O Canada Archives - Legion Magazine

The Nuremberg trials

Don Gillmor — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 14:55:36 +0000

Long before the end of the Second World War, Allied leaders discussed what to do about German war crimes. News of atrocities had already reached both British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. At the 1943 Tehran Conference, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin suggested executing 50,000-100,000 German officers and political leaders. Churchill …

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Excerpt from O Canada: War & Hockey

Stephen Smith — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 17:13:03 +0000

Hockey is the game we hold dearest in Canada, the one we define ourselves by, still. It’s a haven for our identity, and it’s where we cultivate our national pride— and store our strategic reserve of contradictions, too. We like to think of it as a natural resource, of course, hewn from the wintry north, …

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The nation grows

Don Gillmor — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 14:10:37 +0000

Manitoba became a province of Canada in 1870, though at the time it didn’t extend much past the Red River Valley (it wasn’t until 1912 that it expanded to its current boundaries). In 1871, B.C. became a province. Between them, was a vast area then known as the North-West Territories. The West was rapidly changing; …

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THE ATOMIC BOMB

Don Gillmor — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 15:32:26 +0000

In December 1942, a group of scientists led by Enrico Fermi demonstrated the first controlled nuclear chain reaction in an abandoned squash court at the University of Chicago. The race to build the first atomic bomb had begun. One of the first items the Manhattan Project, as the initiative was known, needed was a supply …

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Beaver fever

Don Gillmor — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 13:10:18 +0000

The beaver became Canada’s national symbol on March 24, 1975, when the National Symbol of Canada Act received royal assent. Castor canadensis was already a de facto emblem, found on ancient totem poles, featured on the nation’s first postage stamp, issued in 1851, and appearing on various coats of arms (Manitoba’s, Alberta’s and Toronto’s, among …

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The Maple Leaf

Don Gillmor — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 19:40:01 +0000

Canada’s Maple Leaf flag, adopted in 1964 after decades of heated debate, replaced colonial symbols to unify the nation. Once controversial, it now proudly represents Canada’s identity on the global stage.

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The Charlottetown Conference

Don Gillmor — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 14:05:30 +0000

The 1864 Charlottetown Conference was initially designed to discuss a union of the three Maritime provinces. But delegates from the Province of Canada heard about the conference and decided to crash the party. The meeting brought together strange political bedfellows and fiercely opposing viewpoints in an effort to create a country. George Brown, a morally upright Liberal …

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War measures

Don Gillmor — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 17:57:14 +0000

The War Measures Act went into law on Aug. 4, 1914, allowing the cabinet to bypass the House of Commons and the Senate and to rule by decree in the event of “war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended.” It is the last word in this definition that caused the most problems. If cabinet perceived anyone …

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Tinker Tailor Soldier CSIS

Don Gillmor — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 18:00:53 +0000

The spy business is a complex, often dirty, game.

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Jacques Cartier finds Newfoundland

Don Gillmor — Wed, 01 May 2024 14:15:03 +0000

The early part of the race to the New World involved mainly the Spanish and the English, though England dropped out of the effort after John Cabot’s 1497 trip to Newfoundland. It was too preoccupied at home with religious strife, wars and domestic politics. The Spanish, meanwhile, had success in the southern hemisphere, claiming territory and bringing back …

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