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

Nicole O’Byrne speaks with Leila Inksetter about her book, Cultural Change among the Algonquin in the Nineteenth Century.

The nineteenth century was a time of disruption for the Algonquin people as they encountered fur traders, missionaries, settlers, and other outside forces. Despite this, they retained some control over the changes they faced, adapting where possible to serve their own interests.

Cultural Change among the Algonquin in the Nineteenth Century explores the history of settler-Indigenous interactions around the Ontario-Quebec border, focusing on the period after colonial incursion but before the Indian Act of 1876. The study compares two regions: Lake Timiskaming, where commercial logging began in the 1830s, and Lake Abitibi, which saw less outside contact until the early 20th century. Using archival and ethnographic sources, Leila Inksetter examines the changes in governance, the introduction of elected chiefs, food provisioning, environmental shifts, and the blending of Indigenous spirituality with Catholicism.

Inksetter argues that the Algonquin response to cultural change was not just an imposition but a dynamic, self-directed process. She calls for greater recognition of Algonquin agency and decision-making during this time, before the full effects of the Indian Act were felt.

Leila Inksetter is professor in the Department of History at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Image Credit: McGill-Queen’s University Press

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 Joshua MacFadyen about his book, Time Flies: A History of Prince Edward Island from the Air.

Time Flies provides a unique perspective on Prince Edward Island’s transformation over 85 years (1935–2020) through aerial photography and historical analysis. The book showcases iconic landscapes, highlighting changes in land use and ecosystems. It is divided into four chapters focusing on resource economies, rural communities, urban development, and coastal change. The work offers valuable insights into the social and ecological evolution of the island, offering broader lessons on modern change.

For more information about the book and the online companion Story Map, please visit https://www.upei.ca/timeflies.

Dr. Joshua MacFadyen is the Canada Research Chair in Geospatial Humanities and an associate professor in the Applied Communication, Leadership, and Culture program at the University of Prince Edward Island. His previous books include Flax Americana: A History of the Fibre and Oil That Covered a Continent and Time and a Place: An Environmental History of Prince Edward Island.

Image Credit: Island Studies Press

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 Christopher Patrick Aylward about his book, Beothuk: How Story Made a People (Almost) Disappear.

The Beothuk were once thought to be an isolated people made extinct in 1829 due to conflicts with settlers and the Mi’kmaq. This narrative became widely accepted in history. In Beothuk, Christopher Aylward critiques how external accounts, from Viking sagas to European explorers and early anthropologists, shaped the misrepresentation of the Beothuk's history. He argues that the notion of their extinction was never proven and was only questioned when Indigenous perspectives began to emerge in the 1920s. Through new sources such as archaeological evidence, oral histories, and testimonies from Indigenous groups, a more accurate historical understanding of the Beothuk has developed. The book underscores the importance of Indigenous voices in telling their own history.

Christopher Patrick Aylward is a filmmaker and associate professor of film studies at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Image Credit: McGill-Queen’s University Press

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 Julian Sher about his book, The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln.

The North Star explores the complex and often overlooked role of Canada during the American Civil War, focusing on its unexpected involvement in both supporting the Confederate South and plotting against President Abraham Lincoln. The book reveals the darker side of Canada's history, which contrasts with its widely recognized support for escaped slaves. It highlights key figures such as Anderson Abbott, Emma Edmonds, and Edward P. Doherty, as well as the Canadian elite’s ties to the Confederacy, including funding operations and hiding conspirators. Through vivid portraits of cities like Montreal and Toronto, the book uncovers Canada’s hidden role in the war, offering a meticulously researched and relevant account of historical events.

Julian Sher is an award-winning journalist and author of seven books, including Until You Are Dead and White Hoods. He has worked as an investigative reporter for the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail and was Senior Producer for CBC's The Fifth Estate. His documentaries, like Nuclear Jihad and Ghosts of Afghanistan, have won major awards. Sher also advocates for media freedoms as a Senior Fellow at Toronto Metropolitan University's Centre for Free Expression.

Image Credit: Penguin Random House

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 George Pavlich about his book, Thresholds of Accusation: Law and Colonial Order in Canada.

This socio-legal history examines pretrial accusations in colonial criminal law in western Canada, focusing on Alberta, 1874–1884. The establishment of the Northwest Mounted Police aimed to enforce Dominion law, using accusatory procedures to investigate crimes, arrest suspects, and determine trial eligibility. George Pavlich highlights how police and justices of the peace translated local social knowledge into criminal law, reflecting power dynamics of sovereignty and control. These processes held individuals legally responsible while obscuring the social impacts of settler actions. The book suggests we learn from Indigenous laws to address societal issues with new forms of accusation and responsibility.

