Episodes

  • The Group of 7 are some of the most iconic and well-known Canadian painters in the history of Canadian art. While forming on the heels of the First World War, during a dramatic period of social and political upheaval, the painters in the group came to define a uniquely Canadian style of art. One that reflected a country that was searching for new ways to express itself after the incredible and traumatic contributions of the Great War. From the artistic pioneers to the adventurous men of the woods, the Group of 7 reflected and embraced the optimism and pioneering spirit of the day and, while certainly not perfect, went on to become some of the most important painters in this country's history.


    To help us talk bout the Group of 7 we have brought on John Geoghegan. John is a curator and writer based in Toronto. He joined the McMichael as Associate Curator Collections and Research in 2022 and has contributed to several McMichael projects on topics including the Group of Seven, historical Canadian women artists, contemporary Indigenous art, and many more . He holds an MA in art history from York University.


    In addition to their regular programming, which includes permanent collection exhibitions that include many works by members of the Group of Seven, the McMichael is currently showing Jackson's Wars: A.Y. Jackson Before the Group of Seven, an exhibition curated by Douglas Hunter, closing February 2nd, 2025. Check it out today!


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  • Across Axis occupied Europe a shadow war raged as numerous resistance groups in all occupied countries sought to dismantle or disrupt the Axis forces implementing their brutal occupation regimes. In some cases, these groups were quite successful, in others only marginally so, in all, though, the Allies ensured that they supported these movements to continue to strike against their daunting enemy. In the former Yugoslavia, agents of the Special Operations Executive were sent in to assess the quality of the resistance forces within that country and then to support those groups deemed worth of such support. What they found was a complicated and fraught situation and the SOE needed people familiar with both the language, culture and region to help sort it all out. Many of these to-be agents were drawn from Yugoslavians and those of Yugoslavian descent living in Canada. These agents would go on to eagerly expose themselves to intense danger, from Axis soldiers but also Yugoslavian groups sympathetic to the Axis powers. They fought Axis soldiers, they provided intelligence on Axis locations, and by the end of the war the ‘Partisans’ became one of the most effective resistance movements of the entire Second World War.


    Book recommendation Roy MacLaren’s Canadians Behind Enemy Lines, 1939-1945originally published in 1981 by UBC Press.

     


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  • When one thinks of an iconic Canadian painter one does not have to go through many names before thinking of Emily Carr. And if one is looking for an influential west-coast painter than generally one’s first thoughts land on Emily. It is undeniable that Emily Carr has had a significant impact on the Canadian artistic landscape, as a woman, as a modernist, as an author, and as developing a particularly unique pacific northwest style. But Emily’s life, like so many painters, was full of immense challenges and even controversy. She spent most of her life in obscurity on Vancouver Island and it wasn’t until her final decades that the nation began to take notice. 


    To discuss Emily’s life today we have invited on Pascale Halliday. Pascale is a historian and educator from Whitehorse, Yukon. Previously she worked as an interpreter at the MacBride Museum of Yukon History and as executive director for the Emily Carr House in Victoria, BC. 


    The Emily Carr House is a beautifully restored provincial and national historic site in Victoria, BC, and was the birthplace of famed writer and artist, Emily Carr. Now the building and gardens are a vibrant cultural centre for education, exploration and mentoring. Drop in today as the House is launching a series of programs inspired by the themes of Emily Carr's life. 


    Pascale is also the co-host of the Klondike Gold Rush History podcast, which can be found on most major streaming platforms


    Indian Reserve, North Vancouver, Emily Carr 11:05

     

    Skeena, Beam Me Up!, Sonny Assu, 2015, 27:05

     

    Crowsnest Mountain and the Seven Sisters, Joane Cardinal-Schubert, 1989, 27:10

     

    Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky, Emily Carr, 34:05


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  • All around the world today there are people who listen to music made by Canadians. Most of us are familiar with Drake and Justin Bieber but long before those two superstars, all over the world Canadian musical acts had been transmitting into the ears of humans. But in some alternate reality, none of the Bieber’s or Drake’s exist. In fact, there is probably an alternate reality somewhere where Canada is nothing more than a musical dumping ground for American acts. And if you want to know what that might look like, simply look at Canadian music before 1971. Prior to that year Canadian radio stations played whatever was charting in the US and whatever was being dictated by US labels. While some domestic music was played on local stations, the musical conversation was a south to north one, never an east-west one. But that all changed with CANCON – the introduction of Canadian content regulations. While CANCON was certainly controversial when it came out, it became the catalyst for the creation of a domestic music industry, one that would germinate, then grow, then expand, then cultivate some of the biggest acts, biggest producers and biggest musical icons the world has ever seen.


