“Canadians and politicians have a common responsibility: to learn from the mistakes inherited from a colonialist legacy; and to not repeat the wrongs, corruption, and injustices our people suffered in the hands of government officials, politicians, and their oppressive laws. Reading and learning from Cheated would be a good place to start reconciliation and reparation.” — Ovide Mercredi, former National Chief of the Assembly of First NationsThe sto...

Set in Saskatchewan during the Great Depression, this is the story of hockey legend Gordie Howe and his first experience with skating. The book is charmingly illustrated in full colour by Leanne Franson. Bill Waiser is a popular historian and Governor-General's-Award-winning author. Times were hard for five-year-old Gordie and his family in the 1930s. One day, a neighbour, desperate for some money, sold Mrs. Howe a bag of meager possessions. Inside was something wonderful: an old pair of m...

"... a diverse and fascinating array of perspectives on the history of Canada's national parks, illuminating many less well-understood aspects of the evolving place of people in and near these parks." - Stephen Bocking, Professor and Chair, Environmental and Resource Studies Program, Trent University When Canada created a Dominion Parks Branch in 1911, it became the first country in the world to establish an agency devoted to managing its national parks. Over the past century this agency, ...

July 1st 1867 is celebrated as Canada's Confederation - the date that Canada became a country. But 1867 was only the beginning. As the country grew from a small dominion to a vast federation encompassing ten provinces, three territories, and hundreds of First Nations, its leaders repeatedly debated Canada's purpose, and the benefits and drawbacks of the choice to be Canadian. Reconsidering Confederation brings together Canada's leading historians to explore how the provinces, territories, ...

The near disappearance of the American bison in the nineteenth century is commonly understood to be the result of over-hunting, capitalist greed, and all but genocidal military policy. This interpretation remains seductive because of its simplicity; there are villains and victims in this familiar cautionary tale of the American frontier. But as this volume of groundbreaking scholarship shows, the story of the bison’s demise is actually quite nuanced.Bison and People on the Nort...

The Great Depression of the 1930s brought drought, unemployment, and poverty to the West, and the token wages from the government's "make work" projects only fanned the flames of unrest. In 1935, this unrest took on a purpose: to march on Ottawa and demand a solution from Prime Minister R. B. Bennett. Thus was born the On-to-Ottawa trek, which culminated in the Regina Riot, where the protesters and RCMP clashed in one of Canada's most significant historic events.

Short listed for 3 Saskatchewan Book Awards:Non-Fiction Award, Saskatoon Award, Book of the Year Award. On the morning of 5 December 1933, a young RCMP constable discovered a grisly scene in the Avalon schoolyard in rural Saskatchewan. A young boy lay dead in a rented car, an apparent victim of carbon monoxide poisoning. In the car with him were his parents, who would survive both the effects of the gas and self-inflicted knife wounds only to face murder charges in their son's death. The s...

You won't find the Ocean Man and Pheasant Rump reserves on a map of southeastern Saskatchewan. In 1901, the two Nakoda bands reluctantly surrendered the seventy square miles granted to them under treaty. It's just one of more than two dozen surrenders aggressively pursued by the Laurier Liberal government over a fifteen-year period. One in five acres was taken from First Nations.This confiscation was justified on the grounds that prairie bands had too much land and that it would be...

From the trips to the general store to battles with bedbugs and falling cows, Five Pennies brings to life the experiences of a boy growing up in the early west. Filled with details about pioneer life, each story gives insight into the difficulties, challenges, and joys faced by families building a new home on a rugged, new land. Young Archie's observations offer a different perspective on that life, one tinged by a child's wonder and sense of adventure. These heartwarming stories about Chr...

A car is discovered underwater at a Rideau Canal lockstation near Kingston, Ontario. Within it are the bodies of three sisters—Zainab, Sahar, and Geeti Shafia—along with that of their presumed aunt, Rona Amir Mohammad. The stories told by parents Tooba Mohammad Yahya and Mohammad Shafia, and their eldest son, Hamed, don't match up with the rapidly gathering evidence. An extensive investigation unfolds, revealing a troubling story of physical and emotional abuse in the Shafia home—including...

Is it surprising that a man with a lifelong affinity for dogs would have been born in the Chinese astrological Year of the Dog? Richard Telekey claims that it is not, and his resulting affection for dogs has led him to years of association with them, including not just dog ownership and friendships with other dog-lovers, but a fondness for reading about dogs and, quite naturally, for writing about dogs.The Dog on the Bed is an old-fashioned abecedarian, a genre used by writ...

John Seagrave was born in Toronto, Ontario, but from an early age felt like a cultural orphan in his own community. To escape the inevitable factory job he joined the “Gentleman Adventurers” of the Hudson’s Bay Company as a modern-day fur trader. It was the 1970s and, like many other Bay Boys, he was transferred from pillar to post (ultimately 17 outposts) in northern Ontario and Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. Seagrave felt kinship to, and learned from, both Natives and Inuit...