Search for "New France"

Henry Alline, evangelist, hymnist, theologian (b at Newport, Rhode I 14 June 1748; d at N Hampton, NH 2 Feb 1784). An itinerant evangelical preacher in the Maritimes, Alline wrote hymns, religious tracts and a Life and Journal.

Alessia Caracciolo, singer, songwriter (born 11 July 1996 in Brampton, Ontario). Alessia Cara is a pop music singer-songwriter. She has sold more than 11 million records in the United States and more than 285,000 in Canada since debuting in 2015. She is perhaps best known for her songs “Here” and “Scars to Your Beautiful.” She was named the Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the 2016 Juno Awards and the Best New Artist at the 2018 Grammy Awards. Her debut album Know-It-All (2015) won the 2017 Juno Award for Pop Album of the Year. Her album The Pains of Growing (2018) earned her 2020 Juno Awards for Album of the Year, Pop Album of the Year and Songwriter of the Year. Cara has also won a SOCAN Award, two MTV Video Music Awards and three Canadian Radio Music Awards.

Abraham Feinberg, né Nisselevicz, rabbi, singer, peace activist (b at Bellaire, Ohio 14 Sept 1899; d at Reno, Nev 5 Oct 1986). Raised and educated in the US, he held rabbinical pulpits there in the 1920s.

Arthur A. Clappé. Bandmaster, composer, writer, b Cork, Ireland, 1850; d 22 Nov 1920. Clappé studied at the Trinity College of Music, London and the Royal Military School of Music (England) (Kneller Hall). He served in Canada as director of the Governor General's Foot Guards Band 1877-84.

Gaylord Powless, Mohawk lacrosse player (born 1 December 1946 in Six Nations of the Grand River, ON; died 28 July 2001 in Ohsweken, ON). Gaylord Powless was a box lacrosse player who transcended the game to become one of Canada’s most famous athletes. Powless lived most of his life in Six Nations of the Grand River, near Brantford, Ontario. He became the signature player on the Oshawa Green Gaels’ junior lacrosse dynasty of the 1960s and shattered the Ontario junior league scoring record in his sophomore year with the team. The Gaels won the Minto Cup, Canada’s national junior lacrosse championship, in all four years that he played at the junior level. Powless also won the 1971 Mann Cup, which is emblematic of the Canadian senior lacrosse champions, and was a marquee player in three different professional leagues. Powless and his father, Ross, are both members of the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame and the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame. In 2017, Powless was elected to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

George Manuel, OC, LLD (born 17 or 21 February 1921 in the traditional Shuswap territory in British Columbia; died on 15 November 1989 in Kamloops, British Columbia) was an Indigenous activist of the Shuswap Nation engaged in Indigenous politics on the local, national and international scales (seeIndigenous Peoples in Canada). He was the president of the National Indian Brotherhood of Canada (today’s Assembly of First Nations) from 1970 to 1976 and founded the World Council of Indigenous Peoples in 1975.

Alexandre-Antonin Taché, missionary, Roman Catholic priest, archbishop (b at Rivière-du-Loup, Qué 23 July 1823; d at St-Boniface, Man 22 June 1894).

Maquinna, or Mukwina, meaning "possessor of pebbles,"was a Nootka chief (fl1778-95?). Maquinna was the ranking leader of the Moachat group of Nootka Sound Indigenous people on the west coast of Vancouver Island during the early years of European contact.

Adele Wiseman, novelist (b at Winnipeg, Man 21 May 1928; d at Toronto, Ont 1 June 1992). Wiseman's Russian-Jewish parents emigrated in the early 1920s from the Ukraine to Winnipeg.

Elizabeth “Betty” Dimock’s great ambition during the Second World War was to become a nurse. She registered in the South African army to treat wounded soldiers from the North African Campaign. Read and listen to Dimock’s story below.

Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.

Sir Robert Alexander Falconer, clergyman, scholar, educator (b at Charlottetown 10 Feb 1867; d at Toronto 4 Nov 1943). Falconer spent much of his youth in Trinidad, where his Presbyterian clergyman father had been posted.

Mary Spencer, boxer, model, humanitarian (born 12 December 1984 in Wiarton, ON). Mary Spencer is one of Canada's premier boxing champions, holding eight national titles, five Pan-American titles, and three world titles.

Thomas D’Arcy McGee, journalist, politician, poet (born 13 April 1825 in Carlingford, County Louth, Republic of Ireland; died 7 April 1868 in Ottawa, ON). Thomas D’Arcy McGee was dedicated to the cause of Irish national liberation. This pushed him towards revolutionary anti-British doctrine in his early years. However, he matured to become a staunch defender of British constitutional monarchy and a Father of Confederation. He was an advocate for minority rights at a time when the politics of ethnic and religious identity were intensely fraught. He was an incredibly eloquent public speaker and a passionate advocate for Canadian interests. However, his political transformation ultimately damaged his popularity with Irish nationalists, particularly the Fenians. He was assassinated in 1868.

Os-Ke-Non-Ton (also written Oskenonton, meaning deer in the Mohawk language, also known as “Running Deer”), baritone, actor, spiritual leader (né Louie Deer c. 1888 in Caughnawaga [now Kahnawá:ke], QC; died c. 1955 in Lily Dale, NY). Os-Ke-Non-Ton was a celebrated singer and performer who showcased his culture across the globe. He also worked as a healer at a spiritual centre in Lily Dale until his death.

William Pearly Oliver, CM, minister, army chaplain and community organizer (born 11 February 1912 in Wolfville, Nova Scotia; died 26 May 1989 in Lucasville). Oliver was a social activist, educator and minister. He cofounded the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NSAACP) and the Black United Front (BUF). He was also instrumental in the creation of the Black Cultural Society and the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia.

The Onondaga are an Indigenous nation in Canada. They make up one-sixth of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy; the rest include the Mohawk, Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida and Tuscarora. Onondaga traditional territory is located outside Syracuse, New York. Onondaga peoples also live on Six Nations territory near Brantford, Ontario. According to the Government of Canada, in 2020, there were 671 registered members of the Bearfoot Onondaga First Nation and 849 registered members of the Onondaga Clear Sky First Nation. (See also First Nations.)

Edward Cridge, dean of British Columbia, bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church (b at Bratton Flemming, Devonshire, Eng 17 Dec 1817; d at Victoria, BC 6 May 1913).

Justine Lacoste-Beaubien, C.B.E., founder and administrator of the Hôpital Sainte-Justine (born 1 October 1877 in Montréal, Québec; died 17 January 1967 in Montréal). A seasoned businesswoman, she chaired the board of directors of the Hôpital Sainte-Justine from 1907 to 1966 and made her dream come true by making the hospital a university research and study centre affiliated with the Université Laval in Montréal (now the Université de Montréal). From 1950 to 1957, she had a state-of-the-art hospital built for sick children on chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine. More than 100 years after it was established, the Centre hospitalier universitaire (university-affiliated hospital) (CHU) Sainte-Justine is the largest mother-child centre in the country and the only institution in Québec dedicated exclusively to pediatrics and obstetrics.

The first Danish contact with the place we know today as Canada resulted from the voyage of Captain Jens Eriksen Munk, who had been dispatched by King Christian IV of Denmark in the early 17th century to find the Northwest Passage. In 2016, the Canadian census reported 207, 470 people of Danish origin (26, 990 single and 180, 485 multiple responses).