National Network for Equitable Library Service

Black Canadian women must constantly incorporate changes to their identities to face the challenges of living in a multicultural society. Naturally Woman: The Search for Self in Black Canadian Women’s Literature examines the ways in which Black immigrant women must adapt to survive in a multicultural country such as Canada without losing their sense of self.

Corridor Talk contains contributions from feminist scholars from across Canada from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. When the anthropologist Paul Rainbow coined the term, ‘corridor talk,’ he used it to refer to information that was relegated to side chats with colleagues, information that was not to be included in field notes, manuscripts or journal articles. These were the unimportant details or ‘gossip’ concerning a person’s research, although he noted that a person’s reputation often hinged on such discussions.

Romani Women in Canada: Spectrum of the Blue Water is grounded upon Romani women’s lived experience as writers, essayists, visual artists, and activists. Reflecting the panoply of women’s voices, the book links everyday experience and a social critique of the factors that enable and constrain women’s lives. Through incisive creativity, pragmatic action, and affective networks, the book is a consolidation of diverse expressions of agency and collectivity. Sharing a will to advance the dignity of women’s lives, the contributors are as plural as their subject matter.

The shocking true story of the institutionalization and abuse of children and adults with intellectual and physical handicaps in Canada’s oldest provincial institution in Orillia, Ontario. Daisy Lumsden and her family were such victims, along with over ten thousand children, including infants, and adults with intellectual disabilities committed over the last century to the institution now known as Huronia Regional Centre, formerly the Asylum for Idiots and Feeble-Minded.

A collection of articles that examine many of the struggles that Aboriginal women have faced, and continue to face, in Canada. Sections include: Profiles of Aboriginal Women; Identity; Territory; Activism; Confronting Colonialism; the Canadian Legal System; and Indigenous Knowledges. Photographs and poetry are also included.

On December 27, 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, a distant land unknown to most Canadians. A crucial fall-out was the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow, which Canada eventually joined, forcing 212 Canadian athletes to shelve their Olympic dreams, some temporarily, many forever. For the athletes, there was and is sadness at a missed opportunity to excel on the Olympic stage and disappointment that their sacrifice was but a token response, still largely unacknowledged.

In February 2004 the first of many U.S. soldiers came to Canada, seeking sanctuary after saying "no" to the war on Iraq. Unlike the Vietnam War when over 40,000 draft dodgers and military deserters successfully struggled to make Canada their home, this new generation of war resisters has been denied refuge by the Canadian government. Now they fight a battle they could not have predicted: to make their home in a country that publicly refused to join the Iraq War and that continues to deport them.

The Steppes Are the Colour of Sepia: A Mennonite Memoir invites the reader to embark on a journey that traces the paths of ancestral memory over the steppes of the Russian empire to the valleys of Canada’s Fraser River. Connie Braun’s narrative continues where Sandra Birdsell’s historical fiction Russlander has left off – back to the catastrophic events of twentieth-century Europe.

Jean Coulthard demonstrated that a Canadian woman could be a successful professional composer, whose music was, and still is, played extensively in concert halls across Canada and internationally. Through her seven-decade career she composed in every genre of traditional classical music: opera, symphonies, concerti, chamber music, keyboard, voice, and choir. Coulthard's story was more than that of artist and teacher. She made a place for herself in a male-dominated university and, as a westerner, she fought for the artists of her community.

The extraordinary story of Michael Smith, a man who rose from humble beginnings in Blackpool, England, to become a revolutionary gene researcher, philanthropist and Nobel Prize winner. A professor at the University of British Columbia, Smith dedicated his talent and energy to science research, and later launched the university's internationally regarded Biotechnology Laboratory. The authors present not only the career and science of a great Canadian scientist, but also the politics and personalities of university research.