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  • Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867 is officially out! Check out this photograph-rich single volume history of Canada's military at war. You can purchase a copy right now at the below links:


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  • For 113 terrifying days in 1940, Nazi Germany’s air force, the Luftwaffe, threw everything it had at Great Britain in hopes of early victory in World War II. The task of defending southern England from airborne attack fell to pilots in the Royal Air Force, supplemented in their darkest hour by more than 100 flyers from Canada. These Canadians, some from famous families, some straight off the farm, served in forty-seven different Battle of Britain squadrons. They fought bravely in the skies, risked their lives to defend Britain and participated in one of the most battles of the entire war. These Canadians were some of “the few” so many famously quoted by Winston Churchill.


    To talk to us today about this little known chapter in Canadian military history is author and historian Ted Barris. Ted Barris is an award-winning journalist, author, and broadcaster. His writing has regularly appeared in the national press, and magazines as diverse as Air Force, esprit de corps and Zoomer. He has also worked as host/contributor for most CBC Radio network programs, NPR in the U.S. and on TV Ontario. He taught journalism at Toronto’s Centennial College for 18 years. Ted is also the author of 22 books, many of them award winning publications. For instance, Ted’s 20th book, Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory was published in the fall of 2022 and immediately landed on the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star bestsellers lists. Following the book’s publication, Ted received word that he’d received Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Award, recognizing “extraordinary contributions to our community and Canada.” On Dec. 29, 2022, Rideau Hall announced its latest Honours list. Ted Barris learned he will be appointed Member of the Order of Canada, “for advancing our understanding of Canadian military history as an acclaimed historical author, journalist and broadcaster.”


    This week’s book recommendation is Ted’s 22nd book titled Battle of Britain: Canadian Airmen in Their Finest House, published in 2024 by Sutherland House Books. 

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  • Our very own David Borys has a new book coming out in September titled “Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867” published by Dundurn Press. The book is an easy to read, single volume history of Canada at war since 1867. This photograph-rich volume covers nearly 150 years of the Canadian military, tracing its evolution from a small, underfunded, poorly trained militia to the modern, effective military it is today

     

    The book will be released on September 24th in Canada and October 22nd in the United States. 

     

    As part of the pre-sale campaign CCH is dropping a series of short readings by David from sections of the book. 


    For today’s story we go back to the late 19th century where heated debates rage throughout Canada regarding the nation’s role in the broader British empire. Some believe that Canada can continue to rely on Britain’s military assistance like it has always done, others are arguing for significant improvements to Canada’s current small and underfunded force, while others are adamant that Canada begin sending young Canadians to go overseas to fight for the empire as Britain becomes more and more embroiled in putting out imperial fires across its vast empire. 


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  • Welcome back to Season 10!! In the first episode of the newest season we take you to Penetanguishene, Ontario along the shores of Georgian Bay where once existed the Oak Ridge ‘Criminal Insane Building.’ Oak Ridge has been deemed the ‘Alcatraz of Canada’ and ‘the most terrible institution of all.’ For decades it housed some of Canada’s most violent criminals and in particular violent criminals with serious psychiatric illnesses. Yet in the 1960s an intensive and radical therapy program arrived, promoting the widespread of drugs and treatment methods that frankly bordered on torture. The Social Therapy Unit at Oak Ridge is still remembered by some as a successful venture in utopian experimentation though for others it embodies a state-authorized subjection of the individual without any checks or balances. A place where patients became test subjects in a radical and controversial program of rehabilitation.


    This week’s book recommendation is Watching the Devil Dance by William Toffan, published in 2020 by Biblioasis.


    Don’t forget! You can pre-purchase a copy of Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867 right now at the below links:


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  • **SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT – NEW BOOK**

     

    Our very own David Borys has a new book coming out in September titled “Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867” published by Dundurn Press. The book is an easy to read, single volume history of Canada at war since 1867. This photograph-rich volume covers nearly 150 years of the Canadian military, tracing its evolution from a small, underfunded, poorly trained militia to the modern, effective military it is today

     

    The book will be released on September 24th in Canada and October 22nd in the United States. 

     

    As part of the pre-sale campaign CCH is dropping a series of short readings by David from sections of the book. 


    Today’s excerpt takes us back to 1870/71 where the Canadian government has sent out a military expedition to secure the annexation of the Red River Colony. This expedition, known as the Wolseley Expedition, is not sure if they are going to encounter violence when they finally arrive in Red River after what was an arduous and challenging journey to what would become Canada’s newest province.   


