Canadians are behind a variety of cutting-edge products, life-saving medicines, innovative machines, and fascinating ideas. Although our inventions have typically been created with little fanfare, financing, or expectation of return, they have often gone on to play important roles in day-to-day life. Our "greatest invention" is probably insulin, which millions of people depend on for life and health. But the light bulb, the Canadarm, and the BlackBerry certainly vie for that honour as well...

This ebook bundle contains five books that chronicle Canada's participation in the conflict that gripped the Korean peninsula from 1950–53 and resulted in two very different nations that remain at odds today. This bloody and traumatic face-off between capitalist and communist ideologies highlighted the tensions of the Cold War that drew in nations from many parts of the world. Canadian soldiers did their part and many sacrificed their lives for the democratic cause. Those interested in the...

Marc Garneau, Roberta Bondar, Julie Payette, Robert Thirsk, Chris Hadfield, and more recently, Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque de Soleil, all have one thing in common: they’re some of the very few Canadians who have been in space.The launch of a spaceship is terribly exciting. That’s why thousands of people come to watch. They laugh, cheer, and applaud as the rocket rises. They see the smoke, steam, and white-hot fire as millions of litres of fuel burn in seconds. They feel th...

A dozen years before the Black Donnellys were butchered at Lucan, Ontario, another murderous rampage took place a few miles away. On June 6, 1868, three men robbed and killed a rich farmer, his wife, and her unborn child. They concocted an alibi, stuck to it, and almost got off. In fact, two of them did.The third, Nicholas Melady, went to prison and fell in love with a beautiful woman in a nearby cell. There to entrap him, she listened, learned, and led him to the gallows. When he ...

In the fall of 1956, the world was on the brink of war. Egyptian President Gamel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, and Britain, France, and Israel attacked him. Russia supported Nasser, and Soviet Premier Khrushchev threatened nuclear holocaust if the United States became militarily involved. Soon, the matter became a major problem for the United Nations.Fortunately, because of the efforts of Lester Pearson, then Canada's Minister of External Affairs, the crisis was defused. Pear...

The Korean War (1950-53) forms a little-known but exciting part of Canada's military history. The heroism and sacrifice of Canadians who fought in this conflict as part of the United Nations force has often been ignored. In this lively, anecdotal book, John Melady combines archival material and interviews with many Korean veterans. The result is a vivid, intensely human account of the war from its first days, to heroic battles such as Kapyong, to fascinating and more obscure incidents such...

They come from the cities and farms, military bases and tourist towns, seaside bungalows and urban apartments. All are ordinary people who did extraordinary things. Not one of them sought recognition, yet all are worthy of our admiration. They are Canada’s heroes, recipients of the presigious Star of Courage, and these are the stories of their bravery.Passionately told by John Melady, the tales of their courage span the nation and beyond: a heart-stopping rescue on the storm-tossed...

This book is about some of the most dramatic search-and-rescue operations in Canada. Whether the action is on the heaving deck of a sinking ship off the Newfoundland coast, within the incredibly confining walls of a power plant in Ontario, or high on a cliff face on a British Columbia mountain, each of these stories is exciting, memorable, and true. They are accounts of courage, loyalty, perseverance, and sacrifice that knows no bounds.We read of the heartbreaking last days of an A...

In 1984, Marc Garneau became Canadas first astronaut and a national hero. Since then, seven of his fellow citizens have followed in his footsteps, many more than once. This book was written as a twenty-fifth anniversary tribute to these brave men and women who defied tremendous odds, risked their lives, and soared from Earth on sheets of flame.

Afghanistan is not Canada’s first war in Asia. We’ve been there before, a half century ago … in Korea. And it was a meat grinder, scarcely remembered now … a war in which on one hilltop, on one April night, freshly-minted Canadians soldiers made a desperate stand that prevented catastrophe. In all, twenty-five thousand Canadians fought in Korea. By the time the shooting stopped, more than five hundred had been killed on lonely hilltops and in desolate ravines. Five hundred … in only two ye...

Dawn, June 6, 1944. Off the Normandy coast 6,500 ships carry 150,000 Allied troops. This is D-Day, the long-awaited Allied invasion of German-occupied Europe. The Allies will storm five beaches. One is code-named Juno Beach. Here, 14,500 Canadians will land on a five-mile stretch of sand backed by three resort towns. The beach is heavily protected by a seawall, barbed wire, underwater obstacles and hundreds of mines. Behind these defenses a heavily armed German force waits inside thick con...

Take a trip back in time to the chaos and destruction of the greatest invasion in military history, viewed through the lens of Canadian paratroopers. Men of Steel is the exciting story of some of Canada's toughest and most daring soldiers in the Second World War.In the dead of night, on 5/6 June 1944, hundreds of elite Canadian paratroopers hurled themselves from aircraft behind enemy lines. That daring act set the stage for the eventual success of the Allied invasion flee...