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Class Action: How Ontario’s Elementary Teachers Became a Political Force
by Andy HansonIn this inspiring history of a union, labour historian Andy Hanson delves deep into the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and how it evolved from two deeply divided unions to one of the province’s most united and powerful voices for educators. Today’s teacher is under constant pressure to raise students’ test scores, while the rise of neoliberalism in Canada has systematically stripped our education system of funding and support. But educators have been fighting back with decades of fierce labour action, from a landmark province-wide strike in the 1970s, to record-breaking front-line organizing against the Harris government and the Common Sense Revolution, to present-day picket lines and bargaining tables. Hanson follows the making of elementary teachers in Ontario as a distinct class of white-collar, public-sector workers who awoke in the last quarter of the twentieth century to the power of their collective strength.
Gentrification Is Inevitable and Other Lies
by Leslie KernFrom the author of the best-selling Feminist City, this urbanite’s guide to gentrification knocks down the myths and exposes the forces behind the most urgent housing crisis of our time. Gentrification is no longer a phenomenon to be debated by geographers or downplayed by urban planners—it’s an experience lived and felt by working-class people everywhere. Leslie Kern travels to Toronto, Vancouver, New York, London, and Paris to look beyond the familiar and false stories we tell ourselves about class, money, and taste. What she brings back is an accessible, radical guide on the often-invisible forces that shape urban neighbourhoods: settler-colonialism, racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, and more. Gentrification is not inevitable if city lovers work together to turn the tide. Kern examines resistance strategies from around the world and calls for everyday actions that empower everyone, from displaced peoples to long-time settlers. We can mobilize, demand reparations, and rewrite the story from the ground up.
It Should Be Easy to Fix
by Bonnie RobichaudIn 1977, Bonnie Robichaud accepted a job at the Department of Defence military base in North Bay, Ontario. After a string of dead-end jobs, with five young children at home, Robichaud was ecstatic to have found a unionized job with steady pay, benefits, and vacation time. After her supervisor began to sexually harass and intimidate her, her story could have followed the same course as countless women before her: endure, stay silent, and eventually quit. Instead, Robichaud filed a complaint after her probation period was up. When a high-ranking officer said she was the only one who had ever complained, Robichaud said, “Good. Then it should be easy to fix.” This timely and revelatory memoir follows her gruelling eleven-year fight for justice, which was won in the Supreme Court of Canada. The unanimous decision set a historic legal precedent that employers are responsible for maintaining a respectful and harassment-free workplace. Robichaud’s story is a landmark piece of Canadian labour history—one that is more relevant today than ever.
Disarm, Defund, Dismantle: Police Abolition in Canada
by Shiri Pasternak Kevin Walby Abby StadnykCanadian laws are just, the police uphold the rule of law and treat everyone equally, and without the police, communities would descend into chaos and disorder. These entrenched myths, rooted in settler-colonial logic, work to obscure a hard truth: the police do not keep us safe. This edited collection brings together writing from a range of activists and scholars, whose words are rooted in experience and solidarity with those putting their lives on the line to fight for police abolition in Canada. Together, they imagine a different world—one in which police power is eroded and dissolved forever, one in which it is possible to respond to distress and harm with assistance and care.
Women Winning Office: An Activist’s Guide to Getting Elected
by Peggy NashWhen Peggy Nash first decided to run for elected office, she had no idea where to start, who to contact, or what the rules were. For those who are underrepresented in political life, politics can seem like a secret society designed to shut them out. Women Winning Office is a practical handbook for activist women on how to open doors and take their place in the political process. Find out how to build a team, get nominated, inspire volunteers, and canvass voters. Nash draws on her experience in five federal campaigns, as well as the stories of many inspiring Canadian women who have run for office at all levels of government. Some succeeded; some did not. Some faced difficult and painful experiences. Every one of them would do it again. To make real progressive change, we need to change not only who gets elected in Canada, but how our democracy functions. If you want to find out how to take your desire for a better world into elected office, this book is for you.
Thinking While Black: Translating the Politics and Popular Culture of a Rebel Generation
by Daniel McNeilThis uniquely interdisciplinary study of Black cultural critics Armond White and Paul Gilroy spans continents and decades of rebellion and revolution. Drawing on an eclectic mix of archival research, politics, film theory, and pop culture, Daniel McNeil examines two of the most celebrated and controversial Black thinkers working today. Thinking While Black takes us on a transatlantic journey through the radical movements that rocked against racism in 1970s Detroit and Birmingham, the rhythms of everyday life in 1980s London and New York, and the hype and hostility generated by Oscar-winning films like 12 Years a Slave. The lives and careers of White and Gilroy—along with creative contemporaries of the post–civil rights era such as Bob Marley, Toni Morrison, Stuart Hall, and Pauline Kael—should matter to anyone who craves deeper and fresher thinking about cultural industries, racism, nationalism, belonging, and identity.
