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During the 1970’s, in the wake of what has been called la révolution tranquille (the quiet revolution), there was a significant rise in French Canadian nationalist sentiment. In Quebec, where over 80 percent of the population consisted of native French speakers, the Parti Québécois (PQ, or Québécois Party) assumed a prominent role in the province’s struggle against economic, political, and cultural inequities that decades of neglect had engendered. However, the question of whether or not Quebec should become sovereign, as the PQ leadership contended, remained a divisive political issue.

Canada began administering coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines in December 2020 following an unprecedented international push to create an effective preventative treatment for the COVID-19 disease. After initially struggling to procure adequate supplies of approved vaccines to meet public demand, Canada quickly went on to post one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the world. By February 2022, nearly 89 percent of Canadians over the age of five had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, while almost 85 percent of Canadians aged five or older were considered “fully vaccinated” with a two-dose course.

On January 15, 2022, the Canadian federal government began enforcing a rule that expanded its mandate for COVID-19 vaccinations to include all essential workers whose duties involve crossing the Canada-US border. The mandate applied to a large class of Canadians including cross-border truck drivers. Despite high COVID-19 vaccination rates among Canadian truckers, a group opposed to the mandate organized and planned a protest.

In 1841, English-speaking Upper Canada and French-speaking Lower Canada were joined in a political union, but by the 1860’s, these two culturally distinct groups encountered difficulties in cooperation. A new constitution, established by the United Kingdom’s British North America Act of 1867, brought together French-speaking Quebec and English-speaking Ontario, along with the previously self-governing British colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, into a confederation called Canada. This confederation established a decentralized political system, with much of the power retained by the individual provinces.

The 1990 failure of the Meech Lake Accord plunged Canada into a serious constitutional crisis. Political parties saw a great deal of turmoil. A Quebec-based reform party, the Bloc Québécois, was formed by defectors from the Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties. The leaders of western Canada forged links to face off against both Quebec and the federal government in Ottawa.

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR), which opened in September 2014, is the world’s first museum dedicated solely to human rights awareness and education. The museum is located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Originally conceived of by Canadian media mogul Israel Asper, the project was ultimately built by a joint commission of the Asper Foundation, the government of Canada, the province of Manitoba, the city of Winnipeg, and The Forks North Portage Partnership.