As part of their mission to share the history of Canada’s peoples, places, and events that have shaped Canada’s past, present, and future, Parks Canada produces a weekly post called This Week in History. I read it from time to time and have learned a lot from it.
For example, did you know that Jacques Plante’s decision to wear a mask during a regular National Hockey League (NHL) game (1959) sparked a change in goaltender safety practices? Or that Agathe de Saint-Père de Repentigny founded and managed one of the earliest (1705) textile factories in Montréal—a “cloth, drugget, cross twill and blanket factory”?
Maybe you are aware that in 1912, the government of Ontario adopted Regulation 17, which prohibited French as a language of instruction and communication in all schools across the province, except for the first two years of primary school?
Have a look at the site. You can read about archeology at Saint-Louis Forts and Châteaux, now a national historic site, about the Battle of the Restigouche, the last major naval battle of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) between the British and the French, Acadians, and Mi’kmaq, and about Joseph Montferrand, an Ontario folk hero.
You’re sure to learn something new.
Image: Plaque commémorative en mémoire d’Agathe de Saint-Père, Par Major Éric — Travail personnel, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia
Catherine Fisher, blogger
