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

Larry Ostola speaks with Randall Wakelam and William March about their book On the Wings of War and Peace: The RCAF during the Early Cold War. Bringing together leading researchers on Canadian air power, On the Wings of War and Peace captures the history of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) during the first decades of the Cold War – a period which marked the zenith of air force accomplishments in peacetime Canada. The volume covers topics that go beyond straightforward flying operations, examining policies that drove operational needs and capabilities and the personnel, technical, and logistical functions that made those operations possible. With contributions written by former RCAF members who have both expert and personal knowledge of their topics, On the Wings of War and Peace brings new perspectives to the RCAF’s role in shaping the modern Canadian nation.

Randall Wakelam served in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) as a tactical helicopter pilot and educator for more than four decades; he has taught and written about air power and leadership for the past twenty-five years and is now an associate professor emeritus of the Department of History at Royal Military College.

William March is a freelance historian and writer focused on aerospace power history, Canadian military history, and leadership. He previously served as a maritime air navigator in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) for over forty years.

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: 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.

Donald Wright speaks with Eric Adams and Jordan Stanger-Ross about their book, Challenging Exile: Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution. How did Japanese Canadians navigate the challenges arrayed against them? Eric M. Adams and Jordan Stanger-Ross detail the circumstances and personalities behind the proposed exile. They follow the lives of families facing government orders that forced them from their homes, stripped their livelihoods and possessions, and deprived them of fundamental rights. And they analyze the constitutional framework of the court case in which lawyers and judges grappled with the meaning of citizenship, race, and rights at a time of change in Canadian law and politics. Unfolding in a context of global conflict, sharpened borders, and racist suspicion, the story told in Challenging Exile has enduring relevance for our own troubled times.

Eric M. Adams is a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta and has written widely on constitutional law, legal history, employment law, human rights, and legal education. He lives in Edmonton.

Jordan Stanger-Ross is a professor of history at the University of Victoria and is the author of numerous works on the history of migration and race in North America. He lives in Victoria. Together, they were awarded the John T. Saywell Prize for Canadian Constitutional Legal History for their joint scholarship with the Landscapes of Injustice partnership, examining the uprooting and dispossession of Japanese Canadians during the 1940s.

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: 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.

Nicole O’Byrne speaks with John W. Burchill and Richard Jochelson about their book Ancillary Police Powers in Canada: A Critical Reassessment. Police enforce the law, but they must also obey it. Statutes circumscribe how law enforcement officers conduct their work. Controls on police power are also embedded in the decisions written by judges, spawning a controversial area of legal debate — and of policing itself. The courts have handed police many powers to stop, search, and otherwise investigate people in the pursuit of public safety and crime prevention.

Ancillary Police Powers in Canada explains what these common-law police powers are; how they came to be; and, crucially, what the potential dangers are in their expanding scope. What is the difference between police duty and lawful authority? Should the Supreme Court revisit and possibly rescind powers when the police tactics they enable become controversial? This nuanced book surveys the evolution, application, and future development of judge-made police powers in Canada from various points of view. The authors, with backgrounds in law, policing, and criminal justice, bring historical perspective, critical legal theory, and empirical analysis to bear on an issue that is fundamental to constitutional protection from state interference with individual liberty. The result is a unique and thought-provoking journey into the changing practice of Canadian policing.

John W. Burchill is an instructor at the University of Manitoba, chief of staff with the Winnipeg Police Service, and president of the Winnipeg Police Museum and Historical Society.

Richard Jochelson is the Dean of Law at the University of Manitoba. A widely published scholar, he also spearheaded Robsoncrim.com, a leading research blog that undergirds the Criminal Law Edition of the Manitoba Law Journal.

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: 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.

Larry Ostola speaks with Marc Milner about his book Second Front: Anglo-American Rivalry and the Hidden Story of the Normandy Campaign. In June 1944, an Allied army of British, American, and Canadian troops sought to open up a Second Front in Normandy. But they were not only fighting to bring the Second World War to an end. After decades of Anglo-American struggle for dominance, they were also contending with one another—to determine who would ascend to global hegemony once Hitler’s armies fell. Marc Milner traces this bitter rivalry as it emerged after the First World War and evolved during the fragile peace which led to the Second. American media and domestic politics dominated the Allied powers’ military strategy, overshadowing the contributions of Britain and the remarkably critical role played by Canada in establishing this Second Front. Culminating in the decisive Normandy campaign, Milner shows how the struggle for supremacy between Churchill and Roosevelt changed the course of the Second World War—and how their rivalry shaped our understanding of the Normandy campaign, and the war itself.

Marc Milner is emeritus professor of history at the University of New Brunswick and former director of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society. He is the author of ten acclaimed books, including Stopping the Panzers and Battle of the Atlantic.

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: 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.

Greg Marchildon speaks with Ron Graham about his book, The Coutts Diaries: Power, Politics, and Pierre Trudeau 1973-1981. Jim Coutts, principal secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau from 1975 to 1981, was one of the most powerful men in Canada during those tumultuous years. Equally admired and attacked, respected and reviled, he was, in the words of one contemporary journalist, “a political phenomenon such as Canada has never known before: Machiavelli masquerading as a cherub.” The man who “exercised more backroom power than anyone else in modern Canadian political history,” Coutts not only knew everyone and saw everything at the centre of the action, he wrote it all down. Now, for the first time, his secret diaries have been edited into a single volume that offers an astonishing, behind-the-scenes look into public events and private lives during some of the most dramatic years in Canadian history.

Ron Graham is an author and journalist based in Toronto. He has written extensively over many decades on Canadian politics, history, religion, business, and culture.

