National Network for Equitable Library Service

Louis Riel devoted his life to the Metis cause. A fiery activist, he struggled against injustice as he saw it. He was a pioneer in the field of Aboriginal rights and land claims but was branded an outlaw in his own time. In 1885, he was executed for treason. In 1992, the House of Commons declared Riel a founder of Manitoba. November 16 is now designated Louis Riel Day in Canada.

Stephen Henighan, a Romanian grammar book and hours of language tapes under his belt, billets with a family as an English teacher in Moldova, a country born from the dismantling of Romania during World War II. As a Westerner in this "lost province" and former Soviet republic, Henighan feels he’s an unnerving disappointment for many Moldovans, especially to the MTV-addicted, twenty-year-old Andrei.

I was only six when I suspected my skin might be the wrong colour… Born female on the wrong side of the tracks, Eve Mills Nash, with the help of co-author Kenneth J. Harvey, tells a hard-hitting tale of a lifelong fascination with men of a darker hue. From early childhood, Nash knew it was "something to do with what was inside the bottles" that encouraged the groping male fingers that casually abused her during her parents’ drunken parties. She soon discovered that the wine remnants in the revellers’ discarded cups would numb her pain.

John Grierson, founder of both the British documentary film movement and the National Film Board of Canada, was one of the twentieth century’s most influential personalities in film culture. He gave the word "documentary" to the English language.

At the age of nine, John Diefenbaker announced, "I'm going to be prime minister when I grow up." He never lost sight of his goal. Diefenbaker was prime minister of Canada from 1957-1963. He believed in social justice, opening up the North, and making things better for western farmers. Canadians responded to his campaign call to "Follow John." This compelling book recreates the tensions of the Diefenbaker era - the time of the Cold War, spy scandals, and the Cuban Missile Crisis - when the world seemed on the brink of nuclear war.

Jacque Plante, the first National Hockey League goalie to regularly wear protective facemask, was known for roving out of his net. "The Masked Marvel" won the Vezina trophy seven times and became a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

George Grants Lament for a Nation led some to call him a Red Tory and the dominant force behind the Canadian nationalist movement of the 1970s. Today, reading George Grants books helps us to understand the full implications of American-led, technology-driven globalization on everyday life.

In 1945, Gabrielle Roy skyrocketed to fame and fortune when her first novel, The Tin Flute, was an instant hit. Over 700,000 copies sold in the United States, and the book was awarded the prestigious Prix Fna in France. In Canada, The Tin Flute received a Governor Generals Award. Gabrielle Roy dedicated herself to her vocation as a writer.

Canoe across large lakes, up and down rivers and rapids; labour over portages and through a miasma of blackflies; bask in the golden evenings of the Subarctic. In this account of an 800-mile canoe trip – which begins at Reindeer Lake on the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border, continues into Nunavut past the treeline, and ends on Hudson Bay – Peter Kazaks conveys the experience of being in the north by describing the daily details that bring the trip to life. He captures the flavour of an extended wilderness canoe trip and reflects on living in unfettered wilderness.

When Marjorie Hill graduated in 1920 as Canada’s "first girl architect," she was entering a profession that had been established in Canada just 30 years earlier. For the Record, the first history of women architects in Canada, provides a fascinating introduction to early women architects, presented within the context of developments in both Europe and North America.