Lecture Series: People Make History
On September 29th the History Program held it's Fall 2023 People Make History annual lecture series event. The speaker was Corporal George Beardshaw, a World War Two military veteran and former British Home Child. Born in Yorkshire in 1923 and placed in a Bernardo's orphanage in Sussex at age 3, Bearshaw described his life in the orphanage and his emigration to Canada as a Home Child at 14 years of age. Upon arriving in Canada George found himself indentured to an Ontario farm for five years. After three years on the farm he ran away, eventually joined the army, and landed in Normandy shortly after D-Day. Serving with the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, George fought in the liberation of Holland, where he was captured and held as a prisoner of war by the Germans for 28 days.
The History Program wishes to thank George Beardshaw for sharing details of his extraordinary early life with the Laurier community and for meeting with students and faculty at a lunch after the falk. The Program is also grateful to Laurier PhD student Kelly Morrison who chaired George's talk.
Link to the recorded lecture from February 9, 2022
Kate Armstrong is the award-winning author of the memoir The Stone Frigate: The Royal Military College’s First Female Cadet Speaks Out (2019). She served thirteen years in the military as a Logistics Officer and later worked for two decades in the corporate world of electricity trading, before fulfilling her dream to become a writer.
Link to recorded lecture from November 16, 2021
From growing up on the island nation of Grenada to making her home in Canada, Jennifer Hosten has had a full and varied life.
She was the first women of colour to win the Miss World competition in 1970. After this event she embarked on tours to a diverse array of countries with other personalities, including visiting US troops during the Vietnam war.
From there, she took her love of exploring different cultures and people into work in Broadcasting, academia, diplomacy, trade negotiation, Inter-national development, Business ownership, hospitality, and Psychology. She is a proud mother to Sophia and Beau, and grand mother to her five grandchildren.
Jennifer’s life is defined by her desire to continue to learn, to rise to the challenges that come our way and give back to those around her. She recently concluded her memoir titled: Miss World 1970: How I Entered a Pageant and Wound-up Making History. The book was an inspiration for the major motion picture: Misbehaviour. Both the book and movie were launched in London, England on March 10, 2020. The movie tells the story of Jennifer’s historic win in 1970, alongside the rise of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the UK.
Link to recorded lecture from February 9, 2021
Dalhousie University Professor, Portia White Prize winner, and Halifax Poet Laureate Emerita, reads poems and prose inspired by everyday Black experiences and Black history, including work from her newest book Black Matters and her national bestseller The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal.
Link to recorded lecture from November 26, 2020
Polio survivor Catherine Bell shared memories of her 1953 childhood diagnosis, her rehabilitation journey, living and working with post-polio syndrome, and volunteerism with March of Dimes Canada. Bell is an honours graduate of Ryerson’s Fashion Design program and enjoyed careers as a Fashion Designer and Merchandise Manager at Parkhurst, and a Fashion Design Professor at Ryerson and St. Lawrence College. In addition to her PRIME Impression image consultant business, she teaches entrepreneurship and career strategies. Bell has authored two books, Empower Your Presence: How to Build True Wealth with Your Personal Brand and Image and Managing Your Image Potential, and is a contributing author to Masters of Networking and Public Speaking Super Powers!
Widely known as the mind behind the award-winning television franchise Degrassi, Linda Schuyler moved from London, England at a young age to Paris, Ontario. Being an immigrant, Schuyler was often teased and bullied about her accent and clothes, which she didn’t realize at the time would be experiences she would pull from for the iconic television series. Her true inspiration was drawn from her high school teaching career in Toronto. Reflecting on her own childhood feeling like an outsider, and being surrounded by her diverse students, sparked the creation of her first documentary Between Two Worlds. Discovering her love of film, and noticing the gap in materials that showcased the teenage experience, Schuyler studied film and continued to work on documentaries and short films, and eventually, the creation of the first Degrassi series, The Kids of Degrassi Street in 1979. Thus, a string of highly successful Degrassi shows followed, totalling over 500 episodes which aired in over 150 countries.
