Teachable Moments
Velva Hueston moved to Edmonton with her mother in the early 1920s, after her father died in the 1918 flu…
Stories tagged: discrimination
Once a Teacher, Always a Teacher
My journey towards becoming an educator started in my childhood with time spent under a mango tree at my home…
Edmonton’s Caribbean Journey
The flights touched down at a Canadian International Airport bringing scores of eager Caribbean nationals, their suitcases packed with their…
After the Pisces Bathhouse Raid: John Kerr – Dance for Gramma
In the years before John Reid launched his career as owner of Flashback, Edmonton’s first gay disco, he worked cleaning…
After the Pisces Bathhouse Raid: Michael Phair – LGBTQ2S+ Activist and Community Leader
As of this writing, Michael is one of the few men charged as a “found-in” to speak publicly on the…
After the Pisces Bathhouse Raid: Dr. Henri Toupin – Dignity in the Eye of the Storm
Henri Toupin was born in Legal, Alberta, on March 15, 1923. He acquired his B.Sc. in 1947 from the University…
After the Pisces Bathhouse Raid: Millie – I’m Number One
Paul Chisholm’s first contact with another gay man occurred as he hitchhiked out of Saskatchewan in the late 1960s. Legend…
The Pisces Bathhouse Raid: Igniting Four Decades of Activism
After the Pisces Health Spa opened in Edmonton in 1978, word spread quickly that it was the best-kept gay bathhouse…
The Porter: Building a Better Canada for All
The Canadian National Railway Pullman train bustled through the Rocky Mountains on the way from Vancouver headed for a stop…
The Last Black West: Oklahoma Freedmen Seek Refuge in Alberta, Part 1
Advertisements promoting the “Last Best West”—a frontier open to all pioneers—have become an ingrained part of the Canadian national mythology. Like…
The Last Black West: Oklahoma Freedmen Seek Refuge in Alberta, Part 2
Read The Last Black West: Oklahoma Freedmen Seek Refuge in Alberta, Part 1. As we noted in Part 1, early…
The Other Side of Emily Murphy
Shortly after entering Emily Murphy Park, which sits on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River between Groat Bridge and…