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Episode Summary
Episode:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17
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Inhabitants of Nootka,
British Columbia Artist: Gallo Gallina (1796-1874)
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 Episode
1
When the World Began...
Time
Span: 15,000 BC to 1800 AD
The
opening episode of this 16-part documentary ranges across the
continent, looking back more than 15,000 years to recount the varied
history of the first occupants of the territory that would become
Canada. From the rich resource of native oral history and archeology
come the stories of the land's first people - how dozens of distinct
societies took shape, and how they encountered a strange new people,
the Europeans. Among the earliest of these epoch-making encounters is
the meeting between Jacques Cartier and Donnacona, the Iroquoian chief
whom Cartier first met on the Gaspé shore in 1534 and later kidnapped.
Later on the Pacific coast, Nootka chief Maquinna encounters John
Jewitt, the English sailor who became his captive and eventually his
reluctant friend.
Complete Credits for Episode 1
Producer/Director/Writer:
Andrew Gregg
Producer: Gail Gallant
Co-producers: Julia Bennett and Lynn Glazier
Editor: Jacques Milette
Cinematography: Michael Sweeney, CSC, Hans Vanderzande
Featuring:
Yvan Ponton (Jacques Cartier), Michael Mahonen (John Jewitt), Jonathan
Jacobson (Maquinna), August Shellenberg (Woodlands Storyteller), Tantoo
Cardinal (Plains Storyteller), Lucie Idlout (Inuit Storyteller), Evan
Adams (West Coast Storyteller), René-Daniel Dubois (André Thevet),
Roger Honeywell (William Cormack)
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Samuel de Champlain
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Episode
2
Adventurers and Mystics
Time
Span: 1540 To 1670
With
the search for the Northwest Passage and the expansion of the Grand
Banks fishery, the New World soon becomes a destination for permanent
European colonies, in Newfoundland and along the St. Lawrence. Samuel
de Champlain begins his legendary journeys, and the precarious
beginnings of New France are established. It is an era of unprecedented
alliances and devastating conflicts with native people, driven by the
merchants' search for furs and the Jesuits' quest for souls. After a
half-century of struggle, with the colony on the verge of extinction,
Louis XIV takes personal control, sending French soldiers to defend the
struggling outpost and eligible young women, the "filles du
roi," to become their wives.
Complete Credits for Episode 2
Directors:
Claude Lortie and Serge Turbide
Additional sequences by Andrew Gregg and Laine Drewery
Writers: Hubert Gendron and Gene Allen
Journalist-Researchers: Denyse Beaugrand-Champagne, Claude
Bérrardelli
Co-producers: Metchild Furlani, Lynn Glazier
Editor: André Daigneault
Cinematography: Gaetan Morriset, Maurice Chabot, Pierre
Mainville
Original music: Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson
Featuring: C. David Johnston (John Guy), Ghislain Tremblay (Samuel de
Champlain), Raymond Cloutier (François le Mercier), Carl Marotte (adult
Perre Boucher), Paule Baillargeon (Marie de L'Incarnation)
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Jacques Cartier
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Episode
3
Claiming the Wilderness
Time
Span: 1670 To 1755
A
small French settlement in New France builds a flourishing society and
stakes a claim to a massive continent between 1660 and 1750. New
France's populace includes shop keepers, artisans, farmers and
landlords, as well as fur-trading expansionists like Governor Frontenac
and his commercial partner, Robert Cavelier de La Salle, who build a
network of Indian alliances and extend French trading posts to the Gulf
of Mexico. But this fast-paced growth brings New France into ever more
bitter conflict with the wealthier and more numerous - but less
venturesome - British colonists to the south. The story culminates with
the heartrending deportation of more than 10,000 French Catholic
Acadians as the struggle to possess North America enters its final,
decisive phase.
