Canadian History

'Not in the Atlantic Provinces': The Abortion Debate in New Brunswick, 1980-1987

by Katrina Rose Ackerman

Article published in Acadiensis 41, 1 (Winter/Spring 2012).

Correspondence between Premier Richard Hatfield’s Progressive Conservative government and pro-choice and pro-life... more Correspondence between Premier Richard Hatfield’s Progressive Conservative government and pro-choice and pro-life activists indicates that regionalism and religion were central to the pervasiveness of pro-life ideology and the rejection of pro-choice activism between 1980 and 1987. Despite statistical evidence that proved abortion services were inaccessible, the government received assistance from the medical community to pass anti-abortion legislation that prohibited abortion clinics and appeared to maintain the status quo. This paper provides a regional perspective on the history of abortion in Canada, but it more importantly probes how religious and cultural beliefs shaped politics and society.

Mediated nostalgia, community and nation: a case study of print media representations of the Canadian Football League in crisis and the demise of the Ottawa Rough Riders 1986-1996.

by John Nauright

Published in Sport History Review, 33:2 (2002), 120-135. Coauthored with Phil White.

This article examines the position of the Canadian Football League (CFL) in the context of 1990s Canada, the popular... more This article examines the position of the Canadian Football League (CFL) in the context of 1990s Canada, the popular discourses surrounding it of a nostalgia for an idealized Canada, and the crisis of Canadian identity as the Continent became increasingly integrated after the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Our focus is on a case study of the decline and eventual demise of the Ottawa Rough Riders, a CFL club located in the national capital that traced its roots to 1876, thus being almost as old as Canadian Federation. We examine the media framing of the decline and fall of the Rough Riders, laments for distinctive forms of Canadian sporting culture and the nostalgic frames in which the story was presented.

Postcoloniality, Orientalism, and the Question of Québec

by Matthew Chung

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Dalhousie Undergraduate Arts and Social Science Conference (Halifax, 2012)

Published in Canadian Content: The McGill Undergraduate Journal of Canadian Studies

Examines the ways in which postcolonial theory may inform a fundamental re-reading of some of the major primary... more Examines the ways in which postcolonial theory may inform a fundamental re-reading of some of the major primary sources in the field of Canadian history

Sojourners and Refugees: The Emergence of the Italian and Jewish Working-Class Communities of Montreal, 1900-1929

by Michael Chiarello

"We built a country...that deliberately resisted the continental pressure of the United States:" Anti-Americanism, Free Trade, and the 1911 and 1988 Canadian Federal Elections

by Michael Chiarello

A Doctrine for the Hemisphere

by David Cohen

The War of 1812 was more about the expansion of the United States into Canada and Florida than it was about freedom of... more The War of 1812 was more about the expansion of the United States into Canada and Florida than it was about freedom of the seas. The main support for the war came from the frontier regions in the West rather than the maritime region in New England. Vageries in the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase led to the United States annexed West and East Florida and arranging for a joint occupation of the Oregon Territory. Meanwhile in Latin America, Napoleon's invasion of Spain and placing his brother on the Spanish throne provided the opportunity for the Spanish colonies in Latin America to declare their independence. The paper compares Simon Bolivar to George Washington and Napoleon, all three military leaders, but with different views about government. Finally, the paper views the Monroe doctrine in terms of what William Appleman Williams termed "imperial anticolonialism."

"The Franklin Mystery"

by adriana craciun

cover essay for May 2012 Literary Review of Canada

This essay considers current 21st century searches for the ships and debris of the John Franklin Arctic disaster in... more This essay considers current 21st century searches for the ships and debris of the John Franklin Arctic disaster in relation to ongoing debates over access to Northwest Passage waterways, aboriginal heritage, and configurations of the Arctic as an energy frontier.

John Cabot and his Italian financiers

by Francesco Guidi Bruscoli

in “Historical Research”, first published online 27 APR 2012, DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2281.2012.00597.x

While the early Bristol expeditions to North America have always been thought of as a purely English phenomenon, this... more While the early Bristol expeditions to North America have always been thought of as a purely English phenomenon, this article demonstrates that they were partly funded by Italian capital. Following the slight leads left behind by a deceased historian, documents have been found which demonstrate that a payment of fifty nobles was made in 1496 to the Venetian explorer, John Cabot, from the London branch of a Florentine company: the Bardi. This article discusses the significance of the payment for Cabot and his expedition, the reasons why the funding might have been advanced, and the position of the Bardi within London's Italian community.

