By Rod Mickleburgh At long last, a formal apology has been delivered in the House of Commons for Canada’s racist behaviour in its shameful treatment of Sikh passengers aboard the Komagata Maru, who had the effrontery to seek immigration to the West Coast more than a hundred years ago. Not only were they denied entry, they […]
Argo: We’ve written ourselves out of history
By Paul Mather Okay I never do this, but everybody else in the house is occupied and it’s too icy to jog (or at least that’s what I’m telling myself). So, I’ve poured a cup of coffee, and here’s a long post. I was reading today about Argo. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a […]
I’m a racist. No really, I am.
Things were not comfortable for German Jews in 1938, but nobody was interested in that story at that point. Just like how, in 2013, seemingly nobody is interested in the real story of Aboriginals in Canada ~~ By Jimmy Goatcher ~~ As I watched the video below, I thought about this idea that gets bandied around a lot by people […]
Inside Read: The Opening Act
Our Inside Read feature presents excerpts from new Canadian books we think you might want to dip into further. In The Opening Act, author Susan McNicoll offers a lively history of Canadian theatre post WW II, including the following account of Vancouver’s 1953 Tobacco Road “fiasco.” Published by kind permission of Ronsdale Press. “The police […]
The NDP surge: Thank Adam’s generation
By Dave Brindle Cousin Gordon and I – he, the country boy, and me, from the city – talked prior to his oldest son, Adam’s, birthday this winter. “Adam turns 18,” Gordon said. “He’ll be able to vote.” His first thought wasn’t that his son was now eligible for a draft, or of his son’s […]
Am I on Blackett’s “crap” list?
By Brian Brennan I applied to a provincial government agency – twice — to fund my next history book project, and was turned down, twice. Why? First, let me tell you the reason I applied for this money. You don’t make big money writing history in this country. It is the sport of amateurs. Amateurs, […]
The Beaver turns tail
By Bev Schellenberg The Beaver is no more. Begun in 1920 in celebration of the Hudson Bay Company and the fur trade, Canada’s foremost historical magazine will now be titled Canada’s History. Who would’ve thought such a venerable institution would buckle under to a bit of competition from internet porn sites? According to its publisher, […]
Deceptions with wolves
Misha Defonseca, a Belgian writer, has come out of a very dark closet. The 71 year-old author of Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years, admitted last week that her memoir was not really a memoir, but a fantasy. I was appalled when James Frey confessed that his book, A Million Little Pieces, was a […]
