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Bruce Cockburn is a well known Canadian singer and songwriter. He was born in Ottawa on 27 May 1945. After playing in Ottawa rock bands (The Children, Esquires, 3’s a Crowd), Cockburn became a folk singer with a humanist, poetic style combining elements of jazz, rock and reggae. His recordings include Sunwheel Dance (1971), In the Falling Dark (1976), Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws (1979), Stealing Fire (1984), the singles collection Waiting for a Miracle (1987), The Charity of Night (1996), and Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu (1999). Cockburn has written songs in English and French; among his signature pieces are “Goin’ to the Country,” “Musical Friends,” his 1980 hit “Wondering Where the Lions Are,” “The Trouble with Normal”, "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" and “Lovers in a Dangerous Time.”

Concert touring and regular album releases in the United States, Australia and Europe have given Bruce Cockburn a solid international reputation. All 31 of Cockburn's albums were recorded on the Canadian label True North Records, while some distribution has been managed by the American companies Columbia Records and Rounder Records.

Cockburn is also well known as a social activist. His song “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” (1984) was inspired by a visit to Central American refugee camps on behalf of Oxfam. In 1986 he performed two benefit concerts that raised funds to help the Haida in their land claims struggle. He has also worked with the Unitarian Services Committee, Friends of the Earth and World Vision Canada. “If a Tree Falls” (1989) calls for an end to destruction of the world’s rain forests. The 1996 song “The Mines of Mozambique” documents the deadly impact of anti-personnel mines. After addressing the land-mine issue in dozens of interviews, Cockburn and singer-songwriter friend Jackson Browne headlined a fundraising concert in Ottawa on 3 December 1997 that marked the signing of a United Nations treaty banning their use.

Environmentalist David Suzuki and musical peer Gordon Lightfoot inducted Cockburn into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2001. Cockburn is also the recipient of numerous other awards, including the Order of Canada. Bruce Cockburn continues to actively write and record music as well as support his humanitarian interests and causes. This biographical sketch has been adapted from The Canadian Encyclopedia.

Luca Codignola-Bo, born in Genoa, Italy, in 1947, took his Master's degree in History at the University of Toronto in 1974. New France historian William J. Eccles was his thesis director. He then taught early Canadian and American history at the universities of Bologna (1975-7), Pisa (1976-90), and Genova (1990-2016). At Genova he was also member of the University's Senate (2012-5). In 2008-12 he was Head of the Institute of History of Mediterranean Europe (ISEM) of Italy's National Research Council (CNR). Dr Codignola-Bo has been active in a number of international associations and institutions, such as the International Council for Canadian Studies (President 1985-7), the Italian Association for Canadian Studies (President 1988-90), the Italian Committee for North American History (President 1989-91), the Association internationale des études acadiennes (President 2004-6), the Association internationale des études québécoises (member of the Conseil d'Administration 2005-10), the European Science Foundation, Standing Committee for the Humanities (Italy's representative 2005-8). He was awarded the Northern Telecom Five Continents Award in Canadian Studies (1988), the Special Government of Canada Award (2001), and a Doctorate honoris causa (D.Litt.) by Saint Mary's University (2003). He was also elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2016). Over the years Dr Codignola-Bo has taught in several Canadian and American universities such as York (1990-4), Laval (1997, 2000), McGill (1998), Brown (2001), Toronto (2002), and Saint Mary's (2007, 2013-4). He has also been research associate at the Université de Montréal (1977, 1988, 1990, 1992), the University of Ottawa (1977, 1985), the University of London (1980, 1982-3, 2002, 2004), the John Carter Brown Library (1989, 2001), and the Library Company of Philadelphia (2003). At the time of the donation of his personal papers to McMaster University, Dr Codignola-Bo was Adjunct Professor (History) at Saint Mary's University (2005-17), Senior Fellow of the Cushwa Center for the History of US Catholicism of the University of Notre Dame (2016-8), and Professeur associé (Histoire) at the Université de Montréal (2016-9). He is best known for his work on the the Roman Catholic church in the North Atlantic area in the early modern era, and has also written on the history of early European expansion in the Atlantic region. Since 2016 Dr Codignola-Bo lives in Milan with his wife, Gabriella Ferruggia, a former professor of American literature. They have one daughter, Federica.

Matt Cohen, writer and translator, was born on 30 December 1942, in Kingston, Ont. He was educated at the University of Toronto, graduating with a BA in Political Economy in 1964, followed by a Master's degree in Political Science in 1965. He taught at McMaster University in the Department of Religion in 1967-1968. Cohen was Writer-in-Residence at Rochdale College (1968), University of Alberta (1975-1976), the University of Western Ontario (1981), the University of Bologna (1985), and Toronto Reference Library (1997). He also taught writing at the University of Victoria in 1979-1980.

