Cold War Secrets in Regina

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During the Cold War, the Canadian government initiated a civil defence campaign urging private citizens to construct shelters to protect themselves from the effects of nuclear fallout. Historians have argued that Canadians did not prepare for a nuclear attack and that the fallout shelter campaign failed. Historical estimates on shelter construction are problematic. Like many Cold War facilities and structures, fallout shelters were constructed in secret and concealed. Using archival research, oral histories and data from a survey of private fallout shelters in Regina, Saskatchewan, this talk will argue that Regina’s citizens did not ignore the campaign and will show the range of shelter types built in Regina.

Julie Mushynsky, is an instructor in the anthropology department at the University of Regina and a consulting archaeologist with Canada North Environmental Services. She received her PhD in archaeology from Flinders University in South Australia in 2017. Her dissertation won the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Doctoral Thesis Excellence in 2018.