I’m sure all our listeners at some point in their lives have encountered an uncomfortable moment when discussing sex and sexuality, and in many places and communities within Canada discussions of sex are still quite taboo. Today, we’re breaking that taboo and asking some real questions about sex in Canada. How has the subject of sex in Canada changed over time? When did issues related to sex and sexuality really undergo significant change in this country? How much sex did Canadians used to have? How much sex are they having today? These questions and so many more are going to be answered in the sexiest CCH episode to date.

We dive to the bottom of these questions with sociologist Tina Fetner

Tina Fetner is Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department at McMaster University. Her previous projects explored the dynamics of social change relating to sexuality, examining the impact of the opposing activism of LGBT movement and the anti-LGBT activism of the religious right from a historical perspective. Her current research examines the social organization of sexual behaviour. She is the principal investigator for the Sex in Canada multi-method research project that examines sexual behaviour and social attitudes among Canadian adults. This project builds upon previous work, including comparative analyses of the change in attitudes toward lesbian and gay people, as well as the uneven growth of Gay-Straight Alliances in high schools.

Today’s recommended book is Tina Fetner’s most recent book Sex in Canada: The Who Why When and How of Getting Down Up North. Published by UBC Press in 2024.

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When one thinks of the pre-confederation development of North America one might think of war and empires, competing nations, economic trade, fur, colonization, resistance and so many other themes and topics that have been enshrined in our understanding of early French and British North America.

What’s interesting, is that present in almost all of this is alcohol. In fact, alcohol has been at the heart of the settler-colonial experience since the first Europeans arrived on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. Alcohol was already central to European personal, economic, and professional relationships, and thus became central to European colonialism including European-indigenous relations, the slave trade, the fur trade, and the relationship between the classes. In fact, alcohol came to define much of the lives of those European settlers. Of course, alcohol was not without its detractors, religious leaders, pious settler communities and First Nations all sought in different ways to limit or resist both the temptation and the spread of alcohol in North America and by the middle of the nineteenth century the tide of alcohol had subsided considerably – but analysis’ of the causes of excessive drinking, focusing as it did on the inherently disorderly conduct and defective self-control of the lower orders, as well as the inherent vulnerability of Indigenous peoples, has misled generations of historians. In many ways alcohol became wrapped up in the struggle for survival between those who had lived here for generations and those who were newly arriving, between nations and empires, and people, and played a role in shaping the future of the new world.

To help us dive into this complex subject we’ve brought on an expert in the field, Allan Greer. Allan Greer is a historian and professor at McGill University

Originally trained as a historian of early Canada, over time he expanded the scope of his research and teaching to include colonial North America, the history of native peoples of the Americas and the history of the Atlantic World. He is centrally involved in Montreal's French Atlantic History Group. Allan Greer has published extensively on, among other topics, the social history of early French Canada, the Canadian Rebellion of 1837-38, state formation, the early modern Jesuits, religious change and colonization, colonial saints, property and the history and historiography of New France. His books have won a number of national and international awards.

The book recommendation is by Allan Greer and is titled Property and Dispossession: Natives, Empires and Land in Early Modern North America published by Cambridge University Press in 2017.

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Hockey has had both an enduring but also a complicated relationship with ideas about what it means to be ‘Canadian’. While not every Canadian skates, or plays the game, or even cares about the game, the sport itself occupies a serous place in the Canadian cultural psyche. While the game has often been seen as something to unify Canadians, or to express ‘Canadianness’, it has also been exposed for very serious flaws in its culture, its infrastructure, and its dubious place as a game of character and inspiration for Canadian youth. The game of hockey, as we understand it now, has undergone dramatic challenges and changes since its first official appearance on ice in Montreal in the 1870s. This episode seeks to understand some of the key developments in the game that we now recognize today. From the rules to the rink size, to professionalization, commercialization, internationalization, to the broadening of the hockey cultural mosaic. From its amateur roots to a game that is international in its appeal, incorporating men and women from different socioeconomic classes and ethnic groups, and one that continues to evolve alongside modern value systems while evoking serious discussion on its relevance to modern Canadians.

Book recommendation: Canada’s Game: Hockey and Identity by Andrew C. Holman published McGill-Queen’s Press in 2009.

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