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Canadian nonfiction

  • Barr'd Islands from English roots
    Author:
    Witcher, Eric R.
    Summary:

    Barr’d Islands: From English Roots is a history of early English settlement in Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland, with a focus on Barr’d Islands, a small fishing community on Fogo Island.

    Explore the day-to-day lives of a charitable, community-minded people whose hardships were many in a time when survival from year to year was uncertain: living under the iron fist of merchant firms, subsistence farming, poverty. Also, learn of these early settlers’ faith, richness of virtue, hard-work ethic, and games and amusements shared by all in the community.

    Finally, this book is a genealogical treasure trove that traces many well-known Newfoundland family trees back to their English roots in the 1600s.
    The mission of this Historic series is to bring to light the ageless character of Newfoundland and Labrador communities in an effort to preserve the history of this province and to educate future generations about this corner of the global village.

    Barr’d Islands: From English Roots is the first instalment in this series.
  • Barkerville and the Cariboo goldfields
    Author:
    Wright, Richard Thomas
    Summary:

    The stories of the men and women who dug for gold on Williams Creek are told in this revised and updated edition of a Canadian bestseller. The legendary town of Barkerville is flourishing today, just as it did more than 150 years ago, but this time under the care of professional and amateur historians. Richard Thomas Wright peels back the pages of history as he unearths the area’s history and chronicles the fortunes and the follies of gold-rush-era Barkerville. The result of years of around-the-world research, Barkerville and the Cariboo Goldfields brings to life the men and women of the creeks who came in search of gold and left their mark on BC history. Wright mined the archives to bring forth new information on the development of the Cariboo goldfields and nearby places of interest. Barkerville includes dozens of little-known historical photos and a complete index. It is the best, most comprehensive source of detailed information on this important national heritage site.
  • Barefoot at the Lake : A Boyhood Summer in Cottage Country
    Author:
    Fogle, Bruce
    Summary:

    Every year, from the end of June to the end of August, Bruce and his family go to their cedar-clad cottage on the blue, wide lake. At first, this summer of 1954 seems like any other: floating in the row boat with Grace from next door, jumping off the diving raft, eating peach pie, exploring with Angus the dog, watching the seagulls, frogs and herons and catching crayfish. But just when he realizes life is perfect, everything starts to change. He's 10, the family dynamics are shifting, and over the summer both the harshness of the adult world and the patterns of the natural world reveal themselves. By the time the weather turns he will be a different child and will have chosen his own path to understanding the wilderness that waits behind their wooden homes. Funny, subtle and true, Barefoot at the Lake transports us to a long, hot, poignant summer.
  • Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness Political Exile and Re-education in Mao’s China
    Author:
    Wang, Ning
    Summary:

    Following Mao Zedong’s Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957–58, Chinese intellectuals were subjected to “re-education” by the state. In Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness, Ning Wang draws on labour farm archives and other newly uncovered Chinese-language sources, including an interview with a camp guard, to provide a remarkable look at the suffering and complex psychological world of intellectuals banished to China’s remote north. Wang’s use of grassroots sources challenges our perception of the intellectual as a renegade martyr – revealing how exiles often denounced one another and, for self-preservation, declared allegiance to the state.
  • Banff et ses environs
    Author:
    Ulysse, Collectif
    Summary:

