History
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Jimmy Cliff and the roots of Toronto’s reggae scene, Part 2
“A variety of things went wrong.” The Globe’s unflattering verdict noted that Cliff was not as enthralling to watch as Marley, whose two-hour show...
By Cheryl Thompson -
Jimmy Cliff and the roots of Toronto’s reggae scene, Part 1
On November 24, 2025, Jamaican reggae legend Jimmy Cliff (né James Chambers) died at age 81. Twenty years prior, Cliff became only the fourth reggae...
By Cheryl Thompson -
Why the Trillium should find new life on the waterfront
By Toronto standards, it is a borderline miracle that the Trillium ferry is still operational. Built in 1910, two years before the Titanic, the city’s...
By Oliver Hierlihy -
OP-ED: Electric Vehicles and the Federal Sales Standard
Electric cars are in the news, though it’s hard to call them new. Torontonians were impressed when they first saw an electric car on city streets … in...
By Albert Koehl -
Winners of the 50th annual Toronto Heritage Awards
The winners of the 50th Annual Heritage Toronto Awards were presented on Monday, October 20, 2025 at the Carlu event venue. Spacing has been the media...
By Spacing -
How Toronto Forgets Its History (Again)
The north portion of St. Lawrence Market is arguably the second most historic spot in the post-colonial city, after Fort York. A public market has been...
By John Lorinc -
Michael McClelland receives Special Achievement Award from Heritage Toronto
Heritage Toronto has named Michael McClelland as the recipient of the 2025 Special Achievement Award. Presented for the first time since 2019 by the...
By Spacing -
Ontario Stockyards, 1991
The neighbourhood designation “Stockyards District” evokes indistinct memories of what for much of the twentieth century was one of Toronto’s most...
By Peter MacCallum -
Reading List: Unplanned Suburbs
We think of suburbs as places where the middle classes go to leave the city. But Richard Harris’s book Unplanned Suburbs: Toronto’s American Tragedy, 1900...
By Dylan Reid -
Marking Lake Ontario’s lost shoreline
This article is published in conjunction with Spacing issue 71, which focuses on Toronto’s waterfront. The issue will be available shortly at the...
By Chris Bateman -
Disappearing Sunlight
What has recently been dubbed the “Sunlight” mural hung on the facade of the spray-drying tower at the historic Lever Brothers* Don Valley plant for total...
By Peter MacCallum -
They Were Right Here: Tracing Black People Enslaved in the Town of York
The presence of Black children, women, and men who were enslaved in Upper Canada has been omitted from, or marginalized, in the Canadian historical...
By Natasha Henry-Dixon