Floyd Elliott

Deadly Deposits

A pathological detective story in which two doctors, working in an autopsy lab, investigate the cause of death of a victim found dead in his apartment. A debate ensues as to whether or not the victim died of environmental causes.

"They Didn't Starve Us Out": Industrial Cape Breton in the 1920s

For 200 years, coal mining had been a way of life in Cape Breton. By 1920 things were looking up: miners were unionized and paid decent wages. Then the British Empire Steel Corporation arrived and bought every single steel and coal company in Nova Scotia. BESCO cut wages by a third, setting off a bitter labour dispute. The miners settled in for a long strike. Finally, in 1925, the military ended the unrest with brute force. But the miners, in one sense, had won. They broke up the monopoly and provided an example to workers across the country.

Félix Leclerc chante Cadet Rousselle

The song “Cadet Rousselle”, illustrated with drawings by Jean Dallaire and sung by Félix Leclerc.

Canada Vignettes: Melvin Arbuckle, Famous Canadian

W.O. Mitchell recounts Newton's Law of Falling Backhouses, a story based on the youthful pranks of his prairie childhood.

Canada Vignettes: December Lights

Animated film of a traditional Franco-Manitoban tale that resembles the story of the first Christmas.

Canada Vignettes: Wop May

This short animated film is about Wop May, one of Canada's leading bush pilots in the 1920s.

Canada Vignettes: Onions and Garlic: A Hebrew Fable

This animated short tells a humourous Hebrew folk tale about a man's venture to introduce onions to a far away kingdom and a disreputable man's attempt to exploit that.

Canada Vignettes: Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'Neary

There's a "silver lining in every cloud" as Donald O'Neary turns every misfortune his two neighbours can engineer into gold coins. Against the background of the Irish countryside, the customary "rich but dumb" characters meet their match in the "poor but crafty" hero. The story introduces the student to our rich multicultural background through the exploration of folklore of one of the peoples that make up Canada's cultural mosaic.