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A harrowing tale of human intelligence pitted against the forces of nature. With prospectors, trappers, and whalers pouring into northwestern Canada, the North West Mounted Police were dispatched to the newest frontier to maintain patrols, protect indigenous peoples, and enforce laws in the North. In carrying out their duties, these intrepid men endured rigorous and dangerous conditions.On December 21, 1910, a four-man patrol left Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, heading for Dawson City, Yukon, a distance of 670 kilometres. They never arrived.

The story of African Canadians who fled slavery in the United States but returned to enlist in the Union forces during the American Civil War. On New Year’s Eve in 1862, blacks from across British North America joined in spirit with their American fellows in silent vigils to await the enactment of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The terms declared that slaves who were held in the districts that were in rebellion would be free and that blacks would now be allowed to enlist in the Union Army and participate in the civil war that had then raged for more than a year and a half.

In 1987, skeletal remains were encountered during excavation just west of Old Fort Erie, in Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula. While possession of the land had been bitterly contested in 1814, it remained virtually undeveloped and only in the 1980s, with the construction of permanent homes, did excavations yield evidence of the distant past.An international team of scholars and scientists investigated the remains and identified the individuals’ nationalities for repatriation, where appropriate.

The invasion attempt on Upper Canada by a new and vastly improved American army in the first six months of 1814. Throughout 1812 and 1813, Upper Canada had been the principle target for a succession of American invasions and attacks. Fortunately they all had been repulsed, but at a high cost in lives and the devastation of property on both sides of the border.

This book tells the story of the unique bond between Captain Walters and his schooner the Bluenose. The ship is a Canadian icon and an icon of nautical competition, unbeaten between 1921 and 1939 in the races for the International Fishermans Cup. Its success galvanized a young nations national pride, and the ship remains an important symbol in Nova Scotia today. Walters skill and devotion to his ship helped the Bluenose hold off all challengers, even at the end of its illustrious career.

When Emily Stowe was born in Ontario in 1831, every girl’s life followed a set pattern. Regardless of her personality, intelligence, capabilities or creativity, her future was limited to housework and childcare. Emily Stowe was determined to change that pattern. Sydell Waxman, a writer, researcher and lecturer on women of the 1800s, tells of the events in the life of the young Emily Stowe which caused her to become, not only the first woman school principal and the first woman to practise medicine in Canada, but a pioneer in the fight for women’s rights.

This is a story of pioneering courage and compassion in the New World. Jeanne dreamed of devoting her life to caring for others. In 1641, she courageously gave up her comfortable middle-class life in France to journey to the French colonies, today’s province of Quebec. In overcoming incredible hardships, massacres, illness, deprivation and seven gruelling trips across the ocean, Jeanne proved to be a remarkable leader. She ended up founding the first hospital in Montreal as well as being a pioneer and founder of the city of Montreal.

World War Two was the greatest conflict in human history. It gave birth to the Atomic Age, the Cold War and the economic boom of the 1950s and 60s, and planted the seeds of today’s Middle East crises. But it is not distant history. Most Canadians have relatives who were part of this world-wide tragedy. Bitter Ashes puts these events in context for them. This book in the illustrated historical series Stories of Canada is a companion to Desperate Glory: The Story of WWI. A clear and concise text leads the reader though the major military and political events and issues of the war.

Let me introduce you to Andrew, Pat, and Dr. Su: … three Chinese friends of mine. Andrew is a computer science professor at a university in Taipei; Pat works in the administration of a private club in Hong Kong. Dr. Su works in a hospital in the agricultural city of Hefei in central China. With democracy establishing itself in Taiwan, and colonialism soon to be terminated in Hong Kong and Macau, and with China "opening" to the outside world, how have the three Chinas fared?

Commended for the 2011 Keith Matthews Award From its creation in 1910, the Royal Canadian Navy was marked by political debate over the countrys need for a naval service. The Seabound Coast, Volume I of a three-volume official history of the RCN, traces the story of the navys first three decades, from its beginnings as Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Lauriers tinpot navy of two obsolescent British cruisers to the force of six modern destroyers and four minesweepers with which it began the Second World War.