    Découvrez Banff et ses environs à l'aide de ce chapitre extrait du guide Ulysse Explorez les Rocheuses canadiennes. Principale agglomération du parc national Banff, la ville de Banff vit au rythme du tourisme. Les montagnes environnantes et la rivière Bow qui traverse cette petite ville ajoutent à son charme, sans oublier ses nombreux restaurants, boutiques et hôtelsLe site des Cascade Gardens offre une jolie vue sur la ville et le mont Cascade. Pour tout savoir des Amérindiens des plaines du Nord et des Rocheuses canadiennes, s'y trouve le Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum. Le Banff Centre, un grand centre culturel de renom, en a pour tous les goûts artistiques. En bordure de la ville, le Hoodoos Lookout donne vue sur les fameuses cheminées des fées. Sans parler des balades à dos de cheval ou encore du magnifique terrain de golf du Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. Le chapitre Banff et ses environs recèle bien d'autres sites d'intérêt, telle la ville voisine de Canmore. Très prisée par les amateurs de plein air et dotée de tous les services et installations, elle offre un terrain d'entraînement unique pour les grimpeurs. C'est aussi là que se retrouvent les inconditionnels de la pêche à la mouche, du vélo de montagne et du traîneau à chiens,. Au sud de Banff s'ouvre la Kananaskis Valley, un véritable paradis pour les amateurs de plein air, qui s'étire sur plus de 4 000 km2. Cette vaste région de toute beauté s'enorgueillit de parcs, de lacs, de sentiers, de ranchs, de stations de ski, de villages rustiques et de complexes de villégiature. Ce chapitre propose une liste descriptive et détaillée des différents attraits dans cette partie des Rocheuses canadiennes, chaque site étant coté par un système d'étoiles pour vous aider dans vos choix de visites. Pour les informations pratiques, un carnet d'adresses vous indique les meilleurs restaurants et cafés, une sélection d'hôtels et de gîtes, des bons plans pour le magasinage et les sorties.
  • Bamboo cage : the P.O.W. diary of flight lieutenant Robert Wyse, 1942-1943
    Author:
    Vance, Jonathan F.
    Summary:

    In 1942, RAF flight controller Robert Wyse became a Japanese prisoner of war on the island of Java in Indonesia. Starved, sick, beaten, and worked to near-death, he wasted away until he weighed only seventy pounds, his life hanging in tenuous balance. There were strict orders against POWs keeping diaries, but Wyse penned his observations on the scarce bits of paper he could find, struggling to describe the brutalities he witnessed. After cleverly hiding his notes in a piece of bamboo next to his bed, in December of 1943, he carefully hid his notes inside a bottle beneath his prison hut. After the war, he wrote to the Dutch authorities, asking them to dig up his diary and return it to him. In this detailed and frank portrayal of life under Japanese occupation, Wyse reveals the both the best and the worst of human nature. He criticized his fellow soldiers for botching the defence of Java and Sumatra and admonished his captors for their brutality. Yet, Wyse also describes the selfless efforts of the Dutch civilians who helped the prisoners by doing whatever they could as well as his first-hand observations of acts of self-sacrifice among the prisoners themselves.
  • Bagone-giizhig : aaniindi nitam Anishinaabeg gaa-ondaadiziwad = The hole in the sky : where the First People came from
    Author:
    Moose, Mary, Moose, Leonard
    Summary:

    Aadizookaanan or Sacred Stories were passed down for thousands of years, filling the long winter nights with Anishinaabeg oral histories, philosophies, and ceremonies. Bagone-Giizhig is one of the many ancient stories that Anishinaabeg Ancestors have gifted us. The constellations of Wenaboozhoo and Bagone-Giizhig rise in the East during the Winter season. This signifies when it is time to share Aadizookaanan and reminds the Anishinaabeg of where they come from. These cultural Teachings shine bright in the night sky and this is the Anishinaabe way of life.
  • Bag of Hammers
    Author:
    Riche, Edward
    Summary:

    In this collection of hilarious essays, Edward Riche stretches his satiric muscles to lambaste just about anything that crosses his field of vision.
    Newfoundland writes a heartfelt letter to Canada, offering to console mainland frustrations over a pint. The Canadian government brainstorms
    to find which national symbol it can ruin next. And a concerned citizen writes a scathing critique of The Muskrat Falls Festival of the Arts, now hundreds of dollars over budget.

