Shows / Curious Canadian History
Curious Canadian History
Historian David Borys dives deep into the fascinating world of Canadian history in this bi-weekly podcast exploring everything from the wonderful to the weird to the downright dark. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E5 – The Forgotten Fourth Arm – The Merchant Navy’s Fight for Recognition
Thousands of Canadian merchant mariners lost their lives during the Second World War as part of the valuable supply chain bringing important war material from…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E4 We Notorious! Canadian Hip Hop in the 20th Century
Within only a couple of years of the “birth” of American rap music Toronto became the centre for the early Canadian rap and hip hop scene. This episode…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E3 – Africville
Africville was a community that for decades stood on the physical, social and racial margins of the city of Halifax. It represented Nova Scotia's legacy of…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E2 – Welcome! Welcome! A History of Halifax’s Pier 21
For years, many Canadian immigrants arrived via ocean liner after a long journey across the Atlantic Ocean. While the first stop for some was Quebec or…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E1 – The Longest War: A Brief History of Canada in Afghanistan
To kick off Season 7 we are going to explore the history of Canada's mission in Afghanistan from a broad perspective highlighting the four phases of Canada's…
- Curious Canadian History
*Special Episode* – Dr. Crystal Fraser and Residential Schools in Canada
In this special episode David sits down for a fascinating and important conversation with Dr. Crystal Fraser, an historian at the University of Alberta and an…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E19 Canadian Audiences and The Birth of a Nation
In our Season 6 finale we look at one of the biggest blockbuster films of the early 20th century, which presented a twisted racial reimagining of a traumatic…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E18 The Seaborn Missions to North Vietnam
In 1964 a top secret diplomatic mission was carried out by Canadian J. Blair Seaborn on behalf of the United States to find some sort of settlement with the…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E17 The Fruit Machine
At the height of the Cold War, Canadian anxiety over Soviet espionage reached reached such a fervour that a top secret Security Panel was formed to remove…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E16 The Canal That Never Was
The Georgian Bay Canal was a proposed canal project connecting Georgian Bay to Ottawa to Montreal and then to the Atlantic Ocean and the world. While there…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E15 Canada’s First Spree Killer
In 1966 the people of Windsor, Ontario and then the country were shocked when a young man recently released from the Kingston Penitentiary went on what became…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E14 Bill Miner – The Gentleman Robber Part 2
Bill Miner's exploits in early 19th century British Columbia continue in this episode as he attempts to recover from a botched robbery of a CPR train and avoid…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E13 Bill Miner – The Gentleman Robber – Part One
In this two-parter we look at the life of the bandit Bill Miner, an iconic and unique figure of both the American and Canadian Wild West. Hosted on Acast. See…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E12 The Mystery of Capreol’s Mass Grave
A small railroad town in Northern Ontario deals with one of its most traumatic days bringing the community together but leaving a mystery behind. Hosted on…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E11 Laying Down the Law – Canadian Civil Affairs and the Belgian Resistance
In this excerpt from the forthcoming book “Civilians at the Sharp End: First Canadian Army Civil Affairs in Northwest Europe, 1944-1945” CCH takes a look at…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E10 Give Peace a Chance – John and Yoko Come to Canada
In 1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono, recently married and carrying out a ‘peace tour' shack up in a Montreal hotel suite for a week long ‘bed in'…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E9 A Nation of Our Own – The Six Nations Appeal to the League of Nations
During the inter-war period, two leaders of the legendary Six Nations Confederacy take their people's claims of sovereignty to the most public international…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E8 The Famous Five and the Persons Case
Five Canadian activists challenge an archaic British law fundamentally changing the legal status of women in Canada Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E7 The Fight for History with Dr. Tim Cook
Dr. Tim Cook is interviewed about his newest book The Fight For History discussing the complicated and controversial process by which WW2 was nearly forgotten…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E6 Whose Side Are You On Anyways? The Canadian Response to the Suez Crisis
