Remember | Resist | Redraw Timeline

1793
March 14

Chloe Cooley’s Resistance to Enslavement

Chloe Cooley

Chloe Cooley’s resistance to re-enslavement in the States was so fierce that her captor needed the assistance of two other men to get her in a boat to cross the Niagara River in 1793. This wasn’t the only time she fought against her bondage before exiting Canada. Her defiance was the catalyst in eventually garnering legislative change and contributing to anti-slavery movements in Upper Canada, as well as set the stage for the Underground Railroad.

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1837
October 23

The 1837–1838 Rebellion: Consolidating Settler Colonialism in Canada

The 1837–1838 Rebellion: Consolidating Settler Colonialism in Canada

In the 1830s the struggle to abolish irresponsible colonial rule in Upper and Lower Canada, and replace it with a form of government controlled by local settlers rather than by imperial rulers or their appointed representatives, involved significant debate, public protest, threats of violence, and outright rebellion. While the 1837-1838 Rebellion is often celebrated as a defining moment in Canadian history when oppressed settlers fought for a voice in their own governance, it is important to remember that what resulted from this struggle was the imposition of the political framework necessary for settler colonialism to take hold in northern North America.

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1864
October 15

The Tsilhqot’in War

The Tsilhqot’in War

In 1864, Tsilhqot’in warriors, led by Chief Klatsassin, waged war on invading colonists who brought death, disease, and dispossession to Tsilhqot’in territory. The Colony of British Columbia tricked the warriors into being captured by promising a peace parley only to arrest and eventually execute six of the warriors by hanging. Before he was executed Klatsassin clarified, “We meant war, not murder.”

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1883
May 9

John A. Macdonald: Father of Confederation, Architect of Genocide

John A. Macdonald: Father of Confederation, Architect of Genocide

John A. Macdonald (1815-1891) is often celebrated for his role as one of Canada’s “Fathers of Confederation.” What is lesser known, however, is that Macdonald, as prime minister, played a pivotal role in creating Canada’s destructive system of Indian Residential Schools that sought to “kill the Indian in the child.” Foundational to Macdonald’s agenda was the dismantling of Indigenous families through forced separation. Canada’s first prime minister instigated, supported, and defended Canada’s genocidal system of Indian Residential Schools.

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1885
January 1

Conservation is Colonialism

Conservation is Colonialism

Beginning in the 1880s and intensifying in the early 1900s, the federal government created a national network of parks that conserved “natural” areas and commodified them to contribute to the capitalist economy and nation-building. As part of this process, many Indigenous communities were forcibly displaced within the newly-established park boundaries. Starting in 1885, my ancestors, along with other Niitsitapi and Îyâhe Nakoda peoples, were forcefully removed from our traditional territories in what is now known as Alberta to help create Banff National Park. The Banff Indian Days were created in 1894 (and lasted until the 1940s) to entertain a train full of tourists who were stranded in Banff. What tourists did not know is that we used these performances to maintain connection and relation with our lands. We may have been displaced, but we have not been disconnected from our territories. To this day, we still use the places that our ancestors did.

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May 9

When Canada Opened Fire on My Kokum Marianne With a Gatling Gun

When Canada Opened Fire on My Kokum Marianne With a Gatling Gun

Resenting the fact that their land was sold without consultation, the Métis took up arms against Canada in 1869, under the leadership of Louis Riel. The Métis Resistance was successful, and after a series of negotiations, the Métis entered Confederation with Canada with the 1870 Manitoba Act, which created the province of Manitoba. At Batoche, Saskatchewan, during the Northwest Resistance of 1885, the Métis would again take up arms to defend their land against the ever-expanding nation-state of Canada. When Canada laid siege to the Métis town of Batoche on May 9-12, 1885, during the Northwest Resistance, Marianne Morrissett, 16 years old, was in one of the buildings hit by gun fire. She barely escaped with her life.