    In Bag of Hammers Riche reminds us just how enlivening and enlightening satire can be, and how much we need it right now.
  • Baffin Island: field research and high Arctic adventure, 1961-67
    Author:
    Ives, Jack D.
    Summary:

    A geographer with extensive research experience in the Canadian North, Jack D. Ives has written a lively and informative account of several expeditions to Baffin Island during the “golden age” of federal research. In the 1960s, scientists from the Geographical Branch of Canada’s Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources travelled to Baffin to study glacial geomorphology and glaciology. Their fieldwork resulted in vastly increased knowledge of the Far North-from its ice caps and glaciers to its lichens and microfossils. Drawing from the recollections of his Baffin colleagues as well as from his own memories, Ives takes readers on a remarkable adventure, describing the day-to-day experiences of the field teams in the context of both contemporary Arctic research and bureaucratic decision making. Along the way, his narrative illustrates the role played by the Cold War-era Distant Early Warning Line and other northern infrastructure, the crucial importance of his pioneering aerial photography, the unpredictable nature of planes, helicopters, and radios in Arctic regions, and of course, the vast and breathtaking scenery of the North. Baffin Island encompasses both field research and High Arctic adventure. The research trips to Baffin between 1961 and 1967 also served as a vital training ground in polar studies for university students; further, they represented a breakthrough in gender equality in government-sponsored science, thanks to the author’s persistence in having women permitted on the teams. The book contains a special section detailing the subsequent professional achievements of the many researchers involved (in addition to the later career moves of Ives himself) and a chapter that delves deeper into the science behind their fieldwork in the North. Readers need not be versed in glaciology, however. Ives has produced a highly readable book that seamlessly combines research and adventure.
  • Badlands : a geography of metaphors
    Author:
    Dalgarno, Ken
    Summary:

    There can be few places in the world where the visual impact of the landscape is as hauntingly captivating as the Badlands of the Northern Great Plains. Encompassing Alberta, Saskatchewan, North Dakota and Montana, these amazing regions contain some of the most surreal and magical terrain you can imagine.

    Renowned photographer and painter Ken Dalgarno first visited Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta "more or less out of curiosity," he writes. "But I was instantly struck by the mystical hoodoos, spires, and other mesmerizing geological wonders. It felt like I was walking amongst a geography of metaphors, or perhaps entering an archives where stories have been exiled."
  • Bad medicine : a judge's struggle for justice in a First Nations community
    Author:
    Reilly, John
    Summary:

    John Reilly's first book, Bad Medicine, was an immediate sensation and Canadian bestseller that sparked controversy and elicited praise nationwide for its honest portrayal of First Nations tribal corruption. This revised and updated edition details the latest legal developments surrounding tribal leadership and the state of governance on Canadian reserves. Early in his career, Judge John Reilly did everything by the book. His jurisdiction included a First Nations community plagued by suicide, addiction, poverty, violence and corruption. He steadily handed out prison sentences with little regard for long-term consequences and even less knowledge as to why crime was so rampant on the reserve in the first place. In an unprecedented move that pitted him against his superiors, the legal system he was part of, and one of Canada's best-known Indian chiefs, the Reverend Dr. Chief John Snow, Judge Reilly ordered an investigation into the tragic and corrupt conditions on the reserve. A flurry of media attention ensued. Some labelled him a racist; others thought he should be removed from his post, claiming he had lost his objectivity. But many on the Stoney Reserve hailed him a hero as he attempted to uncover the dark challenges and difficult history many First Nations communities face. John Reilly's experiences and prescriptions for change provide an enlightening and timely perspective. He shows us why harsher punishments for offenders don't necessarily make our societies safer, why the white justice system is failing First Nations communities, why jail time is not the cure-all answer some think it to be, and how corruption continues to plague tribal leadership.
  • Bad judgment : the myths of First Nations equality and judicial independence in Canada
    Author:
    Reilly, John
    Summary:

    John Reilly's second book, Bad Judgment, details the author's battle with the Canadian justice system and the difficulties he faced trying to adapt Eurocentric Canadian law for the benefit of First Nations people across the country. This revised and updated edition looks at the future of the Canadian legal and political systems as they relate to this country's indigenous communities. Judge John Reilly, now retired, was, at age 30, the youngest jurist ever named to the Provincial Court of Alberta. For most of his 33 years on the bench he was the circuit judge for the Stoney Indian Reserve at Morley, Alberta. During his career he became interested in aboriginal justice. He saw the failure of the 'white' legal system to do justice for aboriginal people, the harm caused to them by Canadian colonialism, and the failure of all levels of government, including tribal government, to alleviate their suffering and deal with the conflicting natures of European-style law and indigenous tradition and circumstance. As a result of these realizations, Judge Reilly vowed to improve the delivery of justice to the aboriginal people in his community and used his perceived power as a jurist to make changes to improve the lives of the people in his jurisdiction. Along the way, he came into direct conflict with Canadian judicial administration and various questionable leaders among the echelons of both Canadian and First Nation governments.
  • Bad Girls and Other Perils
    Author:
    Strobel, Mike
    Summary:

    Come and walk the offbeat world of Mike Strobel’s popular column in the Toronto Sun. Meet the legendary panhandler Shaky Lady; the Weasel, who knows where Jimmy Hoffa is buried; the secretive swinger Sexy Boots; the notorious Bicycle Bandit, who quit robbing banks, got a loan, and opened a bar; and Dr. Hook, the top doc whose professional fate rested on the cut of his jib. You’ll also get a look at a fake orgasm champ, a practising witch turned beauty pageant queen, a boss cannonballer, and assorted other heroes, rogues, athletes, finks, politicos, celebrities, bureaucrats, sons, and lovers. Each column in this collection is a mini-world, tight and bright. You’ll smile at Strobel’s take on the fads, fashions, morals, and hot topics of the day. Even the most serious issues are dissected and dispatched with often biting wit and cheek. (Warning: If you’re a Montreal Canadiens fan, do not read this book.)
  • Backwater Mystic Blues
    Author:
    Ratzlaff, Lloyd
    Summary:

    Backwater Mystic Blues is a suite of intimate essays that summon the secret hiding spots, makeshift rafts and uncomplicated childhood joys that lay the foundations for adult philosophy. Lloyd Ratzlaff is in tune with the vivid simplicities of the sensuous world and the honour of unassuming people. These essays assemble the disguises shaped by religion, family, and memory as much as they recreate the delight, discovery and illumination that his past has offered. And whether you sit back and savour the ribald yarns of Sandra Dee or pick up a bit of Christian dating advice circa 1950’s, remember, the tombstones are talking, and the child’s cookie box found in the river may contain miracle or misery — but you won’t know until you open it.
  • Backwater
    Author:
    Moreira, Peter
    Summary:

    This hard-hitting but fair assessment of Nova Scotia and the Maritimes will shock and surprise many Maritimers who have been conditioned to think that the east coast of Canada is one of the most liveable regions in the country. Author Peter Moreira, a native Maritimer who returned home after working overseas for more than a decade, offers a straightforward analysis of why the region has fallen so far behind the rest of the country in terms of most economic and social indicators. Backwater is not an attack on the place we call home, but rather a wide-ranging and timely examination of the region's flawed policies and thinking. The book makes bold recommendations for fixing the Maritimes' current problems, citing many leading professionals and politicians in the region, including Nova Scotia premier Darrell Dexter.
  • Back to the well : rethinking the future of water
    Author:
    de Villiers, Marq
    Summary:

