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Ursula Martius Franklin fonds
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Subject files and background material

Subseries consists of general subject files and background material on the environment, energy issues, and renewable energy. Topics include environmental activism, groups, conferences, publications, and letters; energy research and planning; energy scenarios for the future; broadening Canada’s energy supply options; renewable energy; solar energy; and wind energy. Records include publications, newsletters, correspondence, news clippings, and brochures.

Berlin

Series consist of records and publications relating to Dr. Franklin’s trip to Berlin as an observer at the World Peace Congress. This was her first trip back to Berlin after her departure in the late 1940s. Series includes a typed article (address to friends), detailing her thoughts on the visit, a notebook, the Assembly program, and books, booklets and brochures collected while in Berlin. Subseries also includes 2 commercial slide collections (produced in 1965): one of Berlin and one of Potsdam.

Papers

Subseries consists of papers written by Dr. Franklin for academic journals, magazines and books on a wide range of subjects, including physics, materials science, engineering, pacifism, politics, technology, feminism and education. Also includes some editorials written for newspapers. A list of publications (1950-1980) can be found in file B2015-0005/034(06). Files consist primarily of final copies of articles, although a few files do contain drafts and correspondence.

Quakers: General

Subseries documents Dr. Franklin’s involvement with the Quaker community, as a member of Toronto Monthly Meeting and as a clerk of the Peace Committee of the Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC).

Activities documented include campaigns for disarmament, the Cruise Missile Conversion Project, attempts to set up a Quaker Study Centre at King City, demonstrations at the radar base of La Macaza, briefing the Lamarsh Commission, and many more. Records include minutes from the General Meetings and Peace Committees, material related to various CFSC conferences, gatherings, and institutes, papers and reports, media coverage, public education literature, briefs, newsletters, and correspondence.

The series also includes records relating to the operation by Canadian Quakers of the Peace Centre on Grindstone Island in the Rideau Lakes. This includes documents internal to the Quaker operation and the work of the peace education secretary Murray Thomson. According to Dr. Franklin, much of the work around the Grindstone Island programs was controversial, not only with respect to Canadian public opinion, but also within certain more traditional elements of the Quaker community. Records relating to Grindstone Island include minutes, internal documents, reports, programs and photographs. Included is also Thirty-one Hours, the printed transcript of the 1965 Summer Institute on Non-Violence, which was an exercise in non-violence. The transcript is an important original document of the responses of a pacifist community to a real and life-threatening attack.

German academic life

Subseries consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s early academic life (as Ursula Maria Martius) when she was studying experimental physics at the Technical University of Berlin. Records include academic correspondence, drafts of her PhD thesis, “Die Anregung von Leuchtstoffen mit Gammastrahlen und Röntgenstrahlen verschiedener Wellenlänge” (1948), as well as the academic work of some of her colleagues, including Immanuel Broser, Hartmut Kallmann and R. Warminsky.

Personal and biographical

Series consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s personal and academic life in Germany and Canada. See subseries descriptions for more detailed information.

Media coverage and interviews

Subseries consists of records documenting Dr. Franklin’s appearance in newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and films. Records include press clippings, correspondence, interview transcripts, contracts, and advertising.

General research files

Subseries consists of general research files that lack a definite connection to the particular roles/projects represented in the other subseries. These include references and experimental work related to the earliest occurrences of copper, experimental work on beads from the Negev and related correspondence with Prof. Oren of the University of the Negev. Also included are translations of Russian articles on copper finds in the Caucasus.

Science Council of Canada: Conserver Society

Subseries consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s activities as a member of the Science Council of Canada (SCC), especially her service as chair of the committee eventually responsible for SCC’s Report Number 27: Canada as a Conserver Society.

According to Dr. Franklin, what makes these records particularly significant is their documentation of an attempt by the committee to develop an energy future for Canada by two people of very different philosophical approaches. The committee asked Amery Lovins to develop one such scenario and asked Dr. E. Stoian and others of the Science Council Staff to critique the paper by Dr. Lovins and produce an alternative scenario. Unfortunately the exercise was not as helpful as had been hoped for, largely because of the inability of those critical of Dr. Lovins to clearly state their assumptions. The discussion is documented in the material in the folder B1996-0004/027(11) (“Lovins and Stoian discussions”). It is probably the only still existing documentation of this research attempt.