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1900
April 16

Caregiving Work in Canada 1900-2016

Caregiving Work in Canada 1900-2016

Canadian families have always relied on domestic workers. This was true before Confederation, when Canadian families used Indigenous and Black women as slaves. This was also true afterwards, when the Canadian government recruited women from overseas to work as domestic workers. Due to its “white settler” policy, the Canadian government recruited British and Western European women to come as domestic workers because they were “mothers of the nation” and gave these women Canadian citizenship. In contrast, in the early and mid-1900s, women from the Caribbean came to Canada and were either individually sponsored by Canadian families or came under the Caribbean Domestics Scheme (CDS). Under the first and second CDS, which respectively took place between 1910 and 1911 and between 1955 and 1966, the Canadian government saw Caribbean “servants” as the beneficiaries of Canadian “generosity.” Most women under the first CDS were deported after their contracts whereas women under the second CDS could only apply for permanent residency (PR) after working for their employers for one year.

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1914
August 22

Canada’s Internment of Ukrainians, 1914–1920

Canada’s Internment of Ukrainians, 1914–1920

Between 1914 and 1920, the Canadian government used the War Measures Act to intern 8,579 people, including 4,000 Ukrainians, all recent migrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Internees responded to the ill treatment and exploitation they experienced with insubordination and resistance. They engaged in sabotage, like work slowdowns, and, in some instances, rioted or struck for better conditions.

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1919
January 1

The Flu Pandemic: Health Inequity and Social Change

1918-1919 Flu

Although long referred to by historians as the “forgotten pandemic,” countless families and communities have memories of the 1918–1920 flu: stories of their people, how they persisted, and how their lives were changed by a disease outbreak that killed over 50,000 Canadians and at least 50 million globally. For much of the 20th century, history did not much care about these stories of their lives. Rather, pandemic histories were suppressed and elided. Without societal remembrance of influenza as a health catastrophe, it was possible to forget the main lesson of the pandemic: how inequality shaped who lived, who died, and the future lives of survivors. 

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May 1

The Winnipeg General Strike

The Winnipeg General Strike

In May and June 1919, 35,000 workers in Winnipeg, Manitoba staged a six-week general strike. Workers from various backgrounds struck for higher wages and collective bargaining rights and to demand more power for working people. Ultimately, the strike was violently crushed by police acting on the orders of politicians and the city’s capitalists. Although the strike ended in defeat, it was not a failure. It demonstrated the power of working people and inspired new generations of workers to carry on the struggle to build a better world.

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1922
July 8

We are Inuit – Not Your Flag Poles

This poster depicts writer Siku Allooloo’s family based on an archival photo taken in 1922. The family is depicted in white lines on a black background with different colours radiating from their heads. The background of the poster is red with the outline of some islands of the high arctic in pink and blue. Along the top it says, “We Are Inuit Not Artic Flag Poles,” and along the bottom it says: “Between the 1920s and 1960s, Canadian officials relocated Inuit families to the high arctic as a means to establish an RCMP presence and protect Canada’s sovereignty against foreign interests. Few Canadians know that Arctic Sovereignty was paid for by severe hardships suffered by Inuit, like Qattuuq and Ulaayuk’s family depicted here, whose resilience and fortitude has enabled their descendants to continue living as Inuit today.”

Between the 1920s and 1960s, Canadian officials relocated Inuit families to the high arctic as a means to establish an RCMP presence and protect Canada’s sovereignty against foreign interests. Few Canadians know that Arctic Sovereignty was paid for by severe hardships suffered by Inuit, like Qattuuq and Ulaayuk’s family depicted here, whose resilience and fortitude has enabled their descendants to continue living as Inuit today.

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September 5

Chinese students strike against segregated schools

Chinese Student Strike

In July 1922, the Victoria School District Board voted to exclusively segregate all racialized Chinese students. When the order came into effect on September 5th, Chinese students were called out of their classes and marched down the road. Upon reaching one of the newly-established Chinese-only schools an older boy gave a pre-arranged signal and students disbanded in protest.

