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CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION CORPORATION CMCC-2082

CONTRACT SECTION, FINANCIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

CMCC-2082 Design of Canadian History Hall Page 55 of 88

4.10. INTEGRATING INTERPRETATION BY FRONTLINE STAFF

In terms of defining and developing the interpretive activities offered by frontline staff in school programs,

tours and animation experiences, it will be necessary for the team to work closely with Visitor Services,

Public Programs, target audiences and specialists.

5. Detailed Storyline and Communication Intentions

A high-level storyline is presented below, composed of broad topics and more focused communicationintentions. At this stage in our planning process, the storyline is meant only to list the main topics that theHall will explore, and how these might be organized. This is still a preliminary, draft storyline, and iscurrently in the process of being organized, expanded, and re-formulated for many months to come.

Zone I: The Land and its First People (15,000 BP to AD 1500)

Communication Intention: Canada has a history stretching back many thousands of years. Long before thearrival of the first Europeans, Canada was well and truly occupied by First Peoples.

Topic Message Intention

1. Aboriginal peoples settle Canada at

the end of the last Ice Age, as the great

ice sheets melt and the land becomeshabitable.

a. Ancestral First Nations enter the

Western Hemisphere from northeastern

Asia as nomadic hunter-gatherers.b. Spreading out across the continent, they

adapt to a variety of environments.

2. As they adapt to their newenvironments Aboriginal Peoples

differentiate into a large number oflocal and regional cultures, anddevelop rich and sustainable ways of

life.

a. Most Aboriginal Peoples in Canadacontinue to live as hunter-gathers.

b. Only in the comparative warmth ofsouthern Ontario do settled agriculturalvillages develop.

c. Coastal British Columbia also sees the

development of settled, relativelycomplex societies, based on

exceptionally abundant marine

resources.

3. By the time Aboriginal Peoples,

ultimately from eastern Asia, first

meet Europeans on the Atlantic coastof Canada around A.D. 1000,humanity has finally encircled the

globe.

a. The Inuit are among the last Aboriginal

groups to expand into Canada, arriving

from Arctic Alaska around A.D. 1200.b. When they arrive in the eastern Arctic,they meet early Norse (Viking) hunters

from Greenland.


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Zone 2: The River of Canada (14971763)

Communication Intention: After a century of coastal exploration and seasonal fishing, Europeannewcomersspecifically the Frenchestablish permanent agricultural colonies in the Atlantic region and inthe St. Lawrence River Valley. The St. Lawrence provides an ideal avenue into the continents interior, as

trade and military alliances with First Nations become increasingly important to the new colony.

Topic Message Intentions

1. Canada has its origins in the early

seventeenth century, with permanent

French settlements in Acadia and the St.

Lawrence River Valley.

a. French, Basque and English fishermen

are fishing the waters off eastern Canada

as early as A.D. 1500 (and perhaps

earlier).b. Early explorers chart coastlines and river

valleys during the period 14971600.

c. Quebec is established by the French in1608, essentially as essentially a fur-

trading post.

d. The subsequent agricultural settlement

of the St. Lawrence River Valley leads tothe establishment of a French colonial

regime and a modest influx ofhabitants.

2. Less prosperous than the Thirteen

Colonies to the south, New France comes

to depend more on the fur trade with

Aboriginal peoples as its economicraison dtre, rather than on subsistence

farming.

a. With cold winters and tight government

regulations, New France is never as

populous or prosperous as English

colonies to the south.b. New France fur traders establish close

political and economic ties with First

Nations, and build a thriving fur trade inthe western hinterland, exploring from

the Mississippi River to the Gulf of

Mexico.c. Particularly after the Great Peace of

1701, New France establishes important

military and strategic alliances with First

Nations.


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Zone 3: Into the Anglosphere (17551838)

Communication Intention: The Conquest is the major turning point in Canadian history, bringing an almostexclusively francophone Canada under British colonial control, and into the orbit of English-speaking NorthAmerica.


1. During the Seven Years War, New

France is conquered by Great Britain,

and a new British colonial governmentis established.

a. Expulsion of the Acadians, 1755.

b. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham

(1759; confirmed in the Treaty ofParis, 1763).

c. The Quebec Actof 1774 sees Catholic

legal disabilities lifted, and someFrench-language rights guaranteed.

d. The Conquest and subsequent Quebec

Actare both important factors leadingto the American Revolution in the 13

British colonies to the south.

2. United Empire Loyalists arrive in theaftermath of the American Revolution.

a. Political refugees loyal to the BritishCrown establish Upper Canada and also

settle in Lower Canada and Nova

Scotia.b. They represent the first significant

English-speaking settlement of Canada,

inaugurating a political and linguistic

duality that persists to this day.

