Curious Canadian History

For 113 terrifying days in 1940, Nazi Germany’s air force, the Luftwaffe, threw everything it had at Great Britain in hopes of early victory in World War II. The task of defending southern England from airborne attack fell to pilots in the Royal Air Force, supplemented in their darkest hour by more than 100 flyers from Canada. These Canadians, some from famous families, some straight off the farm, served in forty-seven different Battle of Britain squadrons. They fought bravely in the skies, risked their lives to defend Britain and participated in one of the most battles of the entire war. These Canadians were some of “the few” so many famously quoted by Winston Churchill. To talk to us today about this little known chapter in Canadian military history is author and historian Ted Barris. Ted Barris is an award-winning journalist, author, and broadcaster. His writing has regularly appeared in the national press, and magazines as diverse as Air Force, esprit de corps and Zoomer. He has also worked as host/contributor for most CBC Radio network programs, NPR in the U.S. and on TV Ontario. He taught journalism at Toronto’s Centennial College for 18 years. Ted is also the author of 22 books, many of them award winning publications. For instance, Ted’s 20th book, Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory was published in the fall of 2022 and immediately landed on the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star bestsellers lists. Following the book’s publication, Ted received word that he’d received Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Award, recognizing “extraordinary contributions to our community and Canada.” On Dec. 29, 2022, Rideau Hall announced its latest Honours list. Ted Barris learned he will be appointed Member of the Order of Canada, “for advancing our understanding of Canadian military history as an acclaimed historical author, journalist and broadcaster.”This week’s book recommendation is Ted’s 22nd book titled Battle of Britain: Canadian Airmen in Their Finest House, published in 2024 by Sutherland House Books. 

Welcome back to Season 10!! In the first episode of the newest season we take you to Penetanguishene, Ontario along the shores of Georgian Bay where once existed the Oak Ridge ‘Criminal Insane Building.’ Oak Ridge has been deemed the ‘Alcatraz of Canada’ and ‘the most terrible institution of all.’ For decades it housed some of Canada’s most violent criminals and in particular violent criminals with serious psychiatric illnesses. Yet in the 1960s an intensive and radical therapy program arrived, promoting the widespread of drugs and treatment methods that frankly bordered on torture. The Social Therapy Unit at Oak Ridge is still remembered by some as a successful venture in utopian experimentation though for others it embodies a state-authorized subjection of the individual without any checks or balances. A place where patients became test subjects in a radical and controversial program of rehabilitation.This week’s book recommendation is Watching the Devil Dance by William Toffan, published in 2020 by Biblioasis.Don’t forget! You can pre-purchase a copy of Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867 right now at the below links:AmazonIndigoDundurnGoodreadsIndiebookstores.ca

**SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT – NEW BOOK** Our very own David Borys has a new book coming out in September titled “Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867” published by Dundurn Press. The book is an easy to read, single volume history of Canada at war since 1867. This photograph-rich volume covers nearly 150 years of the Canadian military, tracing its evolution from a small, underfunded, poorly trained militia to the modern, effective military it is today The book will be released on September 24th in Canada and October 22nd in the United States.  As part of the pre-sale campaign CCH is dropping a series of short readings by David from sections of the book. Today’s excerpt takes us back to 1870/71 where the Canadian government has sent out a military expedition to secure the annexation of the Red River Colony. This expedition, known as the Wolseley Expedition, is not sure if they are going to encounter violence when they finally arrive in Red River after what was an arduous and challenging journey to what would become Canada’s newest province.   You can pre-purchase a copy right now at the below links:AmazonIndigoDundurnGoodreadsIndiebookstores.ca

**SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT – NEW BOOK** Our very own David Borys has a new book coming out in September titled “Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867” published by Dundurn Press. The book is an easy to read, single volume history of Canada at war since 1867. This photograph-rich volume covers nearly 150 years of the Canadian military, tracing its evolution from a small, underfunded, poorly trained militia to the modern, effective military it is today The book will be released on September 24th in Canada and October 22nd in the United States.  As part of the pre-sale campaign CCH is dropping a series of short readings by David from sections of the book. Today’s excerpt takes us back to 1870/71 where we dive into the middle of the last gasp efforts of the Fenian Brotherhood to invade Canada and incite rebellion in Ireland.  You can pre-purchase a copy right now at the below links:AmazonIndigoDundurnGoodreadsIndiebookstores.ca