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1925
April 16

Cape Breton Coal Strikes

An illustrated black and white poster consisting of a series of comics panels depicting coal miners’ struggles in 1920s Cape Breton.

“They can’t stand the gaff!” The words failed to intimidate the coal miners. Instead, the insult contributed to their resistance, and “standing the gaff” became a rallying cry during the long 1925 strike. That strike was the culmination of the labour war in the Nova Scotia coal mines in the 1920s, an episode of class conflict in Canadian history as dramatic and consequential as the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.

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1933
January 1

Radical Bookshops in 1930s Montreal

An illustrated poster with images of two radical bookstores and communists in 1930s Montreal

The Modern Book Shop and the Hidden Book Shop were important spaces for radical education and organization in Montreal between 1933 and 1938. As such they were frequently targeted by fascists and the police for selling “seditious literature,” mostly from communist newspapers like Vie ouvrière, a communist monthly, The Daily Clarion from Toronto, and Clarté.

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1939
April 16

The Most Dangerous Woman in the World

The Most Dangerous Woman in the World

Emma Goldman was born in 1869 to a Jewish family in Kaunas, Lithuania. Fleeing the pogroms of Europe, she immigrated to the United States in 1885 and committed herself to anarchism. She was deported in 1919 for her anti-war activities, and then after years of exile in Europe, Goldman came to Canada in 1939. She used her extraordinary oratory skills to help develop an active anarchist movement. Her lectures on various subjects inspired large enthusiastic crowds across Canada. Goldman encouraged local anarchists to organize, and they formed the Libertarian Group. They held anti-fascist demonstrations, supported refugees of the Spanish Civil War, and held weekly political discussions.

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1942
February 26

The Japanese Canadian Internment

The Japanese Canadian Internment

In 1942, the federal government labeled 22,000 Japanese Canadians (over 75% were Canadian citizens) “enemy aliens.” In response to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, Canada declared war against Japan. Soon after, without any charge or due process, the government forcibly relocated Canadians of Japanese heritage living on the West Coast to internment camps in remote areas of British Columbia and other parts of the country. The RCMP also shut down Japanese Canadian schools and Japanese language newspapers. To pay for internment, the government seized and sold the land, property, and belongings of Japanese Canadians without the owners’ permission and at a fraction of the value.

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1948
January 22

Operation Profunc 1948-1983

#32RRR-Operation-Profunc-web

RCMP spying’s extent and secrecy was the thirty-five-year long covert program that began in 1948: Operation Profunc (PROminent FUNCtionaries of the Communist or Labor Progressive Party). This program planned to arrest Canadians in the event of a Communist-led attack or a leftist insurgence from within Canada’s own borders. Those arrested Canadians would be interned in remote but accessible camps across the country. The Profunc planners pulled the design of these camps from the Second World War internment of Japanese-Canadians, communists, and Italian and German nationals. At its height in the mid-1950s, Operation Profunc kept lists of thousands of Canadians to intern if the need arose and chose a dozen sites as future internment camps.

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1968
February 7

1968-2017: Intergenerational Resistance in Vancouver’s Chinatown

RRR#30-AnotherWorldisPossible

In 1968, Bessie Lee, along with women and mothers of the community, co-founded the Strathcona Property Owner’s and Tenants Association (SPOTA) to stop “urban renewal” plans from the City of Vancouver, including the construction of a freeway that would demolish the neighbourhood. Through these efforts, they stopped the freeway from being built and spared neighbourhood residents from further displacement. In 2017 the community faced renewed threats of displacement due to the proposed development of a luxury condominium building. Anticipating that this project would worsen unaffordable housing and loss of cultural heritage, organizers mobilized again. On November 6, after the city’s development permit board listened to nearly a hundred speakers, people throughout the Chinatown community celebrated when the official building proposal was rejected.

