Torontoist » war

Buy Victory Bonds

As the First World War drew to a close, Torontonians raised millions of dollars in financial relief for the war effort.

War is costly. In addition to the horrifying human toll, conflicts rack up a financial bill that needs to be paid one way or another. As the First World War neared its end in the fall of 1918, Torontonians and fellow Canadians were urged to perform their patriotic duty during Canada’s second Victory Loan campaign [...]

Historicist: Storm’d At With Shot and Shell

Canada's first Victoria Cross recipient, Alexander Roberts Dunn, was a native of York, Upper Canada, who fought in the Crimean War and charged with the Light Brigade.

On October 25, 1854, on the Crimean War battlefield of Balaclava, more than 600 British cavalrymen of the Light Brigade charged straight toward dozens of Russian artillery guns entrenched in a valley flanked on both sides by battalions of infantrymen on the heights above. Prompted by a poorly communicated order, the wild, suicidal charge resulted [...]

Historicist: “Complete Surrender to Boisterous Celebration”

Every Saturday at noon, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Photo of VE-Day celebrations, May 1945. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series A, Item 195. Moments after the announcement came over the radio, the streets were filled with people. As [...]

Historicist: At the Front With “Monty and Johnny”

Every Saturday at noon, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Image from Les Callan Normandy and On (Longmans, Green and Co., 1945). During the Second World War, comic books offered Canadian youth escapism from the humdrum of the home-front. The earliest [...]

Glad Hand: Something We Forgot

Glad Hand is Torontoist’s political cartoon, created by Brett Lamb and appearing here every Friday.

Scene: Brian Pinksen Comes Home

Photo by Amanda Large from Torontoist’s Flickr Pool. WHERE: Part of the stretch of the 401 that was, in 2007, renamed the Highway of Heroes, viewed from Harwood Avenue in Ajax. WHEN: September 2 at 4:52 p.m. WHAT: The body of Brian Pinksen, the Newfoundland soldier killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, is [...]

Coming Home Along Wellesley

Onlookers line Wellesley Street. As Torontonians hurried home after work on a grey and muggy Friday evening, those whose path took them along Wellesley Street found it closed to traffic. Unlike past weeks when streets were closed for the G20 and related protests, Toronto Police closed Wellesley in order to allow the unimpeded progress of [...]

Historicist: Life in Wartime

Every Saturday at noon, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Visit of Chinese officials to John Inglis Company, February 27, 1942. City of Toronto Archives, Series 1057, Item 2171. On September 10, 1939, Prime Minister Mackenzie King officially declared war on [...]

Bringing It All Back Home

A mural by British artist Banksy appears on the Separation Wall in Palestine. Photo by walker cleavelands. 2009 kicked off with promise in the air, a tonic sense of the future around which Western civilization warmed itself. Despite a snowballing economic catastrophe unseen since the 1930s, the world staggered onward, still high from the incredible [...]

PhotoTO: What Is It Good For?

As the war in Afghanistan enters its eighth year, more Canadians oppose the war than at any time since the country entered the conflict in 2002 (according to polls). Last Saturday, several hundred protesters gathered in Queen’s Park to send Stephen Harper a message: bring the troops home. The protest was part of a pan-Canadian [...]

PhotoTO: Call to Resist

On September 23, war resister Jeremy Hinzman—who has spent four and a half years living and working in Canada as a conscientious objector—is due to be deported back to the United States where he faces a dishonorable discharge, court martial, and sentence in a military prison, the equivalent of a felony record. A protest was held by the War Resister Support Campaign (WRSC) in Toronto and other cities across the country Saturday to rally support and raise awareness that the government continues to deport war resisters despite, as we previously reported, public and Parliamentary support for them to stay.

Nader Pontificates, North York Reintegrates, Arctic Ice Disintegrates

A visiting Ralph Nader said that expatriate Americans living in Canada should tell other Americans about how great our health care system is. He then explained that there was no difference between Barack Obama and John McCain and that people should vote for the 74-year-old vanity candidate because…well, he didn’t actually explain that part, but [...]