3. America attempts an invasion of British

North America during the War of 1812.

a. Fighting alongside British regulars,

English Canadians in Upper Canada,and French Canadians in Lower Canada

successfully defend our borders.

b. Aboriginal participation on the

Canadian/British side is instrumental in

this success.

4. Montral-based fur traders explore

western Canada to the Pacific,establishing a fur trade empire across

the whole northern half of the continent.

a. The North West Company, based in

Montral, is established in 1779.b. The North West Company threatens the

interior-supply lines of the London-

based Hudsons Bay Company.c. North West Company explorers map

and explore western Canada to the

Arctic and Pacific Oceans.d. A trade war between the two


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companies ends with amalgamation in1821.

e. The fur trade has a growing impact on

First Nations, who are now becoming

part of the world economic system.

5. Sidebar: The extinction of the Beothuk a. The Aboriginal inhabitants of

Newfoundland are pushed intoextinction by settler fishing populations

and Mikmaq moving onto the island

from the Maritimes.b. There is a pattern of pilfering, sabotage

and murder, on both sides, accentuated

by the social isolation of the Beothukand their severed access to maritime

resources.c. The last-known Beothuka woman

and her nieceare captured, settling inSt. Johns. The two women are the

authors of almost everything we know

of their people.

6. Unrepresentative colonial governments

inspire unsuccessful popular rebellions

in both Upper and Lower Canada.

a. The 1837 Rebellion in Upper Canada

occurs in reaction to an absence of

meaningful self-government, a corruptcolonial administration, and the

aspirations of a rising colonial elite. A

small-scale affair, it is easilysuppressed.

b. A related rebellion in Lower Canada

takes on aspects of a cultural struggleagainst an alien (British) governing

class, and is much more serious,

repressed only with considerable

difficulty and bloodshed.


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Zone 4: Confederation and Consolidation (18381885)

Communication Intention: The fledgling colonies of British North America negotiate self-government andConfederation in a peaceful transfer of power from the British Crown. By 1885, the new country has grownto occupy the whole northern half of North America, as Aboriginal Peoples are displaced by a growing tide

of European settlement.


1. Responsible self-government is

achieved.

a. The Union of the Canadas punishes

Lower Canada for its role in the

Rebellions.b. The Durham Report calls for the

assimilation of French Canada, but

also the establishment of responsibleself-government.

c. Responsible government is achieved

in the Canadas with the passing of the

Rebellion Losses Bill in 1849.d. Responsible self-government is also

achieved in Nova Scotia and New

Brunswick during this period.e. The Canadian colonies become the

first self-governing colonies within

the British Empire, providing a newmodel for Imperial political

development (the white dominions).

2. Sidebar: The Underground Railroadbrings escaped slaves to Canada.

a. The Abolitionist Movement sees theend of chattel slavery in Canada by

about 1800 (although slavery was

legal until the 1830s).b. In the nineteenth century, hundreds of

escaped slaves flee the U.S. for

Canada, shepherded to safety by theUnderground Railroad. Most settle in

southern Ontario.

c. After the Civil War, some stay on in

Canada.

3. Sidebar: The third Franklin

Expedition to the Arctic goes missing.

a. Since the end of the Napoleonic Wars,

the Royal Navy had explored the

Canadian Arctic in search of theNorthwest Passage. The third Franklin

Expedition (1845) sets sail with

much fanfare to forge the last link.b. The Expedition is declared missing in


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1848, and a massive manhunt ensues.All hands were lost, and the fate of the

expedition is still a source of some

mystery.

c. British sovereignty in the Arctic is

transferred to Canada in 1880.

4. Confederation of the Canadas, Nova

Scotia and New Brunswick isachieved in 1867.

a. Conferences in Charlottetown,

Qubec City and London playimportant roles.

b. Confederation is not only a federal

union between heretofore separatecolonies, but also a kind of peace

treaty between struggling ethnic

groups, including Irish Catholics,British Protestants and French

Canadians.c. The role of John A. Macdonald is of

supreme importance in thenegotiations.

d. An immediate consequence of

Confederation is the re-separation ofUpper and Lower Canada (Canada

West/Canada East, now Ontario and

Quebec).

5. The British government forces the

Hudsons Bay Company to sell its

rights to Ruperts Land and the Westto the new Dominion of Canada.

a. Mtis reaction to the arrival of

Dominion land surveyors leads to the

first Riel Rebellion in Red River in1870, suppressed by Canadian militia

and the British army.

b. The Canadian government negotiatesa series of so-called numbered land-

succession treaties with western First

Nations, clearing the way for eventual

white settlement.

6. Fulfilling a promise to British

Columbia, the Canadian government

undertakes the financing and buildingof a transcontinental railroad to the

Pacific.

a. The CPR is completed in 1885, after

considerable scandal.

b. In the same year, the North WestRebellion breaks out, also involving

disgruntled First Nations. It is

suppressed after the Battle of Batoche(troops arrive by train); Riel is

hanged; Quebec is outraged; Canada

is divided.


