Author Archives: jbelshaw

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. – L.P.Hartley (1953) Writing history does not take place in a vacuum, nor is it a straightforward process. There are issues associated with cause and effect that have not … Continue reading →

It’s one thing to know about some of the key events in Canada’s history; it’s another to know a thing or two about how our history came to be written. Part of the challenge is defining what constitutes history. For example, it is … Continue reading →

Where does history come from? Historians use a great many different sources to assemble information on the past. Evidence comes in many forms. To think like a historian, we must concern ourselves not only with what people did, but also with what … Continue reading →

The telling of every country’s national story is unique, and there are conflicts in that telling. Who gets to speak? Who does not? What alternative stories are there to be told? And how did it all turn out this way? … Continue reading →

Tadoussac stands as the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in Canada. Located where the fresh water of the Saguenay River meets the salt water of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Tadoussac was an outstanding site for hunting seals and whales. The … Continue reading →

A half century would pass between Cartier’s kidnappings of Aboriginal men along the St. Lawrence and the arrival of French delegations determined to build a sustained presence. Not surprisingly they would do so first in the lands closest to Europe … Continue reading →

It is in the nature of childhood to be a part of the life course that is subject to external forces. Infants are nursed into childhood proper with no say as to how that should happen. Behaviours and expectations, rewards … Continue reading →