Mark of Cain(ada): Racialized Security Discourse in Canada's National Newspapers

by Naava Smolash

This essay compares coverage in two of Canada's national newspapers, the Globe and Mail and the National Post, of two... more This essay compares coverage in two of Canada's national newspapers, the Globe and Mail and the National Post, of two high-profile anti-terrorism cases: Project Thread (2003) and the Toronto 18 (2006). I read these media stories as narratives, open to literary analysis, that allow us to pry open and critique Canada's dominant national security discourse. These national newspaper narratives, I argue, mobilize racialized signs of otherness that legitimate and naturalize national security discourses, even when accusations are withdrawn by officials. This raises urgent questions about the ways in which media may naturalize state violence against Muslim, Arab, and South Asian citizens and non-citizens within Canada's borders.

"Imperium in Imperio: Irish Episcopal Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century"

by Colin Barr

Alex Janvier’s Morning Star: A Metaphor For Canada’s Competing Cultures

by Elaine Radman

Published in Capstone Seminar Series in Canadian Studies at Carleton University.

Alex Janvier’s Morning Star at the Canadian Museum of Civilization is a reflection of the First People’s shared... more Alex Janvier’s Morning Star at the Canadian Museum of Civilization is a reflection of the First People’s shared experience of loss, displacement, renewal and reconciliation. This mural adorns 418 square feet of the dome area above the staircase located at the end of the Canadian Museum of Civilization’s Grand Hall. The artist’s use of colour, imagery and shapes constructs a historical narrative, in the form of a circular timeline, which depicts the experiences shared by Canada’s First Peoples. The circular timeline format of Alex Janvier’s Morning Star is a direct reflection of the role of Canadian historiography, in that, the issues of the past are continually being shaped by the present. This paper will examine the main themes of Alex Janvier’s Morning Star by investigating the context in which the mural was created, the narratives associated with the painting and the anthropological method First Peoples are portrayed in Canadian historiography. In addition, this discourse analyze will compare Janvier’s Morning Star narrative with the Canadian historical narrative to show its differing perspectives on history and identity.

“Immigration and Education: State Regulation, Nationalism, and School Policy in Ontario and Buenos Aires, 1880-1914”

by Benjamin Bryce

Presented in Spanish at the Interuniversity Seminar on Canadian Studies in Latin America (SEMINECAL), University of Havana, Cuba, April 12, 2012.

In 1910, at the height of an emergent and changing Argentine nationalism, politicians, bureaucrats, and writers in the... more In 1910, at the height of an emergent and changing Argentine nationalism, politicians, bureaucrats, and writers in the public sphere proudly discussed the influence of the growing network of public schools in Buenos Aires. They boldly lauded the role of education in solving the “problem” created by decades of mass migration. Many viewed schooling as a necessary means to attain a united, loyal, and ethnically homogeneous nation. At the same time, bureaucrats and educators in Ontario were engaged in a very similar project. A growing pro-English linguistic ideology faced off against the entrenched rights of French and German in provincially-controlled public and Catholic elementary schools. In both cases, state officials and politicians discussed and engaged in activities that illustrated their ideas about the relationship among language, citizenship, and nation.

This paper lays out some key commonalities in the educational systems that emerged in Ontario and Buenos Aires. It also seeks to outline the relationship between state regulation and ethnic minorities between 1880 and 1914. I examine German schools in both places as a case study. Understanding the changing position of German in both places forms a fundamental part of the history of education in Ontario and Buenos Aires. German offers a lens through which we can observe the rising authority of the educational state but also the limitations of state influence. Elites in both Canada and Argentina made similar arguments about the "problems" of cultural pluralism, but the state apparatus in Ontario was much more effective in actually implementing this discourse. In this period, a growing network of schools emerged in both Ontario and Buenos Aires that were part of larger projects of modernization, changing notions of citizenship, and a growing apparatus of state authority. Yet between two liberal forms of governmentality in Ontario and Buenos Aires, noticeable differences began to emerge.

“Linguistic Ideology and Ethnic Space: German-language education in Ontario, 1880-1918”

by Benjamin Bryce

Presented at the conference "Transformation: State, Nation, and Citizenship," York University, Toronto, Ontario, October 14, 2011.

Long before the First World War, very few children in Ontario studied German. By 1889, German was not the language of... more Long before the First World War, very few children in Ontario studied German. By 1889, German was not the language of instruction at any school in the province, and there were no “German schools” despite the persistence of this category in some government documents. In the historiography about Germans in Ontario, scholars have often sought to explain low attendance figures by turning to questions of identity and generational differences. Yet an important cultural and political process has been overlooked. From the 1880s onwards, the nascent provincial state in Ontario propounded a very clear linguistic ideology and interest in a homogeneous nation. This paper aims to show that this political process emerged in opposition to the pre-existing status of German-language education.

