Yesterday, the Ombudsman for the Province of Ontario released a 125-page report on the use of the 1939 Public Works Protection Act during the G20 Summit in Toronto. He argued that “[t]here is a real and insidious danger associated with using subordinate legislation, passed behind closed doors, to increase police […]
Canadian history
160 posts
As many already know, the transparency activist website Wikileaks is in the process of publishing the text of about 250,000 US diplomatic cables this week. The revelations from the leaked cables range from the scandalous (and even criminal) to the mundane. But, like the previously released Afghanistan and Iraq war […]
Episode 18 Local and Regional Parks: November 21, 2010 [audio: http://niche-canada.org/files/sound/naturespast/natures-past18.mp3][45:50] The provincial government of British Columbia describes Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park as a “yachter’s paradise” located at the confluence of the Malaspina Inlet and Homfray Channel just north of the town of Power River. The calm, warm waters […]
As Canadians across the country gathered around local cenotaphs to pay tribute to those who died in past and present wars today, we continue to struggle with the meaning of Remembrance Day. Is this a day to celebrate Canadian military achievement or a day to mourn the tragedy of human […]
122 years ago, Vancouver’s Stanley Park officially opened to the public. I joined Joe Burima in studio at CJSW 90.9fm to discuss this day in Canadian history: [audio:http://cjsw.com/podcasts/tich/2010-09-27.mp3] Today in Canadian History, 27 September 2010 Toward the end of our interview, Joe asked me about last summer’s controversy over a […]
Online access to digitized historical primary sources and secondary source analysis has changed the way historians work and teach. For me, this week was an excellent reminder that these online resources have opened up many more possibilities for my teaching and my scholarship. Monday was the 135th anniversary of the […]
We’re back to school this week and I’ve started teaching my first classes for the Fall 2010 semester at Mount Royal University. MRU is now the sixth university where I have been an instructor and with each new university comes a new flavour of online course management software. I’ve seen […]
I was disappointed to discover that the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute is gone! In fact, the building was destroyed in the mid-1970s so I was definitely too late to see it when I visited Calgary this past week. The Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute, known as the birthplace of the Social […]
I recently published a review of Sharon Kirsch’s book, What Species of Creatures: Animal Relations from the New World on H-Net Reviews. You can download a PDF copy of the review here. In this book, Kirsch explores early European encounters with New World animals in northern North America. She provides […]
Canadian history audiophiles can rejoice now that CJSW, an independent radio station in Calgary, has launched its anticipated “Today in Canadian History” series. Each day, CJSW takes a look back and profiles significant events in Canada’s past. By combining broadcast radio with podcasting, CJSW hopes to reach a national audience […]
Late last month, the federal government surprised statisticians, businesses, economists, academics and many other Canadians by announcing an end to the issuing of a mandatory long census form. With little explanation and unsatisfactory justification, the government has proposed to very significantly diminish the quality of the national census. The outcry […]
This October the NiCHE New Scholars Group will be hosting its own virtual environmental history workshop for graduate students. Using a combination of different online tools, including Skype, Google Groups, and Picasa, they will attempt to bring together a geographically dispersed group of graduate students studying different aspects of environmental […]