Underlying the discussions is a fundamental power struggle related to the different approaches to energy policy expressed by the two committees and their respective communities. Bruneau’s committee dealt essential with the problem of possible energy shortages from the supply side: trying to develop a spectrum of energy supplies regardless of environmental or physical costs, or the energy costs of producing energy. The approach of the Conserver Society essentially dealt with modifying the demand side of the problem, noting how much waste and inappropriate usage is created by the availability of cheap energy. However, the power of the energy industry, including the nuclear establishment, weighed heavily on the self-interest of the supply solution.

Subseries also includes records of discussion around the council’s population report. These led to a minority statement by Dr. Fernand Seguin and Dr. Franklin. Dr. Seguin subsequently resigned on matters of principal from the council. The subseries also includes a file on a 1982 symposium on The Conserver Society Revisited.

Also included is the report on the Conserver Society by the Montreal based Gamma Group. Although the Council and the Group were in touch with each other, the studies proceeded somewhat side-by-side since the work of the Council was primarily policy-oriented. Yet, the public as well as the professional discussions took both documents seriously into account.

Records in this series provide significant documentation of the group and include background material, reports, correspondence, newsletters, media coverage, workshop material, discussion papers, and presentations. The series also includes general subject files on the environment.

Awards

Subseries consists of records relating to various awards given to Dr. Franklin. Records include correspondence, ceremony invitations and programs, acceptance speech notes and texts, letters of congratulations, photographs, certificates, awards and plaques.

General

Subseries consists of various records relating to administrative matters at the University of Toronto, including the Peace Studies Program, the IHPST Council, the Confucian Institute, and a proposed Science Policy and Economics Centre.

Subseries also documents various advocacy done at the University of Toronto, including efforts for university divestment from South Africa (1986); opposition to the awarding of an honorary degree to Helmut Kohl (Chancellor of Germany from 1982-1988); work done with Pollution Probe; the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women; the inquiry into alleged discrimination against Dr. Kin-Yip Chun at the University of Toronto; andthe teaching assistant strike (1991?). There is also a subject file on the university and research policy (1988-1998)

Subseries also includes 2 photographs: a portrait of Anna Jameson, the first and founding executive secretary for the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and a photo of Dr. Franklin with Betty Isbister, Michelle Landsburg, Rose Wolf and 2 unidentified women at the 20th anniversary of women at Hart House (1993).

Research

Series consists of records documenting Dr. Franklin’s research activities in physics, materials science, archaeometry, and museums. See subseries for more information.

Scientific organizations and commissions

Series consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s membership and participation in several national scientific organizations, including the Science Council of Canada, the National Research Council, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. One subseries also documents research and work done for the Ontario Commission of Inquiry on Aluminum Wiring. See subseries descriptions for more detail.

Energy and nuclear issues

Series consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s various interests and activities around energy policies and practices, especially regarding the dangers of nuclear technologies. These files pertain to Dr. Franklin’s involvement with a number of groups, and pertain to a number of initiatives. See subseries descriptions for more information

Ursula Martius Franklin fonds

  • UTA 1287
  • Fonds
  • 1934-2014 [predominant 1945-2014]

Fonds consists of records documenting the personal, professional, and public life of Dr. Ursula Franklin, physicist, engineer, materials scientists, pacifist and feminist. Records document Dr. Franklin’s early life and career, later employment by the University of Toronto, awards and honorary degrees, teaching, research process and output, publishing activities, travel, service on national scientific boards, work with the CBC, peace work with the Quakers and Voice of Women, as well as other advocacy and activism.

