GRID VIEW LIST VIEW

Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico

The Civil War divides the United States. Millions, including the president, wish to maintain monuments to generals like Robert E. Lee. Referred to as “Knights” in Gone with the Wind,” some generals earned their bona fides by murdering blacks, Mexicans, and Native Americans During the Battle of Chapultepec in 1847, Robert E. Lee fought children,… Read more »

Israel, A Beachhead in the Middle East

One US military leader has called Israel “the intelligence equivalent of five CIAs.” An Israeli cabinet minister likens his country to “the equivalent of a dozen US aircraft carriers,” while the Jerusalem Post defines Israel as the executive of a “superior Western military force that” protects “America’s interests in the region.” Arab leaders have called… Read more »

Fog

Winner: The Miramichi Reader’s 2019 “Very Best Fiction Award” A small plane was blown up in an act of sabotage several years ago over Eastern Quebec, Canada. All the passengers and crew were killed. The incident was quickly analyzed and termed a mechanical failure. The case was declared cold, in a rush. What intrigue and… Read more »

The Daughters’ Story

Nadine is banished to a home for unwed mothers in 1950. She’s 15. Her baby daughter, whose father is shrouded in secrecy, is put up for adoption without her permission. Vowing to reunite one day with her daughter, she cuts all ties with her dysfunctional Irish and French-Canadian Catholic family whose past is cluttered with… Read more »

Through the Mill

“Women do not go on strike and do not get drunk.” — John A. Rose, cigar manufacturer, explaining to a Royal Commision why textile manufacturers should hire women, 1888. Girls and women were essential to industrialization in Canada, particularly in the cotton textile industry, which was concentrated in Quebec. In 1891, for example, more than… Read more »

MOTHERHOOD, The Mother of All Sexism

Quebec spoils its families, according to some, with those “long” parental leaves—a full year for mothers (Imagine!)—well-subsidized childcare and more. Marilyse Hamelin challenges that restrictive view. But she adds that although progress has been made compared to other places in North America, stop-gap measures are not the answer. Women deserve and expect more. And the… Read more »

A Distinct Alien Race

“The French number more than a million in the United States…. They are kept a distinct alien race, subject to the Pope in matters of religion and of politics. Soon…they will govern you, Americans.” — British-American Citizen (Boston), 1889 Americans don’t think of Canada as a source of potential terrorists—speaking a foreign tongue, serving a… Read more »

Vic City Express

“Vic City Express feels like bungee jumping into a dumpster: thrilling, disgusting, but above all memorable… a novella worthy of the praise that has been heaped upon it.“—Prism International This story could happen anywhere. Today the place is Greece, wracked by a crisis that has pushed people to the brink. Two strangers meet in a… Read more »

Let’s Move On

Foreword by Honourable Paul Aarulaaq Quassa, Premier of Nunavut Paul Okalik was raised in Pangnirtung, a community that survived starvation, epidemics, eradication of its spiritual heritage, relocation, schooling in a foreign language, and confrontation with the Canadian justice system. He made the decision to improve the living conditions of his fellow Inuit. After ten years… Read more »

The Einstein File

Forewords by Ajamu Baraka and David Suzuki Einstein arrived in the United States in 1933, the year the Nazis rose to power in Germany. From that moment until he died in 1955, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI—with other agencies—feverishly collected “derogatory information” to undermine the renowned scientist’s influence and destroy his reputation. With material accessed under… Read more »