The Multicultural History Society of Ontario has now partnered with Internet Archive Canada to keep its historic newspaper collection freely available online – welcome news for genealogists, historians, and community researchers.
The collection’s future became uncertain after Simon Fraser University Library, which had hosted it for many years, announced in March 2024 that it would no longer do so. The new arrangement secures continued public access to a body of material that is especially valuable for Jewish-Canadian family history.
Of particular interest to Jewish genealogists are two cornerstone titles already available on the new platform: the Canadian Jewish Review (1921–1966) and the Canadian Jewish News (1960–1993).
These appear in the first public batch alongside The New Canadian (1939–1985) and L’Ami du Peuple (1942–1968). For genealogists, these newspapers can be a rich source of obituaries, synagogue notices, social items, landsmanshaft activity, fundraising efforts, and references to ordinary people who might otherwise be difficult to place in the historical record.
As MHSO chair Julia Rady noted in the official announcement, the partnership will help ensure “the long-term preservation and open accessibility of a significant, irreplaceable historical resource.”
The move to the Internet Archive Canada platform required a remarkable amount of behind-the-scenes work.
In an April 7 update, MHSO development manager Elizabeth Price explained that the Society encountered “serious problems” related to the original scanning and file-naming conventions used in the earlier digitization. As a result, staff spent “hundreds and hundreds of hours” making corrections to the digital files received from SFU Library.
These corrections included renaming files, restoring proper sequential page order, cropping and separating doubled-up pages scanned together as single files, removing duplicates and blank pages, and carrying out other changes needed to maintain consistency and order.
“Every newspaper required a significant amount of work,” Price wrote.
The good news for researchers is that the papers have been processed with OCR, allowing full-text searching and making the collection far more practical to use. That said, OCR quality will naturally vary depending on the quality of the original scans and microfilm.
Price also noted that additional titles are already in the pipeline. In addition to the first batch, several Chinese-Canadian papers have already been uploaded, and MHSO has supplied Internet Archive Canada with digital files for 24 more newspapers. If a title is not yet online, researchers are advised to keep checking the site as more material is added.
Newspapers slated for upload include
- Al Hilal (1981–1987)
- Bavarijas Latviesu Vestnesis (1945–1946)
- Brivais Latvietis (1948–1949)
- Canadan UuGset (1919–1928, 1934)
- Canadian India Times (1975–1981)
- Chinese Canadian Community News (1979–1987)
- Courrier Sud (1973–1976)
- Crescent (1973–1981)
- El Popular (1970–1987)
- Hung Chung She Po / The Chinese Times (1954–1956)
- Latviesu Vestnesis (1945–1946)
- Latvija (1946–1951)
- Latvija Amerika (1951–1987)
- Le Courrier d’Essex (1884–1886)
- Le Cri de l’Est (1912)
- Le Cultivateur (1881, 1883, 1891)
- Le Rempart (1983–1984)
- Meie Elu (1977–1987)
- Modern Times Weekly (1985–1987)
- Ottawa Chinese Community Newsletter (1977–1987)
- The Messenger (1978–1984)
- Vaba Eestlane (1977–1987)
- Vapaus (1921–1930, 1948–1974)
- Voice of Pakistan (1972–1973)
