Witness to Yesterday (The Champlain Society Podcast on Canadian History)

By The Champlain SocietyHistory

Witness to Yesterday (The Champlain Society Podcast on Canadian History) episodes

March 25, 2022 The Politicization of Canadian Foreign Policy under the Harper Government
In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews, the editor of Harper’s World: The Politicization of Canadian Foreign Policy, 2006-2015. Published in 2022 by the University of Toronto Press, this book brings together a range of essays examining the foreign policies and actions of the Harper government and whether that Conservative administration changed the historical trajectory of Canadian foreign policy. Peter McKenna is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Prince Edward Island. He has written extensively on the recent history and politics of Canadian foreign policy.
If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.
44 min
March 18, 2022 Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism
Patrice Dutil interviews Jennifer Elrick, professor of Sociology at McGill University and the author of Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism: Immigration Bureaucrats and Policymaking in Postwar Canada, published by the University of Toronto Press. The discussion covers the origins and intentions of the 1967 reforms in the Lester Pearson government. Elrick also discusses the particular roles of senior public servants in making key decisions on more contentious cases. Their decisions created a new Canada, one far more multicultural than ever before. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt.
If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.
38 min
March 10, 2022 F.R. Scott’s journal on the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Graham Fraser who edited F.R. Scott’s journal that he kept while he was a member of the Royal Commission on Bilinguiism and Biculturalism – the famous Bi and Bi Commission. The book is entitled The Fate of Canada: F.R. Scott’s Journal of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, 1963-1971 and was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2021. The journal sheds considerable light on the intellectual journey of the Commission and the content of its interim and final reports. Graham Fraser is a former journalist who served as Canada’s sixth Commissioner of Official Languages between 2006 and 2016. He was also a writer who has published in both official languages of Canada. An officer of the Order of Canada, he is currently associated with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.
If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.
38 min
February 25, 2022 Lord Stanley and the Enduring Cultural Importance of his Trophy
Patrice Dutil explores the politics and ambitions of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada from 1888 to 1893 who is best known for having donated a silver punch bowl to honour the best hockey team in the country, with Jordan Goldstein, Professor of Kinesiology at Wilfrid Laurier University. His book is entitled Canada’s Holy Grail: Lord Stanley’s Political Motivation to Donate the Stanley Cup, and it is published by the University of Toronto Press. The interview is focused on Stanley’s politics and his perception of what Canada needed following years of tension over the Riel hanging, the Jesuits Estates Act and the divisive 1891 election over the possibility of free trade with the United States. His gift of a trophy, since known as the “Stanley Cup” has become a uniting symbol for many Canadians of all ages and geographies. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt.
If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.
46 min
February 24, 2022 Thirty Years of Political and Constitutional Upheaval in Canada
In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews David R. Cameron. The book is The Daily Plebiscite: Federalism, Nationalism, and Canada and is a collection of his essays written over the past four decades. The book is edited by Cameron’s colleague, Robert C. Vipond, and published by the University of Toronto Press. These essays focus on the constitutional and political turmoil experience in Canada from the Quiet Revolution in Quebec of the 1960s until the second Quebec referendum of 1995 and the subsequent Quebec secession reference in the Supreme Court of Canada and the Clarity Act of 1999. David Cameron is currently Special Advisor to the President of the University of Toronto and a professor in the Department of Political Science. For many years before this, he was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto. He worked for the federal government during the period of the first Quebec referendum, the negotiations that led to the Constitution Act 182, as Deputy Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Government of Ontario during the Meech Lake Accord, and after as special constitutional advisor to the Premier of Ontario for the Charlottetown Accord and the second Quebec referendum.
If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.
31 min
February 17, 2022 The New History of Black Peoples in Canada
