Curious Canadian History

By David Borys

Society & Culture Education History

What's Curious Canadian History about?

Historian David Borys dives deep into the fascinating world of Canadian history in this bi-weekly podcast exploring everything from the wonderful to the weird to the downright dark. Get add free content at Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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S7E16 The 1979 Binational L...

04.12.2022

In 1979 a conference was held in Toronto which became a pivotal event for both Toronto and Canada’s lesbian community. While so much attention at the time was focused around the emerging visibility of Canada’s gay community, it was heavily ...

Curious Canadian History episodes:

04.12.2022 S7E16 The 1979 Binational Lesbian Conference In 1979 a conference was held in Toronto which became a pivotal event for both Toronto and Canada’s lesbian community. While so much attention at the time was focused around the emerging visibility of Canada’s gay community, it was heavily ...
03.29.2022 S7E15 Rise Republic Rise: The United Irish Uprising in Newfoundland In the late 18th century tension in Ireland boiled over into a full scale uprising. This uprising was put down yet some Irish republicans fled to Newfoundland where they found a social, economic and political climate ripe for agitation. While ...
03.15.2022 S7E14 The Guess Who A deep dive into the iconic Canadian rock band The Guess Who Get add free content at Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
03.09.2022 Announcement - Name Change! A big name change is coming! Get add free content at Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
03.01.2022 S7E13 Gravenhurst: The Gateway City The historic and dynamic city of Gravenhurst is explored in this episode written by fellow podcaster Craig Baird from "Canadian History Ehx" Get add free content at Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
02.15.2022 S7E12 Nic Power - The Bad Detective The headlines screamed "Canadian detective foils Fenian bomb plot against the Prince!" When the third in line for the British throne arrived in Halifax in 1883 the entire country was excited for the young prince's tour of the equally young ...
02.01.2022 S7E11 To the Winner Goes the Spoils: The Origins of Lord Stanley's Cup Lord Stanley's cup, aka "The Holy Grail," is one of the most sought after trophies in professional sports and arguably the hardest one to win. But the trophy doesn't just represent the ultimate achievement in a professional sport, in many ...
01.18.2022 S7E10 More than Just Beads and Bannock: First Nations Women and the Fur Trade It was in search of furs, and the riches from the fur trade, which drove so many Europeans deeper and deeper into the North American continent. Much of the modern day prairies, western Ontario, interior of British Columbia, northern Quebec ...
01.04.2022 S7E9 Viola Desmond: The Woman on the 10 Dollar Bill Nine years before Rosa Parks galvanised the American civil rights movement by refusing to sit at the back of a bus, Viola Desmond sparked the mobilisation of a Nova Scotian community when she refused to be moved from a 'whites ...
12.13.2021 S7E8 Ring the Alarm – The Japanese Attack on Canada’s West Coast In June 1942 the Japanese submarine I 26 attacked a rather unusual target on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Not since the last Fenian Raid in 1871 had Canadian territory been directly attacked by a foreign enemy. While certainly ...
12.01.2021 S7E7 – Gahoendoe and the loss of Wendake In 1649, ravaged by war, the Wendat made the bold decision to move thousands of people to the island of Gahoendoe. This massive migration of the majority of Wendat was meant to keep the nation alive, yet it nearly destroyed ...
11.15.2021 S7E6 – Forgotten Battle: The Battle for the Scheldt – a conversation with Mark Zuehlke Recently Netflix released a film called “Forgotten Battle,” one of the most expensive Dutch films ever made. The film explores the lives of several characters in and around the difficult battle for the Scheldt Estuary in 1944. What the film ...
11.10.2021 S7E5 – The Forgotten Fourth Arm – The Merchant Navy’s Fight for Recognition Thousands of Canadian merchant mariners lost their lives during the Second World War as part of the valuable supply chain bringing important war material from North America to Great Britain. Despite the high casualty rates, dangerous working conditions, and vital ...
10.18.2021 S7E4 We Notorious! Canadian Hip Hop in the 20th Century Within only a couple of years of the “birth” of American rap music Toronto became the centre for the early Canadian rap and hip hop scene. This episode explores some of the early trends in Canadian rap music as artists ...
10.04.2021 S7E3 – Africville Africville was a community that for decades stood on the physical, social and racial margins of the city of Halifax. It represented Nova Scotia's legacy of Black migration into Canada but also spoke to the very real challenges people faced ...
