There is an important difference between celebration and commemoration. In considering Canada 150, the government tagline for this year’s sesquicentennial festivities, the contributors to this special issue of the Monitor argue too little of what we are seeing can, or is even intended to, lead the country to a fuller understanding of its history. To truly commemorate—whether it is Canada’s Confederation or any other moment—we need to address those things we find distasteful and disappointing, as well as those things that make us proud. If we can’t do that on the country’s 150th birthday, when can we?
Below you'll find a sample of articles from this issue. To receive the Monitor at home, please make a donation to the CCPA.
- Canada’s vanishing point: Reconciliation and the erasure of Indian personhood, by Tara Williamson
- Black Lives Matter—at settlement, Confederation and 150 years later, an interview with Afua Cooper
- Class struggle in Quebec—from Conquest to Confederation to the 2012 student strikes, by Pierre Beaudet
- First person power: How the internet popularized the feminist memoir, by Davis Carr
- Boom times in Ottawa: Canada’s global weapons fair, CANSEC, turns 20, by Stephen Dale
- It’s time to name and shame CEOs behind tobacco-related deaths and diseases, argue Gar Mahood and Brian Iler
Cover illustration by Remie Geoffroi