The Hill Times’ 100 Best Books in 2021
1. Across Boundaries: Essays in Honour of Robert A. Young, edited by André Blais, Cristine de Clercy, Anna Lennox Esselment and Ronald Wintrobe, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 232 pp., $34.95. 2. A Liberal-Labour Lady: The Times and Life of Mary Ellen Spear Smith, by Veronica Strong-Boag, UBC Press, 288 pp., $89.95. 3. A Long Way to […]
Don Oliver, on his life as Canada’s first Black man appointed to the Senate
Former Conservative Senator Donald Oliver, 82, who was the first Black man appointed to the Upper Chamber in 1990, grew up in the only Black family in Wolfville, N.S. His great grandparents fled slavery in the U.S., and he was raised to “work hard, be humble, love the Lord, and do all you can to help […]
‘I did not stop and I did not die’: Rwandan recounts surviving the genocide in his book Die Walking: A Child’s Journey Through Genocide
Messengers moved quickly and quietly between tents: a band of rebel scouts had been apprehended near the camp, and they had confessed that an attack was imminent. We must be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. By now we had sold or lost most of our possessions, so there was not much packing to […]
Gehl challenges the Indian Act’s legislative silence
Legislative change must not be used by a government as an opportunity to create new forms of sex discrimination—and mask them through legislative silence. This is exactly what Canada has done. Canada has treaty responsibilities that it has to live up to. We all know this by now. Yet since 1985, and through an amendment […]
Deibert hopes his book Reset triggers a pause
The Hill Times caught up with Ronald J. Deibert, author of Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civilized Society, and winner of this year’s prestigious $25,000 Writers’ Trust of Canada Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, while camping his way home from British Colombia to Ontario. Mr. Deibert, who won the award on Sept. 22, is […]
Wells takes a look back at a handful of women who pushed for safer access to abortion
Karin Wells, author of The Abortion Caravan: When Women Shut Down Government in the Battle for the Right to Choose, published by Second Story Press, talked about her first book and recent nomination for the prestigious Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. “The Abortion Caravan is a vibrant tale of a seminal but forgotten time […]
Whipped takes a deep dive into political party culture and, yes, Marland thinks parties need whips
Alex Marland, the award-winning author and Memorial University political science professor, who has carved out a niche as an expert in political communications, political marketing, election campaigning, and Canadian political parties, dishes up another delightful read in Whipped: Party Discipline in Canada, published by UBC Press. In it, he delves into the world of political party […]
Caesar-Chavannes offers a ‘breathtakingly candid’ look at life in politics
In her memoir Can You Hear Me Now?: How I Found My Voice and Learned to Live with Passion and Purpose, which was one of this year’s finalists for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for the best political book of the year, former Liberal-turned-Independent MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes details, among other aspects of rawly examined life, her […]
‘We see a lot of denial, but when it’s brought right into view, there’s a deep sense of shame and denial’: Cole
Desmond Cole wants Canadians to abandon their reflexive impulse to measure social and racial progress against their southern neighbours. In 2015, his awarding-winning Toronto Life cover story, in which he offered a searing account of his own experiences of being carded by the police, disrupted stubborn notions that Canada is largely immune to the injustices […]
Award-winning author of Washington Black, Esi Edugyan to release new book next month, Out of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling
International bestselling Canadian author and novelist Esi Edugyan, who is a two-time winner of the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize, will be releasing a new book next month, Out of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling. Both her novels, Half-Blood Blues and Washington Black, were Giller Prize winners. Half-Blood Blues was also shortlisted in 2011 for the Man Booker […]
