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French is one of Canada’s two official languages. Although every province in Canada has people whose mother tongue is French, Québec is the only province where speakers of French are in the majority. In 2011, 7,054,975 people in Canada (21 per cent of the country’s population) had French as their mother tongue.

Tenskwatawa (the Prophet), Shawnee religious figure (born Lalawethika in Shawnee territory near the Great Lakes, 1775; died in Prophetstown, near Kansas City, Missouri, 1836).

Pitseolak Ashoona, CM, artist (born between 1904 and 1908 on Nottingham Island (Tujajuak), NWT; died 28 May 1983 in Cape Dorset, NWT). Among the first generation of Inuit printmakers, Pitseolak Ashoona was born en route from Nunavik in arctic Québec to the south coast of Baffin Island (Qikagtaaluk). She is known for her lively prints and drawings, which show "the things we did long ago before there were many white men" and for her imaginative renderings of spirits and monsters.

Rebecca (Becky) Buhay, political activist, educator (born 11 February 1896 in London, England; died 16 December 1953 in Toronto, ON).

Onyenyechukwu (Onye) Nnorom, family physician, specialist in public health and preventive medicine (born 27 February 1981 in Montreal, Quebec). Nnorom is the associate director of the residency program in public health and preventive medicine at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She also leads the Black health curriculum at the university’s medical school. Her work addresses the health inequities that racialized and immigrant communities face.

Burnley Allan (“Rocky”) Jones, ONS, lawyer and Black Canadian activist (born 26 August 1941 in Truro , NS; died 29 July 2013, in Halifax, NS). Jones spent much of his life fighting for social justice for Black and Indigenous people in Canada; his was a strong voice in the areas of human rights , race and poverty . As a lawyer, Jones focused his attention in these areas, also advocating for prisoners’ rights.

Inuit vocal games describe central Canadian Arctic practices that are both musical and ludic (spontaneous or playful). According to regional differences, these can be divided into several genres with different names.

Stanley (Llewellyn) Osborne.

William Lawrence “Willie” Dunn (a.k.a. Roha’tiio, meaning “his voice is beautiful”) musician, filmmaker (born 14 August 1941 in Montreal, QC; died 5 August 2013 in Ottawa, ON). Willie Dunn was a folk musician of Mi’kmaq-Scottish origin. He was also a leading member of the Indian Film Crew, an all-Indigenous film production unit established by the National Film Board in 1968.

The history of Indigenous peoples in Canada begins much earlier than any other group living here — and is far more complex.

Morris Pearlman was a captain in the Royal Canadian Dental Corps during the Second World War. He served in various prisoner of war camps in Canada. Learn how Pearlman, a Jewish dental officer, set aside resentment and hostility as he treated German POWs.

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.

Salome Bey, singer, actress, songwriter (born 10 October 1933 in Newark, New Jersey; died 8 August 2020 in Toronto, ON). Salome Bey was an award-winning jazz, blues and R&B singer. Known as “Canada’s First Lady of the Blues,” wrote and starred in Indigo, a Dora Award-winning history of the blues, and was part of the all-star lineup of Canadian singers who produced the charity single “Tears Are not Enough.” Bey received a Toronto Arts Award and the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for lifetime achievement from the Black Theatre Workshop of Montreal. She was made an honorary member of the Order of Canada in 2005 and was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2021.

Any act of migration is an adventure and the adventuring spirit has at times characterized even the North American migrant. The interpenetration of the Canadian and American peoples has been such that no Canadian can have escaped its influence.

Rose Mamelak Johnstone, FRSC, biochemist (born 14 May 1928 in Lodz, Poland; died 3 July 2009 in Montreal, QC). Rose Johnstone is best known for her discovery of exosomes, a key development in the field of cell biology. These tiniest of structures originating in all cells of the human body are vehicles that transport proteins, lipids and RNA from one cell to another. A pioneer of women in science, Johnstone was the first woman to hold the Gilman Cheney Chair in Biochemistry and the first and only woman chair of the Department of Biochemistry in McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine.

Edith Clayton (née Drummond), basket weaver (born 6 September 1920 in Cherry Brook, NS; died 8 October 1989 in East Preston, NS). Using dyes from the Mi’kmaq community and a style that originated in Africa, Edith Clayton weaved traditional baskets that were admired across Canada and around the world. She was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977. Her baskets were prominently displayed at the Canadian pavilion at Expo 86 in Vancouver. In 1989, she was featured in a National Film Board film titled Black Mother Black Daughter.

Alfonso Gagliano, politician (born 1942 in Italy; died 12 December 2020). Alfonso Gagliano was the Member of Parliament for the Montreal neighbourhood of Saint-Leonard from 1984 until 2002. Following the 1997 election, he served as Minister of Public Works and Government Services in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. He was also chair of the electoral commission of the Liberal Party in Quebec. Gagliano resigned from cabinet and the House of Commons to accept a position as ambassador to Denmark. He was fired by Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2004 for his role in the sponsorship scandal.