Complete Credits for Episode 3
Directors:
Serge Turbide and Claude Lortie
Writers: Hubert Gendron and Gene Allen
Journalist-Researchers: Denyse Beaugrand-Champagne, Claude
Bérrardelli
Editor: André Daigneault
Cinematography: Gaetan Morriset, Maurice Chabot, Pierre
Mainville
Original music: Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson
Featuring: Pierre Chagnon (comte de Frontenac), Graham Greene
(Kondiaronk), Zachary Richard (Jean Labordore), Paule Baillargeon
(Marie de L'Incarnation), Dominique Briand (Marquis de Sallières)
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View
of the Taking of Quebec, Sept. 13, 1759.
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Episode
4
Battle for a Continent
Time
Span: 1754 To 1775
A
period of a little more than two decades in the mid-18th century changes the destiny of North America. England and France battle
each other in the Seven Years' War, a conflict that begins as a clash
between les Canadiens and land-hungry American settlers in the
Ohio Valley and becomes a world war that engulfs the continent.
Fortress Louisbourg, symbol of the French empire, is the target of
27,000 soldiers and sailors in the greatest naval invasion in North
America's history. In 1759, General James Wolfe leads the assault
against Quebec but the citadel withstands a devastating siege and
bombardment. With winter soon arriving, Wolfe forces the commander of
the French troops, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, into one last desperate
encounter. The battle for North America unfolds on an abandoned
farmer's field, the Plains of Abraham, just outside the city's walls.
When war ends in 1763, 70,000 French colonists come under British rule,
setting in motion the ever-evolving French-English dynamic in Canada.
Complete Credits for Episode 4
Producer:
Sally Reardon
Director: Serge Turbide
Writer: Mark Starowicz
Co-producer: Julia Bennett
Journalist-Researcher: Richard Fortin
Editor: Murray Green
Cinematography: Michael Sweeney, CSC, Maurice Chabot, Pierre
Mainville, Derek Kennedy
Original music: Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson
Featuring: Guy Nadon (Louis-Joseph de Montcalm), Robert Joy (General
James Wolfe), August Shellenberg (Pontiac), Diana Leblanc (Marie de la
Visitation), John Gilbert (Sir James Murray), Leon Pownall (Benjamin
Franklin), Simon Barry (Abby Jean-Felix Recher), Nigel Bennett (Sir Guy
Carleton) Normand Bissonnette (François Gaston de Lévis), Paul Savoie
(Marquis de Vaudreuil)
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The
Battle of Tippecanoe, Nov 7, 1811.
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Episode
5
A Question of Loyalties
Time
Span: 1775 To 1815
At
the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775, American rebels
invade Canada but despite the efforts of rebel spies to entice Quebec
to join the revolution, les Canadiens refuse to take up arms
against British rule, and the invasion ultimately fails. The mass
migration of Loyalists that follows - more than 40,000 people in all -
creates an English-speaking Canada virtually overnight. Over the next
30 years, the colony continues to develop. When the next American
invaders arrive in 1812, they are fought to a stand-still at the
battles of Queenston Heights, Chateauguay and Lundy's Lane, setting
boundaries that remain today. The cast of characters includes the
audacious military commanders General Isaac Brock and Colonel
Charles-Michel de Salaberry; Hannah Ingraham and her dispossessed
Loyalist family; Benedict Arnold, the notorious traitor to the American
Revolution; visionary Indian leader Tecumseh; Pierre Bédard, brilliant
tactician of an emerging colonial democracy; and Canadian traitors who
are publicly executed near Hamilton, Ontario.
Complete Credits for Episode 5
Producer/Director/Writer:
Laine Drewery
Producers: Wayne Chong, Grazyna Krupa
Journalist-Researcher: Martin Bisaillon
Editor: Sheldon Beldick
Cinematography: Maurice Chabot
Original music: Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson
Featuring: Lorne Cardinal (Tecumseh), Stephen McHattie (General Isaac
Brock), Nigel Bennett (Sir Guy Carleton), Eric Schweig (Joseph Brant),
Claude Poissant (Pierre Bédard), Louise Marleau (Thérèse Baby), Holly
Lewis (Amelia Harris)
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Shooting
the Rapids, Quebec, 1879.
