Looking HBC’s ill-gotten gift horse in the mouth (ep 288)

Gift or grift? When it comes to the spoils of colonialism, perhaps none have been more spoiled than the Hudson’s Bay Company. A 17th century creature of empire which drove a global fur trade, HBC would go on to make itself synonymous with Canada, blanketed in the country’s foundational myths. Along the way, exploiting and extracting all it could from Indigenous lands, waters and peoples. These days, such nationalist nostalgia has taken a bit of a hit, it seems; so too, The Bay’s days of department store dominance. Which may help explain the company’s recent embrace of a novel way to launder its reputation: by handing over one of its most iconic buildings to a First Nations organization. But can this present make up for its past? Will this ultimate fixer-upper help renovate the Relationship—or just expose the gargantuan cracks in its foundations?

Joining host/producer Rick Harp to construct an answer to these questions and more are roundtable regular Ken Williams, assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama, along with special guest Adele Perry, Distinguished Professor of History and the Director of the Centre for Human Rights Research at the University of Manitoba.

// CREDITS: Our opening/closing theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.