For this 2023 Holiday Reboot episode we go way back to Season 2 Episode 1 for one of the strangest tales of the Second World War. In the closing days of the conflict a group of VIP prisoners, incarcerated at Castle Itter in Austria, near the city of Tyrol, fight a desperate battle against a murderous band of SS Soldiers seeking to inflict death across the Austrian countryside as the Third Reich collapses. While the prisoners themselves are a mixed bag of Europeans, they are eventually joined...

On the 30th of May 1867 Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederate States of America, arrived in Toronto following his imprisonment after the Civil War. In a speech to a crowd of Canadian onlookers he said, “I thank you for the honour you have shown me, May peace and prosperity be forever the blessing of Canada, for she has been the asylum of many of my friends, as she is now an asylum for myself, may god bless you all.” What did he mean by an asylum for himself and many of his...

The Globe and Mail is an absolute fixture of the Canadian media landscape. One would be hard pressed to find a single Canadian who would not know what the Globe and Mail is, or could not name it if asked to name three Canadian newspapers. Yet so few Canadians know the man who founded it. This man was a figure of Gatsby-esque proportions. A media mogul, a sports enthusiast, a wealthy and connected Toronto elite who had immense influence over both the Canadian cultural and political landscape....

Back in episode 4 myself and historian Per Anders Rudling spoke in length about the history behind Ukrainian Waffen SS veterans settling in Canada in the aftermath of the Second World War. This discussion was a result of the embarrassing moment in Canada’s parliament where parliamentarians gave a former Waffen SS soldier a standing ovation. Our conversation was so good and there was so much covered we decided to turn it into a two parter. Thus, in this second part of our discussion we explore...

The relationship between Israel and Palestine is a complex and chaotic situation which is not only fraught with acrimonious debate but continual violence. When we ask why this situation is so far from ever being solved, part of the answer, or the blame you might say, lies with the international community. That being the nations that proposed the partition of Palestine, the newly formed United Nations that backed it, and then the international community that stepped away from the ultimate...

In September 2023 the Canadian parliament gave a standing ovation to 98 year old Yaroslav Hunka, who at the time was being applauded for his role in fighting the Soviets during WW2. This soon became a national and international embarrassment when it was realized that while Hunka did indeed fight the Soviets he did so as part of an SS regiment. In the aftermath of this scandal it came to light that Canada in fact opened its borders to Ukrainian veterans of the Waffen-SS in the post-war period....

In recent weeks a diplomatic row between Canada and India erupted as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly accused India of being behind the assassination of Sikh separatist and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar’s involvement in the Khalistan Movement and the tensions within India over Sikh separatism have cast a spotlight on one of the most horrific terrorist attacks in North American history. On 23 June 1985 a plane was headed to Delhi from Toronto when it exploded killing all...

Sometime in the early to mid-19th century, thousands of Coast Salish warriors, from dozens of tribes, united in an incredible moment of Salish solidarity. They did this to stop an enemy that had been terrorizing the Salish people for years. In doing so, the Salish inflicted a devastating defeat on that enemy. The event that occurred has become a cornerstone of Salish history and identity. A story that has been passed down for many generations amongst many different Salish elders. A battle...

Welcome everyone to the first episode of Season 9! In the late 1860s a man named Henri Le Caron was rising within the innermost circles of the Fenian Brotherhood. He had served alongside Fenian leader John O’Neill during the US Civil War and by the end of the 1860s found himself helping O’Neill organize and plan an invasion of Canada. Yet, what O’Neill and so many others didn’t know was that Henri Le Caron was really named Thomas Beach, and Beach wasn’t working for the Fenians, he was a spy...

In the 1770s the realization that sea otter pelts from the pacific northwest were fetching high prices in China led to an absolute bonanza of trading expeditions into the largely unexplored region. For many, the pacific northwest was one of the farthest places on the planet to reach. Yet, over the course of the last decades of the 18th century the pacific northwest became a collision of cultures and empires: from various Indigenous groups to European imperial spearheads, to an American...

Thayendenagay was a Mohawk war chief, British soldier, tireless advocate and an accomplished diplomat who straddled two very different worlds that were colliding in the latter half of the 18th century. He witnessed the rapid expansion of imperial Britain and then the violent birth of the United States of America all the while attempting to lead his people through the geo-political complexities of that time. He would become one of the most famous Indigenous persons in the British empire and...

Many Canadians know of the incredible bravery and courage that Canadian soldiers showed on 6 June 1944 when the men of 3rd Canadian Infantry Division seized Juno Beach as part of the largest combined-arms operation in the history of warfare: Operation Overlord, the invasion of northwest Europe. And while there are many incredible books and several podcast episodes talking about this invasion today’s episode is actually the product of a special request from a listener. This long-time listener...

