History Matters by Canadian Institute for Historical Education

Richard Stursberg, writer and former media executive (CBC, Telefilm Canada), reflects on the rise and dramatic decline of English-Canadian book publishing. He recounts the 1960s–90s literary flowering, policy failures that let multinationals dominate, contrasts English and French markets, and discusses policy ideas and hopeful signs for rebuilding a national publishing ecosystem.

In this episode of History Matters, Allan speaks with veteran journalist Christina Blizzard about her fifty plus years in journalism, a career that began at the old Toronto Telegram in an era of linotype and “hot lead” printing, included being a “Day One” employee at the Toronto Sun in 1971, and continued into today’s era of social media, digital printing and the AI-driven newsroom. Blizzard discusses her years covering Ontario politics at Queen’s Park, including such key moments as Mike Harris’ “Common Sense Revolution” in 1995, offering insight into how political reporting has changed as the press gallery has shrunk and the pace of news has accelerated dramatically. The challenge journalists face when reporting on unfolding events that later take on new meaning with the benefit of hindsight, including the Walkerton water tragedy. Blizzard shares stories from covering royal events, including the funeral of the Queen Mother, and reflects on the enduring importance of historical literacy, museums, and public access to history, and how journalism both records and shapes the historical record.

Madelaine Drohan, journalist and author who covered global affairs for The Globe and Mail and The Economist, explores centuries of US designs on Canada. She traces 1775–76 invasions, Benjamin Franklin’s failed Montreal mission, and how the story was buried in national myth-making. The conversation also considers whether Canada needs a stronger founding narrative and how one might be built.

In this special episode of History Matters Allan welcomes Gordon Henderson, a veteran television producer, documentary film maker, and historical novelist to introduce a live stage performance of the “The Trial of Egerton Ryerson,” a play commissioned by the CIHE, researched and written by Gilbert Reid and Gordon Henderson. Reid did the bulk of the original research which Henderson turned into a play set in a courtroom. Framed as an appeal hearing after Ryerson’s “conviction” in the court of public opinion, the play explores questions of presentism, historical context, responsibility, and legacy and how public institutions decide who is honored, criticized, or removed from commemoration. The play was performed before a live audience at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto on Sunday, February 8th 2026, with Gordon Henderson in the lead role of Dr. Ryerson, Paul Duder in the role of the Judge, and Matthew Chapman in the role of the Journalism Student; the play was directed by Elizabeth Trott. A longer video of the event, including an audience Q&A session after the performance with Henderson and Reid and facilitated by Professor Patrice Dutil, is available on the CIHE website, www.CIHE.ca.

DESCRIPTION EP15Public monuments shape how Canadians encounter their past. Yet the process of representing historical figures in bronze raises important questions: how does one preserve humanity, complexity, and context in a permanent public form?In this episode of History Matters, Allan Williams speaks with Ruth Abernethy, one of Canada’s most accomplished sculptors. Her public works include figures such as Glenn Gould, Oscar Peterson, Sir John A. Macdonald, and William Lyon Mackenzie King, among many others. The conversation traces her artistic development, from her early work building characters at the Stratford Festival to her first major public commission, Raising the Tent (1996), which marked the beginning of a distinguished career in public sculpture.Abernethy explains how her theatrical background informs her approach to historical representation. Rather than presenting idealized figures, her sculptures seek to portray individuals in moments of action and narrative attentive to personality, context, and human complexity.The discussion also examines lesser-known chapters of Canadian history reflected in her work, including Len Cullen’s influence on the gardens of Whitby, the legacy of Camp X and William Stephenson (“Intrepid”), and Nova Scotia figures such as Vernon Smith and Abraham Gesner, whose innovations connect whale oil, kerosene, and the early development of the modern energy industry. Throughout, Abernethy reflects on sculpture as a form of public storytelling shaped by placement, inscription, design, and historical interpretation.Listeners interested in public memory, Canadian identity, and the ways societies choose to commemorate their past will find this episode a thoughtful exploration of history in the public square.https://www.ruthabernethy.com/ Subscribe to History Matters on YouTube for more conversations with historians, authors, and cultural builders. Contact CIHE: info@cihe.ca

