Baraka Books launched four new titles in fall 2010.

Roads to Richmond, Portraits of Quebec’s Eastern Townships
Nick Fonda (September 2010)
ISBN 978-1-926824-00-0; 188 pp; illustrations by Denis Palmer; $19.95

Advance Praise
“Nick Fonda has captured the essence of one of the most unique areas within Canada. This book is full of specific insights into a specific place. It possesses both truth and charm, which is a rare combination in today’s world. It will both enlighten and entertain. Buy it. Read it. Think and ponder universal truths.” – Alistair MacLeod, prize-winning author of No Great Mischief

This unusual, sometimes quirky, road book works like a mosaic. Its inlaid stones are the brief histories, candid snapshots, curious anecdotes, insightful observations, sobering reflections, and stories to make you smile. But the big picture is a moving portrait of a little known but historical corner of Canada—Quebec’s Eastern Townships. Nick Fonda masterfully puts you behind the wheel—sometimes in the train’s engine—and lets you meander through the Townships to meet people who make it a unique place where Canada’s famous two solitudes have grown entwined. With new and thoughtful illustrations, Denis Palmer captures Nick Fonda’s insight into a part of the world that deserves to be better known.

****

Trudeau’s Darkest Hour, War Measures in Time of Peace, October 1970
Edited by Guy Bouthillier and Édouard Cloutier (September 2010)
ISBN 978-1-926824-04-8; 212 pp; $19.95

Trudeau’s Darkest Hours

Forty years ago in the middle of the night the government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau proclaimed the War Measures Act following two political kidnappings by the FLQ. It thereby suspended the Constitution and all civil liberties, deployed 12,500 troops in Quebec—7,500 in Montreal alone— arrested 465 people without charges and detained them incommunicado without bail and without the right to legal assistance. It also entered and searched more than 10,000 homes without warrant.

In this rigourously researched and brilliantly presented anthology, Canadian political leaders, thinkers, journalists, and writers explain how the government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau deceived the people of Canada and denied justice when it proclaimed war measures in peacetime for the first time in history.

Tommy Douglas called it “overkill on a gargantuan scale.” Trudeau’s own ministers Don Jamieson and Eric Kierans said their case was not “compelling,” that they made a “terrible mistake,” and that their “common sense went out the window.” Peter C. Newman tells how Trudeau floated a “meticulously concocted lie” about a revolutionary provisional government in Quebec.

Margaret Atwood, Robert Fulford, Robert Stanfield, Reg Whitaker, Jack Granatstein, John Conway, Thomas Berger, Ramsay Cook, Desmond Morton, Hugh Segal, David Macdonald, and others provide testimony, insight, and wisdom to understand the past and guide us in the future.

Discrimination in the NHL, Quebec Hockey Players Sidelined
by Bob Sirois (October 2010)
ISBN 978-1-926824-01-7; 220 pp; $22.95

Quebec Hockey Players Sidelined

Ever since Maurice Richard dazzled hockey fans, fighting his way to hockey’s summits, the issue of discrimination against Quebec hockey players has simmered on. NHL veteran Bob Sirois now demonstrates that unless Quebec hockey players are superstars they are less likely to be drafted than other players in Canada. They can also expect shorter careers and less pay, while some teams just don’t want them. Using statistics covering forty years, Sirois shatters those tenacious myths such as “Quebecers are smaller,” “they play poor defensive hockey” or “they are the best goalies.” His solutions: an NHL team for Quebec City and a Quebec national junior team for international events. Bob Sirois’ search for the truth can only enhance our great sport.

“I agree with Bob Sirois’ conclusions. The many statistics are interesting and troubling. With firsthand experience, I can say that it reflects reality exactly.”— Michel Bergeron, Former NHL coach (NY Rangers, Quebec Nordiques)

“This seems to be strong material and worth serious study by the NHL.”— Stu Hackel, New York Times

****

You could lose an eye, My first 80 years in Montreal
by David Reich (November 2010)
ISBN 978-1-926824-03-1; 200 pp; $22.95

My first 80 years In Montreal

“You Could Lose an Eye” is the expression David Reich’s mother often used for those she loved. It is the story of a family’s transition from the wretched oppression they left behind when they arrived in Quebec, where they had only to learn new languages and adapt to a new political, economic and not always welcoming social culture. It recounts the laughter and the tears, the triumphs and the failures as Ma established her dynasty, as Pa built his business and as their firstborn carved an architectural career. All was possible for those who took root in a free world. They were the fortunate ones who were allowed to aspire and succeed, and to keep alive the memories of those who were denied entry and paid the ultimate price for being Jews.

An inspiring, sometimes heart-rending, life story told by a man whose tongue is always in his cheek. With photos and illustrations.

Barack Obama and the Jim Crow Media by Ishmael Reed was launched in Montreal on April 14 before a crowd of some 120 people — some were turned away because the Saint-Denis café was too packed. Before Ishmael Reed addressed the crowd, Montreal rapper Jenny Salgado made a very moving presentation of Michèle Lalonde’s famous 1960s poem Speak White. Jenny Salgado.