In 1956 the United Nations was in turmoil as an Anglo-French-Israeli alliance attacked and invaded Egypt. Global public opinion was strongly against this bold…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E5 John Labatt’s and the Windy City
A risky move to take beer south takes John Labatt Jr. into the maelstrom of American brewing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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S6E4 Bert and Ernie Eh? The Canadianization of Sesame Street
In the late 1960s the television phenomenon that was Sesame Street came north of the 49th parallel. While extremely popular amongst Canadian youth significant…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E3 A Century of Service: The Life of Nova Scotian Provo Wallis, Admiral of the Fleet
One of the longest serving sailors in the history of the Royal Navy just happened to be born in Nova Scotia. Provo Wallis witnessed the transition from the age…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E2 Clio’s Treats: Culinary Connections to Canadian History
The history of food in Canada can be a complex subject and is as varied as the people that make up this country. This episode has chosen several “Canadian”…
- Curious Canadian History
S6E1 Chaos in the Cariboo Sky: The Crash of Canadian Pacific Flight 21
A 1965 plane crash in the wilderness of British Columbia leads to an unsolved mystery that puzzles investigators even today. Hosted on Acast. See…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E20 The Underground Railroad
From the early 1830s to the onset of the American Civil War in 1860 British North America became the primary destination for slaves escaping to freedom. To get…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E19 A Lost Cause? Canada’s Diplomatic Involvement in the Vietnam War
Prior to America's official entry into the Vietnam war Canada spearheaded diplomatic efforts to find some sort of peaceful resolution, balancing a need to show…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E18 Nuns on the Frontier – The Ursulines of Quebec
The Ursulines are a Catholic female religious order who played an important role in the early years of the French colony of New France. Despite hunger, war…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E17 The Dutch Food Crisis and Operation Faust
In May of 1945 Canadian soldiers carried out a little-known food delivery operation deep into enemy held territory to help relieve the near-starving Dutch…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E16 The Wabanaki Confederacy
During the 17th and 18th centuries the British had to deal with one of the most powerful Indigenous alliances in all of North America, the Wabanaki…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E15 The Coloured Corps and the War of 1812
When the War of 1812 erupted in June 1812 the status of Black Canadians in Upper Canada was a confusing and complex blend of abolitionist dreams, slave holding…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E14 – Un-Canadian Content? Bryan Adams and the Waking up the Neighbours Controversy
In 1991 controversy erupted over the epic Bryan Adams album “Waking up the Neighbours.” The controversy surrounded the issue of whether the album qualified as…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E13 Leo Major – A French-Canadian Rambo
Leo Major was a scrappy French Canadian kid who served in both northwest Europe and Korea. His story is nothing short of extraordinary. Hosted on Acast. See…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E12 Kicking in the Door – Canada Invades Nazi Germany
Starting in February 1945 First Canadian Army took part in a series of operations that would bust open the door to Nazi Germany and signal the beginning of the…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E11 The Mad Trapper of Rat River
In the early 1930s the Arctic became the scene of a desperate manhunt for a violent trapper willing to go to any lengths to avoid the law. A trapper whom…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E10 An Uphill Skate – The Women of the Hockey Hall of Fame
Women have been a part of hockey for as long as this country has embraced it as a national identifier, yet only recently has their contribution to the game…
- Curious Canadian History
1867 & All That
Friends of Cool Canadian History have just released their own Canadian history podcast focusing on the political and diplomatic history of this country. Check…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E9 Cougar Annie – The Wild Woman of Vancouver Island
Ada Annie Jordan was a young mother with a successful business, a growing family and a popular place within early 20th century Vancouver's emerging elite…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E8 Little Stalingrad – The Battle for Ortona, December 1943
In December of 1943 Canadian soldiers became bogged down in a vicious street battle for the small town of Ortona on Italy's east coast. A battle so ferocious…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E7 Tricky Bob and the 1917 Federal Election