In this episode of History Matters, Allan Williams speaks with Professor Christopher Dummitt of Trent University about the events leading to Ontario’s 1954 Fair Accommodations Practices Act. The discussion examines the leadership of Hugh Burnett, the organized campaign against racial discrimination in Dresden, and the broader pre-Charter human rights movement in Canada. This period is frequently overshadowed by the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms.The conversation also explores Professor Dummitt’s documentary series, Well, That Didn’t Suck!, including Episode 5, “The Right to Be Served,” which presents Burnett’s story for contemporary audiences. The episode reflects on the development of civil rights legislation in Canada, the influence of public advocacy on policy change, and the evolving tools historians use to communicate the past.Listeners interested in Canadian history, civil rights, and the historical foundations of present-day legal protections will find this discussion particularly relevant.Subscribe to History Matters for further conversations on the people, events, and ideas that have shaped Canada.Christopher Dummitthttps://cihe.ca/

In this episode of History Matters, Allan is joined by Charlotte Gray, one of Canada’s best known and most prolific popular historians, for a wide-ranging conversation about how Canadian history is preserved, told, and understood today. We begin with the urgent and pressing issue of the future of Library and Archives Canada, which has experienced deep funding cuts, and now labours under privacy and access to information legislation so much more restrictive than in almost all other countries, that it has led to “the most unbelievable bureaucracy” such that access to government records and other documents can take months.The situation is so dire, says Charlotte, that it is actively preventing new Canadian history from being written: “The core purpose of Library and Archives Canada, which is to preserve our history, is really faltering.” From there, we explore Charlotte’s career as a biographer and storyteller. We explore her quest to tell stories from diverse perspectives and why she chose to foreground women’s lives, how popular history differs from academic history, and what we can learn about important figures like Mackenzie King, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example, by looking at the lives of their mothers. In answer to the question, what book would you recommend to our listeners? Charlotte cited The Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, A White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation, by Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderon (Amo Binashii).https://www.charlottegray.ca/https://cihe.ca/

In this episode of the Canadian Institute for Historical Education podcast, host Allan Williams speaks with distinguished historian Nicholas Rogers, Research Professor Emeritus at York University and author of numerous works on eighteenth-century Britain and the Atlantic world. The conversation centers on Rogers’s recent article in the Canadian Historical Review, “Toronto’s Dundas Imbroglio,” which examines the historical debates surrounding Henry Dundas, slavery, and public memory in Canada. (A free copy of the article is available upon request) The episode opens with a powerful moment from July 26, 1833, when news reached William Wilberforce that Britain had passed legislation to abolish slavery across much of the British Empire—just days before his death. Using this event as historical context, Rogers examines the complexities of abolition, Dundas's role, and how historical figures are remembered and contested today. This thoughtful discussion invites listeners to consider how history, commemoration, and contemporary values intersect.Nicholas Rogershttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-rogers-21aab165/?originalSubdomain=cahttps://cihe.ca/

What if one of the most defining moments in Canadian democracy wasn’t Confederation, but a riot that burned Parliament to the ground in Montreal? In this episode of History Matters, I’m joined by Christopher Dummitt, professor of Canadian history at Trent University and host of the acclaimed podcast 1867 and All That.Together, we dive into the dramatic political turning points of the 1830s and 1840s, including the Rebellion Losses Bill, the rise of responsible government, and the tensions that erupted into the 1849 burning of Canada’s Parliament. Chris explains why the path to Canadian self-government wasn’t forged through rebellion alone, but through a hard-won shift toward Westminster-style democracy, political coalition-building, and the real test of whether elected leaders could govern without imperial interference.You’ll also hear unforgettable stories and key figures behind the era, Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia, Baldwin and Lafontaine in the Province of Canada, and Governor General Lord Elgin, whose decision to sign a deeply controversial bill helped define what democracy would mean in Canada.If you want to understand how Canada learned to govern itself, and why this period may matter more than Confederation, this episode is for you. Subscribe for more episodes of History Matters on YouTube, and check out Chris Dummitt’s work on 1867 and All That for a deeper dive into the story.Christopher Dummitt-------------------------------https://cihe.ca/

This episode is the second of two taken from a CIHE event held in March 2025 with Oxford Professor Nigel Biggar, recently appointed to the UK House of Lords, and Margaret MacMillan, Companion of the Order of Canada.This second part features the conversation between Lord Biggar and Professor MacMillan that followed his opening statement. They examined the moral complexity of empires, especially the British Empire, and the modern push to revise or erase elements of Canadian history. Margaret MacMillan calls for rigorous historical thinking, warning against using history as a political weapon or reducing it to moral judgment.https://cihe.ca/