Acres of Snow | Page 5 | Writing Canadian History

April 22, 2017September 11, 2017

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere: Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11

In the afternoon of September 11, 2001, The Toronto Star published a rare “extra” edition of the paper with the huge headline “America Under Attack.” I’d been watching live television of the attacks all morning, but it hadn’t occurred to me, not knowing how to process what I was seeing, that that was specifically what was happening. America was under attack. … Continue reading Somewhere in the middle of nowhere: Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11

April 15, 2017

Just one example of what it’s like to step on a mine

Here is a short story about what it’s like to step on a mine while you are invading the beaches of Normandy in a massive Allied push against the Nazis. Just a few years earlier, even as the war had begun in Europe, Charlie Martin was a farmer in Dixie, now part of Mississauga, Ontario. But … Continue reading Just one example of what it’s like to step on a mine

April 9, 2017

Canadian Club in New York

This weekend in New York I ran into a small piece of Canadian beverage history at Astor Wines & Spirits. The writeup below the bottle says: Without a doubt one of the most important whiskies of the 20th Century, Canadian Club was the go to dram for generations of whisky drinkers. This extremely rare expression was bottled … Continue reading Canadian Club in New York

March 29, 2017

Nothing but the clothes on their backs

For more than 100 years, until 1996, Canada operated a system of Indian residential schools. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that children were separated from their families and placed in these schools “not to educate them, but primarily to break their link to their culture and identity.” To that end, when a child arrived at … Continue reading Nothing but the clothes on their backs

March 25, 2017March 25, 2017

9 things I learned from Chelsea Vowel’s “Indigenous Writes”

I’ve just finished reading Indigenous Writes by Chelsea Vowel. The book’s subtitle is “A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada,” and it’s an excellent introduction to Indigenous issues in a contemporary context. I want to tell you about this book and recommend it to you, but I don’t know how to write an … Continue reading 9 things I learned from Chelsea Vowel’s “Indigenous Writes”

March 17, 2017March 17, 2017

Coda on Inuit music

I’ve fallen one post behind on my commitment to blog weekly, due to travel and the last two posts being so dang long, so here are some outtakes from Canada’s mandatory “Eskimo Identification” tags to catch me up. I mentioned a song by Lucie Idlout (pictured above) about Eskimo Identification tags. The song is called E5-770, My Mother’s … Continue reading Coda on Inuit music

March 16, 2017March 16, 2017

Canada’s mandatory “Eskimo Identification” tags

In 1941, based on a proposal made in 1935, the Government of Canada began requiring Inuit to wear tags stamped with unique identification numbers. The Inuit word for the system was ujamiit. In English, the tags themselves — leather coin-sized disks that many people have likened to “dog tags” — read “Eskimo Identification Canada.” I learned … Continue reading Canada’s mandatory “Eskimo Identification” tags

March 3, 2017

Stories about history are dangerous

To borrow Dan Carlin‘s phrase, I’m “not a historian, just a fan of history.” I read and listen to as much Canadian history as I can, then try to recount the events and facts that I find most interesting in a compelling way. This usually means I’m telling stories, which, if you want to be a little fancy, means … Continue reading Stories about history are dangerous

February 21, 2017

The man who signed on the wrong line

Colonel Lawrence Vincent Moore Cosgrave was a Canadian war hero. For his service in World War I (he was at Ypres, he was at the Somme) Cosgrave was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order twice, received the French Croix de guerre, and was blinded in one eye. He even claimed that his friend John McCrae wrote the poem “In Flanders Fields” … Continue reading The man who signed on the wrong line

February 15, 2017

Where the Great Lakes pour into the sea

When searching for this website’s header image, I first looked for any photo of Canada from space, because I love space, and because I wanted to try and capture some sense of Canada’s expanse. But when I came across this particular photo, I knew it was the one. Even from space it contains only a small fraction of the country, yet so … Continue reading Where the Great Lakes pour into the sea