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Okill Stuart (Primary Source)
Article

Okill Stuart (Primary Source)

"And I remember turning to the chap next to me, saying, you know, a fellow could get killed around here. There has to be a lighter side."

See below for Mr. Stuart's entire testimony.


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.

Vancouver Feature: Gassy Jack Lands on the Burrard Shore
Article

Vancouver Feature: Gassy Jack Lands on the Burrard Shore

The following article is a feature from our Vancouver Feature series. Past features are not updated.


When Capt. Jack Deighton and his family pulled their canoe onto the south shore of the Burrrard Inlet in 1867, Jack was on one more search for riches. He had been a sailor on British and American ships, rushed for gold in California and the Cariboo, piloted boats on the Fraser River and ran a tavern in New Westminster. He was broke again, but he wasted no time in starting a new business and building the settlement that would become Vancouver.

Vancouver Feature: Fledgling City Incinerated in Minutes
Editorial

Vancouver Feature: Fledgling City Incinerated in Minutes

The following article is a feature from our Vancouver Feature series. Past features are not updated.


It was a scorching summer day, but a strong breeze was blowing from Burrard Inlet. Workers were burning off timber they had cleared from Canadian Pacific Railway lands. With a sudden gust, the wood frame buildings of tiny Vancouver were aflame. Twenty-five minutes later, there wasn’t much left of the two-month-old city.

Vancouver Feature: Mob Storms Chinatown and Japantown
Editorial

Vancouver Feature: Mob Storms Chinatown and Japantown

The following article is a feature from our Vancouver Feature series. Past features are not updated.


The events of September 7, 1907 began with an evening parade down Hastings Street. 5,000 men, white badges fluttering from their buttonholes, marched and listened to fiery speeches on the perils of Asian immigration. Then someone shouted “On to Chinatown!” and all hell broke loose.

Vancouver Feature: The Bay’s Days
Article

Vancouver Feature: The Bay’s Days

The following article is a feature from our Vancouver Feature series. Past features are not updated.


The Hudson’s Bay Company staked its claim to the northeast corner of Georgia and Granville in 1893. Through changes in fashion, technology and politics — as well as some architectural refinements — it has remained there ever since.

Elections of 1979 and 1980
Article

Elections of 1979 and 1980

The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.

Calling elections is like Goldilocks visiting the three bears — which political stew will turn out to be too soon, too late, or just right? The elections of 1979 and 1980 illustrate the perils of too late, followed by too soon.

Quebec Bridge Disaster
Editorial

Quebec Bridge Disaster

The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.

High above the St. Lawrence River, on a hot August day in 1907, a worker named Beauvais was driving rivets into the great southern span of the Quebec Bridge. Near the end of a long day, he noticed that a rivet that he had driven no more than an hour before had snapped clean in two. Just as he called out to his foreman to report the disquieting news, the scream of twisting metal pierced the air. The giant cantilever dropped out from under them, crashing into the river with such force that people in the city of Quebec, 10 km away, believed that an earthquake had struck.

Editorial: The Canadian Constitution Comes Home
Editorial

Editorial: The Canadian Constitution Comes Home

The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.

In April 1982, as an Ottawa winter turned to spring, Queen Elizabeth II made her eleventh visit to Canada. She had come to make it official. After more than a half-century of trying, Canada would have its own constitution. A Canadian-made constitution was unfinished business from the country’s colonial past. The British North America Act in 1867 set out the jurisdictions of the federal and provincial governments and created the Dominion of Canada. It was, however, a law of the British Parliament, and it could only be amended (changed) by the British.

Editorial: How the “Canadianized” Community of Newfoundland Joined Canada
Editorial

Editorial: How the “Canadianized” Community of Newfoundland Joined Canada

The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.

When the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa were repaired after a fire during the First World War, stone plaques were erected over the entrance to the Peace Tower. There were ten of them — nine bearing the coats of arms of the provinces and one left bare, to await the day when Newfoundlandjoined Canada.

The Fraser River Gold Rush and the Founding of British Columbia
Editorial

The Fraser River Gold Rush and the Founding of British Columbia

The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.

The year 1858 is the single most important year in British Columbia’s history. It was on 2 August of that year that an imperial actestablished the mainland colony of BC under the authority of Governor James Douglas. Beginning that spring, the Fraser River Gold Rushunleashed a chain of events that culminated a dozen years later in British Columbia joining the new Canadian Confederation (see British Columbia and Confederation). Without 1858, it is very possible there would have been no British Columbia, but rather an American state. Without 1858, Canada today might not extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific.