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Dene Nation (organization)

Established in 1969–70 as the Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories, the Dene Nation (renamed in 1978) is the political organization that represents the Dene, or northern Athabaskan-speaking peoples and their descendants, of Denendeh, which includes the Mackenzie River Valley and the Barren Grounds in the Northwest Territories, in the settlement of outstanding land and governance issues with the Government of Canada.

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Czech Music in Canada

Perhaps the first musically important immigrant to Canada from what later was to be known as Czechoslovakia was Wilhelm Labitzky (violinist, b Becov 1829, d Toronto 1871; son of Joseph Labitzky, 'the waltz king of Bohemia').

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Children of Peace

The Children of Peace. A religious sect active in the area of Sharon (known as Hope until the 1860s but from the 1840s mainly as Sharon), south of Lake Simcoe, Ont, from the second to the ninth decade of the 19th century.

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Portuguese Music in Canada

Although some Newfoundland place-names bear witness to early visits and Spanish-Portuguese traditions have survived in a Montreal synagogue, the Portuguese community in Canada did not begin to grow until 1953 when immigrants, largely from Madeira, were sponsored by the Canadian government as agricultural workers in Ontario.

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Native Women’s Association of Canada

Founded in 1974, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) is an organization that supports the socio-economic, political and cultural well-being of Indigenous women in Canada. Dedicated to the principles of humanitarianism, NWAC challenges the inequalities and discrimination that Indigenous women face by remaining politically engaged in causes such as education, housing, child welfare and more.

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Zed

Zed is the name of the letter Z. The pronunciation zed is more commonly used in Canadian English than zee. English speakers in other Commonwealth countries also prefer the pronunciation zed. As zed is the British pronunciation and zee is chiefly American, zed represents one of the rare occasions in which most Canadians prefer the British to the American pronunciation. Use of zee is often stigmatized among Canadian English speakers, which is likely the reason why zee has not taken root as quickly as other influences from American English.

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Council on the Status of Women

The Conseil du statut de la femme (CSF), or Council on the Status of Women, is a government consultative and review body that has sought to promote and defend the rights and interests of women in Québec since 1973. It reports to Québec’s Minister of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women.

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The "Other" Métis

In the interest of promoting a better understanding of the complex issue of Métis identity and how it is defined, The Canadian Encyclopedia has commissioned two opinion pieces exploring different perspectives on the topic. This article explores Métis identity from the perspective of Métis who do not have ancestral ties to the Red River Settlement.

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Bathurst High School Tragedy

Eight people, including seven teenage athletes from Bathurst, New Brunswick, died in January 2008 when their school van collided with a transport truck on a snowy highway. The disaster triggered an inquest and a public campaign by some of the grieving mothers that exposed safety flaws in the way schoolchildren are transported to off-site events.

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Powwow Music

Music is a central feature at powwows, as all powwow activities revolve around the beat of the drum and the sounds of the singers’ voices.

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Common-Law Unions in Canada

A common-law union occurs when two people live together in a conjugal relationship, generally for at least a year (or more depending on the province in which they reside). Common-law couples in Canada have many of the same legal, parental and financial rights and obligations as married couples.

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Jeunesses Laurentiennes

Jeunesses Laurentiennes (also known as Jeunes Laurentiens; both expressions mean “Laurentian youth”) was a French-Canadian nationalist youth movement founded in 1936. With a traditional vision of society, in which the Catholic religion played a central role, Jeunesses Laurentiennes organized conferences and celebrations, published a magazine, and occasionally acted as a pressure group. Until the organization was disbanded in 1950, it served as a training ground for many young militant French-Canadian nationalists.

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Petitioning in Canada

Petitioning is one of the most common tools of political protest accessible to the local population. Limited during the era of New France, the practice of collectively petitioning political authorities became much more frequent in the years following the Conquest by the British. Sanctioned in the 1689 Bill of Rights, petitioning had been a common practice in Britain for centuries, and ever since 1763, Canadians have been sending petitions to their governments (colonial, imperial, federal, provincial, and municipal) for a variety of reasons. With the recent introduction of e-petition, Canadians, more than ever, can have their voices heard in government.

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Church Choir Schools

Church choir schools. Institutions set up to train young musicians in the literature and performance of church music and to enable them, through the presentation of such music, to worship in a manner at once spiritual and artistic.

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SOS Montfort

In February 1997, the Ontario government decided to close Montfort Hospital in Ottawa. This decision led to a massive mobilization of the Franco-Ontarian community and the founding of the SOS Montfort coalition, which fought to keep the hospital open. After five years of political activism and legal battles, the cause was won. From an historical standpoint, this episode marked a key moment in the affirmation of Franco-Ontarian identity. From a legal standpoint, it confirmed the protections that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms affords to Ontario’s French-speaking linguistic minority.

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Fédération nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste

The Fédération nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste (FNSJB) was at the centre of key movements that shaped contemporary feminism. With roots in both maternalism (based on caring for others) and equality between women and men (but in the context of the specific role attributed to women in society), the Fédération waged battle on two main fronts: for equal legal rights and suffrage, and for the protection of mothers and their families. In doing so, it helped to bolster the government’s prerogatives, particularly with regard to the social policies that underpinned Québec’s welfare state from the 1920s on. The FNSJB was part of the process of women’s individuation, a crucial period in the advancement of women’s status in the 20th century.

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Alliance française in Canada

Since 1902, the Alliance Française has offered high-level French classes in Canada and developed cultural programming to boost the cultural influence of France and the Francophonie throughout the world. While it once had twenty committees scattered across Canada, today there remain nine, located in large cities outside Quebec. Each year, the Alliance Française receives 12,000 students in Canada and close to half a million worldwide. Its funding comes mainly from enrolment income from the classes it offers. The Alliance Française de Toronto is the largest in the country, with five branches established in the region.

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Indigenous Feminisms in Canada

At their root, Indigenous feminisms examine how gender and conceptions of gender influence the lives of Indigenous peoples, historically and today. Indigenous feminist approaches challenge stereotypes about Indigenous peoples, gender and sexuality, for instance, as they appear in politics, society and the media. Indigenous feminisms offer frameworks for learning about and understanding these, and other issues, regardless of one’s gender or ethnicity.