That’s what McGill Prof. Laura Madokoro wanted to know. Laura teaches Canada Since 1867 – Interrogating the Nation: Moment by Moment (HIST 203). This semester, students working in small groups have been assigned the task of selecting a “moment” they believe really matters to the history of Canada and then presenting an argument to support their choice. Each group has selected one moment from 1930-1979 and one from 1980 to the present. Students present their arguments in class and publish them in a blog called Moments that Matter: Canadian History since 1867, along with photos and embedded videos.
So, what moments have students chosen? Wait—before you read on, what do you think students have chosen?
“Crise d’Oka – SQ et forces canadiennes “ by SamuelFreli is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
Here are a few examples: the immigration points system (1962); the last execution in Canada (1962); the Rocket Richard Riot (1965); abortion legislation (1969); the October Crisis (1970); patient zero in the Aids epidemic (1984); the creation of Cirque du soleil (1984); the Ecole polytechnique massacre (1989); the Oka Crisis (1990); the election of Kim Campbell (1993); the launch of a national inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women/Highway of Tears (2015).
Read students’ arguments for their moments in the Moments that Matter blog.
Which moments in Canadian history do you believe really matter? What’s your argument?
Associate Director, Faculty and Teaching Development, and Senior Academic Associate, at McGill's Teaching and Learning Services; former Senior Faculty Lecturer at the McGill Writing Centre; area of specialization: Second Language Education; loves teaching and learning!
(Photo credit: Owen Egan)
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