In his own writing Cohen employed a variety of literary forms–short story, poetry, song, novella and full-length novel. He also wrote children's books using the pseudonym of "Teddy Jam". Cohen was the recipient of numerous awards and honours and his work has been translated into many languages. He died on 2 December 1999, shortly after winning the Governor General's Award for his novel Elizabeth and After. Cohen was married three times, first to Arden Ford, then to Susan Bricker and finally to Patsy Aldana. After his marriage to Susan Bricker ended, he lived for a time with Katherine Govier. In 1978 he met Patricia Aldana with whom he shared the rest of his life. Patsy had two children, Carlota ("Coca") and Seth McAllister, from an earlier marriage. With Patsy, Cohen had two children, Daniel and Madeleine. Cohen purchased a farm near Bellrock, north of Kingston, Ont. and lived there and also in Toronto until his death. Cohen and his family also lived for extended periods in Spain, France and Italy.

Trevor Cole is a writer. He was born on 15 February 1960 to William and Hilda Cole. He graduated from Conestoga College in 1982 He began his career working as a copywriter in advertising for three radio station: in Simcoe, Ont. in 1982, then moving on to Cornwall, Ont., and ending in Ottawa in 1985. He became Associate Editor of the Ottawa Magazine where he stayed until 1987. In 1990 he joined the Globe and Mail, working in various capacities on many of their specialty publications.

He has won numerous awards for his journalism and continues to publish in magazines. His first novel Norman Bray in the Performance of His Life was published in 2004. His most recent novel is Practical Jean (2010). His journalism and his novels have been nominated for several awards; Practical Jean won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour. He has also won several National Magazine Awards.

William Cole was born on 22 April 1934, the son of Raymond Cole and his wife Elaine Cole, in Kitchener, Ont. Bill Cole pursued a theatrical and musical career. He performed with the Stratford Festival, the Spring Thaw Review and the Charlottetown Festival. He also did some directing and recorded one record. In later life he sang with the Kitchener Waterloo Philharmonic Choir. H also taught high school briefly. He married Hilda Neeb in August 1957; the couple had two children, Trevor and Valerie, later divorcing in 1982. Bill died in December 2005.

Colin Smythe, the founder of Colin Smythe Limited Publishers, was born in Berkshire, England. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He returned to England and in 1966 established Colin Smythe Limited, in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. The firm specializes in Anglo-Irish literature. In 1987 he was presented with an award from the Association of Anglo-Irish Literature in Dublin.

Henry Cope Colles, an English music critic and writer, was born in Bridgnorth, Shropshire on 20 April 1879. Known as "Harry", he was educated at the Royal College of Music in London and Worcester College, Oxford. He joined The Times as assistant music critic in 1905 and became chief critic in 1911, a position he held until his death in London on 4 March 1943.

His first book, a monograph on Brahms, was published in 1908. His major works include Symphony and Drama 1850-1900 (1934), Vol. 7 of Oxford History of Music and a biography of H. Walford Davies published in 1942. He was also the general editor of the third and fourth editions of Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

John Robert Colombo, a prolific poet, editor, anthologist, and translator, was born on 24 March 1936 in Kitchener, Ontario. He was educated at Waterloo College, Waterloo, Ontario and the University of Toronto. His anthologies are mainly concerned with Canadiana. He served as editor of the Tamarack Review which ceased publication in 1981. There is a biographical sketch by J. David Morrow in Library Research News, 1, no. 5 (February 1971): 2-4.

Ruth has long been fascinated with the lives of women of the mythology of Ancient Greece and goddesses of the Greek Pantheon as they are presented in Greek mythology and she has written extensively about them in poetry. There are three epics and one stand-alone volume. All her books are published by Colombo & Company.

The Combined Universities Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CUCND) was founded in the late 1950s. In December 1964 it was succeeded by Student Union for Peace Action (SUPA) which was concerned with a wide range of social issues, not simply nuclear disarmament. SUPA's head office was in Toronto but there were branches on many university campuses in Canada. SUPA projects included work with blacks in Nova Scotia, poor whites in Kingston, Ontario, native peoples in Saskatchewan and Doukhobors of Nova Scotia, and anti-Vietnam protests and marches. By the winter of 1965 SUPA was an exhausted organization and was beginning to fall apart. From late 1965 to 1967, SUPA's role consisted mainly of supplying literature from its Research, Information and Publications Project (RIPP). SUPA was formally dissolved in September 1967 and succeeded by the New Left Committee which lasted until the summer of 1968.

Comiers was a mathematician and kabbalist.

Le comité québécois provisoire de solidarité avec le peuple palestinien was an ad hoc comittee which organized a series of meetings, 2-12 March 1970, concerning the Palestinian national liberation struggle and imperialism throughout the world. Members of the ad hoc committee included Michel Chartrand (CSN) and Stanley Grey (FLP). The week was known as "Semaine Québécoise de solidarité avec la Palestine; Quebec-Palestine solidarity week". The meetings were held at various universities and CEGEPs in Montreal and concluded with demonstrations at the American and Israeli consulates.