In 1917 Canadian soldiers were engaged heavily on the western front yet volunteer numbers had fallen below that of the monthly casualty rates. Prime Minister…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E6 Optical Aleutians – The Liberation of Kiska Island
Two almost totally uninhabited American islands off the coast of Alaska are occupied by the Japanese in 1942. In response, an unprecedented joint…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E5 A Murder in the Desert – The Canadian Airborne Regiment and the Somalia Scandal
A deeply troubled regiment with deeply troubled soldiers leads to a deeply disturbing murder of a teenage boy in Somalia. Hosted on Acast. See…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E4 Amherst’s VIP Prisoner: Trotsky in the Maritimes
While Leon Trotsky is largely known as a central figure in the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union, a brief chapter in his life took him to…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E3 The Buffalo Alliance – Poundmaker and Crowfoot
Two of the 19th century's most prominent leaders of the plains First Nations evolve from enemies into friends while faced with grave threats to their people…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E2 The Pirate Queen of Canada – Maria Lindsay Cobham
In the early 18th century Maria Lindsay Cobham, her husband, and her crew of misfits prowled the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Cabot Strait…
- Curious Canadian History
S5E1 Canada’s Forgotten Battle – The Battle of the Medak Pocket
In the autumn of 1993 Canadian soldiers, attempting to stop ethnic cleansing in the Medak Pocket, found themselves in an over-night firefight against a…
- Curious Canadian History
*Special Bonus Episode* The Voices of D-Day
On this day, 6 June 2019, the 75th anniversary of D-Day, we at CCH give you a special bonus episode narrated by Alex Fitzgerald-Black of the Juno Beach Centre…
- Curious Canadian History
*Special Episode* D-Day 75
Alex-Fitzgerald Black of the Juno Beach Centre joins us today to talk about everything D-Day. 75 years ago today the western Allies were preparing to launch…
- Curious Canadian History
S4E17 Subordinate No More! Canada’s Inter-War Move to Independence
The First World War led to dramatic changes within the Canadian state, perhaps none more so than Canada's changing role within the British Empire. This change…
- Curious Canadian History
S4E16 The Chatham Coloured All-Stars
The Chatham Coloured All-Stars were an all-black baseball team from southern Ontario who broke the colour barrier for baseball in Canada. Hosted on Acast. See…
- Curious Canadian History
S4E15 Separate Spheres Turned Upside Down – French Women and the Survival of New France
This episode explores the various roles women played in New France in support of the fur trade and in turn helping the very colony of New France survive. Roles…
Curious Canadian HistoryS4E14 A Search for Asylum – Sitting Bull in Canada
Sitting Bull was a legendary Native American chief who spent much of his life leading a resistance against American expansion into Indigenous territory. After…
- Curious Canadian History
S4E12 “The Riot Heard ‘Round the World” – Vancouver’s 1907 Anti-Asian Riot
Intense fear of what Asian immigration might do to a predominately white British Columbia sparked off a violent riot in the streets of Vancouver in 1907. A…
- Curious Canadian History
S4E11 Thérèse Casgrain
Thérèse Casgrain was one of Canada's most prolific and powerful activists. A woman born into means, she spent her life advocating for the rights of women and…
- Curious Canadian History
S4E10 Eugenics in Alberta
In the mid 20th century concerns over immigration and the changing ethnic make-up of Canadian society sparked a decades-long program of eugenics in Alberta…
- Curious Canadian History
S4E9 ‘Kill the Indian, Save the Child’ – Residential Schools in Canada
The residential school system was designed to eradicate Indigenous culture and replace it with an Anglo-European Christian one. In this attempt at cultural…
- Curious Canadian History
S4E8 Montreal’s Poet Laureate: The Life and Music of Leonard Cohen
Montreal-born Leonard Cohen's prolific career included iconic music, poetry and literature creating an enduring global legacy. This episode is dedicated to…
- Curious Canadian History
S4E7 The Assassination of D’Arcy McGee
An Irish Nationalist turned Canadian patriot turned Father of Confederation. Thomas D'Arcy McGee was all of that when he was assassinated in 1868. Hosted on…
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S4E6 Canadians on the Bridge Part Two: James Doohan
James Doohan played one of the most iconic engineers in the history of science fiction and helped shape Star Trek into the cultural mega-force it is today…
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S4E5 The First World War Remembered
The First World War was a complex and dramatic period in Canadian history which saw the Canadian military perform in such a way that earned it an almost…