George Pavlich is H.M. Tory Chair and Professor at the University of Alberta. His research examines the social and historical processes through which individuals are labeled as "criminals" and subjected to crime control. By exploring the history of criminal accusation, his work highlights how these processes have shaped reliance on punitive justice. He has authored several books and articles and co-edited multiple collections.

Image Credit: Cambridge University Press

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 Asa McKercher about his book, Building a Special Relationship: Canada-US Relations in the Eisenhower Era, 1953–61.

Building a Special Relationship explores a lesser-known period in U.S.-Canada relations during the 1950s, when officials from both countries developed a strong culture of bilateral cooperation amid the escalating tensions of the Cold War.

Asa McKercher is an associate professor at St. Francis Xavier University, a senior fellow at the Bill Graham Centre, and a fellow at Queen’s Centre for International and Defence Policy. He is editor-in-chief of International Journal and the author of several books, including Canada and the World since 1867 and Camelot and Canada: Canadian-American Relations in the Kennedy Era.

Michael D. Stevenson is a history professor at Lakehead University. He authored Canada’s Greatest Wartime Muddle: National Selective Service and the Mobilization of Human Resources during WWII and edited the 1957–58 volumes of Documents on Canadian External Relations.

Image Credit: UBC Press

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.

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Molly P. Rozum, the author of Grasslands Grown: Creating Place on the U.S. Northern Plains and Canadian Prairies. This book was jointly published by the University of Nebraska Press and the University of Manitoba Press in 2021. Molly Rozum is currently the Ronald R. Nelson Chair of Great Plains and South Dakota History at the University of South Dakota. She received her PhD in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has worked on the history of this transnational region throughout her career. Although she grew up and was educated in the United States, she has spent time in Canada as a visiting professor and researcher. In this book, Rozum explores how the northern grasslands in North America were perceived by second and third generations of those who settled in the region to live, work, farm and ranch, including their relationship with the Indigenous peoples.

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.

In this podcast episode, Simon Nantais talks to Asa McKercher and Michael D. Stevenson about their co-edited book North of America: Canadians and the American Century, 1945-60, which will be published by UBC Press in October 2023.

North of America: Canadians and the American Century, 1945-60, is an edited volume that looks at postwar Canada and Canadian-American relations of the 1940s and 1950s. From constitutional reform to transit policy, from national security to the arrival of television, Canadians were ever mindful of the American experience. The volume explores the opinions and perceptions of a broad range of Canadians – from consumers to diplomats, jazz musicians to urban planners, and a diverse cross-section in between. Asa McKercher and Michael D. Stevenson discuss the topics covered in the volume such as international relations in a nuclear armed early Cold War era, domestic politics, and national identity.

Asa McKercher is an assistant professor of history at the Royal Military College of Canada. His publications include Canada and the World Since 1867 and Canada and Camelot: Canadian-American Relations in the Kennedy Era.

Michael D. Stevenson is a professor of history at Lakehead University. He is the author of Canada’s Greatest Wartime Muddle: National Selective Service and the Mobilization of Human Resources in Canada during World War II and editor of the 1957–58 volumes of Documents on Canadian External Relations.

Image Credit: Office National du Film du Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada

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.

On this week's re-issue of Witness to Yesterday, Greg Marchildon talks to Andrew Lawton about his book, Pierre Poilievre: A Political Life.

When Pierre Poilievre was elected leader of Canada’s Conservative party in 2022, he vowed to put Canadians back in control of their own lives.

He took aim at the country’s elites and “gatekeepers” as well as governments that sneer at their own citizens. Railing against the housing crisis and spiralling inflation, Poilievre was telling ordinary Canadians he was on their side. As the adopted son of two Alberta teachers, Poilievre knows the middle class. But he’s also the embodiment of a career politician, having spent nearly his entire adult life in politics.

Andrew Lawton is a senior journalist at True North and host of The Andrew Lawton Show. He previously hosted a daily talk show on Global News Radio. He has published written work across the world, including in the Washington Post, the National Post, the Toronto Sun, and on Global News. He is the bestselling author of The Freedom Convoy.

Image Credit: Sutherland House Books

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.

How did Macdonald leverage the Northwest Rebellion to further his own interests? In this week’s re-run, we revisit Greg Marchildon’s conversation with Bill Waiser, Professor Emeritus at the University of Regina, as they explore this intriguing question. Waiser explores these documents in the Champlain Society’s Finding/Trouvaille: Prime Minister Macdonald Deliberately Portrayed Indians as Rebels.