Lawrence Lessig’s weblog
contains a short message from Wallace McLean. He notes that in Canada every author who died before December 31, 1948 has passed into the public domain. His description of what that means is particularly poignant:

As of today, millions of pages of archival heritage, in hundreds of
archival institutions, have become the common property of all Canadians.

You are free to make use of this heritage in any way you want, by
publishing, digitizing, compiling, translating, adapting, dramatizing, or
treating the material in any other way. It’s yours to enjoy and share with
whomever, whenever, in whatever way you want.

A pretty nice holiday present for Canadians. We’ll have to wait another 15 years to celebrate the entrance of a single page into the public domain.