An independent Canadian knowledge project
Citizen.caCanadian knowledge, focused and verified

Focused and Verified

Canadian knowledge base

Explore the knowledge base

As explained in our Mission, Citizen.ca focuses on knowledge closely connected to Canadian identity and Canadian spirit, rather than every fact about Canada. Some topics will therefore be absent. If you believe a missing topic belongs within this focus, please contact us.

The groups below show how published records are distributed and offer a convenient way to browse. Counts include distinct records assigned to each group or its narrower keywords. A record may appear in more than one group.

For a more specific search, use the keyword search below. Choose one keyword, or combine two with AND to require both or OR to include either.

Places and geography

671 records

Browse all →

Record types

981 records

Browse all →

People and roles

407 records

Browse all →

Peoples and communities

80 records

Browse all →

Organizations and institutions

216 records

Browse all →

Events and historical processes

201 records

Browse all →

Themes, values and contributions

804 records

Browse all →

Time periods

793 records

Browse all →

Search by keyword

Choose one keyword, or combine two. Broader keywords include their descendants.

Keywords: Record types

Clear search
981 recordsStructured records (JSON) ↗
The Six Nations Sports & Cultural Memorial Centre in Ohsweken, Six Nations of the Grand River, in 2024.
CA-K179Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Edith Anderson Monture, nurse and veteran

Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture (1890–1996), a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) woman from Six Nations of the Grand River, was among the first generation of hospital-trained professional nurses from First Nations in Canada. After nursing with the American Expeditionary Force in the First World War, she was among the female veterans granted the federal vote in 1917, and returned home in 1919 as a nurse and midwife.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: JFVoll · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
The Port Credit lighthouse in Mississauga, Ontario, near the Credit River, photographed in 2011.
CA-K178Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Nahnebahweequay (Catharine Sutton) appealed to Queen Victoria

Nahnebahweequay (Catharine Sutton, 1824–1865), a Mississauga (Ojibwe) advocate raised at the Credit Mission, fought for Indigenous land title and against the loss of First Nations women’s status through marriage to non-Indigenous men. In defiance of colonial officials, she travelled to London and appealed directly to Queen Victoria in 1860.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: ^ Missi ^ from Mississauga, Canada · Photo licence: CC BY 2.0 · Credit & context
Onondeyoh (Frederick Ogilvie Loft) with soldiers, as published in the French magazine Le Miroir in August 1917.
CA-K177Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Onondeyoh (Frederick Ogilvie Loft) and the League of Indians

Onondeyoh (Frederick Ogilvie Loft, 1861–1934) founded the League of Indians of Canada in 1919, the first pan-Indigenous political organization, advocating for land rights and better education. He lobbied for self-government and day schools in place of residential schools, and protested forced enfranchisement and the expropriation of reserve lands.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Unknown · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
The Peguis monument in Kildonan Park, Winnipeg, erected in 1923, photographed in 2011.
CA-K176Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Chief Peguis and the Selkirk Treaty of 1817

Chief Peguis (1774–1864), a skilled hunter and diplomat, worked to protect the rights and interests of the Anishinaabeg of Red River and stepped in to save lives when fur trade hostilities threatened the Selkirk Settlement. He was one of five First Nations negotiators of the Selkirk Treaty of 1817, the first agreement permitting limited farmland access to settlers in western Canada.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Wtshymanski · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context
Kenora, Ontario, on Lake of the Woods, from the air in 2026; the photo does not show the former school.
CA-K175Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Chanie Wenjack (1954–1966)

Chanie Wenjack was an Anishinaabe boy from Marten Falls First Nation who lived for three years at Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School near Kenora, Ontario, and died after escaping. His story represents thousands of children driven by loneliness, abuse and desperation to run away from residential schools, and was amplified at the time by official procedures and national news coverage.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Quintin Soloviev · Photo licence: CC BY 4.0 · Credit & context
The sign at McCrae House, John McCrae’s birthplace in Guelph, Ontario, on Remembrance Day 2018.
CA-K174Culture & sport

John McCrae and “In Flanders Fields”

John McCrae (1872–1918), a physician born in Guelph, Ontario, joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1914 and served overseas until his death. His poem “In Flanders Fields,” published anonymously in 1915, became one of the most celebrated poems of the First World War and made the poppy a lasting symbol of the Allied soldiers who died.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Peter K Burian · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Paul-Émile Borduas in 1946, photographed by Ronny Jaques.
CA-K173Culture & sport