A series of chronological files documents Dr. Franklin’s speeches, talks and attendance at a variety of academic and community events. Fonds also includes a significant amount of correspondence with colleagues, family, friends, fellow activists and ordinary citizens, as well as electronic copies of more than 575 pages of surveillance of Dr. Franklin by the RCMP. One series also documents a wide range of matters at the University of Toronto relating to Massey College, Museum Studies, the SLOWPOKE Reactor, and other matters. Yet another series documents Dr. Franklin’s involvement with the Ursula Franklin Academy.

Records include day planners, notebooks, correspondence, publications, news clippings, reports, drafts, research data and notes, background material, photographs, sound and moving image recordings and some copies of government documents and records.

See series and subseries descriptions for more detail.

Franklin, Ursula Martius

Peace work

Series consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s pacifism and peace work, including her work as a Quaker, a key member of Voice of Women, and in other capacities. This series provides excellent documentation of segments of the Canadian peace movement, especially from the 1960s through to the 1980s. See subseries descriptions for more detail.

Other advocacy and activism

Series consists of records relating to a wide range of advocacy and activism undertaken by Dr. Franklin throughout her life, including work against the amalgamation of Toronto, and testimony at the Toronto Board of Education public education hearings. Subseries also includes some background material and correspondence on aboriginal knowledge and rights. 3 files contain public literature distributed by Canada’s right wing and hate groups, some direct attacks on the kinds of groups with which Dr. Franklin worked.

Several files pertain to Aleksandra Vinogradov’s 1988 compliant of discrimination against the University of Calgary, in regards to her treatment as a candidate for an appointment in its Department of Civil Engineering. Records in these files include letters of support, news clippings, newsletters from The Aleksandra Vinogradov Defence Committee, and a report by the CAUT (Canadian Association of University Teachers’) Committee of Inquiry into the matter. Files also contain various legal documents, including judgments and appeals.

Another file relates to the court case of Donna Smythe, a well-known Canadian writer and professor English at Acadia University, who was charged with libel by Professor Leo Yaffe, professor of chemistry at McGill University, because of an op/ed signed editorial that Dr. Smythe wrote. According to Dr. Franklin, Smythe had commented on a talk given by Dr. Yaffe on “The Health Hazards of Not Going Nuclear”. The uranium mining industry in Nova Scotia used this case to try to destroy the citizen’s group in which Dr. Smythe and Dr. Gillian Thomas were very active. The group, many of them farmers, was struggling to have uranium mining prohibited in Nova Scotia because of the potential damage to water and soil. In spite of Dr. Franklin’s efforts to mediate between Dr. Yaffe and Smythe, the case came to trial before jury in Halifax. Yaffee claimed that Dr. Smythe’s article questioned his professional judgment. Dr. Franklin appeared as a witness on behalf of Dr. Smythe. Dr. Franklin relied on documents on academic promotion and tenure used in Canadian universities and could show that newspaper articles, be they positive or negative, were not considered evidence on which to base professional qualifications. The jury ruled that Dr. Yaffe’s reputation had not been damaged and that there were no grounds for libel. In spite of this positive verdict, the citizen’s group was destroyed for all practical purposes and during the two years prior to the trial had not been able to mount any political action. CBC’s Ideas covered some of the trial together with a libel suit against the CBC’s Max Allen regarding his program on lead pollution (Give Us This Day Our Daily Lead).

University of Toronto

Series consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s various activities and functions within the University of Toronto, especially as Director of Museum Studies (1987-1989) and Senior Fellow at Massey College (1989-). Records tend to reflect administrative activities, but also include some advocacy done within the university. See subseries descriptions for more information.

Teaching

Series consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s teaching duties. One course in particular is very well documented – JAM 2012: Ancient Materials. According to Dr. Franklin, this course was quite innovative. It was intended for incoming graduate students in Anthropology or Materials Engineering, taught through the School of Graduate Studies. The respective departments – Archeology and Anthropology and Materials Engineering MMS - carried the JAM courses in their calendars. The students worked together in pairs, one student from each discipline. In contrast to the usual joint courses taught by different staff members in a sequence of individually-taught sections, the JAM courses were truly co-taught, i.e. both instructors were present at all sessions, which consisted of annotated conversation between two professionals, linking theory and practice.

