Historica Minutes
I just want to take a minute to share something that I really love about Canadian television: Historica Minutes. Sometimes, instead of commercials or typical public service announcements we get these little vignettes that teach us a little bit about Canadian history.
What I appreciate most about these vignettes is that they often tell it like it is, no matter how embarrassing to our historical memory. You see the Europeans lying to Sitting Bull, you see Jacques Plante bravely skate back onto the ice after a face injury wearing the first ever goalie face mask, you see Dr. Wilder Penfield solve the mystery of epilepsy and you see the British exert their racist oppression over the French settlers in Quebec.
My favourites are:
Orphans: where French Quebecers adopt Irish orphans whose parents died on the boat trip to Canada and allow them to maintain their Irish names. I love it, especially when Molly Johnson declares "non, mon mere me l'a dit juste avant de sa mort, we have to pour le mémoire de son patrie" or something equally as garbled and "franglais." It really does explain why you see people today named "Gilles Thompson" and "Pierre-Marc Johnson."
Jacques Plante: where Montreal Canadians goalie Jacques Plante sustains a face injury and defies notorious coach Toe Blake's orders by going back out onto the ice wearing the first ever goalie mask.
Baldwin & Lafontaine: where Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine isn't permitted to run for office in Quebec due to racism against francophones so Robert Baldwin asks him to run in York, Ontario...and he wins!
Jacques Cartier: where explorer Jacques Cartier forges deeper into the unknown country upon which he has landed and comes across an Iroquois village. The chief invites him into the village using the word "kanata," which means "village." Cartier's interpreter thinks he is saying "Canada" meaning the name of the nation. In any case, as you can see, the name stuck. Incidentally, there is still a town in Ontario named "Kanata," so I guess they eventually cleared that one up.
Frankly, the Historica Minute chronicler admits that Cartier may have understood the correct meaning of the word, however, I appreciate that the producers chose to remember the story in the most embarrassing way possible.
What I appreciate most about these vignettes is that they often tell it like it is, no matter how embarrassing to our historical memory. You see the Europeans lying to Sitting Bull, you see Jacques Plante bravely skate back onto the ice after a face injury wearing the first ever goalie face mask, you see Dr. Wilder Penfield solve the mystery of epilepsy and you see the British exert their racist oppression over the French settlers in Quebec.
My favourites are:
Orphans: where French Quebecers adopt Irish orphans whose parents died on the boat trip to Canada and allow them to maintain their Irish names. I love it, especially when Molly Johnson declares "non, mon mere me l'a dit juste avant de sa mort, we have to pour le mémoire de son patrie" or something equally as garbled and "franglais." It really does explain why you see people today named "Gilles Thompson" and "Pierre-Marc Johnson."
Jacques Plante: where Montreal Canadians goalie Jacques Plante sustains a face injury and defies notorious coach Toe Blake's orders by going back out onto the ice wearing the first ever goalie mask.
Baldwin & Lafontaine: where Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine isn't permitted to run for office in Quebec due to racism against francophones so Robert Baldwin asks him to run in York, Ontario...and he wins!
Jacques Cartier: where explorer Jacques Cartier forges deeper into the unknown country upon which he has landed and comes across an Iroquois village. The chief invites him into the village using the word "kanata," which means "village." Cartier's interpreter thinks he is saying "Canada" meaning the name of the nation. In any case, as you can see, the name stuck. Incidentally, there is still a town in Ontario named "Kanata," so I guess they eventually cleared that one up.
Frankly, the Historica Minute chronicler admits that Cartier may have understood the correct meaning of the word, however, I appreciate that the producers chose to remember the story in the most embarrassing way possible.
posted by Laurelle St. Laurent at 12:03 a.m.
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