Paul-Émile Borduas and Refus global

Paul-Émile Borduas (1905–1960) was a pioneer of abstract art in Canada and the creator of automatism, an avant-garde movement at the forefront of gestural abstraction in Quebec in the 1940s. He was the main author of Refus global, published in 1948 and co-signed by other artists, which made him a key figure in 20th-century Quebec history.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Ronny Jaques (1910-2008) · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Bobbie Rosenfeld with trophies and medals, around 1928.
CA-K172Culture & sport

Bobbie Rosenfeld, athlete of the half-century

Fanny “Bobbie” Rosenfeld (1903–1969), an all-round athlete who excelled in hockey, basketball, tennis, softball and track, won gold and silver medals at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. In 1949 she was chosen Canada’s outstanding female athlete of the half-century, after a later career as a Toronto sports columnist.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Portia White photographed by Yousuf Karsh in January 1946.
CA-K171Culture & sport

Portia White, contralto

Contralto Portia White (1911–1968), from the Black Nova Scotian community, was the first African-Canadian woman to win international acclaim as a singer. Between 1940 and 1948, her debuts in Toronto and New York and recitals across the Americas and the Caribbean became a source of pride for Canadians.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Yousuf Karsh · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
The National Canadian Liberation Monument in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, photographed in 2009.
CA-K170History

Canadians and the liberation of the Netherlands

Between October 1944 and May 1945, the Canadian military opened the Scheldt estuary and the port of Antwerp to Allied supplies, cleared much of the Netherlands of the enemy and fed a starving Dutch population. On 5 May 1945 in Wageningen, German forces surrendered to Canadian Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Brbbl · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context
The Eucharistic Congress in Victoriaville, Quebec, in September 1918.
CA-K169History

The Spanish flu in Canada, 1918–1920

The Spanish flu pandemic killed more than 50 million people worldwide, including nearly 50,000 Canadians, between 1918 and 1920. The first civilian cases in Canada were reported in Victoriaville, Quebec, in autumn 1918, and the pandemic led to the creation of the federal Department of Health in 1919.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Société d'histoire de Victoriaville · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
A 1940 Preston Rivulettes postcard.
CA-K168Culture & sport

The Preston Rivulettes, 1931–1940

The Preston Rivulettes of Preston (now Cambridge), Ontario, are considered the most successful early women’s hockey team, winning more than 95% of their games in their ten-year existence. Led by right-winger Hilda Ranscombe, they won most provincial, regional and national championships between 1931 and 1940.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Preston Rivulettes · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
A monument to the Asian boat people in Ottawa, photographed in 2015.
CA-K167History

Refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

Between 1975 and the 1990s, Canada admitted more than 210,000 refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos who fled persecution and violence after the wars there. After the Hai Hong incident in 1978, tens of thousands of Canadians and many organizations sponsored refugees, and the newcomers built communities across Canada.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Ross Dunn - Thanks for 13 million + views · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 · Credit & context
The Asahi Baseball Club seniors team in 1929 (Vancouver Public Library).
CA-K166Culture & sport

Vancouver’s Asahi baseball team, 1914–1941

Between 1914 and 1941, when Japanese Canadians faced racism, Vancouver’s Asahi Baseball Team won championships in senior amateur leagues with its “brain ball” style of bunting and speed. The team became a symbol of the Japanese Canadian struggle for equality and respect, and was disbanded during the Second World War internment.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Vancouver Public Library Historical Photographs · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
The Memorial to Commemorate the Chinese Railroad Workers in Canada, Toronto, by Eldon Garnet and Francis LeBouthillier, photographed in 2008.
CA-K165History

Chinese workers who built the CPR in British Columbia

In the early 1880s, thousands of labourers from China helped build the Canadian Pacific Railway through British Columbia’s mountains; about three-quarters of the men on the section between the Pacific and Craigellachie were Chinese. They were paid a dollar a day, half a white worker’s pay, and hundreds died from accidents or illness.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Shaun Merritt · Photo licence: CC BY 2.0 · Credit & context
A bust of Mary Ann Shadd Cary by Artis Lane in BME Freedom Park, Chatham, Ontario, photographed in 2025.
CA-K164History

