Nova Scotia premier says miniseries about Canada must be corrected
The premier of Nova Scotia has added his voice to a growing chorus of complaints about a TV docu-drama about Canada’s history.
Stephen McNeil said the CBC program, “Canada: The Story of Us,” was wrong to assert that the country’s first permanent European settlement was established in 1608 near what is now Quebec City.
The premier said the history of Canada started three years earlier, when French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded a settlement at Port Royal, N.S., now a national historic site in his riding.
“The history of Canada started in 1605 in Port Royal when (Mi’kmaq Grand Chief Henri) Membertou welcomed Champlain here in peace and friendship,” the premier said. “It is unfortunate that people will try to rewrite history. The fact of the matter is that Canada was founded here. Multicultural Canada began here in Port Royal.”
The premier said Canada’s public broadcaster should correct the mistake.
On Thursday, Nova Scotia’s Acadian federation issued a statement saying the first episode of the series misrepresented Canadian history.
The advocacy group echoed the premier’s complaint, saying the first permanent European settlement was indeed at Port Royal, “contrary to what was stated in the television series.”
“The history of our country does not begin in 1608,” said
federation president Ghislain Boudreau. “This omission in the CBC’s television series gives a misrepresentation of our Canadian history and dismisses the fundamental contribution of the Acadians in the creation of this country.”
A spokesman for CBC has said the two-hour show focused on Quebec City area because, unlike Port Royal, it has maintained a permanent population without interruption since 1608.
“It’s also important to note that this series features key moments in Canadian history,” Chuck Thompson said in a statement.
“It is not meant to be a comprehensive and linear account of our nation’s history.”
Peter Riding, a history professor at the University of Ottawa, said he understands the need to keep storylines clean to maintain viewer interest but any
treatment of Canadian history should begin in 1604-05.
“The CBC program seems to smack of a central Canadian perspective that all too often overlooks events that occurred outside the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes region,” he said in an email. “Of course, the Norse and Basques appeared (even) earlier, and a European presence on the Atlantic coast goes back to around AD 1000. Some current archaeological research on the early evidence of the Norse is pushing that date even further back.”
According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, Port Royal was established near the mouth of the Annapolis River by Champlain and Pierre du Gua de Monts in the summer of 1605, but the site was abandoned in the summer of 1607. The colony was re-established by an original colonist in 1610 and changed hands several times after that.