Canadiana is a documentary web series that follows host Adam Bunch as he and filmmakers Ashley Brook and Kyle Cucco make their way across the country in search of unusual or overlooked tales from Canadian history. From Halifax Harbour to Vancouver Island, from major cities to secluded towns, Canadiana digs up the mind-blowing true stories that contribute to Canada's unique identity.
Streaming free on the Canadiana YouTube Channel.
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Canadiana explores the grisly history of the Rideau Canal, a popular tourist attraction in Ottawa and marvel of human engineering from the early 1800s.
Nous voici à Red Bay, au Labrador. Aujourd’hui, c’est un petit village de moins de 200 personnes, situé dans un port naturel entouré de falaises de granit rouge qui lui ont donné son nom. À première vue, c’est un village comme tous les autres petits villages de pêche du Nord. Mais si vous savez où regarder, vous trouverez des indices de son passé : des indices que ce hameau bien tranquille a déjà été tout autre. Au milieu du XVIe siècle, la prolifération de baleines franches et de baleines boréales a attiré les baleiniers de la région basque d’Espagne et de la France dans le détroit de Belle-Isle à Red Bay, où ils ont établi un important poste de chasse. Voici l’histoire du vol de la baleine de Red Bay.
Basque whalers in the 1500s travelled to the very edge of their known universe in search of their gargantuan prey, and landed on the shores of a fog-shrouded bay in Labrador. In this unlikely setting, Canadiana revels in one of Canada's most absurd true crime stories: the tale of a Basque who stole from their rival, sparking a Spanish Supreme Court case that wouldn't be settled for nearly 20 years.
The Canadian story of the American Civil War, told in two parts. Through the eyes of the Canadians who helped start the war, to those who fought it, to the leaders influenced by it, we unravel one of the most pivotal events in the continent's history. From the pubs of Saint John to the docks of Halifax, from Southern Ontario battlefields to the battlements of Quebec City, find out which Canadians were on the right and wrong sides of history. This is the story of two nations facing each other down over a tenuous border for a century, and the war that changed everything.
Partez d'un océan à l'autre pour découvrir l'histoire de l'une des races de chiens les plus célèbres du Canada : le chien de Terre-Neuve!
Go coast-to-coast to uncover the lore behind one of Canada's most famous dog breeds: the Newfoundland!
The story behind one of Canada's most famous highways...and how it was built by a foreign army. From the Rocky Mountain foothills, all the way to Alaska—we take a road trip finding clues to its origins: rusted old trucks, strange-looking buildings, and abandoned gravel roads. This is the tale of the largest American invasion into Canada since the Gold Rush. This is the Alaska Highway.
The Fortifications of Québec have borne witness to so many of Quebec and Canada's most pivotal moments, but this story is...unique. In 1766, the Gazette de Quebec reports that there was a werewolf stalking the countryside outside the city's stone walls...
The Fortifications of Québec have borne witness to so many of Quebec and Canada's most pivotal moments, but this story is...unique. In 1766, the Gazette de Quebec reports that there was a werewolf stalking the countryside outside the city's stone walls...
The story of a Russian cipher clerk with an explosive secret, who just wanted someone in Ottawa to listen to what he had to say. Three days after the end of WWII, Igor Gouzenko would be the bearer of bad news that shook the world: there were spies in the capital!
Une forêt dont l'histoire s'étend sur l'océan Atlantique, opposant des bûcherons à un empereur, au cours de l'un des moments les plus marquants de l'histoire de l'Europe. Napoléon, rencontrez la vallée de la Rouge à Toronto.
A forest with a story that spans the Atlantic, pitting lumberjacks against an emperor, during one of the most pivotal moments in Europe’s history. Napoleon, meet Toronto’s Rouge Valley. Explore Canada's only Urban Park: Rouge National Urban Park.
Climb back aboard to witness the turbulent end of “The Golden Age of Piracy” in Canada. From the most notorious pirate to have sailed the seas of the North Atlantic, to the most infamous pirate trial in Halifax’s history, we find out how East Coast piracy declined and…turned legitimate.
Take to the lawless seas in search of treasure and tall tales in a veritable “who’s who” of pirates and privateers on Canada’s East Coast.
The Manitoba Legislative Building has a hidden code. If you look closely, you’ll find Egyptian sphinxes, the Arc of the Covenant, Greek monsters, cattle skulls, lion heads, and a mysterious black star. The question is: what does it all have to do with Winnipeg?
One of the Fathers of Confederation was shot dead in the streets of Ottawa. Thomas D’Arcy McGee was Sir John A. Macdonald’s right-hand-man and one of the most popular politicians in the country. So who the hell would want to kill him? We re-open one of Canada’s most notorious cold cases.
The Lions are two of the most iconic mountain peaks in Canada, towering over Vancouver, lending their name to the B.C. Lions, the Lionsgate Bridge and more. But they also have a much, much older name; one that’s tied to a time long before the city was founded.
A Klondike Gold Rush odyssey featuring "The First Lady of the Yukon." Climb the treacherous Chilkoot Pass, run the Whitehorse Rapids, and experience what was once the most famous city on Earth: Dawson City.
From the gold-filled rivers of Yukon to the packed streets of Vancouver, from the hidden secrets of parliament building in Winnipeg to Ottawa’s most notorious cold case, we continue our hunt for the most incredible stories in Canadian history.
