) will be available at the conference.  For more information about registration fees as well as the conference and film programs check out the conference website or email wedemand2011@gmail.com.  Also, don’t miss the banquet and Queer Cabaret, featuring MC Michael V. Smith, Performance Artist and Writer Amber Dawn, Singer/songwriter Kate Reid, Comic David C. Johns, Improv Theatre with The Bobbers, Hot Latin Dancers Naomi & Karen and Transgender Vocalist Jill Richards.

The organizers of the Cultural Histories: Emergent Theories, Methods and the Digital Turn Conference are now accepting proposals for conference papers.  This interdisciplinary conference is sponsored by the TransCanada Institute and the Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory/ Le Collaboratoire scientifique des ecrits du Canada, to foster debate on new modes and methods of history and historiography, especially those employed or theorized by cultural historians, literary historians and critics.  Proposals of no more than 300 words for twenty-minute paper or panel proposals of three or more papers will be accepted until September 30th, 2011.  Proposals can be sent to transcan@uoguelph.ca or Cultural Histories Conference, TransCanada Institute, 9 University Avenue East, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 1MA.  The conference will take place at the University of Guelph from March 2nd to 4th, 2012.

 

 

From Andrew Carnegie to Margaret Atwood: Toronto’s “Unelected” Champions of Public Libraries.

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Used with the permission of Toronto Public Library

Toronto city councillor Doug Ford, brother of city mayor Rob Ford, recently ignited public controversy over potential cuts to the city’s public library services when he claimed not to know much about author Margaret Atwood, who had spoken out against possible cuts to services and closures of library branches. Councillor Ford’s insistence that Atwood “get democratically elected” so that she could have a say in deciding library funding policy in the city was ludicrous, particularly given the Toronto Public Library’s history. Continue reading →