awanderingbard (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
awanderingbard) wrote2017-05-27 01:11 pm
awanderingbard) wrote2017-05-27 01:11 pm
Entry tags:
History!
It's Canada's 150's birthday this year and CBC has been airing a series called "The Story of Us" on Sunday nights, which recounts the history of Canada from when the first settlers arrived up until modern times, taking interesting stories from various eras of history. Obviously, there's a lot left out, but it includes an incredible amount of stuff I had no idea about. It's done through reenacting scenes narrated over by various Canadian celebs, professors, writers, soldiers, and other people of note. Including a very silver-haired Paul Gross, who has aged very well.
I doubt it's available outside of Canada, but the on the off-chance you can watch it or live in Canada haven't seen it, the website is here. It finished a couple of weeks ago but Mum and I just finished last night due to practically all the television we watch in a week airing on Sunday night at the same time. We have DVR full of stuff to catch up on.
Some stuff I learned that I didn't know:
-- on at least three occasions, Canadians have won important battles by pretending there were more soldiers there than there were. These incidents are unrelated and spread out over hundreds of years; it's like it's just built into our DNA to go 'well, there's only three of us, but if we run around and make a lot of noise, we might be able to make them think there's more of us and they might surrender and we won't have to fight them'. And it worked on all three occasions. Including Vimy Ridge in WWI, where one soldier captured 96 Germans in a bunker by calling up to his few men above as though there were a platoon of them and ferrying them out in small, manageable groups once they'd been disarmed, so the few above weren't overwhelmed.
-- the most decorated sniper of WWI from Canada was a First Nations man named, Francis Pegahmagabow who was a total badass.
-- There was a black woman in 1940's Nova Scotia named Viola Desmond, who went to the cinema in different town and didn't know it was segregated there. She intended to buy a main floor ticket, but was given a mezzanine ticket since that was where you had to sit if you were black. She didn't know she had been given the different ticket and went to sit on the main floor, only to be euphemistically told she had the wrong ticket and to go upstairs, so she went back to correct the 'mistake' and exchange her ticket, only to be told she couldn't. She decided to sit on the main floor anyway and was arrested, put in jail overnight and charged a $26 fine for 'tax evasion' because the main floor ticket cost one cent more than the mezzanine ticket and she hadn't bought a main floor ticket. That's almost a $370 fine in today's money. Despite her challenging it, it was thrown out on a technically of the claim being filed after the 10 days time limit. She was officially pardoned in 2010, and is going to be the first Canadian woman to appear on a bank note in 2018.
Anyway, if you can find a way to watch the series, I highly recommend it. It's really fascinating and well done.
All the way through it I kept going "I bet my vampire lived through that".
I doubt it's available outside of Canada, but the on the off-chance you can watch it or live in Canada haven't seen it, the website is here. It finished a couple of weeks ago but Mum and I just finished last night due to practically all the television we watch in a week airing on Sunday night at the same time. We have DVR full of stuff to catch up on.
Some stuff I learned that I didn't know:
-- on at least three occasions, Canadians have won important battles by pretending there were more soldiers there than there were. These incidents are unrelated and spread out over hundreds of years; it's like it's just built into our DNA to go 'well, there's only three of us, but if we run around and make a lot of noise, we might be able to make them think there's more of us and they might surrender and we won't have to fight them'. And it worked on all three occasions. Including Vimy Ridge in WWI, where one soldier captured 96 Germans in a bunker by calling up to his few men above as though there were a platoon of them and ferrying them out in small, manageable groups once they'd been disarmed, so the few above weren't overwhelmed.
-- the most decorated sniper of WWI from Canada was a First Nations man named, Francis Pegahmagabow who was a total badass.
-- There was a black woman in 1940's Nova Scotia named Viola Desmond, who went to the cinema in different town and didn't know it was segregated there. She intended to buy a main floor ticket, but was given a mezzanine ticket since that was where you had to sit if you were black. She didn't know she had been given the different ticket and went to sit on the main floor, only to be euphemistically told she had the wrong ticket and to go upstairs, so she went back to correct the 'mistake' and exchange her ticket, only to be told she couldn't. She decided to sit on the main floor anyway and was arrested, put in jail overnight and charged a $26 fine for 'tax evasion' because the main floor ticket cost one cent more than the mezzanine ticket and she hadn't bought a main floor ticket. That's almost a $370 fine in today's money. Despite her challenging it, it was thrown out on a technically of the claim being filed after the 10 days time limit. She was officially pardoned in 2010, and is going to be the first Canadian woman to appear on a bank note in 2018.
Anyway, if you can find a way to watch the series, I highly recommend it. It's really fascinating and well done.
All the way through it I kept going "I bet my vampire lived through that".
no subject
I know sadly little about Canadian history despite growing up not far from the border, but I can't forget the year of independence—we used to travel through Canada annually, and we always ate at a restaurant called 1867.
Year of Confederation. We didn't really get independence. We kind of went, 'hey, Queen Victoria, is it cool if we become a country?" and she said 'yeah, go for it!' and so we did. Well, Upper and Lower Canada did. The rest of Canada didn't decide to join us until later. Newfoundland wouldn't come until 1949, even then they weren't really sure about it.
Canadian history has some very cool moments, but I don't think it gets as much attention since we don't have the same big film industry as other countries to do big movies about it, which is how a lot of history gets passed down these days. I can't even think of any good Canadian history films to check out. Paul Gross did an epic WWI film a little while ago, but I didn't find it very enjoyable. The story was really disjointed and the characters weren't likable. That's the only 'big' film I think of. There have been a few good tv movies and mini-series, but that's it. Mum just read a book called Barkskins by Annie Proulx which follows two families from the settling of Canada into modern times and really enjoyed it, but I haven't read it yet.
The biggest thing I find annoying is how often Canada gets left out of discussion during the world wars. I know we were fighting as part of the British empire, but Canadians captured Vimy Ridge, and Canadians had Juno beach on D-Day and Canadians liberated the Netherlands during WWII, and you'd think we weren't there at all.
no subject
If it's any consolation, my Dad was a big WWII aficionado, and I knew a bit about the Canadian role on D-Day and after; the Allies would have had a much harder time without y'all!