National Network for Equitable Library Service

When civil war broke out in his home country in 2011, Hassan Al Kontar was a young Syrian living and working in the UAE. He refused to return to Syria for compulsory military service and lived illegally before being deported to Malaysia in 2018. Unable to obtain a visa for any other country, he became trapped in the arrivals zone at Kuala Lumpur Airport. Exiled by war and trapped by geopolitics, Al Kontar used social media and humour to tell his story to the world, becoming an international celebrity and ultimately finding refuge in Canada.

As a troubled teen, Lauren Manning sought refuge online in the angry world of black metal music. When she met a recruiter who offered her the acceptance she craved, the doctrine of white supremacy supplanted the values of her middle-class upbringing, and Lauren traded suburbia for a life of violence and criminality on the streets of Toronto.

Popularly thought of as a recreational vehicle and one of the key ingredients of an ideal wilderness getaway, the canoe is also a political vessel. A potent symbol and practice of Indigenous cultures and traditions, the canoe has also been adopted to assert conservation ideals, feminist empowerment, citizenship practices, and multicultural goals. Documenting many of these various uses, this book asserts that the canoe is not merely a matter of leisure and pleasure; it is folded into many facets of our political life.

Being German Canadian explores how multi-generational families and groups have interacted and shaped each other's integration and adaptation in Canadian society, focusing on the experiences, histories, and memories of German immigrants and their descendants. As one of Canada's largest ethnic groups, German Canadians allow for a variety of longitudinal and multi-generational studies that explore how different generations have negotiated and transmitted diverse individual experiences, collective memories, and national narratives.

Gathering together powerful voices of feminist writers, peace activists, and matriarchal studies scholars from around the globe, The Legacy of Mothers reconceptualizes mothers, motherhood, and mothering as an alternative human logic to create a new sociopolitical order. The contributors draw on ancient knowledges, Indigenous perspectives, and African traditions like Motherism to argue for the reordering of our world according to a distinctly transformative feminism.

From the establishment of Fort Victoria, BC's capital city has had a long history of prostitution. But little has been written on the lives of the women themselves--some of the most enterprising women in Victoria's past. Instead, these women's stories have been relegated to judgmental newspaper headlines. Now historian Linda J. Eversole takes a deeper look at their lives, from the mid-nineteenth century to the First World War and the Moral Reform movement.

Only twelve women have ever served as the premier of a Canadian province or territory, and only one has risen to the very top to serve as prime minister. In Govern Like a Girl,Kate Graham tells the stories of these thirteen women, from childhood to political power. Their experiences span three decades, every political stripe, and extend from coast to coast to coast. What motivated them to run for office? What did they accomplish once they were elected? And how did their style of governing differ from male politicians?

One hundred years of feminist activism, from the 1880s to the 1980s, presented multiple paths for women's search for equality, autonomy, and dignity. Women fashioned different dreams of freedom and social transformation, yet what isCanadian feminism?Demanding Equalityillustrates feminist thought and organizing from mid-nineteenth-century, Enlightenment-inspired writing to the multi-issue movement of the 1980s, with its focus on feminism as a collective project of resistance.

Nearly one third of wildfire evacuations in Canada involve Indigenous communities. While evacuations are carried out to protect people from smoke and flames, deciding to leave brings its own challenges.This evacuation guide is based on interviews with over two hundred wildfire evacuees from seven First Nations. By comparing the evacuees' experiences, both good and bad, it provides direction on how Indigenous communities and external agencies can best prepare for the different stages of an evacuation.

Deliberative democracy - whereby people debate competing ideas before agreeing upon political action - must surely rest on its capacity to include all points of view. But how does this inclusive framework engage with activism that occurs outside of, and in opposition to, deliberative systems themselves?