Patrice Dutil discusses the evolution of Canadian history on the subject of Black peoples and communities in Canada with Professors Michele Johnson (York University) and Funké Aladejebi (University of Toronto), co-editors of Unsettling the Great White North: Black Canadian History (University of Toronto Press). Johnson and Aladejebi answer questions on the evolution of Canadian history when it comes to peoples of African descent, the new directions being assumed by current historians in this field, as well as the themes that are being undertaken by a new generation. The field is grappling with the many realities of the immigration experience, the gendered experience and the class perceptions of Blacks in Canada while enduring truths such as resilience and racism demand more research. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt.
If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.
50 min
February 11, 2022 Canadian Witnesses to the Horrors of the Holocaust
In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Mark Celinscak, the author of Kingdom of Night: Witnesses to the Holocaust published by the University of Toronto Press in 2022. Although liberated by British troops, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was observed by a large number of Canadians who left a sizeable written and photographic record. In addition, war artists such Alex Colville who would become known as Canada’s “painter laureate” sketched and painted the horrific conditions of the prisoners and dead bodies strewn about the camp. After years of research, Celinscak has assembled and organized these reports, letters and images into a compelling book. He is currently the Louis and Frances Blumkin Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Before this, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.
29 min
February 03, 2022 Thomas McKay, Scottish Businessman And The Creation Of Ottawa
Patrice Dutil meets Alastair Sweeny to talk about the remarkable career of Thomas McKay, a Scottish immigrant to Canada in the 1820s who went on to build a remarkable business career in the Ottawa area. McKay was a mason, and a very good one at that. Using his skills to build projects in Quebec and then the locks on the Rideau Canal in Bytown, he emerged as a virtual “laird” in the area, founding a variety of businesses and creating new architecture, including Rideau Hall, today the residence of the Governor General of Canada. The discussion of McKay’s career includes his significant role in Scottish immigration in Canada and the politics of Upper Canada. Alastair Sweeny is the author of Thomas MacKay: The Laird of Rideau Hall and the Founding of Ottawa, published by the University of Ottawa University Press). This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt.
If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.
31 min
January 27, 2022 The Cataclysmic Collapse of Abitibi Power & Paper
In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews, the author of Corporate Cataclysm: Abitibi Power & Paper and the Collapse of the Newsprint Industry, 1912-1946. Published by the University of Toronto Press in 2020, this book documents the rise, decline and bankruptcy of one of the largest manufacturing firms in Canada before the Second World War. A detailed review of the business and policy environment as well as the corporate strategies of Abitibi Power & Paper, Boothman’s book sheds new light on business and regulation of natural resources in Ontario and Canada during the first half of the twentieth century. A former professor of strategic management at the University of New Brunswick, Boothman has written a comprehensive and award-winning business history.
If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.
37 min
January 20, 2022 La Loi des mesures de guerre au Canada
Patrice Dutil discute des usages de la Loi sur les mesures de guerre au XXe siècle au Canada avec Xavier Gélinas, conservateur de l'histoire politique au Musée canadien de l'histoire à Gatineau et coauteur de Libertés sacrifiées. La loi des mesures de guerre, publié par le Musée canadien de l'Histoire. La discussion examine les origines de cette législation et son application pendant la Première Guerre mondiale, la Seconde Guerre mondiale et pendant la crise d'Octobre 1970. Les motivations des différents gouvernements sont scrutées ainsi que les principales victimes de la LMG : les immigrants relativement nouveaux-venus, les Canadiens d'origine japonaise de 1942 à 1945 et quelques dissidents. La LMG est également considérée pour ce qu'elle révèle de la culture politique canadienne. Enfin, les difficultés à rendre un jugement sont explorées. Ce podcast a été produit par Jessica Schmidt. Une version en anglais est disponible sur Witness to Yesterday.
If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.
45 min

About Witness to Yesterday (The Champlain Society Podcast on Canadian History)

From the publisher's feed

Immerse yourself in Canada’s history! Witness to Yesterday episodes take listeners on a journey to document a time in Canada’s past and explore the people behind it, its significance, and its…