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Few politicians have enraged opponents, frustrated colleagues and polarized Canadians like Svend Robinson — but few embraced the causes he did. Over his twenty–five years as a New Democrat MP, Robinson was imprisoned for blocking loggers from clear–cutting in Clayoquot Sound, assaulted by police while protesting at the 2001 Summit of the Americas, expelled from foreign countries for defending human rights, and harassed after coming out as Canada's first openly gay MP. Robinson always took his ideals to the front lines, helping to define the Canadian left. Though his brash tactics dominated headlines, Robinson's full story has not yet been told. In this in–depth biography, Graeme Truelove explores an accomplished life and career, including Robinson's difficult childhood, his growing realization of his own sexuality, and the bipolar diagnosis which followed his baffling, career–ending theft of a diamond ring. A portrait emerges of a complex figure — driven, gifted, visionary and flawed — who challenged his country and continues to make his indelible mark on the world.
Un-Canadian: Prejudice and Discrimination Against Muslims in Canada is a provocative warning to Canadians that the values they cherish are being eroded through a pattern of political, legal and social prejudice directed towards Muslims in Canada since September 11, 2001. Featuring never-before-published interviews with key politicians and journalists, influential Muslim leaders and ordinary Canadians who have suddenly found themselves thrust into what might become a full-fledged culture war, this book sounds the alarm about our politicians, our commitment to the rule of law and the changing value of our citizenship. Spanning settings from dark prison cells in Guantanamo Bay and Syria to the gilded corridors of power on Parliament Hill, this book centres on fundamental notions of social cohesion and the value of Canadian citizenship—issues which continue to make headlines. Canadians who are worried about the direction our country is headed will consider this a must-read.
Ron Liversedge could hardly wait for the call from the International Brigades. A veteran of the Great War, Canada's Great Depression, and scores of battles for social justice, he wanted to get to Spain to fight against Franco's attack on the young Spanish republic. It was the spring of 1937; Liversedge was nearly 40. The call came on May Day. Liversedge left Vancouver, on a clandestine journey through late depression North America, to a ship spiriting his fellow fighters to Europe, to an immediate brush with death when he is torpedoed by a fascist submarine, to rudimentary training of the international volunteers in Spain. Ill prepared and ill equipped, Liversedge in the Mackenzie Papineau ...
The Paradox of Parliament provides a comprehensive analysis of all aspects of Parliament in order to explain the paradoxical expectations placed on the institution. The book argues that Parliament labours under two different "logics" of its purpose and primary role: one based on governance and decision-making and one based on representation and voice. This produces a paradox that is common to many legislatures, but Canada and Canadians particularly struggle to recognize and reconcile the competing logics. In The Paradox of Parliament, Jonathan Malloy discusses the major aspects of Parliament through the lens of these two competing logics to explain the ongoing dissatisfaction with Parliament...
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms may only be thirty-five years old but it is an important document for all Canadians. Few today, however, are aware of the extensive work and tumultuous debates that occurred behind the scenes. In The Charter Debates, Adam Dodek tells the story of the Special Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Commons on the Constitution, whose members were instrumental in drafting the Charter. Dodek places the work of the Joint Committee against the backdrop of the decades-long process of patriation and takes the reader inside the committee room, giving them access to Cabinet discussions about constitutional reform. The volume offers a textual exploration of the edited proceedings concerning major Charter subjects such as fundamental freedoms, democratic rights, equality rights, language rights, and the limitations clause. Presenting key moments from the transcripts, carefully selected and contextualized, The Charter Debates is a one-of-a-kind resource for scholars, students, and general readers interested in the Charter and its impact on constitutional politics in Canada.
Political representation matters. And representation requires participation: voting, joining political parties, running as candidates, acting as politicians. Yet the election of openly LGBTQ people is a relatively recent phenomenon in the West. Queering Representation explores long-ignored issues relating to LGBTQ voters and politicians in Canada. What are the LGBTQ electorate’s characteristics and voting behaviours, and what empowerment has it achieved through electoral systems? How do straight voters view out LGBTQ politicians, and what part do the media play in framing these perceptions? What pathways to power do LGBTQ politicians follow? Do they represent LGBTQ people and communities in particular, and, if so, how is this role articulated? And finally, how do Canadian party ideologies shape LGBTQ representation? The contributors to Queering Representation address these questions by offering diverse, nuanced readings of political representation, shining a spotlight on relations between electoral processes and LGBTQ communities.
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Being a practicing Muslim in the West is sometimes challenging, sometimes rewarding and sometimes downright absurd. How do you explain why Eid never falls on the same date each year; why it is that Halal butchers also sell teapots and alarm clocks; how do you make clear to the plumber that it's essential the toilet is installed within sitting-arm's reach of the tap? Zarqa Nawaz has seen and done it all. And it's not always easy to get things right with the community either: Zarqa tells of being asked to leave the DBW (Dead Body Washing) committee after making unsuitable remarks; of undertaking the momentous trip to Mecca with her husband, without the children, thinking (most incorrectly) that it will also be a nice time to have uninterrupted sex; of doing the unthinkable, and creating Little Mosque on the Prairie, a successful TV sitcom about that very (horrified, then proud) community. You have to laugh.
The nameless narrator first appears to fit the stereotype of a meticulous killer untroubled by normal emotions. He researched 18-year-old Sarah Abbott, who was taking a year off from school before heading to Oxford, killed her in her house, and carefully cleaned up afterward. On returning to his van, however, he discovers that he has locked its keys inside. A brick through the van's window solves that problem, but later, back at the victim's house, he runs into a friend of Sarah's, Erica Shaw, who winds up in a cage in the basement of the narrator's garage. His bumbling continues throughout. In a big departure from the standard serial killer trope, he begins nonpredatory relationships with three different women. He even falls in love with one of them. Those who have no trouble accepting a humanized serial killer will be most satisfied.
The Times top ten bestseller Granta Best of Young British Novelists Scots Book o the Year Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award & Betty Trask Award ‘Trainspotting for a new generation’ – Independent ‘An instant Scottish classic’ – The Skinny 2005. Glasgow is named Europe’s Murder Capital, driven by a violent territorial gang and knife culture. In the housing schemes of adjacent Lanarkshire, Scotland’s former industrial heartland, wee boys become postcode warriors. 2004. Azzy Williams joins the Young Team [YTP]. A brutal gang conflict with their deadly rivals, the Young Toi [YTB] begins. 2012. Azzy dreams of another life. He faces his toughest fight of all – the fight for a d...