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Canadian history



  • Institutional Histories of Canadian Slavery

    by Melissa N. Shaw

    McGill University’s institutional history dramatically changes when it accounts for the fact that its founder, James McGill, was an enslaver and trader of enslaved Black and Indigenous people.



  • A Guide from the Past for Travelers Seeking an Abortion

    by Sarah Elvins

    "Women traveling to procure abortions is nothing new. Before the 1973 Roe ruling, state-to-state travel existed, as did highly organized transnational networks to guide women across borders."



  • The Asian-Canadian Gay Pioneer Theorist of Sexuality

    by Laurie Marhoefer

    Li Shiu Tong, the partner of better-known German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, was an important theorist and activist whose once-lost writings anticipated today's politics of gay rights and liberation. 



  • What Does Pope Francis's Apology Mean to Indigenous Americans?

    by Annie Selak

    "Pope Francis apologized on April 1, 2022, to First Nations, Inuit and Métis delegations, acknowledging the harm done by residential schools in Canada and marking a crucial step in the church admitting its role in the abuse of Indigenous communities and children."



  • Canada is Going through its Own History Wars

    by Ian Rocksborough-Smith

    "To what degree will well-established professional historians and scholars respond and engage with younger generations of activists, intellectuals and cultural workers adamant about centring the experiences of marginalized people?"



  • A Polarizing Documentary Spurs Debate Over a Violent Time in Quebec

    Canadians are debating whether a documentary released at the fiftieth anniversary of a campaign of political violence by Quebecois separatists valorizes terrorism and ignores peaceful progress toward a bicultural Canada; the filmmaker is the son of one of the convicted conspirators.



  • The Myth of North America, in One Painting

    Explore an immersive, interactive page that shows how "The Death of General Wolfe" by Benjamin West created a heroic myth of the British defeat of the French near Quebec, which helped decide the Seven Years War.



  • Samuel L. Jackson's Enslaved and the Lost History of Canadian Slavery

    Canadian historian Charmaine Nelson says that many Canadians are overly accepting of the narrative of their nation as the endpoint of the Underground Railroad and unaware of the history of slavery in Canada. A new documentary by the famed actor highlights the need to push past comfortable understandings.



  • Totem pole celebrates Haida’s pact with Canada

    A new totem pole the height of a three-storey building now looms over the southern Haida Gwaii, carved with symbols to note the remote land is protected from ocean floor to mountaintop.Hundreds gathered in the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve to watch the nearly 3,000-kilogram pole raised using six ropes and sheer manpower, the first such raising in over a century. Spectators were dwarfed by the colourful and intricate pole, which took more than a year to carve and paint and represents Gwaii Haanas’ modern and ancient history....