Above and beyond her name in television, Schuyler has also created a name for herself giving back to her community in Paris, ON, and her extensive volunteer work with foundations such as UNICEF, Free the Children and Big Sisters. In 2015, Schuyler was also awarded with an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Actor, writer and film-director Yusuf Zine began his career in the entertainment industry in 2006 as a professional actor in Toronto. While interning with Muslim Social Services KW, Zine worked with Rohingya youth who wished to tell their story of their refuge experience surviving genocide. When the idea of performing a play was brought forward, Zine pulled from his background in theatre and acting to produce his documentary I Am Rohingya: A Genocide in Four Acts. Working with a cast of first-time actors, Zine produced a re-enactment of their own personal stories of the Rohingya crisis. As co-founder of Innerspeak Digital Media, a creative production duo based out of Toronto, ON, Zine’s work has been screened across the world and featured in international major news outlets. In 2016, Zine completed his Master of Arts in Social Justice and Community Engagement at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Author of bestselling novels As Long as the Rivers Flow and The Redemption of Oscar Wolf, James Bartleman is a former Canadian ambassador to South Africa, Cuba and Israel, as well as a former foreign policy advisor for Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. As a member of the Chippewas of Mnjikaning First Nation, Bartleman was Ontario’s first Indigenous Lieutenant Governor in 2002, becoming a member of the Order of Ontario. Additionally, receiving awards such as the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for public service, the Dr. Hugh Lefave Award, and the Courage to Come Back Award, Bartleman is widely known for his efforts in trying to end the stigma surrounding mental health, fighting racism and discrimination, and championing Indigenous youth. He launched the first Lieutenant Governor’s Book Drive in 2004, collecting 1.2 million used books for First Nations schools as well as Native Friendship Centres across Ontario. Bartleman also created multiple literacy summer camp programs for First Nations communities, and in 2006 launched a reading club for Indigenous children in northern Ontario called Club Amick.
Andrew Barber joined the Navy at HMCS Donnacona in 1951. He served in the Korean War and participated in the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Upon discharge, he worked for Northern Telecom-Nortel Networks and Taxsave. Barber is vice-president of Haida Volunteers, secretary of the Burl-Oak Naval Veteran Association, co-chairman of the Veterans Committee of the Halton Naval Veterans Association, recording secretary of the Korea Veterans Association Unit 26 in Hamilton, and a member of the Royal Canadian Legion at the Streetsville Mississauga Branch 139.
Ron Kirk enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy in 1951 at the age of 17. He served in the Korean War and was present for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II as part of the Commonwealth Fleet. After his return from Korea, Kirk has done a lot of volunteer work as a member of the Horseshoe Hockey Association as an executive, treasurer of the Korea War Veterans Association Unit 26 in Hamilton, treasurer of the Burl-Oaks Naval Veterans, member of the Friends of HMCS Haida, member of Hamilton Vintage Signals, and a duty veteran at citizenship ceremonies.
Mike Vencel join the Royal Canadian Navy in 1957 at age 17. He went to the destroyer HMCS Assiniboine to get on the job training in the electrical branch and was present at a radio-transmitting branch during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Vencel has been a member of multiple veteran’s and military history groups including the Burl-Oak Naval Veterans, the Royal Hamilton Military Institute, and the Veteran’s Committee at the Halton Naval Veterans Club, Friends of HMCS Haida, and the HMCS Haida National Historic Site.
Yola Grant was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. Later as a law student in Toronto, Yola’s studies focused on poverty law, discrimination, human rights, labour and constitutional law. She immersed herself in the anti-apartheid movement and feminist organizations, assuming lead roles as a public speaker and event organizer. Most notably, she was the co-chairperson of the Anti-Apartheid Coalition of Toronto that organized massive demonstrations, fund-raisers and conferences. Grant is renowned for her work in combating discrimination based on race and gender and is a prominent figure within Canada’s Black and Caribbean communities.
Yolisa Dalamba was born in South Africa, and grew up during the anti-Apartheid movement. She became heavily influenced by the Black Consciousness movement, and has been a grassroots activist and educator for more than 30 years in Canada and internationally. She has travelled throughout Southern Africa doing AIDS education work in countries like Zambia, Botswana and Namibia at the height of the AIDS crisis during the 1990s. Dalamba’s work as an educator continued when she was an instructor at the Africentric Learning Institute in Nova Scotia since its inception for more than six years. She is also the executive director of FACE (Friends of Africentric Education), a new organization aimed at supporting the Africentric education movement.
Setsuko Thurlow is a peace activist and nuclear disarmament campaigner, as well as a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing in 1945. At the age of 13, she was present during the explosion of first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. After the war, she studied social work in Japan, the United States and Canada. She moved to Toronto in 1962, with her husband and two sons, where she worked for decades as a social worker. Thurlow initiated many anti-nuclear activities to bring awareness about nuclear issues in the past and present. In 2016, she received the Arms Control Person of the Year Award from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. In 2017, Thurlow won the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy and continued work in this field.
Pinchas Gutter is a Holocaust survivor and educator who has dedicated his life to informing the public of the atrocities committed during the Second World War by the Nazi government. His entire family was incarcerated in the Warsaw ghetto before being deported to a death camp where the Nazis murdered his parents and twin sister. Gutter survived slave labour and six concentration camps. After surviving the war, Gutter lived in Britain and South Africa before settling in Canada in 1985. Gutter is an honorary full-time cantor in the Kiever Synagogue and an educator with the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre in Toronto.