Records in the series include course and project descriptions, exam questions, lecture notes, and student projects. The series also includes an extensive collection of teaching aids, including teaching slides (depicting museum/archaeological artifacts), 4 boxes of micrographs, and several boxes of artifacts used in instruction, including various rocks, Chinese spade coins, Canadian coins and stamps, and metal samples.

This series also contains 2 files on students who were supervised by Dr. Franklin.

Ursula Franklin Academy

Series consists of records relating to Ursula Franklin Academy, a secondary school operated by the Toronto District School Board and founded in 1995. The school originally operated out of the former Brockton High School and moved to Western Technical-Commercial School in 2002. The school was named after Dr. Franklin and is modeled on her vision of education.

Records in this series primarily document the founding and early days of the school, including correspondence, information packages, and materials from the school opening. Some files relate to the school’s ongoing activities, and conversations about education method, as documented in newsletters, event notices, and some correspondence. Series also includes matted photographs from the opening of the school, including photographs of Dr. Franklin with Jane Jacobs.

Sound recordings

Series consists of audio recordings documenting a wide range of Dr. Franklin’s activities, including speeches, talks, keynotes, and interviews. Some tapes also document CBC Ideas radio shows, including raw tapes and copies of broadcasts, including tapes of Dr. Franklin’s Massey Lectures, The Real World of Technology.

Moving images

Series consists of video and DVD recordings documenting Dr. Franklin’s speeches, talks, keynotes, interviews and honorary degrees. Series also includes films and television shows in which Dr. Franklin appears.

Early family life and letters

Subseries consists of records documenting Dr. Franklin’s family and early life. The first file is a scrapbook on the history of the Martius family, dating back to the 15th century. The scrapbook includes a long paper, in German, on the history of the family, as well as captioned photographs and postcards. Series also includes a diary, written in German, from 1945. The bulk of the subseries consists of correspondence sent to and from Dr. Franklin, primarily after she moved to Canada. There are many letters between Dr. Franklin and her family in Germany, as well as letters to friends and colleagues.

The subseries concludes with records documenting Dr. Franklin’s attempts to sponsor her mother’s immigration to Canada in 1949.

Research Board and SLOWPOKE Reactor

Subseries consists of correspondence with the Chairs of the University Research Board (1979-1983), regarding university research policy, requests for funds, and a request to Dr. Franklin to serve on a panel regarding particular research proposals.

Subseries also includes minutes from the SLOWPOKE Reactor Committee and the SLOWPOKE Subcommittee on Quality Control and Automation of Data Handling (1986).

Publishing activities

Subseries consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s publishing activities. Files include correspondence, requests for work, author agreements, reviews and other records relating to publishing books and articles, rather than the texts themselves.

Commission of Inquiry on Aluminum Wiring

Subseries consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s preparations for the hearings of Ontario’s Commission of Inquiry on Aluminum Wiring, at which she gave testimony. The 18-month Commission, chaired by John Tuzo Wilson, was responsible for determining whether aluminum wiring was safe for residential use. Records include background papers and publications, research notes, copies of government memos and orders-of-council, news clippings, and correspondence from John Tuzo Wilson, concerned citizens, researchers, and others investigating this issue. A later file also includes correspondence and background material relating to a 1981 court case regarding wiring.

Nuclear technologies

Subseries consists of records relating to a wide variety activities pertaining to Dr. Franklin’s concerns around nuclear energy and technologies. Records include news clippings, correspondence, minutes, copies of government records, submissions, and reports.

Files document a 1996 panel on nuclear waste management, to which Dr. Franklin made an oral presentation and written submission, on behalf of VOW. A number of files pertain to the MOX (mixed oxide fuel) forum, which challenged the disposition of Russian and U.S. plutonium in Ontario generating stations. Other files reflect opposition to Canada’s sales of CANDU reactors to other nations.

