The Friday Files - news to inform and inspire
The fiercest and most divisive debate in Canadian political history?
In the annals of Canadian history, the 1917 debate about conscription (the compulsory enlistment of eligible citizens in military service) was, as the Canadian War Museum reports, “one of the fiercest and most divisive in Canadian political history.” The debate was very polarized along several divides, including notably language, ethnicity, and age – even families were divided. The Canadian War Museum notes: “French-Canadians, as well as many farmers, unionized workers, non-British immigrants, and other Canadians, generally opposed the measure. English-speaking Canadians, led by Prime Minister Borden and senior members of his Cabinet, as well as British immigrants, the families of soldiers, and older Canadians, generally supported it.”
Soldiers pose on a recruiting streetcar in Toronto in this 1917 handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Canadian War Museum, George Metcalf Archival Collection
We supported Dr. Jenny McLeod to take a first-hand look at the archives of Prime Minister Borden, and contribute more to our shared understanding of the debate. Dr. McLeod looked at the concept of transnational identity and the Empire, by undertaking archival work in Ottawa at the Library and Archives Canada. During her primary research in Canada, Dr. McLeod accessed papers of Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden and Leader of the Opposition Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
We supported Dr. Jenny McLeod to take a first-hand look at the archives of Prime Minister Borden, and contribute more to our shared understanding of the debate. Dr. McLeod looked at the concept of transnational identity and the Empire, by undertaking archival work in Ottawa at the Library and Archives Canada.
Dr Macleod shares that "during my time in Ottawa, I took the opportunity to meet with famed historian Professor Tim Cook, Canadian War Museum, to discuss my project, and I visited the Ottawa War Memorial to facilitate a continuing transnational approach in my other area of interest: the commemoration of the First World War."
Dr. McLeod continued, "Following my research in Canada, I have undertaken archival research at two archives in the UK (Parliamentary Archives in London and the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre) to learn about the conscription crisis in Ireland in 1918 for the purposes of further comparison with the Canadian case. I am grateful to the Canada-UK Foundation for supporting me with my archival work.”
Today, Dr Macleod is the Head of the Department of History at the University of Hull.
Final Four Photographers for Scotiabank Award
On 31 March, the shortlist for the 2021 Scotiabank Photography Award was announced, the result of Canada’s largest and most prestigious annual peer-nominated and reviewed prize for lens-based art. The winner (announced later in the spring) will earn a prize including $50,000, a solo exhibition during CONTACT Photo Festival, and a book deal with esteemed publisher Steidl, while the other finalists will each receive $10,000. A short summary of each finalist follows below, displaying a fascinating range beyond the traditional printed image. The longlist can be found here.
Since the early 1990s, Montreal-based Deanna Bowen has drawn from her ancestry of Black Prairie pioneer families, making "use of a repertoire of artistic gestures in order to define the Black body and trace its presence and movement in place and time."
Deana Bowen, Night Prowl, 2019.
Commissioned work for Vancouver Heritage’s WALL project
Using a range of media, visual artist and filmmaker Annie MacDonell of Toronto makes films "shaped by feminist principles of politics as a daily practice," and foreground writing drawn from her interest in experimental film and literature.
Annie MacDonell and Maïder Fortuné, Communicating Vessels, 2019.
Single channel video, 30' 48"
The work created by Dawit L. Petros of Montreal focuses "on a critical re-reading of the entanglements between colonialism and modernity," which draw from his own experience as a child of Eritrean emigrants, living in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Kenya before settling in central Canada. His installations use a variety of techniques with a conscious view to the travel of the viewer.
Dawit L. Petros, The Idea of North, Proposition 2, Mountain, Badwater, Death Valley, California, 2007.
Temporary sculptural installation, color pigment print
Toronto-based Greg Staats "conceptualizes Land as monument embodied within a continuum of relational placemaking with his on-reserve lived experience and the explorations of ceremonial orality. Staats’ lens-based language documents cycles of return towards a complete Onkwehón:we neha [our original ways] positionality, reciprocity and worldview."
Greg Staats, what did you see along the road of transformation, 2019.
Digital adhesive print
British Association of Canadian Studies (BACS) holds virtual Mini-Conference April 16 and 17
Founded in 1975, BACS is a UK-based charity providing a forum for academics and those interested in the field of Canadian Studies. The association’s aim is to promote interest in Canada, Canadian issues, and culture in academic circles and in the general community in the UK. Its two main endeavours are the British Journal of Canadian Studies (BJCS) published by Liverpool University, and the Annual BACS Conference.
The next BACS Conference will be held online April 16 and 17, featuring much anticipated lectures from professors and academics in various disciplines, including Drs. Robert Dunbar (Edinburgh), Faye Hammill (Glasgow), James Kennedy (Edinburgh), Ceri Morgan (Keele), Daniel Beland (McGill), Steve Hewitt (Birmingham), and others.
Topics include Transnational Literature and Print, Public Policy and Constitutional questions, the October Crisis of 1970, and a roundtable on Canada/UK Comparisons.
We are also looking forward to the annual Eccles Lecture sponsored by the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library. The Lecture will be introduced by Jean Petrovic (British Library) and given by Professor Rob Dunbar (Edinburgh) titled 'Indigenous Languages in Canada: Addressing the Challenges, Righting the Wrongs?'
This year, BACS has partnered with QAHN (Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network) and together they will make a video recording of the conference available on the BACS website.
Registration for the conference is free of charge and can be accessed here. More details about BACS are available on their relaunched website (or click image below).
In the spotlight this week is the incoming President of the British Association of Canadian Studies, and a long-time friend of the Foundation, Dr Tony McCulloch. Tony is Senior Fellow in North American Studies at the UCL Institute of the Americas where he teaches US foreign policy and is responsible for the Canadian Studies programme at UCL. This includes supervising PhD students for Canada-related topics, editing the London Journal of Canadian Studies (published by UCL Press), and organising a busy Canadian Studies events programme.
He also receives regular requests from the media to comment on Canadian news items and is a member of several Canada-related organisations, including BACS (the British Association for Canadian Studies). He is the incoming President of BACS, assuming this role for the second time on 17 April at the end of this year’s BACS Conference, in succession to the current President, James Kennedy, Director of Canadian Studies at Edinburgh University.
Tony says he first became interested in Canada when his primary school teacher returned from a trans-continental trip armed with slides – and stories – of her travels to places with interesting names such as Moose Jaw as well as more obvious landmarks like Niagara Falls.
However, it was during his PhD studies – first at UCL and then at Oxford – that he developed his specialist interest in Canadian history and politics and, along the way, formed several life-long friendships with Canadians studying in the UK. A research trip – and holiday – in Canada followed that saw him spending two months in Ottawa before travelling around Canada and concluding in Vancouver, before flying home to London. He has travelled to Canada many times since then, and is particularly fond of Victoria on Vancouver Island.
His main area of research is the ‘North Atlantic Triangle’ network of relationships between Canada, the UK and the United States, especially the role of Quebec in Canada-UK relations. He has been awarded the annual Prix de la Délégation générale du Québec à Londres on no fewer than three occasions for his research and writings in this field – the only UK academic to have achieved this feat. When he is not working Tony enjoys cinema, walking near his home in Canterbury and time well spent with his wife and two adult children.