History
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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 -
NEW ISSUE: Collecting stories
When Spacing’s publisher Matt Blackett suggested an issue about collectors, I was skeptical. Was this really going to capture something essential about...
By Dylan Reid -
Preserving the memory of the passenger pigeon
This story is published in conjunction with Spacing issue 70 (Spring 2025), “Civic Memories,” whose cover section focuses on Toronto...
By Meg Sutton -
The Last Survivor of a Historic Streetscape
On a recent Saturday evening, while travelling westbound toward Parkdale on the 504 King streetcar, I noticed something was missing from the familiar...
By Peter MacCallum -
Q&A: Cheryl Thompson on her new book about Canadian blackface
Cultural historian and Spacing contributor Cheryl Thompson launches her new book, Canada and the Blackface Atlantic, tonight at 6:30 pm at A Different...
By John Lorinc -
Toronto, City of Gas, 1909-1936, Part 2
The virtual exhibition that accompanied Part 1 of my article on Micklethwaite Studio’s photography for Consumers’ Gas included a wide range of...
By Peter MacCallum -
Toronto’s affordable housing crisis déjà vu
The lack of housing was so acute in Toronto in 1944 that the acting mayor, Robert H. Saunders, posted notices in newspapers warning families not to move...
By Ian Darragh -
Black History Month 2025: Racial Discrimination at Toronto’s Nightclubs
Cheryl Thompson is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Black Expressive Culture & Creativity, Associate Professor of Performance at Toronto Metropolitan...
By Cheryl Thompson -
Toronto, City of Gas, 1909-1936
Once they had been declared functionally obsolete, most of the monumental industrial structures that figured on the skylines of North American cities...
By Peter MacCallum -
Chinatown Memory Collectors
A shiny sword, a stack of red packets, old Chinese books and brochures, a wooden folding fan, a souvenir mug, and faded photos of seniors – all are...
By Simon Liao -
Look Back in Anger
Whether it is the scouring of Ontario Place or the war against bikers, it seems the Ford government is getting away with just about everything it sets out...
By Michel Nayrouz