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: 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.

Larry Ostola speaks with Don Weekes about his book, Hockey Hall of Fame Timeline of the Game: 150 Years of Hockey Stories. The players. The builders. The moments and stories that define the game. Hockey Hall of Fame Timeline of the Game is a visual catalog of hockey's history -- from the early days of a modest ice game played on ponds to today's fast-paced, global, multi-billion-dollar sport. Hockey Hall of Fame Timeline of the Game is replete with facts, stories, headlines and stats that will satiate the appetites of even the most passionate fans. Hundreds of images, from iconic photographs to obscure illustrations and rare shots, bring the history to life -- all assembled in a colorful, attention-grabbing package. This indispensable reference guides you through eight hockey-defining eras.

Don Weekes is an award-winning television producer at CTV Montreal and the author of more than 20 hockey books, including Hockey Hall of Fame Book of Trivia and Picturing the Game: An Illustrated Story of Hockey.

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: 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.

James Stewart (J.D.M.) speaks with Alexandra Giancarlo, Janice Forsyth, and Braden Te Hiwi about their book, Beyond the Rink: Behind the Images of Residential School Hockey. In 1951, the Sioux Lookout Black Hawks from Pelican Lake Indian Residential School toured Ottawa and Toronto after winning the Thunder Bay district championship. Promoted as proof of the residential school system’s “success,” the tour masked the realities of abuse and forced assimilation. Beyond the Rink by Alexandra Giancarlo, Janice Forsyth, and Braden Te Hiwi—created with Survivors Kelly Bull, Chris Cromarty, and David Wesley—examines this legacy, celebrating the team’s achievements while exposing hockey’s role in colonial narratives and reclaiming their story to envision a more just future for Indigenous peoples and Canada.

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: 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.

Larry Ostola speaks with Harry Malcolmson about his book, Scene: How the 1960s Transformed Canadian Art. Scene traces this remarkable reshaping of the nation’s artistic landscape. Written by renowned art critic Harry Malcolmson, the book offers an insider’s view of how a surge of artists, galleries, collectors, and critics propelled Canadian art onto the global stage. Malcolmson explores the forces behind this creative renaissance, from the patriotic fervor surrounding Canada’s Centennial and Expo ’67 to landmark projects like Toronto City Hall. Through vivid anecdotes and sharp analysis, he captures the energy of the decade and profiles over twenty influential Canadian artists who defined the period. Richly illustrated, Scene examines how growing nationalism, cultural confidence, and economic prosperity converged to shape a new artistic identity. It also charts the rise of key institutions, including the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada.

Harry Malcolmson is an art critic and a prominent collector of art and historical photography. Previously, he worked as a lawyer and was a regular contributor to publications such as the Toronto Telegram, Saturday Night, and Canadian Art. Together with Ann Malcolmson, he assembled The Malcolmson Collection, which spans the history of photography from the 1840s and is regarded as one of the most important collections of historical photography in Canada.

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: 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.

Nicole O'Byrne speaks with Barry Cahill about his book, A Biography of Robert Henry Winters. This biography is of Nova Scotian Robert Henry Winters (1910-1969) who was first elected to Parliament in 1945 and appointed to Cabinet by Prime Minister Louis St-Laurent in 1948. Between 1957 and 1965 Winters was one of Canada’s most prominent businessmen, running companies specializing in resource extraction and development. Returning to politics in 1965, he was again elected to Parliament and soon joined the Cabinet of Prime Minister Lester Pearson as minister of trade and commerce. Notably, Winters placed second to Pierre Trudeau in the vote to choose the new leader of Canada’s Liberal Party in 1968. Leaving politics once again and re-entering big business, Winters became president, and then chair of Brascan (now Brookfield Asset Management) before his unexpected death. This book will be a welcome read for anyone interested in Canadian politics, especially within the Liberal Party, Canadian business, and the interaction between the two.

Barry Cahill, MLitt is an independent historian in Halifax, Nova Scotia, specializing in the legal profession, the 1917 Halifax Disaster, Canadian Black Studies, especially slavery and abolition, and Canadian political biography. He was a Commonwealth Scholar at Oxford University, and has published eight books and numerous scholarly articles, including several in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, and is currently working on a biography of William Stevens Fielding, Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s minister of finance throughout the fifteen years of the Laurier government, 1896-1911.

Image Credit: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: 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.

Larry Ostola speaks with Anton Wagner about his book, The Spiritualist Prime Minister: Volume 1: Mackenzie King and the New Revelation, along with the author of the foreword, Walter Meyer zu Erpen. The Spiritualist Prime Minister by Anton Wagner is a groundbreaking two-volume biography that reveals the deep influence of Spiritualism and the occult on William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest-serving Prime Minister. Based on ten years of meticulous research, Wagner documents over 130 of King’s interactions with mediums, psychics, and other spiritual practitioners. King’s primary motivation was to communicate with his deceased mother and close associates, often consulting spiritualists during pivotal moments in his political career, including the Great Depression and World War II. The biography situates King’s beliefs within the broader international context of early 20th-century Spiritualism, referencing figures like Arthur Conan Doyle. Wagner’s work offers a detailed psychological portrait of King, exploring both his mystical pursuits and controversial views, including instances of racism and antisemitism. Richly illustrated and thoroughly researched, this biography provides new insights into the private life and decision-making of one of Canada’s most influential leaders.

Anton Wagner is a founding executive member of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research, editor of ten books on Canadian theatre, and an accomplished researcher, writer, and documentary filmmaker.

Walter Meyer zu Erpen is president and archivist of the Survival Research Institute of Canada.

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: 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.