1918 Influenza Pandemic
The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918/1919 was one of the most catastrophic events in history, and yet it has been all but overlooked or forgotten. For Canadians, the pandemic changed the course of our shared histories. To commemorate the centenary of the pandemic in Canada, we want you to join us in finding stories about those communities and about those women and men who helped forge changes in our country by their responses to it.
In 2020, the world is experiencing another global pandemic. The outbreak of COVID-19 shares stark similarities to the influenza pandemic from a century ago. While enormous progress in public health has been made throughout the 20th century, there remain lessons to be learned from the “Spanish flu” pandemic – for Canadians and all global citizens.
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Remembering the 100th Anniversary of the Spanish Flu Pandemic
In January 1920, Stan McVittie was a fit and robust electrical engineer working at a hydroelectric generating plant on the Wanapitei River in Northern Ontario. Just six years out of university, he loved his work and the outdoor life he’d known all his life. The future was brilliant. While his young wife and daughter were visiting her parents in St. Marys, Stan developed a mild cough and a fever, but nothing to worry about for a healthy six-foot-two outdoorsman in his prime. A few days later while visiting his father and sister in Sudbury, his symptoms worsened slightly, so he paid a call on the family doctor “just to be safe.” Nine days later, Stan was dead from the Spanish flu, like 50,000 other Canadians who’d died since the pandemic first appeared 18 months earlier.
In a stunningly short span of time, the Spanish flu killed almost as many Canadians as had died during the four years of the Great War. Indiscriminate and horrific in its proportions and the speed with which it spread and killed, the pandemic had a profound impact on the history of Canada. Consider the following:
- One-third of the world’s population was infected by the Spanish flu
- 50% of those infected were healthy young men and women under 40
- 3% of the world’s population died
- The Spanish flu killed more people in 18 months than AIDS has killed in 35 years or the Black Death killed in 100
- Stories that such statistics tell are seemingly endless
- But Canadians responded with purpose and determination
- The pandemic brought about the creation of the federal Department of Health
- The pandemic also persuaded Canadians to recognize disease as being a community problem, not an individual one
Isn’t this a story more Canadians should know?
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Education Resources
First Nations, Métis and Inuit and the Spanish Flu
In this lesson students will create a Bio-poem for one of the First Nations, Métis or Inuit people they meet during this lesson.
Education Resources
Inuit Communities in Labrador
Learning about and commemorating the impact of the Spanish Influenza on Inuit communities in Labrador, 1918-1920, using primary source photographs and oral histories; creating ‘living’ memorials and monuments using tableaux and other drama strategies.
Education Resources
The Global Demographic Footprint of the Spanish Flu
The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 produced a large global demographic footprint. Using the geographic inquiry process, students will research the casualty statistics of theSpanish flu from countries around the world and synthesis them into a map to communicate the pattern of the pandemic.
Education Resources
The Geography of the Spanish Flu
Past to present, demography – students will compare the past to present demographic patterns of Canada, and use Spanish flu casualty statistics to project the demographic impact of this event today.