Imagine you are a maritime Canadian finishing your PhD dissertation in Germany right when the First World War breaks out. As a subject of the British empire, your country (and empire) is automatically at war with Germany and thus you are now an enemy alien in that country. This is the situation that faced Winthrop Bell in 1914, and it began an incredible story that led to Winthrop Bell becoming a British imperial spy in Germany, and in many ways, a prophet. Long before anyone predicted the horrific regime that would become the Nazis, Canadian Winthrop Bell was already sending back warning signs about this emerging National Socialist party, their agenda, and the growing public support for the ultimate goal of that regime.  Today we have on as a guest Jason Bell, PhD. Jason is a professor of philosophy at the University of New Brunswick. He has served as a Fulbright Professor in Germany (at Winthrop Bell’s alma mater, the University of Göttingen) and has taught at universities in Belgium, the United States, and Canada. He is currently writing a book on Allied deception operations in the Balkans during World War II.  This week’s book recommendation is Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Agent A12 and the Solving of the Holocaust Code by Jason Bell, published by Pegasus Books in 2024. 

When the British government declared war on Germany in August of 1914, no one in Canada (who was automatically thrust into the conflict by Britain’s declaration) ever could have predicted the incredible contribution the country would make in manpower, material and money. By the end of that war 650,000 Canadian soldiers were in unform and Canada had one of the most powerful corps formations on the western front. But what people often don’t think about, is how did Canada find the cash to support such a significant contribution. And that question is the focus of the newest CCH episode. How did Canada figure out a financing system that supported an almost unbelievable contribution to the world’s first global industrial war? Who was in charge? How was the program carried out and what was the reaction of every day Canadian? To answer these questions we have brought on David Roberts. David is a retired editor/historian at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography / Dictionnaire biographique du Canada. In addition to writing several articles for that publication, he is the author of In the Shadow of Detroit: Gordon M. McGregor, Ford of Canada, and Motoropolis (2006), published by Wayne State University in its Great Lakes Books series.  Mr Roberts lives in Don Mills, Ontario.Today’s book recommendation is David’s newest book Boosters and Barkers: Financing Canada's Involvement in the First World War published in 2023 by the University of British Columbia Press for the Canadian War Museum's Studies in Canadian Military History series.

Several episodes back, season 9 episode 15, we had on as a guest Alan Greer to talk about alcohol and its role in early colonial North America. One of the areas that was touched upon, that I thought would make an excellent future episode was alcohol’s role in the fur trade. As many are probably aware much of Canada’s early interactions between First Nations and Europeans came in the form of the fur trade. Some could make a strong case that the Canada we know today owes much to that early fur trade process.  In this episode we look back on how alcohol played a role in allowing Europeans to impose a credit/debt system within the fur trade, and the effects that this system had on European-Indigenous relationships. As well, how was alcohol used at the sharp end, where Europeans and Indigenous traders interacted? And was this all simply a European imposed system or did Indigenous traders act and react, resist and accept or outright reject these European tactics, tools and techniques of trade? Book recommendation: Allan Greer’s Property and Dispossession: Natives, Empires and Land in Early Modern America, Cambridge Univ. Press in 2018 

If you happened to grow up in North Vancouver, British Columbia (like I did) the name Harry Jerome was one seen everywhere. Harry Jerome was not just an Olympian, a world record holder, a Canadian athletic legend, a profoundly impacting community leader, but he was also Black in a time when the US was still embedded in the Jim Crow era and segregation, racism and prejudice were rife throughout this country as well. In this episode I have an incredible talk with Harry’s sister Valerie Jerome. Valerie herself was an incredible athlete, who trained alongside her brother and competed at the Olympics, Commonwealth and World championships. Like her brother she went on to become a community leader and teacher, even running for civic, provincial and federal elections for the B.C.’s Green Party. Myself and Valerie sit down to talk about what it was like being Black in Canada in the 1950s, life in North Vancouver, the quest to become an Olympian, overcoming incredible odds and the important legacy of Harry Jerome. Today’s book recommendation is by Valerie Jerome titled “Races: The Trials and Triumphs of Canada’s Fastest Family” As well you can catch live footage of Valerie competing back in the day in the CBC Gem series – Black Life: Untold Stories – an eight episode documentary that looks at Black lives in Canada.