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1969
January 29

The Sir George Williams Protest

Sir George Williams Protest

On 29 January 1969, roughly 200 students attending Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) in Montreal occupied the school’s computer lab to protest racist discrimination faced by six West Indian Students. The protest ended on 11 February when police forcibly removed and arrested 97 students. Before being arrested, students threw computer paper and punch cards out the windows. As part of the 1960s student radicalism, the Sir George Williams protest also reflected emerging Black activism in the city that inspired activists across the country and internationally.

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1973
March 13

We Still Think of the Yukon as Our Land

We Still Think of the Yukon as Our Land

“We still think of the Yukon as our land,” wrote the Yukon Indian People in Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow, a document created by the Council of Yukon Indians (now, Council for Yukon First Nations) and submitted to Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau in 1973. The document outlined a series of grievances that Indigenous peoples in the Yukon had with the territorial and federal governments about their mistreatment of the people, land, water, and animals. To address this mistreatment, the Yukon Indian People called on settler governments to negotiate land claims. Today, 11 of the 14 First Nations in Yukon are self-governing and have signed land claims agreements with the Yukon Government and Canada under the Umbrella Final Agreement (UFA), a modern treaty.

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1975
August 1

Justice for Grassy Narrows

RRR#31-GrassyNarrows

For the past 50 years, women, youth, and the community have led a movement to address the industrial mercury poisoning of their people, to protect their land, and assert their sovereignty. We remember those who are no longer here, those who are fighting today, and the future generations of resistance.

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1977
June 28

Pride Has Always Been Political: 1970s – 2016

Pride Has Always Been Political: 1970s – 2016

Pride started off as the celebration of the rebellious origins of the queer and trans liberation movements in resistance to police repression in the later 1960s. In so-called Canada, Pride originated in the Montréal resistance to the Olympic police repression in 1976 and to the raid on the Truxx bar in 1977. It was these revolts in the streets that led to Québec enacting sexual orientation protection in late 1977. This resistance continued in Toronto with the mass response to the 1981 bath raids which at that point were the largest mass arrests since the War Measures Act in 1970. It was this resistance that provided the context for the celebration of Lesbian and Gay Pride Day to mark the Stonewall riot in June 1981 in Toronto which has continued to today.

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1983
April 18

Kent Prisoner’s Hunger Strike

Kent Prisoner’s Hunger Strike

In late March, 1983, two Indigenous men began a hunger strike at Kent prison in Agassiz, BC protesting the prison’s unwillingness to provide access to spiritual practices. Prison officials refused to take action, by mid-April, eighteen other Indigenous prisoners joined the strike. On April 18, Sts’ailes Stó:lō woman Rose Charlie, president of the BC Indian Homemakers Association, wrote to the Minister of Indian Affairs condemning the lack of cultural accommodation for Indigenous inmates at Kent.

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1988
January 11

Charles Roach: Warrior, Prince, and Servant of His People

Image of Charles Roach with his fist raised and the words “Freedom of Conscience” written on his arm. Behind him is a silhouette of a person holding a hammer and the words “Don’t Take an Oath Lightly, You have to Believe in it."

In 1988, the iconoclastic Charles Roach launched a battle against the Canadian government to remove the oath to the Queen as a condition of Canadian citizenship. In 1992, the Court of Appeal threw his case out, but in 2012 Roach, battling a life threatening illness, launched a similar suit: “I cannot see myself taking the oath to a symbol that is racist…. It is against fundamental freedoms.” Roach’s fight for fundamental freedoms and his moral outrage at the notion of having to pledge allegiance to a British monarcha figure who for him represented colonization and slaverytypified the life’s work of one of Canada’s most important Civil Rights activists and champions.

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1990
July 11

The Seige of Kanehsatà:ke

The Seige of Kanehsatà:ke

In 1990, Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) of Kanehsatà:ke erected a barricade on a secondary road to prevent the Club de golf d’Oka’s plan to expand their 9-hole golf course and construct luxury condominiums on unceded territory, including a burial ground and pine forest. On 11 July, a para-military squad of the Sureté du Québec raided the peaceful barricade sparking a 78-day siege, commonly known as the Oka Crisis. Fundamental human rights were violated by both the SQ and Canadian Army, condoned by all levels of government. While the pine forest was saved, the long standing historical land issue in Kanehsatà:ke has never been resolved. The struggle continues.