China

Subseries consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s trip to China for the International Conference of Early Metallurgy, including background and planning material, correspondence, reports, articles, and notebooks. Subseries also contains booklets, postcards and related to various historical sites and artifacts in China.

Ontario Research Foundation and the Royal Ontario Museum

Subseries consists of records pertaining to Dr. Franklin’s work with the Ontario Research Foundation (ORF), primarily for the Royal Ontario Museum. Dr. Franklin worked at the Ontario Research Foundation from 1951-1967, first as a Research Fellow and later as a Senior Research Scientist Her work there centered on the use of microscopic and x-ray data to reveal new information about museum objects. Records include data, micrographs, reports, papers, and correspondence. Papers and research pertain to dating museum objects by metallurgical means, Indian pigments, Chinese pigments and bronzes, and arrowheads.

Subseries also includes 2 photographs of the ORF staff, ca. 1954.

Honorary degrees

Subseries consists of records relating to honorary degrees awarded to Dr. Franklin. Records include correspondence, programmes, congratulatory letters, notes for convocation addresses, photographs, and oversized diplomas. Subseries also includes correspondence regarding declined degrees.

Vietnam War

Subseries documents Dr. Franklin’s opposition to the Vietnam War, as an academic, a Quaker, a member of Voice of Women, and as a private citizen.

Records includes files documenting A Quaker Action Group (AQAG) and the Quaker Aid program to North Vietnam, including descriptions of the campaigns by U.S. Quakers to make bridges to the ‘enemy’ with the assistance of Canadian Quakers. These developments span 1963 to approximately 1968 and include the pilgrimages across the Peace Bridge from Buffalo to Toronto. Files include reports, lists of medical supplies, brochures, press releases, public education literature, news clippings, and a brief to the Committee on External Affairs re: the situation in Vietnam. Records also include internal Quaker correspondence, letters from the Hanoi Red Cross, and a letter from the U.S. Treasury Department, concerned about the movement of funds.

Subseries also includes records relating to the University of Toronto Teach-ins against the Vietnam War (Toronto International Teach-in). Records include programs, session descriptions, lists of seminar leaders, tickets, and newspaper clippings. Files also include background material, including U.S. government documents on the war, American Friends Service Committee public education literature, and a memo on Vietnam by The War Resisters League.

There is also a file on Dr. Vo Tranh Minh, a Vietnamese Buddhist, scholar and musician who wanted to attempt a reconciliation between the people of the North and South. According to Dr. Franklin, he was influenced by both Gandhi and the Quakers he had met, and spent a number of weeks in Canada to prepare himself to enter South Vietnam. He had planned to walk to the North trying to make contact with all those interested in working out a livable solution on the basis of non-violent conduct. He stayed in Toronto at Friends House where the Quakers tried to obtain press exposure for him, one of the few ways they could protect him in his mission. Unfortunately, not only did the mission fail, but to the best of everyone’s knowledge, Dr. Vo died in a South Vietnamese jail.

CBC programming

Subseries consists of documentation of Dr. Franklin’s involvement with CBC programming – in particular with CBC Ideas.

The first 6 files pertain to a CBC Ideas radio program on technology and democracy in Germany, produced by Max Allen. Preparations for the program began in 1974, and it was broadcast in 1978. The show discusses the issue of Beiufs Verbote, and the denial of employment and tenure to university teachers in Germany who were unwilling to partake in a loyalty oath. Ursula Franklin and Max Allen condensed 25 hours of German interviews by journalist Jurgen Hesse into five 1-hour programs. The German was translated by Ursula Franklin and the files contain texts in both German and English.

Subseries also includes transcripts for a number of other CBC Ideas shows, including Nuclear Peace (1982-1983), Cold War in Canada (1984), At Work in the Fields of the Bomb (1984), Telematics (1984), On the Northern Front (1985), New Ideas in Ecology and Economics (1986), Complexity and Management (1986), the Seven Deadly Sins (1989), and How the World Has Changed (2001).

Subseries also includes records relating to “Nuclear Dynamite,” a documentary on Project Plowshare for CBC’s “The Nature of Things”, including an interview transcript.

