Heritage Minutes - Season 7 (2018)

On June 6, 1944, Canadian Forces landed on Juno Beach. D-Day, as this day would become known, was the largest amphibious invasion of all time, led to the liberation of France, and marked the beginning of the end of the Second World War.

The Acadians are descendants of early French settlers who arrived in Nova Scotia in 1604 and built a distinct culture and society over generations. Their peaceful existence was uprooted in 1755 when over 10,000 Acadians were ripped from their homeland to ensure British rule in North America. This Heritage Minute portrays the deportation through the eyes of an Acadian mother.

In the final days of the Second World War, Lieutenant Wilf Gildersleeve of the Seaforth Highlanders marched into Amsterdam to liberate it from the Nazis. There he met Dutch civilian Marguerite Blaisse, who, along with her family, had survived under Nazi occupation. On this fateful day, amid all the celebrations, Blaisse and Gildersleeve met, and fell in love. Today, the Dutch still remember the Canadians who liberated them in May, 1945.

Elsie MacGill was the world's first female aeronautical engineer and Canada's first practicing woman engineer. She oversaw Canada's production of Hawker Hurricane aircrafts at the Canadian Car and Foundry factory during the Second World War. Hawker Hurricanes were one of the main fighters flown by Canadian and Allied airmen in the Battle of Britain. This Heritage Minute follows Elsie MacGill in her role as chief engineer overseeing the production of these instrumental aircrafts.

Oscar Peterson is one of Canada's most honoured musicians and widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. His interest in music began at the age of five growing up in the Black working-class community of Little Burgundy in Montreal. This Heritage Minute recounts the circumstances in which Peterson was raised and follows his rise to fame.