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Episode
6
The Pathfinders
Time
Span: 1670 To 1850
The
Canadian west is opened by the great fur-trading empires of the
Hudson's Bay and Northwest Companies, the native people who were their
indispensable allies, and bold explorers and map makers who ventured
from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean and long-sought-for Pacific.
Pierre Esprit Radisson defies a governor to take New France's trade far
into the continent's interior and later, founds an English trading
empire; Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de la Vérendrye, spends a
lifetime searching for the Western Sea and pays dearly for it. Tough
Dene chief Matonabbee leads Samuel Hearne on a monumental trek into the
Barren Lands; Alexander Mackenzie's dash to the Pacific makes him one
of the most celebrated men of his age. And David Thompson comes to the
forbidding shores of Hudson Bay as a 14-year-old apprentice and
eventually unlocks the secrets of the West more than any other man. As
the fur trader's day comes to an end, settlers on the prairies and gold
miners in British Columbia begin to claim the west for themselves.
Complete Credits for Episode 6
Director:
Michelle Métivier
Writer: Gordon Henderson
Editor: Mark Solnoky
Cinematography: Derek Kennedy
Original music: Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson
Featuring: Gordon Tootoosis (Saukamapee), Art Kitching (Samuel
Hearne), Geordie Johnson (Daniel Harmon), Shawn Smyth (David Thompson),
James Douglas (Sir James Douglas)
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Back view of the Church of St-Eustache and dispersion of
the Insurgents, Dec 4, 1837. Artist: Lord Charles Beauclerk
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Episode
7
Rebellion and Reform
Time
Span: 1815 To 1850
By
1830, the struggle for democratic government in the colonies of British
North America has reached fever pitch. As the colonies grow in wealth
and population, a generation of charismatic reformers -- Joseph Howe in
Nova Scotia, Louis-Joseph Papineau in Lower Canada and William Lyon
Mackenzie in Upper Canada - confront the appointed governors and their
local favourites with one demand: let the citizens' elected
representatives run their own affairs. In the Canadas, the struggle
leads to bloody rebellion and disastrous defeat for the rebels. Yet
within 10 years, the prize of self-government is won, thanks in part to
an unexpected alliance between the French and English-speaking forces
of reform.
Complete Credits for Episode 7
Director:
Peter Ingles
Producer: Andrew Burnstein
Senior Journalist: Frédéric Vanasse
Journalist-Researcher: Martin Bisaillon
Editor: Marc Jasmin
Cinematography: Pierre Mainville, Maurice Chabot, Gaetan
Morriset
Original music: Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson
"Un Canadien errant"
from the album "Émile Campagne"
produced by Folle Avoine Productions
distributed in Canada by Universal Music.
Featuring: Martin Neufeld (William Lyon Mackenzie), Ted Atherton (Robert
Baldwin), Randy Hughson (Joseph Howe), Alain Fournier (Louis-Joseph
Papineau)
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Convention
at Charlottetown, PEI, Sep. 11, 1864
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Episode
8
The Great Enterprise
Time
Span: 1850 To 1867
In
a few short years, a handful of small and separate British colonies are
transformed into a new nation that controls half the North American
continent. The story of Confederation, its supporters and its bitter
foes, is told against a backdrop of U.S. Civil War and Britain's
growing determination to be rid of its expensive, ungrateful colonies.
The dawn of the photographic era provides a vivid portrait of the
diverse people who make up the new Dominion of Canada: the railway
magnates, the unwed mothers of Montreal, the nuns who provide refuge
for the destitute, the prosperous merchants of Halifax, the brave
fugitives of the Underground Railroad, and the tide of Irish immigrants
who flood into the cities.
