By Jacob Richard On December 2, 1920, The Globe reported in its ‘News of the Day’ that Joseph Buchie, an “Indian convict” in the Port Arthur Jail, had cleverly “locked his warder in his cell, released two others, cooked a breakfast and walked out.”[1] Buchie must have felt elated when he walked free of the prison doors; the full breakfast and two companions were a welcome bonus. Through this simple and life-changing act of resistance, Buchie successfully challenged the authority of Canada’s carceral state. But the question remains: if the watchmen aren’t watching the prisoners, who’s watching ..read more

By Madhulagna Halder I almost stumbled upon the account of the shahid bedis by accident in 2023, during an archival field trip. While working at the 114-year-old Rammohun Library, in Kolkata, India, I met Sunish Deb, a social worker and a former activist, who was a regular in the Library’s reading room. As we continued our chanced conversation about my doctoral research, Deb mentioned in a passing anecdote, how once, not long back, he, along with a few of his friends, went around the city, restoring dilapidated martyr memorials on a quest to breathe new life to the much overlooked history of t ..read more

By Sean Graham This week I’m joined by Daniel Robinson, author of Cigarette Nation: Business, Health, and Canadian Smokers, 1930-1975. We discuss Daniel’s initial interest in studying smoking culture, the increase in smoking rates in the 1930s and 1940s, and the initial studies linking cigarettes to cancer in the 1950s. We also chat about the industry’s and government’s response, the social side of smoking, and the cultural significance cigarettes in Canada. Historical Headline of the Week Aurelia Foster, “What is the UK smoking ban, how will it work and when will it start?” BBC, April 23, 202 ..read more

by Alessandro Tarsia Having completed my PhD in Indigenous history, I recently returned to my birth nation of Italy. It had been seven years since I visited the villages in my home region of Calabria. While I’d always been aware of the debates over the place of fascism in Italian historical consciousness, I couldn’t help but feel that something was different now. The place of the fascist regime and the anti-fascist Resistance in the historical consciousness is the contested subject at the centre of the harsh Italian contemporary political debate. As one strolls along the main streets and squar ..read more

Poster for the Ginsberg reading, “Groove on Ginsberg,” Courtesy of the Ray Shankman Fonds, Jewish Public Library Archives, Montréal. Gary Genosko American poet Allen Ginsberg’s Canadian itinerary of readings throughout 1969 brought him to a number of major urban centres, including Montreal and Vancouver. For instance, at the end of October and beginning of November in Montréal, Ginsberg read at Sir George Williams University, where he was introduced by poet George Bowering; he then read at McGill University in an event sponsored by the Hillel Jewish Students Society and Debating Clubs. These ..read more

Aerial photo of MTHA development Regent Park circa 1980-1998. Copyright City of Toronto. David M. K. Sheinin This is the first of four articles on Toronto public housing in the late 1980s. This first article introduces the series then focuses on disability and public housing. The second addresses a new social role for the Metropolitan Toronto Housing Authority (MTHA) that included providing breakfast for children in need and mounting after-school programs on MTHA properties. The third considers tenant advocacy and the final article explores problems in public housing in the Jane-Finch neighb ..read more

By Sean Graham This week I’m joined by Patrick Bixby, author of License to Travel: A Cultural History of the Passport. We talk about the origins of the modern passport, the reaction to its introduction, and how artists and writers responded. We also chat about the role of the nation state in immigration, the relative value of nations’ passports, and what the document tells us about its holder. Historical Headline of the Week Kanis Leung, “Hong Kong Invokes a New Law to Cancel Passports of 6 Overseas-Based Activists, Including Nathan Law,” Associated Press, 12 June 2024. Sean Graham is a cultur ..read more

Holy Angels School Building, photo by author. Mallory Davies This is the seventh entry in a monthly series on Thinking Historically. See the Introduction here. Coined by activist American women of colour in the 1990s, reproductive justice is an activist framework that provides an intersectional understanding of reproductive autonomy. Reproductive justice invokes the “sexual autonomy and gender freedom for every human being,” among the right to reproductive decision making.[1] Despite advancements, the last few years have witnessed a reduction in reproductive rights protections in the Un ..read more

By Sean Graham This week, I’m joined by Raymond Blake, author of Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of National Identity. We discuss the role of the Prime Minister, how mass media changed the office, and the ways in which Prime Ministers have influenced national identity. We also chat about how international affairs shape domestic discussions, how the length of a government shapes public perceptions, and how retail politics influence conversations on identity. Historical Headline of the Week Erna Paris, “Canada’s Multiculturalism is our Identity,” Globe & Mail, April 27, 2018. Sean G ..read more

Jim Clifford and Stéphane Castonguay will lead a walking tour on Sunday June 16 at 7pm starting at Victoria Square in Montreal. Towers of Grain: Feeding Edwardian Britain Silo number 1, built in 1902 in the Port of Montreal, linked the burgeoning wheat farms on the Prairies with the urban markets in the United Kingdom. New industrial-scale flour mills were built in Birkenhead near Liverpool and West Ham on the eastern edge of London between 1899 and 1905. On the Prairies, Ogilvie Milling Company, the British American Company, Grain Growers’ Grain Company and others built thousands of grain el ..read more