    Shortlisted for the Donner Prize and the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award. Droughts, floods, and contamination of fresh water in the american Southwest, in the Great Lakes region, in Australia, in northern china, in the Middle East, and in India have brought the critical issue of water supply to the forefront of public consciousness. In dozens of countries, ordinary citizens have cause to worry about what (or how much) will come out of their taps — if they even have taps — and who will make sure it is available, affordable, and safe. In this refreshing examination of the fate and future of water, Marq de Villiers takes on some of the biggest questions and shibboleths of the century. Who owns water? is access to water a human right? Who is responsible for keeping water clean and ensuring it gets to the people who need it most? Is privatization of ownership and supply networks an evil or an extension of the public trust? Fifteen years after the publication of Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource, his influential Governor General's Award-winning book on the water crisis, de Villiers returns with a clear-eyed assessment of the politics of water — from the personal and commercial uses of water to the impact of climate change and global conflicts. Examining how political ideologies often obscure the underlying issues, de Villiers makes the controversial suggestion that there is no global water crisis, but that water problems are fundamentally local and regional and can most effectively be addressed through local, rather than global, action.
  • Back to Blakeney : revitalizing the democratic state
    Author:
    McGrane, David
    Summary:

    Allan Blakeney believed in government as a force for good. As premier of Saskatchewan, he promoted social justice through government intervention in the economy and the welfare state. He created legal and constitutional structures that guaranteed strong human rights, and he safeguarded the integrity of the voting system to support a robust democracy. Blakeney encouraged excellence in public administration to deliver the best possible services and used taxes to help secure equality of opportunity. In Back to Blakeney, scholars reflect on Blakeney's achievements, as well as his constitutional legacy--namely, the notwithstanding clause--and explore the challenges facing democracy today.
  • Back in 6 years : a journey around the planet without leaving the surface
    Author:
    Robinson-Smith, Tony
    Summary:

    Inspired by travel writer Ted Simon, Tony Robinson-Smith quit his job in Japan, returned home to England, and then set out once more with only a a knapsack, a map, and a dream to travel the world with both feel on the ground. Nearly six years later, he returned home having fulfilled his dream and then some. Using his journals and memories as his primary sources, Robinson-Smith tells an exhilarating story that begins and ends in England. His adventures include hair-raising trips on African buses, a death-defying sail across the South Atlantic, a journey by boat along a tributary of the Amazon, and a cross-Canada cycling tour done the hard way, from east to west. Robinson-Smith tells his gripping tale in an affable style with a sense of the comedic. His eye is trained more upon adventure than his own ruminations. With little idea of what he wants or will gain, he takes on the world solo, with only the notion of an approximate direction and a suspicion that enlightenment lies just over the horizon.
  • Babies : how to afford your bundle of joy
    Author:
    van de Geyn, Lisa
    Summary:

    You’ve taken the pregnancy tests, made the big announcement and you’ve probably caught a glimpse of your baby on a sonogram. Congratulations! You’ve got a bundle of joy on the way and the one thing you’re probably not prepared for is the bundle of money it’s going to cost to raise that little one.
    In Babies: How to Afford Your Bundle of Joy, writer Lisa van de Geyn leans on financial experts to help parents save a few dollars and get the most bang for their bucks before and after their new additions arrive. While there doesn’t seem to be one specific amount of money experts agree on, raising kids costs a pretty penny. The good news is that there are trade-offs expectant and new parents can make to their lifestyles to make having a baby — and the price tag attached to it — more manageable.
    This guide will ensure you’re well-versed in everything from the benefits of seeing up a registered education savings plan and what maternity and parental leave means when it’s tax time, to the payments you’re entitled to from the government after you deliver your baby and advice on getting on employment insurance. We’ll walk you through budgeting and offer plenty of tips and tricks from parents like you who are so wrapped up in the sheer excitement of pregnancy they forget to research what a baby will mean to their bank accounts.
  • B.C. open textbook print on demand guide
    Author:
    Aesoph, Lauri
    Summary:

    "The BC Open Textbook Print on Demand Guide is a an-progress (open creation) practical manual on the what, why, and how of creating your own hard copy textbook of any openly licensed textbook found in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection. However, these same steps can be used to create a print-on-demand textbook from other collections providing you have access to the correct file types. This guide will be updated as new information, practices and processes are developed"--BC Campus website.

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