Features THE UNSETTLED PAST In a stature-toppling era, Parks Canada adapts its retelling of this country’s complex history. by Christopher Moore This month, the August-September Canada's History leads with my article "The Unsettled Past," investigating how Parks Canada is seeking to shape a new narrative for Canadian history at its sites and plaques all over Canada. Parks Canada's historic sites agency, like other Canadian museums and historical institutions, was put under tough scrutiny by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC's 2025 report shone a painful spotlight on ..read more

This being pro cycling, Tadej Pogacar's solid victory in the Tour de France, consolidated with his dominance of the final day's time trial, can't help but raise the question: is he on something? Well, I don't know. It is probably not simple drugs if he is.  There are references around to carbon monoxide training (which sounds kinda fatal) and ketone training, and.  Also suggestions that the winningest teams are those that have the most money to invest in R&D and new equipment and the strongest riders.  But I must say there seemed something inhuman about the way this nice you ..read more

Who knew the fate of the St Lawrence Iroquoians -- the people whom Jacques Cartier was welcomed by in 1535 at Stadacona and Hochelaga and who were not there when Champlain et al began arriving in the early 1600s -- was news? The Globe and Mail recently had a long story by Deborah Baic about new techniques and new ideas in archaeology, and how they are reshaping this question. I must admit I don't see the debate being advanced far from when Bruce Trigger and others were discussing th isquestion in the 1970s, but I like seeing public attention to complicated historical questions, so....&nbs ..read more

   So this is happening. And if you think the neighbourhood is "the Beach" and not "the Beaches," take it up with Richard. He's the author; I'm doing the Q part of the Q&A. Or read his explanation why in the book itself.  The Beaches, Creation of a Toronto Neighbourhood from University of Toronto Press ..read more

Canadian Derek Gee (centre) third in a tightly contested climbing stage at the Tour "and the Tour de France in July" it says above. I've been negligent about posting the Tour in its first two weeks, but I have been watching. Two weeks in, it looks to be Tadej Pogačar's Tour all the way. He is only twenty-five but increasingly he is being counted among the great cyclists of all time. He is strong with or without his team around him. He goes into sprints when the spirit moves him.  His tactical sense never deserts him. It seems he can do anything on a bike. But mostly he can ..read more

On TwitteX, Mark Bourrie expresses disappointment in his recent history Crosses in the Sky being less successful than he had hoped and partly blames himself.   I've never had much talent for seeing what might or might not make a best-settling Canadian history book.  (1867: How the Fathers Made a Deal -- a confederation book in the wake of Meech and Charlottetown  -- was one occasion I did maybe get in time with the zeitgeist.)  Stories of heroic white men in rugged settings still hold surprising appeal for CanHist book buyers, so I would not have been ..read more

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography used to be a big new book every ten years or so with a heap of short biographies in each  one. Not anymore. The DCB is becoming an empire. Now that the biographies are published online, will there ever be decade-by-decade hardcopy books like there used to be? It would be hard to do because the boundless space of the intertubes is allowing the DBC to include more people and to produce longer articles on them too. The last printed volumes of the DCB covered notable Canadians who died in a particular decade. Now the biographies in development for the de ..read more

Unlike most major Canadian media, the New York Times has recently run a front-page story on the Haida Nation and the implications of its long and increasingly successful campaign to secure recognition of its title to their territory on Haida Gwaii islands.  Their methodical and painstaking quest came to fruition in May when the government of British Columbia passed a law — the first of its kind in Canada — recognizing the Haida’s aboriginal title throughout Haida Gwaii. No provincial or federal government in Canada had ever willingly recognized an Indigenous people’s title to their land ..read more

I thought the Canada Day Order of Canada list was usually the "artsy" list, but there are not too many writers on this year's.  (Update: On review, I'm not so sure of this. Searching some past posts, I find quite few writers and artists on the New Year's lists as well. So whadda I know?) I note Professor Terry Copp, the military historian, and William Fox, the Parks Canada archaeologist, among the historians and history-adjacent appointments. Congratulations to them both, and also to Arnie Gelbart, the Montreal documentary filmmaker, co-creator with the late Brian McKenna of m ..read more

The prizes awarded annually by the Canadian Historical Association at its AGM are now posted on the CHA website here. It's a long list and I won't try to summarize it. They do suggest there is a lot of impressive and diverse work being done in academia. And the prize list has a notable mix of elder scholars and young up-and-comers ..read more