RCRM Speakers Series - Season 1

In the years following the First World War the citizens of London, Ontario raised local memorials to honour the generation who served in the war. Built in 1934, the most prominent local structure is the Cenotaph located at Dufferin Avenue and Wellington Street, but few Londoners are aware of its complicated and intriguing history.

Heather Ellis shares her... investigation into the circumstances of Andrew Buttery’s death, who was bludgeoned by a psychiatric patient on 9 June 1933, at Westminster Hospital, currently known as Parkwood Institute in London, ON. Following the unfortunate event, the Department of Pensions and National Health initiated an inquiry. Heather has researched hospital archives and will try to answer legitimate questions arising from this story.

One hundred years after the discovery of the insulin, Sir Frederick Banting continues to be remembered from the perspective of a singular moment in time, the image of himself with Charles Best and a dog on the rooftop of the University of Toronto Medical School. But, like any other story, that representation is neither the beginning, nor the end of his contributions to Canadian science and innovation. For episode 8 of the RCRM Speakers Series, Grant Maltman will introduce the other facets of the complex personality that was Sir Frederick Banting.

In Exhibition Place near the heart of downtown Toronto, surrounded by a sea of concrete parking lots and modern buildings, an imposing but incongruous-looking mid-19th century structure stands its ground. This two-storey stone building is the last remaining structure of Stanley Barracks, once the main military establishment for the Toronto Garrison. In this episode, Dr. Aldona Sendzikas is for pondering over the amazing history of Toronto’s Military garrison.

“Hard Labour: Beyond the Internet Search” literally takes us to the depth of historical research. With information available at the click of a mouse button, it is easy nowadays to overlook how much data remains undigitized. When the assumption that all the important information is accessible has been stripped away, a change in perspective is needed. Working with previously overlooked material, a researcher can find new ground from which to challenge established views and find areas where the accepted history falls short in capturing the full story.

Between 1939 and 1945, the Air Force saw greater expansion in Canada in comparison with the Army or the Navy. With over 200,000 men and 17,000 women enlisted, 39 RCAF Squadrons at home and No. 6 RCAF Group with RAF Bomber Command, the RCAF became the fourth-largest air force in the world. There are many components to this unprecedented expansion, but one of them in particular has attracted Michael Baker’s attention: the British Commonwealth Training Plan.

This episode of the RCRM Speakers Series will explore the little-known role of Canadian soldiers in the liberation of Nazi concentration and transit camps. In spring 1945, First Canadian Army was working to liberate the Netherlands from German occupiers. Here, they discovered Nazi camps and the Holocaust survivors left abandoned within them. After coming upon the camps, Canadian soldiers moved from a position of combat to providing humanitarian relief assistance. Soldiers dealt with challenges that six years of war had not prepared them to face such as the logistical issues of securing essential supplies necessary to combat mass famine, malnourishment, and disease as well as longer-term issues like the repatriation of the survivors. The discovery of the Nazi camps across Europe forever changed the meaning of the Second World War for Canadians as a conflict not only about preventing Nazi world domination but also providing relief and rehabilitation for their millions of victims. As Royal Canadian Air Force Flight Lieutenant T.S. Byrne explained, liberation was “Why we fought World War II.”

During the 6 years of the Second World War, the Allied planned and conducted many operations, on land, in the air and at sea. Many of these operations continue to make news front page even today, others tend to be forgotten or overshadowed by the course of subsequent events, as is the case of Operation Husky. This episode of the RCRM Speakers Series will provide an informative account not only on the the Army's landing in Sicily, but mostly on how the Air Force supported this operation.

After the Battle of Paardeberg (18-27 Feb 1900), a Canadian Methodist preacher said "Not the greed of conquest, but native valour, the struggle for civilization, and the love of Motherland were in the fire in their souls that day." Professor Gordon Heath added this quote to today’s title which also reads "Canadian Protestant Rhetoric and the War in South Africa." Heath will examine how the churches wrote and preached about the imperial cause in South Africa, following the general argument of his book, "A War with a Silver Lining" (published in 2009). This conflict may be forgotten today, but as Professor Heath will reveal, 120 years ago it was making front page in the news. In the following years, up to the 1920s, Paardeberg Day on 27 Feb was the designated day for Canadians to honour Veterans and remember sacrifices.

A compelling testimonial on fiction versus reality in movie industry and popular culture using the real story of RAF men escaping the POW Stalag Luft III during the Second World War and John Sturges' movie The Great Escape.