09.20.2021 S7E2 – Welcome! Welcome! A History of Halifax’s Pier 21 For years, many Canadian immigrants arrived via ocean liner after a long journey across the Atlantic Ocean. While the first stop for some was Quebec or Montreal or St. John's. for nearly one million people that first stop was the ...
09.06.2021 S7E1 – The Longest War: A Brief History of Canada in Afghanistan To kick off Season 7 we are going to explore the history of Canada's mission in Afghanistan from a broad perspective highlighting the four phases of Canada's war and looking at some of the challenges to Canadian efforts in the ...
07.05.2021 Special Episode – Dr. Crystal Fraser and Residential Schools in Canada In this special episode David sits down for a fascinating and important conversation with Dr. Crystal Fraser, an historian at the University of Alberta and an expert in the history of residential schools in Canada. Dr. Fraser's 150 Acts of ...
05.31.2021 S6E19 Canadian Audiences and The Birth of a Nation In our Season 6 finale we look at one of the biggest blockbuster films of the early 20th century, which presented a twisted racial reimagining of a traumatic period in American history. Even though the film was controversial, almost everywhere ...
05.17.2021 S6E18 The Seaborn Missions to North Vietnam In 1964 a top secret diplomatic mission was carried out by Canadian J. Blair Seaborn on behalf of the United States to find some sort of settlement with the North Vietnamese government in Hanoi. Get add free content at Patreon! ...
05.03.2021 S6E17 The Fruit Machine At the height of the Cold War, Canadian anxiety over Soviet espionage reached reached such a fervour that a top secret Security Panel was formed to remove security threats from within the civil service. A part of this security campaign ...
04.19.2021 S6E16 The Canal That Never Was The Georgian Bay Canal was a proposed canal project connecting Georgian Bay to Ottawa to Montreal and then to the Atlantic Ocean and the world. While there were many merits for its construction it was never built. This episode explores ...
04.06.2021 S6E15 Canada’s First Spree Killer In 1966 the people of Windsor, Ontario and then the country were shocked when a young man recently released from the Kingston Penitentiary went on what became Canada's first shooting spree. A horrific crime that was a key part of ...
03.21.2021 S6E14 Bill Miner – The Gentleman Robber Part 2 Bill Miner's exploits in early 19th century British Columbia continue in this episode as he attempts to recover from a botched robbery of a CPR train and avoid the authorities who are hot on his trail. Get add free content ...
03.08.2021 S6E13 Bill Miner – The Gentleman Robber – Part One In this two-parter we look at the life of the bandit Bill Miner, an iconic and unique figure of both the American and Canadian Wild West. Get add free content at Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
02.22.2021 S6E12 The Mystery of Capreol’s Mass Grave A small railroad town in Northern Ontario deals with one of its most traumatic days bringing the community together but leaving a mystery behind. Get add free content at Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
02.08.2021 S6E11 Laying Down the Law – Canadian Civil Affairs and the Belgian Resistance In this excerpt from the forthcoming book “Civilians at the Sharp End: First Canadian Army Civil Affairs in Northwest Europe, 1944-1945” CCH takes a look at the tumultuous relationship between the Belgian resistance and First Canadian Army in the period ...
01.25.2021 S6E10 Give Peace a Chance – John and Yoko Come to Canada In 1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono, recently married and carrying out a ‘peace tour' shack up in a Montreal hotel suite for a week long ‘bed in' culminating in one of the most iconic protest songs in history........NEW BOOK: ...
01.10.2021 S6E9 A Nation of Our Own – The Six Nations Appeal to the League of Nations During the inter-war period, two leaders of the legendary Six Nations Confederacy take their people's claims of sovereignty to the most public international forum of the day attempting to gain foreign support in their struggle agains the Canadian government. Get ...
12.13.2020 S6E8 The Famous Five and the Persons Case Five Canadian activists challenge an archaic British law fundamentally changing the legal status of women in Canada Get add free content at Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
11.29.2020 S6E7 The Fight for History with Dr. Tim Cook Dr. Tim Cook is interviewed about his newest book The Fight For History discussing the complicated and controversial process by which WW2 was nearly forgotten in the decades following the war only to be reclaimed by the end of the ...
11.15.2020 S6E6 Whose Side Are You On Anyways? The Canadian Response to the Suez Crisis In 1956 the United Nations was in turmoil as an Anglo-French-Israeli alliance attacked and invaded Egypt. Global public opinion was strongly against this bold move and it seemed like there was no solution in sight. Until, Canadian diplomat Lester B. ...
11.02.2020 S6E5 John Labatt’s and the Windy City A risky move to take beer south takes John Labatt Jr. into the maelstrom of American brewing. Get add free content at Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
