Heritage Minutes, also known officially as Historica Minutes: History by the Minute, are a series of sixty-second short films, each illustrating an important moment in Canadian history. They appear frequently on Canadian television and in cinemas before movies and are now also sold on DVD. The Minutes were first introduced on March 31, 1991 as part of a one-off heavily-promoted history quiz show hosted by Rex Murphy. The thirteen original short films were broken up and run between shows on CBC Television and CTV Network. The continued broadcast of the Minutes and the production of new ones was pioneered by Charles Bronfman's CRB Foundation, Canada Post Power Broadcasting, and the National Film Board. They were devised, developed and largely narrated by noted Canadian broadcaster Patrick Watson, while the producer of the series was Robert Guy Scully. In 2009 Historica merged with The Dominion Institute to become The Historica-Dominion Institute. While the foundations have not paid networks to air Minutes, they have made them freely available, and in the early years paid to have them run in cinemas across the country. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has ruled that Heritage Minutes are an "on-going dramatic series" thus each minute counts as ninety-seconds of a station's Canadian content requirements.
Showing Season 6 of 7
Season 6
2012
No overview available.
01. Richard Pierpoint
2012-10-01
Richard Pierpoint was a formerly enslaved Black Loyalist who, at age 68, enlisted black men to fight in the War of 1812.
02. Queenston Heights
2012-10-01
October 13, 1812, Mohawk Chief John Norton and 80 Grand River warriors surprised hundreds of advancing American soldiers and skirmished with them for hours until reinforcements arrived and the battle was won.
03. Sir John A. Macdonald
2012-10-01
Sir. John A. Macdonald, George-Étienne Cartier and George Brown discuss how to go about uniting the colonies in British North America. The Charlottetown Conference is featured, and highlights the final push toward Canadian confederation.
04. Sir George-Étienne Cartier
2012-10-01
George-Étienne Cartier was a dominant figure in the politics of Canada East (now Quebec) overseeing its entry into Confederation.
05. Winnipeg Falcons
2012-10-01
A team of Icelandic-Canadians serve in the First World War before bringing home the very first gold medal in Olympic hockey.
06. Nursing Sisters
2012-10-01
Nursing Sisters serve at the No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital in France during the First World War.
07. Terry Fox
2012-10-01
Terry Fox inspires the nation with his Marathon of Hope, a cross-country run to raise money for cancer research.
08. Viola Desmond
2012-10-01
The story of Viola Desmond, an entrepreneur who challenged segregation in Nova Scotia in the 1940s.
09. Chanie Wenjack
2012-10-01
The story of Chanie "Charlie" Wenjack, whose death sparked the first inquest into the treatment of Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools.
10. Naskumituwin (Treaty)
2012-10-01
The making of Treaty 9 from the perspective of historical witness George Spence, an 18-year-old Cree hunter from Albany, James Bay.
11. Kenojuak Ashevak
2012-10-01
As a founding member of Cape Dorset's famed print making cooperative, Kenojuak Ashevak introduced Inuit art to the world (1927-2013).
12. Edmonton Grads
2012-10-01
The Grads challenge the self-proclaimed 'world champions' the Cleveland Favorite Knits to a two game tournament in 1923. They would go on to become the most successful team in Canadian sports history.
13. "Boat People" Refugees
2012-10-01
A family escapes persecution in Vietnam, traveling by boat to a Malaysian refugee camp before finding a new home in Montreal (1980).
14. Kensington Market
2012-10-01
Neighbourhoods like Toronto's Kensington Market have helped shape our country by providing newcomers a first stop in Canada. In the first animated Heritage Minute, a single store is transformed as it passes between generations and cultures.