Book collection at UTM

This small series consists of records relating to the collection of books on feminism and women’s studies that Dr. Franklin donated to UTM (The University of Toronto Mississauga) for use by their Women’s Studies Program. Series consists of 1 file containing a list of the books and the transcript of a tape recording where Dr. Franklin details the significance of her books and the ways in which her collecting practices reflect her own particular feminist politics.

Quakers: Jerilynn Prior and the war tax

Subseries consists of records relating to two intertwining issues: the court case against Jerrilynn Prior (who refused to pay taxes that would fund the military) the more general issue facing conscientious objectors who must pay taxes for future wars.

The legal defence of Dr. Jerrilynn Prior was undertaken by Thomas Berger, with whom Dr. Franklin worked closely to establish the Quaker background to their conscientious objection to war and its implications on taxation during peacetime. According to Dr. Franklin, As well, and in parallel to the Jerrilynn Prior case, there were intense discussions within the Quaker community, the traditional peace churches and some lawyers and parliamentarians on the feasibility of redirecting the military portion of the income tax from conscientious objectors to designated peaceful purposes. Dr. Franklin was part of several delegations to members of the House of Commons on this issue.

Records include the legal documents by Berger, the judgments, and the responses. Records also include background material, papers and presentations, correspondence, press clippings, and parliamentary records relating to the issue of conscientious objection and efforts to introduce a Peace Bill, which would allow citizens to allocate their tax monies away from military purposes.

Chinese black mirrors

Subseries consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s research on Chinese black mirrors. Records include data, research, micrographs, reports, papers, manuscript drafts, and correspondence.

National Research Council (NRC)

This small subseries consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s service as a board member of the National Research Council, and member of the Council Committee on Personnel, Committee on Grants and Scholarships, and Committee on Allocations. Records include a program from the 1932 official opening of the National Research Laboratories, the commemorative issue from the 300th meeting of the National Research Council of Canada. Subseries also includes documentation of the NRC visit to the Defence Research Establishment at Valcartier in 1982, including the visit program, a fact sheet, and a photograph. There is also documentation of the 51st Executive Committee of Council Meeting, in 1983. Lastly, one file consists of correspondence, budget reports, memos, papers, minutes and notes relating to planning and the future of the NRC in 1986-1987.

Correspondence

Series consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence between Dr. Franklin and friends, family, colleagues, government officials, and others. Correspondence pertains to the full scope of Dr. Franklin’s life and work, including her academic work, her political activism, and her personal life.

Atomic Energy Control Board

In 1985, the Mulroney government appointed Dr. Franklin to the Atomic Energy Control Board, a 5-member board that directed an agency of 285 employees “charged with protecting the Canadian public against the consequences of a nuclear mishap.” One day later, she was told the invitation had been withdrawn, and the public speculated that it was due to her anti-nuclear stance, of which the government was somehow previously unaware. Records in this subseries provide significant documentation of this controversy, includin the original letter of appointment and subsequent correspondence with Pat Carney (Minister of Energy, Minutes and Resources), letters from supporters, news clippings, a petition, copies of House of Commons Debates, and background information on nuclear issues.

Source for quote: “Politicians may be part of country’s nuclear problem – and solution” in the Ottawa Citizen, 6 July 1985. p. B5.

Museum Studies

Subseries consists of records relating to various activities in the Museum Studies Program, especially during Dr. Franklin’s tenure as Director (1987-1989). Records include minutes of the Program Committee and Advisory Committee, correspondence, planning documents, event announcements, an annual activity report from the program (1988-1989), a five-year review (2000), and the press release from Dr. Franklin’s appointment. Subseries also includes a file of notes and announcements relating to various lectures and talks, including the Museum Studies Symposium, Towards an Ecology of Knowledge (1996).

