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As a foundation of the Order of St. John, St. John Ambulance has been providing first aid training programs in Canada for the past 125 years. From the sweatshops of the Victorian era and military hospitals of the First World War to a modern-day volunteer organization devoted to the service of humanity, this history recounts the remarkable story of the Order’s contribution to our country and those who made it possible. With connections to the hospitaller work of the Order of St. John in the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Order of St.

It's a war story that is told every time the career of Billy Bishop is discussed: On June 2, 1917, the young pilot single-handedly took out a German airfield in an early morning raid at the height of the Great War. For this, he was awarded the Victoria Cross, and a place in Canadian history. And yet, the attack never happened. In this explosive new biography, Brereton Greehous exposes the myth of Billy Bishop. While his bravery never comes into question (Bishop was as courageous as any of the men who risked their lives in those early warplanes) his credibility as a storyteller does.

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the throne, the Centre of Canadian Studies of the University of Edinburgh hosted its annual conference on the theme "Majesty in Canada". The essays that were presented at that conference reflect the wide-ranging recognitions of the different roles that monarchs and their representatives have played in Canada.The essays examine how Canadians have understood their ties to royalty and how the regal principle formed an important part of the national identity.

In addition to his activities as conductor, administrator, educator, composer, and organist, Sir Ernest MacMillan (1893-1973) found time to write more than one hundred essays and lectures on music.

Les Forces d’opérations spéciales (SOF) n’ont jamais fait partie intégrante des capacités militaires du Canada. Des unités spéciales ont certes existé à certaines périodes de notre histoire, mais elles ont toujours oeuvré dans l’ombre, à la limite de la reconnaissance. Elles ont presque toujours ete marginalisées. Cependant, la tragique attaque lancée par des terroristes sur les tours jumelles du World Trade Center à New York, le 11 septembre 2001, a considérablement modifié leur image. Les SOF sont devenues depuis des forces de premier plan.

Loyalist Mosaic highlights the ethnic diversity among the Loyalist settlers to Canada by exploring the experiences of 11 extraordinary individuals.

French Canadians have a long, proud history of serving their nation. From the earliest beginnings, French Canadians assisted in carving out and defending the nascent country. They were critical as defenders and as allies against hostile Natives and competing European powers. In the aftermath of the conquest, they continued, albeit under a different flag, to defend Canada.

Canadian composer Louis Applebaum devoted his life to the cultural awakening of his native land, and this "magnificent obsession" drove him to become a founder of the Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre. He was an instrumental figure in the early development of the National Film Board, the Stratford Festival, and the National Art Centre in Ottawa. For nearly half a century he composed music for the Stratford Festival, television, radio, and films.

The Empress of Ireland’s last voyage ended on May 29, 1914, when she was rammed by a Norwegian coal-carrier in a fog patch on the St. Lawrence River near Rimouski. For David Creighton, her voyage still continues. In Losing the Empress, Creighton delves into the lives of his grandparents - Salvation Army officers who were lost on the Empress - and the lives of their five orphaned children who would soon be plunged into World War I. His discoveries reveal amazing details about the Empress, which sank in fourteen minutes with a greater loss of life than the Titanic disaster.

Donald Smith, known to most Canadians as Lord Strathcona, was an adventurer who made his fortune building railroads. He joined the Hudson’s Bay Company at age eighteen and went on to build the first railway to open the Canadian Northwest to settlement. As his crowning achievement, he drove the last spike for the nation-building Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1896, Smith became Canada’s High Commissioner in London and was soon elevated to the peerage. He became a generous benefactor to Canadian institutions.