The Bay has a Secret, Ancient Archive and it’s Being Sold off to Millionaires

12 snips

Sep 3, 2025

Taylor Noakes, a journalist and public historian, discusses the controversial auction of significant artifacts from the Hudson’s Bay Company. He reveals the tension between selling these treasures and the requests from Indigenous communities for their return. The conversation highlights the urgency of preserving Canada’s heritage and the complexities of billionaires' roles in acquiring cultural materials. Noakes emphasizes the importance of transparency and the need for diverse narratives in understanding Canadian history.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Collection Could Reshape Canadian History

The Hudson's Bay Company's 4,400-item collection contains material that could reshape understanding of early Canada and Indigenous relations.
Selling the collection risks scattering pieces that together tell interlinked historical stories and may erase context permanently.

INSIGHT

Heritage Canada Won't Step In

Canadian Heritage says it lacks both funds and mandate to acquire the HBC collection, surprising historians.
That abdication prevents coordinated public stewardship and limits museum access to the archive.

INSIGHT

NDA Hiding What's In The Archive

HBC required NDA with the auction house blocks public and governmental review of the full catalog.
Secrecy protects market value but prevents historians and Indigenous groups from knowing what's at stake.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

The Hudson’s Bay Company is dead.

While the Canadian media obsesses over the sale of The Bay’s retail properties, thousands of historical artefacts and artworks — including the original copy of the Royal Charter — sit concealed in the cockles of the company’s dustiest vault. Now, Canada’s oldest retailer is hemming and hawing over donating these culturally-significant artefacts to Indigenous communities requesting them, or selling the artefacts for cold, hard cash… all-the-while refusing to share what’s in their inventory.

Taylor Noakes chats with Jesse about why the Bay’s obfuscation of their collection is more important than a document — even one the king signed.

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: Jules Bugiel (Producer), Lucie Laumonier (Associate Producer and Fact Checking), tom sayers (Audio Editor), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor)

Guest: Taylor Noakes

This episode uses generative AI for the following purposes: Voice cloning of Canadaland’s editor and publisher Jesse Brown.

NOTE: A previous version of this episode included a shorter version of Ruby Liu's email to Justice Peter Osborne. The new version includes more of the email.