National Network for Equitable Library Service

The intriguing criminal cases of pioneer forensics expert John Vance, "Canada's Sherlock Holmes." Heralded internationally as "Canada's Sherlock Holmes," John F.C.B. Vance (1884-1964) was Vancouver's, and British Columbia's, first forensic investigator. Despite his innocuous demeanour, during his forty-two-year career Vance helped police detectives to determine murder from suicide as well as solve hit-and-runs, safe-crackings, and some of the most sensational murder cases of the twentieth century.

Big, skilled, mean, and nearly indestructible, Howe dominated hockey for decades. Today any bruising forward hopes to be compared with the guy who wore number 9 for Detroit for so many years. His incredible twenty consecutive seasons among the top five scorers in the NHL. Scoring 100 points after the age of forty. Playing for Team Canada against the Russians while sharing the ice with his two sons. What seems even less likely is that another player will suit up as a professional hockey player in six different decades.

Globe and Mail feature columnist Doug Saunders argues we need 100 million Canadians if we're to outgrow our colonial past and build a safer, greener, more prosperous future. It would shock most Canadians to learn that before 1967, more people fled this country than immigrated to it. That was no accident. Long after we ceased to be an actual colony, our economic policies and social tendencies kept us poorly connected to the outside world, attracting few of the people and building few of the institutions needed to sustain us.

Tells the story of a family's desperate attempts to escape Afghan warlords, Taliban oppression, and the persecutions of refugee life, in hopes that both their sons and their daughters could dare to dream of peace and opportunity. And behind the scenes, there are the unflagging efforts of one of Canada's most respected journalists, Carol Off, working assiduously to help the family achieve freedom and a promising future. In 2002, Carol Off and a CBC TV crew encountered an Afghan man with a story to tell.

An important check-up on our health-care system--and what urgently needs fixing--from a respected doctor and passionate Medicare advocate. Dr. Danielle Martin sees the cracks and challenges in our health-care system every day. Much like Atul Gawande, she uses real patient stories to illustrate what works in our health-care system and what doesn't. Most importantly, she proposes bold fixes that are both achievable and affordable.

The 2006 sinking of the BC Ferries passenger vessel Queen of the North. Ten years later, questions are still being asked. How did a ship that sailed the same course thousands of times fall victim to such an inexplicable error? Was the bridge crew fooling around? Why doesn't anybody in the know come forward and tell the truth? Nobody knew the ship, the crew and the circumstances that fateful March night better than the Queen of the North's captain, Colin Henthorne, and in this book he tells his story. The basic facts are beyond dispute.

The unforgettable memoir of a family betrayed by a cruel deception. Pauline Dakin, a well-known CBC journalist, spent her childhood on the run. Without warning or goodbyes, her mother twice uprooted her and her brother, moving thousands of miles away from family and friends. Years later her mother revealed they'd been running from the Mafia and were receiving protection from a covert anti-organized crime task force. When her mother decided to go into protective custody, an exhausted Dakin planned to disappear as well. But before that happened, she made a horrifying discovery.

Why does Vimy matter? How did a four-day battle at the midpoint of the Great War, a clash that had little strategic impact on the larger Allied war effort, become elevated to a national symbol of Canadian identity? Tim Cook, Canada’s foremost military historian and a Charles Taylor Prize winner, examines the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the way the memory of it has evolved over 100 years. The operation that began April 9, 1917, was the first time the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together.

Connaissez-vous Massassoit, le vieux sage de la nation wampanoag, Jean-Baptiste Faribault et Jean Baptiste Eugène Laframboise, ces aventuriers canadiens-français qui ont bâti l’Ouest américain, ou l’oncle Yvan, revenu de la guerre alors que plus personne ne l’attendait, ou la tante Monique de Santa Monica ? Saviez-vous qu’une vieille Honda était douée de la parole, qu’une grande tortue sacrée vivait sur le boulevard Pie-IX, qu’un camion des années 1950 avait des yeux, et que ces yeux pouvaient parfois être tristes ?

Depuis l’enfance, Alexandre Trudeau est fasciné par la Chine. Il retrace ici pour nous ses pérégrinations dans ce pays qui est synonyme de démesure et brosse un portrait saisissant de la Chine contemporaine, sans doute le plus grand laboratoire où se dessine l’avenir de l’humanité.