Course Description

Storyteller, traveller, veteran and author Farley Mowat once said, “It is in our nature to travel into our past, hoping thereby to illuminate some of the present.” In order to shed any light on our past, the country’s historians need to be brave enough, patient enough, and articulate enough to seek out some of those people and places to explore them, in order to deliver some sense of their meaning. Remember that 1960s TV show Have Gun Will Travel? I’m adapting the title to offer more talks about my experiences seeking those witnesses with accounts of Canada’s past and why they remain significant today. Note: Sharing the lecture stage are four colleagues who have also explored aspects of Canadian history and have a passion to present them – Ellin Bessner, Malcolm Kelly, Gary Schlee and Gordon Laco.  

Course Director

Ted Barris

Journalist, broadcaster and author Ted Barris has regularly appeared in the national press, and magazines as diverse as Air Force, esprit de corps and Zoomer. He has worked as host/contributor for most CBC Radio network programs, NPR in the U.S. and on TV Ontario. He taught journalism at Toronto’s Centennial College for 18 years. He has now published 22 non-fiction books, mostly wartime histories. In Oct. 2024, Ted was inducted as a Member of the Order of Canada.

Ted Barris

Term and Time

Fall 2025 – starting September
9:50 am on Friday morning
Room TBA in York Hall

Course Outline

Two weeks before the course starts, you can download a printable PDF giving the 10-week detailed course outline.

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Lecture Notes

Links to resources such as additional reading or play lists are provided here as the Course Director makes them available during term. Like the course outline, lecture notes will open in a new browser tab so that you can download and print them.

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