The recent passing of Gordon Lightfoot is the loss of one of the most important Canadian singer-songwriters in the history of North American popular music. Not only has he released dozens of albums, including over 200 songs, but his music has been recorded by a nearly endless list of artists from a wide variety of genres. His lyrics and melodies have been sung in honky-tonk saloons, dive bars, on legendary stages, in movie soundtracks, and reverberated in sound systems in some of the most...

The words mutiny and cowardice are some of the most vile recriminations one could make against a ship and its crew. For years, these words were veiled behind the story of HMCS Uganda, Canada’s only naval vessel to fight against the Japanese. Yet, the story of HMCS Uganda is one of the most unique tales told in the history of Canada’s military and speaks to a strange time at the end of the Second World War, when a Canadian government prioritised domestic political interests over those of the...

While the official start of the Cold War is still debated by historians, many agree that it began at some point in the late 1940s. Yet, it was clear by 1945 that the final battle lines drawn when the war in Europe ended would play a significant role in determining the future of the post-war world. One of the earliest examples of this tension playing out was over the German coastal town of Wismar. In early May 1945 a British airborne division, spearheaded by 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion,...

The legendary sagas of the Vikings have always spoken of perilous, seaborne adventures to lands so far to the west as to literally drop off the edge of the known European universe. While some of these lands eventually became known as Iceland and Greenland, other parts would later be dubbed the “New World.” Yet, the discovery of the “New World” was attributed to Christopher Columbus. For centuries, legends persisted that Norse explorers came to the new world long before Columbus. In fact,...

Every city, town and village in this country has its own unique history. For this episode, CCH takes a deep dive into some strange tales from the great city of Toronto. From a brawl between clowns and firefighters, to a bizarre post-mortem request from one of Canada's most important political figures and finally to a strange contest that saw the birth rate of the city spike. Guiding us through these tales is historian Adam Bunch. Adam is the author of the Toronto Book of the Dead and The...

Prince Edward Island is one of the most beautiful provinces in Canada. It’s wind-swept beaches are stunning, it’s people are some of the friendliest in the country. It has beautiful golf courses, scenic terrain, a provincial proclivity for incredible music, inspired by both Celtic and French roots. It is the setting for Anne of Green Gables. It has a deep, almost magical connection to the waters that surround it, and if you can catch the perfect day, at the perfect hour, it feels like a small...

The history of Montreal’s Black community goes as far back as the very first French explorers to settle along the St. Larry River valley. The community has dealt with slavery, oppression, injustice, and both informal and formal racism. Yet, it is a community that has not only endured, it has thrived, despite significant challenges. It is also a community that was very much connected to the emerging civil rights movement in the US, and it is a community that embraced its own struggle, though a...

In the autumnal darkness of October 6, 1894, an unseen figure slipped through the streets of Parkdale, rang the doorbell at the home of a well-to-do Toronto family, and shot Frank Westwood in his doorway, murdering him in cold blood. Six weeks later, the spotlight shone on the enigmatic Clara Ford, a Black tailor and single mother known for her impeccable work ethic and resolute personality – and for wearing men’s attire. A former neighbour of the Westwoods, Clara was arrested and confessed...

In the Autumn of 1945 a Soviet cipher clerk defected to Canada instead of returning home to the Soviet Union. The information he brought with him shocked officials. It named a certain Sam Carr, a Toronto resident and labour activist, as a key figure in not only helping to establish a spy ring, but being the mastermind behind it all!  Book recommendations:  Amy Knight How the Cold War Began: The Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies 2005 by Mclelland and...

At midday on November 8th 1861 the USS San Jacinto stopped and boarded the British mail steamer, RMS Trent. A party of American marines then boarded the British vessel and removed from it two Confederate diplomats on their way to Europe to court British and French support for the Confederate cause in the recently erupted American Civil War. This event sparked a massive diplomatic crisis and brought London and Washington the nearest to war they had been since 1812 and frankly, the nearest to...

Before there was Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block, or the Osmonds, there was Paul Anka. One of Canada’s most important contributors to the landscape of modern pop music. While not the first teen star, he was the first one from Canada and defied the odds by leaving Ottawa for New York to make it big, and make it big he did. His career has spanned decades, his success has been global, his work is iconic, and while today younger listeners might now know much about him, his...

If you took a stroll along the banks of Tay River, in Perth Ontario, just on the northeast edge of the town, you would come upon on a strangely named location, Last Duel Park. Certainly, for many, they might just walk on by, chalking it up to just a strangely named location. But the more curious might wonder, how did this park get its name? The name is not a clever one, it’s given to the park because that is the location of the last fatal duel ever fought in Canada. In 1833 two former friends...

Henri Bourassa is one of the most famous Quebec journalists in the history of Canada. His writing at Le Devoir, the paper he founded, was embraced by many as the voice of French-Canadians struggling to assert their place in a rapidly changing Canadian nation. He was a complex man, a devout ultramontane Catholic, a French-Canadian nationalist, but also a man who saw a future where English and French Canadians could cooperate and live side by side in harmony as the two “races” of a strong and...