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1995
July 15

Ts’Peten 1995

Ts’Peten 1995

The siege of Ts’Peten (Gustafsen Lake) occurred in the south-central interior of “British Columbia” in the summer of 1995, after a white American ranger began harassing an Elder and his family at ta Secwepemc Sundance camp. Warriors responded to the Elder’s call for help, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) began a large paramilitary operation to clear out the defenders, deploying some 450 officers, mostly heavily armed Emergency Response Teams. They also received assistance from the Canadian military. On September 11, the RCMP carried out an ambush on the defenders that resulted in a massive explosion and firefight, during which they fired tens of thousands of rounds. During a year long trial it was revealed that the RCMP had carried out a “smear and disinformation” campaign to discredit the defenders and justify the use of lethal force. The defenders asserted that neither the government nor the police forces have jurisdiction on unceded, sovereign Indigenous territories.

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November 14

Calgary Laundry Workers Strike

Calgary Laundry Workers Strike

In the early 1990s the Alberta Progressive Conservative government began a campaign of eliminated tens of thousands of public sector jobs and cutting wages. In 1995, when the Calgary Health Authority announced a contracting out of hospital laundry workers’ jobs, 60 laundry workers called in sick. Within ten days about 2,500 workers in six hospitals and nine nursing homes were wildcatting and hundreds of other healthcare workers were working to rule.

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2009
December 1

OCAP Confronts Austerity in Ontario

We won't be quiet until we get the Special Diet.

In 2009, 150 people, mostly Somali women, participated in an OCAP occupation of the Toronto Social Services offices. This was one of many direct actions during a successful campaign to increase access to the Special Diet benefit — an additional $250 for people living on social assistance.

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2012
October 11

Idle No More Quebec

Idle No More Quebec

Melissa Mollen Dupuis is an Innu woman, mother, leader, cultural ambassador, and co-organizer of the Idle No More movement in the area known today as Quebec. Water protection is a sacred responsibility of all women. Being pregnant shows the continuity of the stewardship of this sacred river (Shipu — “river” in Innu) that connects us from our mothers to daughters. It is also the living heritage, proof, and memory of water being the beginning of humanity, highlighting our responsibility to protect it to ensure it flows freely for the next seven generations.

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November 1

Idle No More: The Dance of Decolonial Love

Idle No More: The Dance of Decolonial Love

When I am old, I will tell you I remember dancing.

I will tell you I remember every time they said our starvation was natural and our dispossession was progress.

When I am old, I will tell you I remember refusal.

The dream of these twelve moons, just like the twelve thousand before and after, is freedom. And one last thing, before I forget, remember: our memories contain every future, every sunrise, you will ever need.

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2018
February 3

The Fight for Affordable Housing in Hamilton, Ontario

Hamiliton Rent Strike

In 2018, tenants in four high-rises in Hamilton, Ontario waged a seven-month rent strike fighting a landlord whose profit model involves displacing working-class people through gentrification. The strike did not prevent the landlord from imposing a steep rent increase. However, the collective power and sense of community the tenants forged through struggle created a strong foundation for the ongoing fight for affordable housing.

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2020
February 8

Shut Down Canada

Shut Down Canada

In February 2020, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided Wet’suwet’en land defenders in so-called British Columbia. At the climax of the raid, heavily-armed police officers, accompanied by snipers and attack dogs, arrested unarmed Wet’suwet’en matriarchs on their unceded Yintah (land) in the middle of a ceremony. In response to this injustice, solidarity actions were taken by Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples across so-called Canada that brought the capitalist economy to its knees. Drawing on the long history of Indigenous resistance, the Shut Down Canada movement proved that direct action can disrupt the colonial status quo and unite people from different backgrounds to fight for a better future for all.

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