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  • **SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT – NEW BOOK**

     

    Our very own David Borys has a new book coming out in September titled “Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867” published by Dundurn Press. The book is an easy to read, single volume history of Canada at war since 1867. This photograph-rich volume covers nearly 150 years of the Canadian military, tracing its evolution from a small, underfunded, poorly trained militia to the modern, effective military it is today

     

    The book will be released on September 24th in Canada and October 22nd in the United States. 

     

    As part of the pre-sale campaign CCH is dropping a series of short readings by David from sections of the book. 


    Today’s excerpt takes us back to 1870/71 where we dive into the middle of the last gasp efforts of the Fenian Brotherhood to invade Canada and incite rebellion in Ireland.  


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  • Imagine you are a maritime Canadian finishing your PhD dissertation in Germany right when the First World War breaks out. As a subject of the British empire, your country (and empire) is automatically at war with Germany and thus you are now an enemy alien in that country. This is the situation that faced Winthrop Bell in 1914, and it began an incredible story that led to Winthrop Bell becoming a British imperial spy in Germany, and in many ways, a prophet. Long before anyone predicted the horrific regime that would become the Nazis, Canadian Winthrop Bell was already sending back warning signs about this emerging National Socialist party, their agenda, and the growing public support for the ultimate goal of that regime. 

     

    Today we have on as a guest Jason Bell, PhD. Jason is a professor of philosophy at the University of New Brunswick. He has served as a Fulbright Professor in Germany (at Winthrop Bell’s alma mater, the University of Göttingen) and has taught at universities in Belgium, the United States, and Canada. He is currently writing a book on Allied deception operations in the Balkans during World War II. 

     

    This week’s book recommendation is Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Agent A12 and the Solving of the Holocaust Code by Jason Bell, published by Pegasus Books in 2024. 

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  • When the British government declared war on Germany in August of 1914, no one in Canada (who was automatically thrust into the conflict by Britain’s declaration) ever could have predicted the incredible contribution the country would make in manpower, material and money. By the end of that war 650,000 Canadian soldiers were in unform and Canada had one of the most powerful corps formations on the western front. But what people often don’t think about, is how did Canada find the cash to support such a significant contribution. And that question is the focus of the newest CCH episode. How did Canada figure out a financing system that supported an almost unbelievable contribution to the world’s first global industrial war? Who was in charge? How was the program carried out and what was the reaction of every day Canadian? 


    To answer these questions we have brought on David Roberts. David is a retired editor/historian at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography / Dictionnaire biographique du Canada. In addition to writing several articles for that publication, he is the author of In the Shadow of Detroit: Gordon M. McGregor, Ford of Canada, and Motoropolis (2006), published by Wayne State University in its Great Lakes Books series.  Mr Roberts lives in Don Mills, Ontario.


    Today’s book recommendation is David’s newest book Boosters and Barkers: Financing Canada's Involvement in the First World War published in 2023 by the University of British Columbia Press for the Canadian War Museum's Studies in Canadian Military History series.

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  • Several episodes back, season 9 episode 15, we had on as a guest Alan Greer to talk about alcohol and its role in early colonial North America. One of the areas that was touched upon, that I thought would make an excellent future episode was alcohol’s role in the fur trade. As many are probably aware much of Canada’s early interactions between First Nations and Europeans came in the form of the fur trade. Some could make a strong case that the Canada we know today owes much to that early fur trade process.  In this episode we look back on how alcohol played a role in allowing Europeans to impose a credit/debt system within the fur trade, and the effects that this system had on European-Indigenous relationships. As well, how was alcohol used at the sharp end, where Europeans and Indigenous traders interacted? And was this all simply a European imposed system or did Indigenous traders act and react, resist and accept or outright reject these European tactics, tools and techniques of trade? 


    Book recommendation: Allan Greer’s Property and Dispossession: Natives, Empires and Land in Early Modern America, Cambridge Univ. Press in 2018 

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  • If you happened to grow up in North Vancouver, British Columbia (like I did) the name Harry Jerome was one seen everywhere. Harry Jerome was not just an Olympian, a world record holder, a Canadian athletic legend, a profoundly impacting community leader, but he was also Black in a time when the US was still embedded in the Jim Crow era and segregation, racism and prejudice were rife throughout this country as well. In this episode I have an incredible talk with Harry’s sister Valerie Jerome. Valerie herself was an incredible athlete, who trained alongside her brother and competed at the Olympics, Commonwealth and World championships. Like her brother she went on to become a community leader and teacher, even running for civic, provincial and federal elections for the B.C.’s Green Party. Myself and Valerie sit down to talk about what it was like being Black in Canada in the 1950s, life in North Vancouver, the quest to become an Olympian, overcoming incredible odds and the important legacy of Harry Jerome.