Another launch was held at the United Steelworkers Hall in Toronto on April 16 before some 100 people. Ishmael Reed was introduced by Phil Taylor of the Taylor Report and by prize winning author, Professor George Elliott Clark. The launch was organized by the excellent Toronto bookstore A Different Booklist, 746 Bathurst Street, Toronto (416) 538-0889.

Montreal and Toronto launches draw hundreds

See interview with Ishmael Reed in the Montreal Mirror, April 8-14.

Montreal Mirror Interview with Ishmael Reed

Praise for Barack Obama and the Jim Crow Media

“Brilliant.” Jill Nelson, journalist, novelist, American Book Award winner.

“Amazed at the many fronts on which [Ishmael Reed] has gathered little-reported facts…. I hope his book will lead to more journalistic self-reflection and intellectual honesty. ” — Werner Sollors, Professor of English Literature and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University

Praise for Ishmael Reed

“With Ishmael Reed, the most persistent myths and prejudice crumble under powerful unrelenting jabs and razor-sharp insight.” — Le Devoir, Montreal

“The brightest contributor to American satire since Mark Twain.” — The Nation

“A great writer” — James Baldwin

Ishmael Reed taught at the University of California (Berkeley) for thirty-five years, as well as at Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth. He is a member of Harvard’s Signet Society and Yale’s Calhoun Society.

For Ishmael Reed, Barack Obama is being tormented, like Michelangelo’s St. Anthony, but by modern reincarnations of the demonic spirits used to break slaves. They were the “Nigger Breakers”—men like Edward Covey, who was handed the job of breaking Frederick Douglass. Now the media play that role, with their whip being a custom-made yardstick that they never used to measure other politicians.

“Isn’t it ironic,” writes Reed: “A media that scolded the Jim Crow South in the 1960s now finds itself hosting the bird…. In terms of its attempt to build a media that “looks like America,” the media are as white as a KKK picnic.”

Ishmael Reed turns his penetrating gaze on Barack Obama’s election and first year in power—establishing himself as the conscience of a country that was once moved by Martin Luther King’s dream. If, as claimed by some, the United States has gotten beyond race, then how should it really be?

256 pages :
Hardcover $39.95 – ISBN 978-0-9812405-9-6
Paperback $19.95 – ISBN 978-0-9812405-7-2

Orders :
LitDistCo: 1-800-591-6250, orders@litdistco.ca

John Andrews of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (Instaar) of the University of Colorado reviewed Marjolaine Saint-Pierre’s book Joseph-Elzéar Bernier, Champion of Canadian Arctic Sovereignty in the February 2010 issue of Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research.

“The author should be congratulated for her meticulous research on the life of Captain Bernier, and the translator also deserves a round of applause for a translation that reads well and easily.”

Polar Record published Cambridge University Press (2010) also reviewed Marjolaine Saint-Pierre’s book on Bernier: “this handsomely produced book has considerable value as a detailed record of Bernier’s life and times. (…) the numerous and well chosen illustration provide wonderful glimpses of the world in which he grew up and spent his youth, the nineteenth century world of wooden sailing ships and busy North Atlantic trade.” – Janice Cavell

From: Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research

JOSEPH-ELZEAR BERNIER: CHAMPION OF CANADIAN ARCTIC SOVEREIGNTY 1852–1934.

By Marjolaine Saint-Pierre, translated by William Barr. Montreal: Baraka Books, 2009 (originally published in French in 2005). 371 pp. $39.95 Canadian (paperback). ISBN 978-0-9812405-1-0.

Given the political and climatic upheavals of the last few decades, the publication of this biography of Bernier is remarkably pertinent to issues facing Canada and other Arctic nations. Joseph- Elzéar Bernier was a French Canadian who was born in the small hamlet of L’Islet-sur-Mer, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River in 1852. In this book the author traces the roots of the Bernier family from 1651 when Jacques Bernier landed in Quebec, through the early years of J.-E. Bernier, his subsequent experience as a sailor and captain, and then tracing his passion for Arctic exploration and his importance in ‘‘planting the flag’’ and claiming sovereignty for Canada for what is now its Arctic islands and channels.

This is a meticulously researched book that is richly illustrated by black and white photographs. In addition, it also contains a number of maps that detail the sailing routes and winter harbors that Bernier and the ship Arctic occupied during a number of voyages starting in 1906 and only ending in 1925 when Bernier was 74 years old. It is indeed a remarkable story, and Captain Bernier’s place in Canadian and Arctic exploration should be reaffirmed and reemphasized by this publication.

As a background it should be noted that by an Order of Council in June 1870 Great Britain transferred to the Dominion of Canada all its possessions designated as ‘‘Rupert’s Land and the North-West Territory’’ and a second Order of Council transferred the Arctic islands in 1880 (p. 171). In her discussion of the background to Bernier’s voyages (Chapter 5) Saint-Pierre documents that the object of the Order of Council was to prevent a U.S. claim to these vast, and largely unexplored territories, rather than in a belief that they would have any specific value to Canada. In 1895 the government had divided the Northwest Territories into four districts but this was not immediately followed by any action that would restrict freedom of access to the region by anyone. For example, whalers from the U.S.A. and Britain freely entered the waters with no need for permission of a license.