Mary Ann Shadd and the Provincial Freeman

Mary Ann Shadd (1823–1893) became a prominent activist in the Underground Railroad refugee communities of Upper Canada in the 1850s. In 1853 she established the Provincial Freeman, an influential newspaper that argued for the rights of Black people and women and became the leading voice of refugees in Canada.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Chris Woodrich · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
The statue of John Graves Simcoe at Queen’s Park, Toronto, photographed in 2008.
CA-K162History

Upper Canada’s 1793 Act against slavery

Upper Canada’s 1793 Act against slavery, passed under Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, prohibited the importation of enslaved people. It did not free people already enslaved, but provided that children subsequently born to enslaved mothers would become free at age 25. Slavery in Upper Canada ended in 1834.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: User:Saforrest · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context
The Abenaki village at Pierreville (Odanak), Quebec, around 1910.
CA-K161Language & names

Théophile Panadis recorded the Abenaki language

Théophile Panadis of Odanak, known as “the Storyteller,” dedicated his life to safeguarding and sharing Abenaki traditional knowledge. Working with ethnologists A. Irving Hallowell and Gordon M. Day, he recorded Abenaki language and history, helping to sustain a strong Abenaki identity.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: AnonymousUnknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Peter Pitseolak in 1968, photographed by Charles Gimpel.
CA-K160Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Peter Pitseolak, Inuit photographer and historian

Peter Pitseolak (1902–1973), an Inuit artist, photographer, hunter and historian, recorded both the old customs and beliefs of his people and their adjustment to a new life as Inuit culture underwent momentous change. His carvings, prints and photographs are acclaimed for their historical and artistic value, and he left an account of the history of Sikusuilaq (southern Baffin Island).

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Charles Gimpel · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Sergeant Tommy Prince (right) with his brother, Private Morris Prince, at Buckingham Palace, 12 February 1945.
CA-K159Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Tommy Prince, Anishinaabe veteran and activist

Tommy Prince (1915–1977), an Anishinaabe veteran, was a founding member of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and the First Special Service Force (Devil’s Brigade) in the Second World War, and served in the Korean War. He represented Manitoba First Nations’ interests nationally, and his story illustrates both First Nations soldiers’ contributions and their poor treatment on returning home.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Christopher J. Woods - Canada. Dept. of National Defence · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
pīhtokahānapiwiyin (Poundmaker), around 1884 (Library and Archives Canada).
CA-K158Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

pīhtokahānapiwiyin (Poundmaker), nēhiyaw chief

pīhtokahānapiwiyin (Poundmaker, ca. 1842–1886), a nēhiyaw (Plains Cree) chief, sought better terms for his people and called on Canada to fulfil its obligations under Treaty 6. In 1885 he repulsed Lieutenant-Colonel Otter’s attack on his reserve at Cut Knife but restrained his followers; imprisoned as a rebel, he died after his early release.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Innu making canoes near Sheshatshiu, Labrador, around 1920; a historical image of canoe-making, not a view of the complete travel route.
CA-K157Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Meshikamau-shipu, an Innu travel route

Meshikamau-shipu, Innu-aimun for “river to Meshikamau,” is a travel route of about 330 kilometres through rivers and lakes in Labrador, from Sheshatshiu to the Meshikamau area. Its camp sites, some dating back 3,500 years, portages and burial places reflect Innu land use and a way of life based on mobility until permanent settlement in the 1960s.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Photo by Fred C. Sears. Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada (PA-148593). · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
The National Aboriginal Veterans Monument in Confederation Park, Ottawa, photographed in 2019.
CA-K156Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Indigenous soldiers in the First World War

During the First World War, Indigenous people volunteered in significant numbers, even though many were denied the right to vote; it was the first time Canada’s forces integrated a substantial number of Indigenous men as individual soldiers. As veterans, they were an active force behind the League of Indians of Canada, the first organization to give their communities a national voice.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Jeangagnon · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Abenaki basket makers of Odanak, around 1920 (Musée des Abénakis).
CA-K155Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Abenaki basket-making in Odanak and Wôlinak

Abenaki weavers in Odanak and Wôlinak, Quebec, use black ash splints and sweetgrass to make baskets using skills passed between generations. Basket-making was Odanak’s main source of income from 1870 to 1920 and remains a symbol of Abenaki identity.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Société historique d'Odanak, Musée des Abénakis, Odanak, Québec, Canada · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context