    Today’s book recommendation is by Valerie Jerome titled “Races: The Trials and Triumphs of Canada’s Fastest Family” 


    As well you can catch live footage of Valerie competing back in the day in the CBC Gem series – Black Life: Untold Stories – an eight episode documentary that looks at Black lives in Canada.  

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  • The First World War occupies a complicated space in our public memory. For many Canadians, places like Vimy Ridge or Passchendaele are certainly familiar, Remembrance Day is generally well attended, issues like shell shock are broadly understood, and the traumatic events of the conscription crisis are often taught, though in very different ways whether one is French-Canadian or not. Yet, in the last two decades more and more scholarship has appeared which has added nuance and complexity to narratives that have traditionally been presented or taught or even understood in far more simplistic and inaccurate ways. Gregory Kennedy has contributed to this burgeoning field by examining the story of Acadians in the First World War. The Acadians are a minority French community in the Maritimes and yet their experience highlights the much more nuanced realities of the broader Canadian experience during that nation-defining conflict. While much of the country railed against the perceived lack of participation of French Canadians, Kennedy’s work shows that the Acadians did indeed enlist at very similar rates as to Anglophone Maritimers. The contributions of Acadians formalized into the raising of the 165th battalion, an all-Acadian regiment. Yet, even the story of the 165th sheds light on the varying experiences of Canadian soldiers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. 


    Gregory Kennedy is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Professor of History at Brandon University. He was previously Professor of History at the Université de Moncton, and from 2015 through 2023 was the Research Director of the Institut d'études acadiennes. He has two monographs, Lost in the Crowd: Acadian Soldiers of Canada's First World War and Something of a Peasant Paradise? Comparing Rural Societies in Acadie and the Loudunais, 1604-1755, both with McGill-Queen's University Press. Kennedy is the lead researcher of the SSHRC-funded Partnership Development project Military Service, Citizenship, and Political Culture in Atlantic Canada. He is also the co-editor of a forthcoming interdisciplinary collection of essays called Repenser l'Acadie dans le monde, and a co-researcher of the SSHRC-funded Partnership project Trois siècles de migrations francophones en Amérique du Nord.


    Today’s book recommendation is by Gregory Kennedy titled Lost in the Crowd: Acadian Soldiers of Canada’s First World War, published by McGill Queen’s Press in 2024. 

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  • I’m sure all our listeners at some point in their lives have encountered an uncomfortable moment when discussing sex and sexuality, and in many places and communities within Canada discussions of sex are still quite taboo. Today, we’re breaking that taboo and asking some real questions about sex in Canada. How has the subject of sex in Canada changed over time? When did issues related to sex and sexuality really undergo significant change in this country? How much sex did Canadians used to have? How much sex are they having today? These questions and so many more are going to be answered in the sexiest CCH episode to date. 


    We dive to the bottom of these questions with sociologist Tina Fetner

     

    Tina Fetner is Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department at McMaster University. Her previous projects explored the dynamics of social change relating to sexuality, examining the impact of the opposing activism of LGBT movement and the anti-LGBT activism of the religious right from a historical perspective. Her current research examines the social organization of sexual behaviour. She is the principal investigator for the Sex in Canada multi-method research project that examines sexual behaviour and social attitudes among Canadian adults. This project builds upon previous work, including comparative analyses of the change in attitudes toward lesbian and gay people, as well as the uneven growth of Gay-Straight Alliances in high schools.


    Today’s recommended book is Tina Fetner’s most recent book Sex in Canada: The Who Why When and How of Getting Down Up North. Published by UBC Press in 2024.  

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  • When one thinks of the pre-confederation development of North America one might think of war and empires, competing nations, economic trade, fur, colonization, resistance and so many other themes and topics that have been enshrined in our understanding of early French and British North America. 


    What’s interesting, is that present in almost all of this is alcohol. In fact, alcohol has been at the heart of the settler-colonial experience since the first Europeans arrived on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. Alcohol was already central to European personal, economic, and professional relationships, and thus became central to European colonialism including European-indigenous relations, the slave trade, the fur trade, and the relationship between the classes. In fact, alcohol came to define much of the lives of those European settlers. Of course, alcohol was not without its detractors, religious leaders, pious settler communities and First Nations all sought in different ways to limit or resist both the temptation and the spread of alcohol in North America and by the middle of the nineteenth century the tide of alcohol had subsided considerably – but analysis’ of the causes of excessive drinking, focusing as it did on the inherently disorderly conduct and defective self-control of the lower orders, as well as the inherent vulnerability of Indigenous peoples, has misled generations of historians.  In many ways alcohol became wrapped up in the struggle for survival between those who had lived here for generations and those who were newly arriving, between nations and empires, and people, and played a role in shaping the future of the new world. 