Complete Credits for Episode 8
Producer/Director/Writer:
Jim Williamson
Producers: Fiona McHugh, Johanne Ménard
Editor: Murray Green
Additional editing by: Ilona Crabbe
Cinematography: Michael Sweeney, CSC, and Maurice Chabot
Original music: Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson
Featuring: Domini Blythe (Jane Slocombe), Patricia Hamilton (Amelia Harris),
Barbara Barnes Hopkins (Harriet Tubman), Robert Haley (Robert Wyte),
Claire Jullien (Mercy Coles)
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Thomas D'Arcy McGee
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Episode
9
From Sea to Sea
Time
Span: 1867 To 1873
Confederation
is barely accomplished when the new dominion must face an enormous
challenge: extending its reach into the vast prairies and beyond, to
the Pacific Ocean. But Canada blunders catastrophically in seeking to take
over the west without the consent of its inhabitants, especially the
Métis of Red River and their leader, the charismatic, troubled Louis
Riel. The resistance of 1869-70 lays the groundwork for Manitoba to
join Canada, but it also sets the stage for decades of conflict over
the rights of French and English, Catholic and Protestant in the new
territories. Thanks to an audacious promise of a transcontinental
railway in 10 years, the settlers of British Columbia are more easily
convinced of the merits of union; by 1873 Prince Edward Island has
joined as well, and Canada can boast a dominion that extends from sea
to sea.
Complete Credits for Episode 9
Producer/Director/Writer:
Jim Williamson
Producers: Fiona McHugh, Johanne Ménard
Editor: Murray Green
Additional editing by: Ilona Crabbe
Cinematography: Michael Sweeney, CSC, and Maurice Chabot
Original music: Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson
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Louis Riel Addressing the Jury during his trial for
treason after the failure of the NorthWest Rebellion, Court House,
Sask, 1885.
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Episode
10
Taking the West
Time
Span: 1873 To 1896
The
1870s and 1880s are a time of trial for the young Dominion of Canada.
The country's first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald, faces economic
depression in the fast-growing factories of the east and a new revolt
in the west, led by his old nemesis, Louis Riel. The suppression of the
Northwest Rebellion and Macdonald's single-minded insistence that the
French-speaking Catholic Riel must hang for treason threatens to tear
apart the fragile bond between Quebec and English Canada. During this
same era, debates over provincial powers and the Manitoba Schools
Question rage, and a dream is realized: the Canadian Pacific Railway
links the country and opens the prairies to new floods of immigration.
: Bill
Cobban
Journalist-Researcher: Martin Bisaillon
Co-producer: Lynette Fortune
Editor: Sheldon Beldick
Cinematography: Michael Sweeney, CSC, and Hans Vanderzande
Original music: Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson
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Ukrainian
wedding party, early 1900's.
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Episode
11
The Great Transformation
Time
Span: 1896 To 1915
Massive
waves of immigration, a headlong economic boom with the growth of
prairie agriculture and urban industry transform Canada between 1896
and 1915. Those who shape the new society include peasants from Eastern
Europe, in search of free land; socialists who try to mobilize an
emerging urban working class; and campaigners for temperance and
women's suffrage. The dizzying pace of change also brings ethnic
intolerance and racism, particularly against Asian immigrants. As well,
growing tensions over Canada's role in the British Empire help put an
end to Sir Wilfrid Laurier's reign in 1911. When World War I breaks
out, a burst of enthusiasm in English Canada and resistance in French
Canada foreshadows domestic conflict as wartime pressures grow.
: Halya
Kuchmij, Andrew Burnstein
Writer: Andrew Burnstein
Researcher: Xavier Gélinas
Editor: Mark Solnoky
Cinematography: Maurice Chabot
Original music: Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson
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Prime Minister Robert Borden reviewing the troops in
France.