Half a century before marijuana became legal, the potheads of Vancouver took to the streets demanding their right to smoke. But their peaceful protest descended was met by bloodshed and violence in the notorious Battle of Maple Tree Square.
Canada’s oldest Chinatown was once considered to be a “forbidden city” — a segregated maze of alleyways, hidden courtyards, brother, gambling dens and opium factories. But it’s history is also one of proud resilience in the face of some of the most racist laws our country has ever seen.
You can trace the fortune that helped to propel Donald Trump into the White House all the way back to Canada at the end of the 1800s. A story about a ghost town, a brothel, and a businessman whose ventures during the Klondike Gold Rush solidified his family's name for years to come: Frederick Trump.
Sudbury, the nickel capital of the world, is a city deeply connected to the cosmos. Over 1.8 billion years ago an enormous impact set in motion a series of events, the end result of which involves a mysterious 'dark' experiment deep underground.
In the middle of the second World War, while massive armies clashed on the Western Front, an overlooked battle took place between Axis and Allied forces… in the most unlikely place imaginable.
How did an old statue from the other side of the world ended up in the middle of downtown Toronto? It's a bloody story of royalty, revolution, and two cities with very different experiences of what it meant to be members of the British Empire.
Hidden away in a quiet corner of Toronto's High Park, you'll find a massive tomb surrounded by a very old fence. And how it ended up there is a morbid tale of grave robbers, shipwrecks and death.
Every spring, parks across Toronto turn white and pink with cherry blossoms. The Sakura trees are a gift from Japan — and a reminder of one of the most disturbing chapters in Canadian history.
Meet the Nicols, a Montreal couple who were so sick of having to work in freak shows and deal with discrimination that they decided to take matters into their own hands.
MORE CANADIAN HISTORY
The very first Canadians that Queen Elizabeth ever met on a trip to Canada as our queen was a rowdy crowd of Newfoundlanders who woke her up in the middle of the night.
The Montreal Canadiens have made it to the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals. And the story of how they got there involves an absolutely bizarre set of coincidences, including riots, revolution and Rocket Richard.
The story of how the Blue Jays became the Blue Jays is a much more epic tale than you might think — a story tied to booze, boxing and one of the most infamous kidnappings in Canadian history.
The Rockefellers were one of the most famously wealthy families in history. But they were in deep trouble. And to get them out of it, they turned to the man who would eventually become the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history.
The St. Patrick’s Day Parade was banned in Toronto for more than a century. Why? Because of the sectarian violence that once rocked the city’s streets.
You can trace the roots of the Montreal Expos’ demise all the way back to a strange day in the early 1960s: the day Vincent Price agreed to start selling Picassos for Sears.
In the 1760s, strange reports began to appear in a French-Canadian newspaper. There was, according to the Gazette de Québec, a vicious beast preying on the population of the colony: a werewolf was on the loose in New France.
There were 34 Canadians on the Titanic when it stuck the iceberg. Most of them died. Here are their stories from that dreadful night.
The Roosevelt Hotel, New York City. It’s been sitting amid the chaos of midtown Manhattan since it opened in the early 1920s, a luxury hotel that still attracts visitors from all over the world. And it was right here at the Roosevelt in 1929 that a Canadian changed the way Americans celebrate New Year’s Eve.
Our story begins — as all the most exciting stories do — with the glitz and glamour of an international postage conference. And with a Canadian cabinet minister who accidentally made Christmas history.
It’s four in the morning. A spring night in 1915. In the muddy desolation just outside the crumbling Belgian town of Ypres, the guns are roaring. For ten minutes, the German artillery bellows. Then, it stops. And a new horror begins.
A famous cookie-baking family gave rise to one of Canada’s most disturbing ghost stories. Robert Christie, you see, had a mistress. And while he was living in the Christie Mansion with his family, he decided she should live there too. He kept her hidden in a secret chamber behind the wood paneling in the library. They call it Room 29.
It’s been called “The Horse of Steel” and “The Little Iron Horse.” It’s a distinctly Canadian breed, with roots stretching back more than 300 years to the early French-Canadian pioneers. It had to be a rugged breed to survive the rigours of the Canadian climate — but as strong as it is, the Canadian Horse has barely survived: more than once, the National Horse of Canada has nearly gone extinct.
Today, the church is known as Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, but its had several names over the years. Through them, you can trace the history of the city — and of the warring empires that have shaped the story of Canada.
It's Christmas Eve, 1781. And in the town of Sorel, Québec, the Riedesels are throwing a party. The family has a lot to celebrate: this is the first Christmas in four years they've been able to enjoy the holiday in freedom. They've been through a harrowing ordeal of horror and bloodshed. But now, it's finally over.
If you want to trace the show back to the very, very beginning, to the person who more than any other is credited with the creation of Doctor Who, well, then you have to travel back to Canada, back to downtown Toronto, back to a brand new baby boy born in the city during the First World War.
"O Canada" has a long and bizarre history. The song didn't become our national anthem until 1980, but it was written a hundred years earlier. And today, Anglophones and francophones are singing two very different national anthems.
The fellow in the middle of this drawing — the one with the cross and his hand on his heart — is Jacques Cartier. He was a French explorer one of the very first Europeans to ever come to Canada. At the end of his first trip here, he erected a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula, as a way of claiming the land for France. They say that's how he met Donnacona.
Canadiana explore l'histoire macabre du canal Rideau, une attraction touristique populaire à Ottawa et une merveille de l'ingénierie humaine du début des années 1800.