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Zone 5: The Roots of Modern Canada (18851945)

Communication Intention: The new Dominion struggles heroically through two World Wars and a Great

Depression, slowly maturing from a self-governing colony within the British Empire, to a (more or less)independent nation. Internal tensions are revealed, and some dark deeds done, aimed at racial minoritiesand Aboriginal Peoples.


1. With the railroad built and the treaties

signed, a large number of immigrantssettle in western Canada.

a. Immigrants, particularly from central

and eastern Europe, settle on thePrairies.

b. Despite some hostility, allophone

immigrants are slowly assimilated,mainly into English-speaking Canada.

They represent the first major wave of

cultural diversity in our history.

c. The settling of western Canada spawnslanguage wars between English and

French, especially in Manitoba,

culminating in regressive legislation.d. Guarded acceptance of eastern

Europeans does not extend to non-

whites, who are for the most partrigorously excluded.

e. In 1905, the provinces of Alberta and

Saskatchewan are created.

1. Aboriginal Canadians begin to feel the

full weight of colonization, becoming for

the most part disenfranchised, powerlesswards of the state.

a. The Indian Actis implemented,

including provisions against legal

representation for Aboriginal rights.b. Other laws restrict or prohibit aspects of

traditional culture, including the so-

called anti-potlatch laws.c. There is systematic establishment of

residential schools.

d. The reserve system results in poverty

and oppression.

2. Canada fights the First World War as part

of the British Empire.a. As a British colony, Canada is

automatically at war, and Canadiantroops served within the British

military.

b. Canadian troopsand the country as awholemake huge sacrifices, fuelling a

growing sense of Canadian identity.


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c. The Conscription Crisis reveals terribleinternal tensions over Canadas

commitment to the Empire.

d. The contributions of Aboriginal troops

leads to the establishment of the first

Aboriginal brotherhoods and thebeginnings of an Aboriginal rights

movement after the War.

e. Canada rejects the notion of a federatedEmpire; the Statute of Westminster

(1931) grants nominal independence.

3. Growing industrialization changes theway Canadians work, where they live and

how they interact.

a. Industrial growth and urbanizationspread.

b. By 1925, half of all Canadians live in

urban areas; farming, fishing and

trapping are no longer the maineconomic drivers.

c. Labour unions grow; discord erupts in

the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.

4. Canada is hit hard by the Great

Depression.

a. With tens of thousands out of work and

catastrophic economic collapse,

Canadians struggle to adapt and cope.

5. Women win some key legal battles. a. As a result of the Conscription Crisis,

women win the right to vote federally.

b. The Persons Case demonstrates

womens full legal equalityinparticular, the right to be elected to

public office.

6. Canada fights in the Second World War. a. Canada declares war independently, but

Canadian troops still serve within the

command structure of the British

military.b. Japanese-Canadians are interned.

c. The War involves major economic and

social adjustments on the home front,

particularly regarding the role ofwomen.

d. A second Conscription Crisis is averted,but serious English-French tensions

remain.

e. Canada emerges from the War with

enhanced international stature.


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Zone 6: Deciding Who We Are (1945 )

Communication Intention: As Canada moves into a post-Empire world, we need to decide who we really

are. This processstill underwaydoes not happen easily. Struggle and creativity are the watchwords.

Topic Message Intention

1. After the War, Canada (like the United

States) experiences a major economic

boom.

a. An affluent consumer culture rapidly

develops.

b. There is a large-scale movement towardssingle-family homes in the suburbs.

c. A post-war baby boom leads to the

biggest demographic bubble in Canadian

history.

2. The post-war period in Canada sees

the birth and development of theWelfare State: the concept of

government in which the state plays a

key role in the protection and

promotion of the economic and socialwell-being of its citizens.

a. Social Security/Social Assistance, 1966

Medical Care Act/ 1984 Canada HealthAct, etc.

b. The absolute poverty rate in Canada

drops from 22.5% in 1960, to 6.5% in

1991.c. Medicare in particular comes to be seen

as a kind of sacred trust by many

Canadians.d. Many facets of the welfare state are

under attack (due largely to rising costs)

in the twenty-first century.

3. The post-war contest between the

United States and the Soviet Union

the Cold Wardefines the nature ofinternational politics. For a time.

a. Canada participates actively in the

defence of the West through NATO and

other strategic alliances.b. General fear of nuclear annihilation is

aroused, particularly by the CubanMissile Crisis.

4. Everywhere in Canada, the 1960s sees

an awakening of popular culture, newfreedoms and a growing optimism

a. The Beatles play Montral and Toronto.

b. Pierre Trudeau is elected on a wave ofTrudeaumania.

c. Repeal of anti-homosexual legislation

and the widespread use of oralcontraceptives change sexual mores

everywhere.

d. Sex, drugs and rock-and-roll, peace

marches, sit-ins, love-ins: the baby boomcomes of age.

e. Expo 67 celebrates Canadas 100th

birthday.


