National Network for Equitable Library Service

A collection of the best journalism from Canada’s wars, from the time of the Vikings to the war in Afghanistan. Fighting Words is a collection of the very best war journalism created by or about Canadians at war.

In Africa, every minute of every day, five people die of AIDS and nine more are newly infected. In 2003, a group of like-minded, energetic people got together to actively motivate and inspire their community to help ease the pain of HIV/AIDS in Africa. This manual was produced by the residents of York Region, Ontario, who have come together to raise awareness and money. They chose the Stephen Lewis Foundation as the beneficiary of their efforts. Follow their story and watch how a spark can become an inferno. Their success can be your success.

Feasting and Fasting is an introduction to the foods and beverages that were a central part of how our ancestors celebrated important events. Long before the arrival of newcomers, the First Nations were celebrating the passages of life, the changing seasons, and the gifts of the Great Spirit with feasting. As settlers from around the world arrived on Canada’s shores, they brought with them the memories and traditions from home. Diverse and unique culinary histories began to develop as the newcomers were unable to find some of their traditional ingredients and were forced to compromise.

The twenty-first century has brought the perfect storm of conditions to create substantive global instability. This contemporary operating environment (COE) is characterized by complexity, ambiguity, volatility, and constant danger. It is a human invention that requires a human solution. Special operations forces (SOF), a group comprised of highly trained personnel with the ability to deploy rapidly and apply special skills in a variety of environments and circumstances, is the logical force of choice to achieve success in the COE.

Toronto is truly a city of communities. Designed for tourists and for residents, Toronto’s Many Faces is the one and only guide to the multicultural character of the city, featuring profiles of more than 60 ethnic communities, including local histories, festivals, food, and art. The book identifies each community - where its people come from, why, when, and where they settled in Toronto. The contribution of each community is also traced, with biographical notes on prominent people whose achievements have been extraordinary.

A woman from Northern Ontario is buried; her earthly papers reveal a mystery. Veteran Canadian journalist Jim Poling took on the most important assignment of his career: Just who was his mother? Why did she take a lifelong secret to her grave?In his search for clues throughout his childhood years in Northern Ontario, the author goes to Chapleau, the railway town where the people he believed were his ancestors played out their roles in building the railway.

Decades of Caring: The Big Sister Story is a record of the trials, errors, and accomplishments of an organization of Toronto women who have carried a torch for youth through good years and bad from 1912 to the present time. The author has endeavoured to set out those facts which have shaped the growth of the Big Sister Association from a small group of concerned women, inspired by th emotional concept of being a Big Sister to socially deprived young persons, to the present day organization which sponsors the many faceted youth agency, Huntley Youth Services.

"For me, getting older physically seems to be epitomized in the feeling that I look like my mother. She's really attractive ... It's just that I can see that she's older, and I'm not supposed to be." - Charlotte Wilson Hammond "My view of the world is slowly becoming more integrated. Sometimes I feel as if I've walked to the top of a mountain, and can look down and see all around." - Lesia Gregorovitch "Some women have told me that they're too old at fifty.

Voices of the Left Behind contains the personal stories of nearly 50 Canadian war children who have been helped by Project Roots. It is filled with fascinating archival images and documents as well as original wartime correspondence between the mothers, the Canadian fathers, and the Department of National Defence, Veterans Affairs, and other Canadian institutions. Letters from the war children to the Military Personnel Records Unit of the National Archives of Canada illustrate the historic pattern of denial.

"I’ve got to stop being so nice." How often has Dr. Evelyn Sommers heard that from her clients over the years? The Tyranny of Niceness identifies and confronts our most fundamental social dysfunction - niceness. For over 15 years, Sommers, a Toronto psychologist, has treated many twisted lives created by being nice. She interweaves the case histories of her clients with her own observations to present a frightening, yet hopeful, picture of a society that promotes silence and obedience over individuality and honesty.