10.18.2020 S6E4 Bert and Ernie Eh? The Canadianization of Sesame Street In the late 1960s the television phenomenon that was Sesame Street came north of the 49th parallel. While extremely popular amongst Canadian youth significant debate flared up over the fact that it was American television programming in a time when ...
10.04.2020 S6E3 A Century of Service: The Life of Nova Scotian Provo Wallis, Admiral of the Fleet One of the longest serving sailors in the history of the Royal Navy just happened to be born in Nova Scotia. Provo Wallis witnessed the transition from the age of sail to the age of steam while remaining in the ...
09.21.2020 S6E2 Clio’s Treats: Culinary Connections to Canadian History The history of food in Canada can be a complex subject and is as varied as the people that make up this country. This episode has chosen several “Canadian” foods to explore how food is related to both the history ...
09.06.2020 S6E1 Chaos in the Cariboo Sky: The Crash of Canadian Pacific Flight 21 A 1965 plane crash in the wilderness of British Columbia leads to an unsolved mystery that puzzles investigators even today. Get add free content at Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
06.08.2020 S5E20 The Underground Railroad From the early 1830s to the onset of the American Civil War in 1860 British North America became the primary destination for slaves escaping to freedom. To get there they had to undergo a harrowing journey and for most of ...
05.25.2020 S5E19 A Lost Cause? Canada’s Diplomatic Involvement in the Vietnam War Prior to America's official entry into the Vietnam war Canada spearheaded diplomatic efforts to find some sort of peaceful resolution, balancing a need to show support for America in the ongoing Cold War while also seeking to avoid escalation and ...
05.11.2020 S5E18 Nuns on the Frontier – The Ursulines of Quebec The Ursulines are a Catholic female religious order who played an important role in the early years of the French colony of New France. Despite hunger, war, disease and brutal environmental conditions the Ursulines persevered and became fixtures within Quebec ...
04.27.2020 S5E17 The Dutch Food Crisis and Operation Faust In May of 1945 Canadian soldiers carried out a little-known food delivery operation deep into enemy held territory to help relieve the near-starving Dutch living under a brutal Nazi occupation regime. Get add free content at Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for ...
04.13.2020 S5E16 The Wabanaki Confederacy During the 17th and 18th centuries the British had to deal with one of the most powerful Indigenous alliances in all of North America, the Wabanaki Confederacy. Forged in defending their territory against incursions from the Five Nations Iroquois, the ...
03.30.2020 S5E15 The Coloured Corps and the War of 1812 When the War of 1812 erupted in June 1812 the status of Black Canadians in Upper Canada was a confusing and complex blend of abolitionist dreams, slave holding intentions, and racial prejudice. In spite of this, a unit was raised ...
03.16.2020 S5E14 – Un-Canadian Content? Bryan Adams and the Waking up the Neighbours Controversy In 1991 controversy erupted over the epic Bryan Adams album “Waking up the Neighbours.” The controversy surrounded the issue of whether the album qualified as ‘Canadian,' despite the fact that Bryan Adams was and is Canadian. The controversy shook the ...
03.03.2020 S5E13 Leo Major – A French-Canadian Rambo Leo Major was a scrappy French Canadian kid who served in both northwest Europe and Korea. His story is nothing short of extraordinary. Get add free content at Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
02.17.2020 S5E12 Kicking in the Door – Canada Invades Nazi Germany Starting in February 1945 First Canadian Army took part in a series of operations that would bust open the door to Nazi Germany and signal the beginning of the end for Hitler's regime. This episode is written by friend-of-the-podcast Alex ...
02.03.2020 S5E11 The Mad Trapper of Rat River In the early 1930s the Arctic became the scene of a desperate manhunt for a violent trapper willing to go to any lengths to avoid the law. A trapper whom nobody knew…and whom nobody still knows. Get add free content ...
01.19.2020 S5E10 An Uphill Skate – The Women of the Hockey Hall of Fame Women have been a part of hockey for as long as this country has embraced it as a national identifier, yet only recently has their contribution to the game been recognized in the hockey hall of fame. This week’s episode ...
01.17.2020 1867 & All That Friends of Cool Canadian History have just released their own Canadian history podcast focusing on the political and diplomatic history of this country. Check out the preview for this awesome podcast here! Get add free content at Patreon! See acast.com/privacy ...
01.05.2020 S5E9 Cougar Annie – The Wild Woman of Vancouver Island Ada Annie Jordan was a young mother with a successful business, a growing family and a popular place within early 20th century Vancouver's emerging elite society. Yet, she threw almost all of it away when she moved her family to ...

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