PRIMARY SOURCES

A document or physical object which was

written or created during the time under study.
These sources were present during an
experience or time period and offer an inside
view of a particular event.
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS (excerpts or translations acceptable):
Diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, news film
footage, autobiographies, official records
CREATIVE WORKS: Poetry, drama, novels, music, art
RELICS OR ARTIFACTS: Pottery, furniture, clothing, buildings

SPECIFIC EXAMPLES
Diary of Anne Frank - Experiences of a
Jewish family during WWII
The Constitution of Canada - Canadian
History
A journal article reporting NEW research or
findings
Weavings and pottery - Native American
history
Plato's Republic - Women in Ancient Greece

SECONDARY
SOURCES
A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary
sources. These sources are one or more steps removed
from the event. Secondary sources may have pictures,
quotes or graphics of primary sources in them. Some
types of seconday sources include
Textbooks and magazine articles
Written histories and Criticisms and commentaries
Encyclopedias

EXAMPLES
A journal/magazine article which
interprets or reviews previous findings
A history textbook
A book about the effects of WWI on
Europeans

BIAS
If we consider bias to be a prejudice in favor of or
against one thing, person, or group compared with
another (usually in a way that is unfair) then how
do we deal treat primary and secondary sources?

Not inherently malevolent!

YOU HAVE TO ASK

What is the agenda? (Purpose)
What is at stake?
What is it that is not being said?

W E L C O M E T O C A N A D A AT T H E
T U R N O F T H E 2 0 T H C E N T U RY

CANADIAN PRE -WAR

POLITICS

CANADIAN PRAIRIE

POLISH FIELD

Clifford Sifton wanted, A stalwart peasant in a sheepskin

coat, born on the soil, whose forefathers have been farmers for
ten generations, and a stout wife and half-a-dozen children
Over 2 000 000 came from 1896 to 1911

Pro-Empire Canadians urged their government to

help. The war, they argued, pitted British freedom,
justice, and civilization against Boer backwardness

CRUX OF THE ISSUE

While many English-Canadians supported Britain's cause
in South Africa, most French-Canadians and many recent
immigrants from countries other than Britain did not
Why should Canada fight in a war half way around the
world?

Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier did not want to

commit his government yet Canada was part of the
Empire and public pressure mounted.

LAURIER EFFECT
Lauriers solution to the conundrum of

the Boer War was to equip and raise

volunteers but have them fight in the
British forces (who would pay them)
Bourassa resigned in protest
Jingoist imperialists were not pleased with
the lack of support from the government

McGill students attacked the offices

of two French language newspapers
Students from Laval responded with a
peaceful demonstration leading to
English-speaking

students to march

on Laval
The militia was called out

LAURIER
Determined to find a middle ground between
subordination to imperial authorities and total
independence but

This provided the background for another source

of national/international tension

Joint commission failed to form an agreement

Who owned the ports was the important
question
Six delegates three Americans, one Briton
and two Canadians
This showed Canadas dependence on Britain
in foreign affairs and that it was problematic

CANADIAN
ECONOMICS

CLASS IN CANADA
Canada is a class-based society, with clear racial and
economic distinctions separating the rich and the working
class.
The average yearly wage for production workers is $375.
For office and supervisory employees, the annual income
is $846.
On average, women earn about half of what men do.

A new emphasis on capitalism is creating a small but

growing middle class of office workers and managers.

WOMEN WORKING
Labour changed on the farm and in the city

BELIEF VERSUS
REALITY
As industrialization grew, it became the ideal
for wives to stay home to do housework and
rear children (or in middle class families to
supervise servants who did this)
Not a reality for the vast majority of wage
earners but this became justification for low
wages for women

SOCIAL VALUES
White Canada Forever

Your Great Mother[Queen Victoria] wishes the

good of all races under her sway. She wishes her
red children to be happy and contented. She
wishes them to live in comfort. She would like
them to adopt the habits of the whites, to till land
and raise food, and store it up against a time of
want
Adams Archibald First lieutenant-governor of Manitoba,
negotiator of Treaty One

HOW DID WE GET

HERE?
Aboriginal leaders hoped Euro-Canadian schooling
would enable their young to learn the skills of the
newcomer society and help them make a successful
transition to a world dominated by the strangers.
With the passage of the BNA in 1867, and the
implementation of the Indian Act(1876), the government
was required to provide Aboriginal youth with an
education and to integrate them into Canadian society.

50 (1885) - 100 (1901)- 500

(1904)
Well they do come and so do rats. I am pledged to
build the great Pacific Railroad in five years, and if I
cannot obtain white labour, I must employ other.
John A Macdonald

GET TING OLD? LOST A

SPOUSE? LOST YOUR
JOB? SICK? INJURED?
In most cases,
services are
available based on
money, not need.