    To help us dive into this complex subject we’ve brought on an expert in the field, Allan Greer. Allan Greer is a historian and professor at McGill University 

    Originally trained as a historian of early Canada, over time he expanded the scope of his research and teaching to include colonial North America, the history of native peoples of the Americas and the history of the Atlantic World. He is centrally involved in Montreal's French Atlantic History Group. Allan Greer has published extensively on, among other topics, the social history of early French Canada, the Canadian Rebellion of 1837-38, state formation, the early modern Jesuits, religious change and colonization, colonial saints, property and the history and historiography of New France. His books have won a number of national and international awards.


    The book recommendation is by Allan Greer and is titled Property and Dispossession: Natives, Empires and Land in Early Modern North America published by Cambridge University Press in 2017.

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  • Hockey has had both an enduring but also a complicated relationship with ideas about what it means to be ‘Canadian’. While not every Canadian skates, or plays the game, or even cares about the game, the sport itself occupies a serous place in the Canadian cultural psyche. While the game has often been seen as something to unify Canadians, or to express ‘Canadianness’, it has also been exposed for very serious flaws in its culture, its infrastructure, and its dubious place as a game of character and inspiration for Canadian youth. The game of hockey, as we understand it now, has undergone dramatic challenges and changes since its first official appearance on ice in Montreal in the 1870s.  This episode seeks to understand some of the key developments in the game that we now recognize today. From the rules to the rink size, to professionalization, commercialization, internationalization, to the broadening of the hockey cultural mosaic. From its amateur roots to a game that is international in its appeal, incorporating men and women from different socioeconomic classes and ethnic groups, and one that continues to evolve alongside modern value systems while evoking serious discussion on its relevance to modern Canadians. 


    Book recommendation: Canada’s Game: Hockey and Identity by Andrew C. Holman published McGill-Queen’s Press in 2009. 

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  • In May 2023, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) commemorated its 150th anniversary. The federal police force – which originally started out as the North-West Mounted Police – is almost as old as the Dominion of Canada itself. This episode examines the complex and painful history of an institution that has historically mistreated Indigenous peoples and women. It also takes us back to the scene of one of the RCMP’s largest manhunts – the search for fugitive Albert Johnson, also known as “The Mad Trapper.” Guests on this episode are Sam Karikas, CEO of the RCMP Heritage Centre, and Jean Teillet, a recently retired Métis lawyer, author, and lecturer, who is also the great-grand niece of Louis Riel.


    More episodes are available at: https://lnkfi.re/ctms2e2cch. To read the episode transcripts in French and English, and to learn more about historic Canadian milestones, please visit thewalrus.ca/canadianheritage. 

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  • One of the most talked about shows currently available is Masters of the Air. A program detailing the lives of American bomber crews serving in the US Army Air Force during WW2. In today’s episode, I bring on a past guest of CCH, historian Alex Fitzgerald-Black, to talk about the Canadian version of Masters of the Air. While the Americans bombed during the day, at night Canadian crews also took the bomber war to Germany and Axis powers. In today’s discussion we trace the beginning of the Canadian bomber fleet, the formation of No. 6 Bomber Group (one of Canada’s largest national formations of the entire war), the various operations that Canadian bomber crews participated in and finally we talk about the legacy of the Canadian bomber contribution and spend a bit of time sharing our own thoughts on Masters of the Air.

     

    Alex Fitzgerald-Black is the Executive Director at the Juno Beach Centre Association, the Canadian charity that owns and operates Canada’s Second World War Museum on the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy, France. He holds a Master of Arts in military history (University of New Brunswick) and a Master of Arts in public history (Western University). His first book, Eagles over Husky: The Allied Air Forces in the Sicilian Campaign, 14 May to 17 August 1943, was published in 2018. He has co-written multiple exhibitions at the Juno Beach Centre, including most recently Rising to the Challenge: The Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War.


    The Juno Beach Centre is preparing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy in summer 2024. Veterans Affairs Canada will be organizing the Canadian overseas ceremony on Juno Beach outside the Centre. For more information about the anniversary and to access further resources, please visit www.juno80.ca and junobeach.org. 

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