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5. Quebec nationalism develops into aseparatist or independence movement,

which has a profound and continuing

effect on the Canadian polity. In

English Canada, cultural ties with

Britain are (slowly) severed.

a. A political and social rvolution

tranquille sees the end of the old

conservative order in Quebec and the rise

of Quebec nationalism.

b. The Flag Debate leads to a new Canadian

flag.c. The October Crisis of 1970.

d. The separatist PQ is elected in 1976;flight of the Anglos; matres chez nous.

e. Canada becomes officially bilingual.

f. Bill 101g. The Quebec Referendum of 1980 fails.

h. Canadas Constitution is patriated in

1982.

i. The Quebec Referendum of 1995 verynearly succeeds.

j.

6. Aboriginal protest movements seek toimprove the lot of Canadas First

Peoples.

a. The creation of the Assembly of FirstNations helps to focus the political

process.

b. Aboriginal Canadians/First Nations rejectthe 1970 White Paper, asserting a new

status as citizens plus.

c. The residential school controversy endswith their closure, an apology and

ongoing social problems.

d. The Oka crisis reveals ongoing tensionsand militancy.

e. Elijah Harper shuts down the Meech

Lake Accord.

f. Idle no more and similar protests assertthe constitutionally privileged position of

Aboriginal peoples and their need to be

consulted by government.

7. Racist immigration laws are repealed,

ushering in a flood of immigration,

especially from the Caribbean, and

South and East Asia.

a. 1947 sees the repeal of some of the worst

aspects of the anti-Chinese immigration

laws. Other repeals follow, especially in

1976.b. Canada is now one of the most multi-

ethnic countries on Earth. As of 2001, wehave 34 ethnic groups with at least

100,000 members each, and 16.2% of the

population is represented by visible

minorities.


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8. The role of women in society hasimproved radically in the past two

generations

a. Most hard legal disabilities wereovercome before the Second World War,

but strong social disabilities remain.

b. Equal pay for equal work legislation

brings womens salaries more in line with

mens.c. Social attitudes towards women in the

work place (especially married women)move from unaccepting to entirely

accepting.

d. Women now make up more than 50% inmost university programs.

e. The liberalization of divorce laws has

also worked in womens favour.

f. Kim Campbell was Canadas first, andstill only, female prime minister. Women

are still under-represented in Parliamentand in many other corridors of power.

g. Violence towards women remains a

problem.

9. Canada turns its eyes North. a. Construction of DEW-line stations acrossthe Arctic constitutes the first wage

labour in many Inuit communities.

b. The bottom falls out of the fur market;the collapse of caribou herds causes real

starvation in parts of Keewatin. (1950s)

c. Government increasingly takes onresponsibility for northern welfare: there

is a strong move to resettle the Inuit in

Arctic micro-towns, with many social

and economic challenges.d. Economic development gathers pace with

the opening of mines and the building of

the Dempster Highway.e. Beaufort oil bubble and the Berger

Commission.

f. Creation of Nunavut.g. Global warming threatens Arctic

ecosystems.


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10. Canadas economic development inthe post-War period has depended on

international trade and the growth ofinfrastructure at home.

a. The completion of the Trans-CanadaHighway and the St. Lawrence Seaway

makes the movement of goods and

people much easier through the difficult

Canadian landscape.

b. A network of oil and gas pipelines linkwestern oil fields with eastern and

American markets.c. In the years since the Second World War,

the U.S. has assumed an ever-larger share

of Canadian trade. The Free TradeAgreement of 1988 establishes a level

playing field with clear bilateral rules.

11. Popular culture and the arts in Canada

continue to thrive.

a. Canadian Content rules help protectCanadian artists.

b. The Junos and other awards celebrateCanadian achievement.

c. To a large degree, English- and French-speaking Canada continues to function as

two solitudes with respect to literature,

music, films, etc.d. Canada has produced many artists with

international reputations. Many are

probably perceived by the outside world

as Americans.

12. We live in a dangerous world, andCanada effectively plays the role of

good global citizen, in partnershipwith its Western allies.

a. Canada and the Suez Crisis. Canada and

the Iraq hostage incident. Soft powerdiplomacy

b. Under UN auspices, Canada has served

in important peacekeeping missions toCyprus, Haiti and many other countries.

c. Canada participates on a cultural and

sporting level with the rest of the world;eg we have hosted 3 Olympic games in

recent years, and won the 1972 Russian-

Canadian hockey series.

d. Canada is a member of the G7, and

Canadian businesses are active abroad.e. While not a superpower like our

American neighbours, we do count in the

world.