The Ursula Franklin Reader

Subseries consists primarily of files assembled for the publication of the Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map (Between the Lines, 2006), with the help of Michelle Swenarchuk and Ruth Pincoe. The book includes edited articles and talks that appear elsewhere in this fonds, but these files have been retained as they illustrate the process of selecting and editing from a large body of work to create a condensed volume of Dr. Franklin’s ideas. Records include drafts, notes and correspondence for each chapter. The subseries also includes reviews of the book, as well as correspondence and photographs relating to a number of book launches.

Massey Lectures: The Real World of Technology

Series consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s 1989 CBC Massey Lectures, The Real World of Technology, which was published by Anansi Press in 1992 (2nd edition, 1999). The bulk of the series documents Dr. Franklin’s preparation for the lectures, including notes and drafts. Records also include subject files and general resources on technology, promotional material for the lectures (including a poster), records relating to rights, lecture transcripts, proofs, and correspondence from individuals responding to the lectures.

Voice of Women and Hydro Ontario

Subseries documents the Voice of Women’s participation in public hearings on the future demands of electricity for Ontario: The Ontario Hydro Demand/Supply Plan Hearings. VOW was the only women’s organization as well as the only peace organization asking for intervener status at the inquiry. Because VOW received funding as interveners, they were able to retain part-time legal counsel and raise a number of issues that would otherwise have not been discussed. Although the inquiry was prematurely discontinued, much of the evidence brought before the panel by the interveners became part of the revised strategy of the next Ontario government.

Subseries also includes more general files on Ontario Hydro, including publications, news clippings, records relating to the sale of tritium.

Voice of Women: General

Subseries consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s work with Voice of Women, founded in 1960 by a group of women concerned about the threat of nuclear war. Their first mass meeting was in July 1960 at Toronto’s Massey Hall. The group organized an International Peace Conference in 1962 – the first of its kind. Working alongside Muriel Duckworth, Kay Macpherson, and other leading women in the Canadian peace movement, Franklin brought her scientific experience and knowledge to bear on the work done by VOW.

Records primarily document the activities of VOW in Toronto and Ottawa, but also include coverage of Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Regina, and Victoria.

General background records on VOW include the 1968 VOW constitution, reports, papers, newsletters, public education literature, news coverage, research, correspondence and general publications on the Canadian peace movement.

VOW submitted numerous briefs to the House of Commons and various federal commissions and committees on a wide range of issues, including military trade agreements, chemical and biological weapons, Star Wars, Canadian-American military cooperation, arms exports, disarmament, energy policy, and bilingualism and biculturalism. Records relating to these briefs, including background material, correspondence, drafts, and the final briefs, can be found in this subseries.

Other activities documented include election advocacy, public education events, peace conferences, meetings, exhibits, and organizational matters. There are also several files document VOW’s work with the Cluff Lake community, in their opposition to a proposed uranium mining development in Northern Saskatchewan in the late 1970s. Records include correspondence, testimonies, background information and news clippings.

There is also significant documentation of tension in the organization in 1962-1963 around the purpose and priorities of VOW. Records here include results from a controversial opinion poll questionnaire sent to members to gather their opinions, and significant correspondence.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

Subseries consists of records relating to Dr. Franklin’s work with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Records include letters of invitation, as well as records relating to the Canadian Global Change Program (International Geosphere-Biosphere Program), including correspondence, proposals, and a report of the Ad Hoc Review Committee, 1989.

Massey College

Subseries consists of records relating to Massey College, especially those during Dr. Franklin’s time as one of the College’s Senior Fellows (1989-). Records include the College’s Incorporating Statute (1961), various correspondence (1990-2002), a list of Officers (1995), and various event files.

Records also discuss Senior Fellow nominations (1999), the Senior Residents Policy (2005), and the Clarkson Laureateship (2007-2012).

RCMP files

In 2013, a researcher studying the Voice of Women requested the RCMP files of many of the women involved in the group, including Dr. Franklin. Redacted copies of the files were supplied by Library and Archives Canada and subsequently shared with Dr. Franklin. Subseries consists of 5 PDF files (577 pages) documenting the extensive file the RCMP kept on Dr. Franklin from 1949-1984. It is presumed that more recent records were withheld for privacy reasons.

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