Gisela Commanda was born Gisela Almgren in England on 9 December 1908. Her father was a Swedish artist, Per Johan Hugo Almgren and her mother was Antonia, née Cyriax (1881-1927). Her parents married when both were art students in Sweden; they separated in 1912. Known as “T” (for Tony/Antonia), Gisela’s mother was a friend of David Garnett and D.H. Lawrence; she adopted the pseudonym “Mrs. Anthony” or “Antonius” after separating from Almgren, in the belief that he was pursuing her. Under the name Tony Cyriax she published Among Italian Peasants in 1919, illustrated with her own watercolours. She and her daughter Gisela stayed close to the Lawrences in Italy in 1913 (see The Letters of D.H. Lawrence, ed. James T. Boulton. Cambridge University Press, 1979, vol. 1, 520; vol. 2, 139).

Gisela’s life was no less dramatic, although entirely different from that of her mother. Trained as an artist, she was inspired by hearing Grey Owl speak about the aboriginal peoples of Canada during a tour of England, likely during his first British tour in 1935-6. She travelled first to a USA reservation for indigenous people in 1939 and then came to Canada the following year. Wanting to learn Ojibwa, she had been in touch with Grey Owl’s canoe man in the making of his 1937 Mississagi River film, Antoine Commanda (see Donald B. Smith, From the Land of the Shadows: the Making of Grey Owl, 1990, 308). She visited Commanda at Bisco and married him in 1942. The couple seem to have separated after a short time (although they were not divorced until 1975) and Gisela Commanda, now afforded First Nations status as a result of her marriage, lived on a series of reserves, including Brantford, Ontario and Cardston, Alberta, documenting her travels and the stories of those she met in her lengthy series of notebooks. She worked as an advocate for and promoter of native culture, teaching native crafts and often dressing as an aboriginal person, just as Grey Owl had done.

None of her written work seems ever to have been published and much of it seems to have been lost during her frequent moves. Always prone to “nervous indisposition” (a depressed state which descended whenever she lacked stimulation), she was restless, rarely living in one place for long. After some years at a nursing home in Cornwall, Ontario during the 1970s, she moved to Woodlands Villa, Long Sault, Ontario, where she died on 22 March 1993.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) was founded in 1970 by Hardial Bains as a party for the working classes.

The Communist Party of Canada was founded in Guelph, Ontario in June 1921 as a secret organization. It became a fully open party in 1924. In 1940 it was banned under the War Measures Act. In 1943 it re-emerged as a "new" party, the Labor-Progressive Party (LPP). The period from 1943-1945 was its most successful, with a claimed membership of 20,000. Tim Buck (1891-1973), a machinist and trade unionist, was general-secretary of the party for thirty-two years although he was forced underground during the 1940-1943 period. He also served as the national leader of the LPP.

The Company of Young Canadians (CYC) was set up by an act of parliament in 1966. Its members were involved in various community-based projects directed towards social change across Canada. The CYC ceased around 1970.

La confédération des syndicats nationaux (Confederation of National Trade Unions) was transformed from a Catholic trade union federation into a leading organization in the struggle for Quebec independence.

John Connell, whose real name was John Henry Robertson, was born in 1909 in the West Indies. He was educated at Loretto School in Scotland and Balliol College, Oxford, whence he emerged B.A. to join the London Evening News as a reporter in 1932. He wrote several novels during the 1930s, the first being Lindesay. During his wartime service, Connell acted as Chief Military Censor in India, and directed the British propaganda campaign in the Middle East which was designed to assure the Arab community of Britain's imminent victory. Thereafter the war exercised a strong hold on Connell's mind, evident in the military biographies he wrote later and in his choice of books for review in the London Evening News. In 1950 he won a literary prize for his book W.E. Henley, and in 1956 contributed the booklet on Churchill to the Writer's and Their Work series. Connell's last two works were Auchinleck (1959), and Wavell (1964). Connell died on October 1965, before he could complete the second volume of Wavell.

The Conservative and Unionist Party of Great Britain was formed in 1886 when the Liberal Unionists allied with the Conservative Party although the name was not formally adopted until 1909. The leaflets and other publications in this collection were published by the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, the administrative and propaganda arm of the party.

Sir John Coode was born at Bodmin on 11 November 1816. He was educated at Bodmin Grammar School before being articled to James Meadows Rendel of Plymouth. He went on to become probably the most distinguished harbour engineer of the nineteenth century. His greatest project was Portland harbour, begun in 1849 and completed in 1872 for which he received a knighthood. He was also involved with many harbour projects abroad including Columbo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He became a member of the international commission for the Suez canal in 1884 and served on the commission until his death in Brighton on 2 March 1892. He was elected President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1889. His firm continued on after his death.