I had a conversation with a highly educated guy in France years ago. I mentioned the names of some battles the English had won against France. He'd never heard of them. He told me the names of some battles the French had won. Guess what? I'd never heard of them.

There's a certain logic to that. What of more 'neutral' things though?

I hated history at school - all Tudors and Stuarts, Chippendale furniture and somebody or other's fireplaces.

But I remember learning stuff like the Boston Tea Party too which the Canadian family never knew. I just asked my MIL if she'd heard of it and she thought it was ice hockey related.

Ahem. Canada keeps people on reservations, that's barely short of apartheid. Until the 1950s mental health experiments with wires were conducted on people of a specific ethnicity.

Note that I'm not expressing an opinion on the history or comparing Canada to anywhere else but it's a bit of a stretch not to notice that the native people live in sheds. Around here construction paper is even called "indian siding".

Maybe racism towards the Chinese is a bit less obvious.

That's on the verge of unbelievable, could she just have forgotten? Not knowing the Boston Tea Party is like never having heard about Paul Revere's Ride. While we didn't go into American history in anywhere near the depth they do in the US (Civil War battles for instance), the events leading up to the Revolutionary War were certainly covered.

The First Nations lands are part of their treaty entitlement; the real similarity to apartheid was when after the Riel Rebellion in 1885 people required a pass (issued at the discretion of the Indian Agent) in order to leave their reserve for any reason. That system was in effect for over 60 years and closely mirrors the pass system in South Africa then. The assumption that someone is inferior because they are different is always going to run just beneath the surface in some people, and all we can do is call them out and try to discuss it. A native lady I know said "That bus driver is so racist, every time I see him I give him a great big hug!" She does it because she knows it makes him freak but I think it's fantastic.
Bias against the Chinese is probably divided between those who resent them because they are different and those who are jealous of their economic success or who rationalise their hatred by citing unethical trade practices or their domination of local markets. I have a friend in Vancouver who has been telling me what's wrong with the Chinese since 1983 but he still lives there and I still get links from him that I just file, unopened. It's probably been 4 or 5 years since I've gone through Chinatown but I'd like to go next time I'm in town and see if I can still pick out some of the historical landmarks like the thinnest building, Chiang Kai Shek's hideout, and the alleys where the Green Door and Orange Door restaurants were back in the 70's when I started going there. Back then Run Run Shaw had 2 theatres in downtown Vancouver and I went to a couple of kung-fu pictures just for the heck of it even though I couldn't understand the dialogue.

My wife had a big falling out with her sisters who ostracised their mother for not being "educated" enough for them. The estrangement was long lasting.

What education MIL did have was from "the nuns" who it seems used to spend more time rapping her knuckles for writing left handed than teaching her things.

That's really sad, but I suppose not rare in some settings and times. In high school I was lucky to have a history teacher with such a passion for the subject that even delinquents that were failing their other classes paid attention in hers. Thank you Miss Liske, wherever you are!

I think it must have been around 1952 when she left school in Montreal about 14.

My Mum also has memories of the nuns, apparently they hit knuckles with the narrow edge of the ruler rather than the flat bit. Irish in her case though, she still claims to only have learnt maths in Gaelic.

Yep.
She says her dad went there and threatened one of them for doing it.

My high school we had:

1 year of U.S. History in grade 12.

1 year of world history in grade 9 which focused on history outside of North America.

2 years of Mexican-American history in grade 10 and 11.

Canada had no historical relevance with So. California so the focus was on the countries that did such as Mexico and Spain.

Michigan police thinking outside the box.. (the video shows nothing graphic, nor does it show the individual who was not harmed and taken to hospital.)

My husband went to a Catholic school with nuns as teachers. He recalls that they used to twist the skin on your arm as punishment. That's sadistic.

I've met Canadians who haven't heard of The Underground Railroad

I think at some point the educational system began to deteriorate. When my mother was secretary to the provincial minister of education around 1971 give or take a year he was getting letters from teachers around the province and she remarked that some of them weren't particularly good at spelling or writing letters, which mystified her.