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Episode
12
Ordeal by Fire
Time
Span: 1915 To 1929
Canada's
heavy military role in World War I (60,000 dead in a population of 8
million) transforms its society, its politics and its place in the
world. The horror, bravery and sacrifice of trench warfare are evoked
in Canada's great battles: Ypres, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Courcelette
and Passchendaele. The domestic consequences of Canada's war effort are
also wrenching - the conscription crisis of 1917 marks a low point in
English-French relations. After the war ends, labour revolts in
Winnipeg and across the country raise fears of a Bolshevik
insurrection. The return to stability in the mid-1920s lasts only
briefly as the crash of 1929 plunges the country into economic chaos.
Producer/Director/Writer:
Jacqueline Corkery
Senior Journalist: Lynda Baril
Producer: Grazyna Krupa
Editor: André Daigneault
Original music: Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson
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The
Depression in the 1930's, British Columbia.
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Episode
13
Hard Times
Time
Span: 1929 To 1940
Canada's
economy collapses during the 1930s, creating a prolonged political and
social crisis. In the context of the Dust Bowl, the relief camps and
the Regina Riot, political leaders such as William Aberhart, Maurice
Duplessis, and Mitchell Hepburn capture national attention. Meanwhile,
an increasingly menacing international climate sees the rise of fascism
and mounting likelihood of another world war. When war does arrive,
Canada finds itself fighting virtually alone at Britain's side.
Producer/Director/Writer: Jill
Offman
Producer: Marcy Cuttler
Journalist-Researcher: Claude Bérrardelli
Editor: Jacques Milette
Cinematography: Michael Sweeney, CSC, and Maurice Chabot
Original music: Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson
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World War II
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Episode
14
The Crucible
Time
Span: 1940 To 1946
Canada
comes of age in the anguish of World War II, with soldiers on the
beaches at Dieppe and women in the industrial work force back home. The
country's military role and the domestic social and political
consequences of the war are traced through poignant stories of
Canadians on both sides of the Atlantic. The horrific global conflict
steals the innocence of a generation... but brings hope for a new
future.
: Susan
Teskey
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Episode
15
Comfort and Fear
Time
Span: 1946 To 1964
The
end of World War II signals the end of fifteen years of social,
political and economic upheaval. The post-war baby boom and government
economic and social policies give rise to unprecedented prosperity and growth
for Canadian communities. Television becomes a powerful new tool with
social and political consequences. But in the midst of plenty, growing
fears of the Cold War and nuclear conflict create an unsettled
atmosphere. Political leaders - including Diefenbaker, Smallwood,
Duplessis create excitement and controversy. Saskatchewan's premier
Tommy Douglas begins the fight for Medicare while Canada finds itself
increasingly absorbed into the American military, economic and cultural
orbit.
Producer/Director
(Hour One):
Susan Teskey
Producer/Director (Hour Two): Marquise Lepage
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Prime
Minster Pierre E. Trudeau
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Episode
16
Years of Hope and Anger
Time
Span: 1964 To 1976
The
Sixties and Seventies are an era of ferment on every level: politics,
culture and personal life. Quebec's Quiet Revolution and youth
movements across North America challenge the status quo. Some events
bring the country together: a new flag is introduced and Canada shines
in the world's spotlight with Expo '67; while others threaten
considerable upheaval: growing calls for Quebec sovereignty, the 1970
FLQ/War Measures Act crisis, and an energy shortage pits East against
West. A charismatic law professor is elected Liberal leader, then Prime
Minister; Trudeaumania changes the face of Canadian politics.
Producer/Director: Marquise
Lepage
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Episode
17
In an Uncertain World
Time
Span: 1976 To 1990
The
world order and economic boom that had taken shape after World War II
starts to unravel, and a new era of uncertainty begins. Free trade,
globalization, and regionalism converge with the rise of feminism,
aboriginal claims, growing multiculturalism and the explosion of
computer technology. Canada's economic, social and political
environment are affected. Canada's new Charter begins to have an
impact. Debate around Canadian unity intensifies with the Quebec
referendum of 1980, repatriation of the Constitution and the Meech Lake
Accord.
Producer/Director: Susan
Dando
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