Drawing on inspectors' reports, discourse in the annual departmental reports, annually published provincial regulations, German textbooks authorized by the province, and the discussion of education in a variety of German-language sources, I examine the linguistic ideology and cultural nationalism of one of Ontario's largest ministries. This paper outlines the lack of ethnic space that this ideology on language and nation created. Instead of allowing citizens to create separate ethnic institutions, it appears that the nature of Canadian liberalism in this time period encouraged people to use locally-run school boards with minor concessions to ethnic interests. I argue that the presence of German-language education in Ontario between 1880 and 1918 was severely limited by the cultural hegemony of the Anglophone state, its linguistic ideology, and its overarching control of local school boards.

Finding the Irish Language in Canada

by Sarah McMonagle

published in 'New Hibernia Review', Vol.16/1, Spring 2012: 134-149

Eden with Iroquois: Pierre Boucher’s L'Histoire Veritable et Naturelle and the Colonial Argument for the Second Conquest of New France

by Greg Rogers

13th Annual University of Maine / University of New Brunswick International Graduate Student History Conference, October 14-16, 2011

A Political Geography of Canada

by Christopher Allen-Shinn

A Castle of One’s Own: Interactivity in Chatelaine Magazine, 1928-35

by Jaleen Grove

This paper published in the Fall 2011 issue of the Journal of Canadian Studies, and is available from academic journal databases.

Chatelaine promoted maternal feminism with a variety of illustrated content and with mixed results. Hand-drawn imagery... more Chatelaine promoted maternal feminism with a variety of illustrated content and with mixed results. Hand-drawn imagery in 1928 connoted both individual expression and col- lective national identity. Readers’ material interaction with illustration developed their self- direction, critical judgement, and creativity in how they received editorial, advertising, and aesthetic messages. This made the magazine popular and gave it counterpublic potential. Unfortunately, Chatelaine—an important employer of women at first—replaced much of the illustration by female artists with men’s work and generic photographs after 1932. Ironically, Chatelaine’s celebration of essentialized femininity in pictures and other texts contributed to the exclusion of women from “masculine” illustration jobs, even as such imagery also brought women together in solidarity.

La revue Châtelaine célébrait le féminisme maternel avec un contenu illustré varié. Les résultats ont toutefois été mixtes. Les images dessinées à la main en 1928 représentaient l’expression individuelle ainsi que l’identité nationale collective. L’interaction du matériel de lecture avec les illustrations a aidé les lectrices à développer leur autodétermination, leur jugement critique et leur créativité en assimilant l’article rédactionnel, la publicité et les messages esthétiques. Ceci a rendu la revue populaire et lui a donné un potentiel con- trepublic. Malheureusement, Châtelaine – un employeur important de femmes à ses débuts – remplaça beaucoup de ses illustrations réalisées par des artistes féminines par des œuvres masculines et des photos génériques après 1932. Il est donc ironique que la célébration de la féminité essentialisée de Châtelaine dans ses images et ses textes ait contribué à l’exclusion des femmes dans les emplois demandant des illustrations « masculines », alors même qu’elle regroupait les femmes dans une vague de solidarité.

‘Not an Empire which has traditions of the color of blood’: British Canadian Political Culture and the 1939 Royal Tour in the Press

by Tyler Turek

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the "Empire State of Mind" Conference at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, in May 2011.

Conventional interpretations of Canada’s entry into the Second World War maintain that ‘imperial sentiment’ was the... more Conventional interpretations of Canada’s entry into the Second World War maintain that ‘imperial sentiment’ was the driving force behind Ottawa’s declaration of war in September 1939. Yet this paper, which examines ‘British’ Canadian political culture in mainstream print media sources during the 1939 royal tour, suggests that there was no single imperial idea or sentiment in Canada prior to the outbreak of war, but a collection of overlapping interpretations blending both nationalist and imperialist arguments. Liberal in outlook, ideological in form, and anti-totalitarian in substance, dominant English-Canadian views interpreted the dominion’s continued membership in the British Commonwealth as elemental the defence of its sovereignty, identity and unity. While the press’s rhetorical efforts could not always eliminate the various national and imperial divisions hindering popular consensus, this essay argues that the royal tour broadly rationalized and legitimated Anglo-Canadian wartime co-operation and helped certain Canadian demographics find pride, place, and purpose in their nation and empire.

From Repression to Renaissance: French-language rights in Canada before the Charter.

by Matthew Hayday

Published in A History of Human Rights in Canada: Essential Issues, ed. Janet Miron, 182-200.  Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2009.

L’expertise au service de la cause : La mobilisation de l'expertise pédagogique pour les communautés francophones minoritaires, 1960-1985

by Matthew Hayday

Published in Légiférer en matière linguistique, dir. Marcel Martel and Martin Pâquet, 295-316.  Québec: Presses de l’Université Laval, 2008.