Captain Bernier’s initial object was to plant the Canadian flag at the North Pole, and he pursued this ambition with great determination starting in 1898. However, the goal of a North Pole expedition was never realized largely because of the vacillations of the Canadian government and the opposition, or reluctance, of Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier.

The name of Captain Bernier is closely associated with his vessel Arctic. This vessel was originally called Gauss, was built in Kiel, Germany, in 1900–1901, and had been used in the Antarctic. Bernier sailed to Germany and took possession of the ship in the spring of 1904. It was 165.5 feet in length with a beam of 37.2 feet; the ship was a three-masted barquentine with an engine that could push her at 7 knots. Given the exploits of this ship it is a tragedy that she was abandoned (see Chapter 23) and was not included in a Canadian Maritime Museum.

For the reader who is interested in the details of the expeditionary cruises, these are documented in Chapters 11 to 16. The chapters are replete with information on the stores that were taken, the track of the ship and ice and weather conditions, the lives of the local Inuit people, including numerous photographs, and how Captain Bernier and the crews coped with the overwintering.

With the steady decrease in ice concentrations in the Arctic Ocean and in the Canadian High Arctic Channels, issues of Arctic sovereignty are now newsworthy and are being discussed at the highest levels of national governments and the United Nations. Whatever the international legal issues that pertain to the conflicting claims of ownership of the various sectors of the Arctic waterways, Canada’s claim to the Arctic islands owes much, if not all, to the vision and persistence of its great French-Canadian polar explorer. Bernier’s position in Canadian Arctic research needs to be elevated; sadly his contribution to exploration is not fully appreciated. The author should be congratulated for her meticulous research on the life of Captain Bernier, and the translator also deserves a round of applause for a translation that reads well and easily.

JOHN ANDREWS
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR)
University of Colorado, 450 UCB
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0450, U.S.A.

James Jackson talks about THE RIOT THAT NEVER WAS with Tommy Schnurmacher – Click and listen…

James Jackson’s THE RIOT THAT NEVERS WAS got off to a good start when it was launched on November 17 in the Hôtel XIXe siècle on rue Saint-Jacques. Some 70 people turned up to obtain this important new book about a little-known and tragic event that took place right in front of the hotel in 1832.

THE RIOT THAT NEVER WAS by James Jackson reveals exactly what happened and what didn’t happen when British troops shot three innocent Montrealers on rue Saint-Jacques on May 21, 1832. He answers the question about that tragic shooting in a manner that will satisfy those who are similarly interested in answering questions such as: What really happened at Kent State on May 4, 1970 when four students were killed by the National Guard? What really happened in Derry, Northern Ireland, on “Bloody Sunday”, January 30, 1972 when fourteen pacifists where shot by British troops?

Until James Jackson came along,  nobody ever really tried to understand exactly what happened in Old Montreal that tragic day of May 21, 1832.

As a by-election eventually won by Irish immigrant and newspaper editor Daniel Tracey drew to a close in May 1832, magistrates supporting his opponent, loyalist Stanley Bagg, called in the British troops from the local garrison. Ordered to open fire on a supposed mob, the troops killed three innocent bystanders following what has been qualified ever since as a riot. James Jackson establishes that the riot simply never happened and that there was no mob when soldiers opened fire.

His proof is corroborated by affidavits presented to a packed grand jury that exonerated the soldiers and officers and the magistrates who called in the troops. The grand jury comprised a majority of recently arrived English-speaking Protestant farmers even though the three victims were French Canadian and Catholic. Most troubling is the fact that historians have not questioned the official story.

In this historical whodunit, James Jackson is a one-man commission of inquiry, combining the moral indignation of Émile Zola and the writing talent and historical perspective of Pierre Berton.

A fascinating, methodical investigation into a little-known tragedy reveals that truth can prevail even 180 years after the fact.

Scene of the shooting

Rue Saint-Jacques, looking west where the three bystanders were killed. The first building on the right is the old Bank of Montreal building. The vote was being conducted just to the right of the Bank.

James Jackson holds a DPhil from Oxford University. He taught French and Quebec Literature and History for 25 years at Trinity College Dublin. Twice elected president of the Association for Canadian Studies in Ireland, James Jackson now lives in Montreal.

THE RIOT THAT NEVER WAS, The military shooting of three Montrealers in 1832 and the official cover-up
James Jackson

360 pages, 12 photos, maps

Paper $29.95 ISBN 978-0-9812405-5-8

Orders LitDistCo: 1-800-591-6250 orders@litdistco.ca

In bookstores: November 30, 2009

FOR REVIEW COPIES, INTERVIEWS CONTACT:

Baraka Books – 514-808-8504; info@barakabooks.com