The End of This World: Climate Justice in So-Called Canada
by Angele Alook Emily Eaton David Gray-Donald Joël Laforest Crystal Lameman Bronwen TuckerThe climate crisis is here, and the end of this world—a world built on land theft, resource extraction, and colonial genocide—is on the horizon. In this compelling roadmap to a livable future, Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice go hand in hand. Drawing on their work in Indigenous activism, the labour movement, youth climate campaigns, community-engaged scholarship, and independent journalism, the six authors challenge toothless proposals and false solutions to show that a just transition from fossil fuels cannot succeed without the dismantling of settler capitalism in Canada. Together, they envision a near future where oil and gas stay in the ground; where a caring economy provides social supports for all; where wealth is redistributed from the bloated billionaire class; and where stolen land is rightfully reclaimed under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples. Packed with clear-eyed analysis of both short- and long-term strategies for radical social change, The End of This World promises that the next world is within reach and worth fighting for.
The Mantle of Struggle: A Biography of Black Revolutionary Rosie Douglas
by Irving AndreRosie Douglas, former prime minister of Dominica, had a life unlike any other modern politician. After leaving home to study agriculture in Canada, he became a member of the young Conservatives, under the Canadian prime minister’s guidance. However, after he moved to Montreal to study political science his politics started to shift. By the late sixties he was an active civil rights supporter and when Black students in Montreal began to protest racism in 1969, he helped lead the sit-in. He was identified as a protest ringleader after the peaceful protest turned into a police riot, and served 18 months in prison. After his deportation from Canada in 1976, having been named a danger to national security, Douglas participated in political movements around the world building global solidarity. He became a leader of the Libyan-based revolutionary group World Mathaba and supported Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress. Once back home in Dominica, he led the movement for Dominica’s full political independence from Great Britain, then served as a senator in the post-independence government, an MP, party leader, and finally prime minister. Relying on family sources, interviews, newspaper articles, government documents, and Douglas’ own articles, letters, and speeches, Irving Andre has drawn a rich and riveting record of this important Black revolutionary.
The Tenant Class
by Ricardo TranjanIn this trailblazing manifesto, political economist Ricardo Tranjan places tenants and landlords on either side of the class divide that splits North American society. What if there is no housing crisis, but instead a housing market working exactly as intended? What if rent hikes and eviction notices aren’t the work of the invisible hand of the market, but of a parasitic elite systematically funneling wealth away from working-class families? With clarity and precision, Tranjan breaks down pervasive myths about renters, mom-and-pop landlords, and housing affordability. In a society where home ownership is seen as the most important hallmark of a successful life, Tranjan refuses to absolve the landlords and governments that reap massive profits from the status quo. The tenant class must face powerful systems of disinformation and exploitation to secure decent homes and fair rent. Drawing upon a long, inspiring history of collective action in Canada, Tranjan argues that organized tenants have the power to fight back.
Cleaning Up: Portuguese Women’s Fight for Labour Rights in Toronto
by Susana P. MirandaThis fascinating book uncovers the little-known, surprisingly radical history of the Portuguese immigrant women who worked as night-time office cleaners and daytime “cleaning ladies” in postwar Toronto. Drawing on union records, newspapers, and interviews, feminist labour historians Susana P. Miranda and Franca Iacovetta piece together the lives of immigrant women who bucked convention by reshaping domestic labour and by leading union drives, striking for workers’ rights, and taking on corporate capital in the heart of Toronto’s financial district. Despite being sidelined within the labour movement and subjected to harsh working conditions in the commercial cleaning industry, the women forged critical alliances with local activists to shape picket-line culture and make an indelible mark on their communities. Richly detailed and engagingly written, Cleaning Up is an archival treasure about an undersung piece of working-class history in urban North America.
Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal
by David AustinIn the 1960s, Montreal was a hotbed of radical politics that attracted Black and Caribbean figures such as C.L.R. James, Walter Rodney, Mariam Makeba, Stokely Carmichael, Rocky Jones, and Édouard Glissant. It was also a place where the ideas of Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, and Malcolm X circulated alongside those of Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir. During this period of global upheaval and heightened Canadian and Quebec nationalism, Montreal became a central site of Black and Caribbean radical politics. Situating Canada within the Black radical tradition and its Caribbean radical counterpart, Fear of a Black Nation paints a history of Montreal and the Black activists who lived in, sojourned in, or visited the city and agitated for change. Drawing on Saidiya Hartman’s conception of slavery’s afterlife and what David Austin describes as biosexuality – a deeply embedded fear of Black self-organization and interracial solidarity – Fear of a Black Nation argues that the policing and surveillance of Black lives today is tied to the racial, including sexual, codes and practices and the discipline and punishment associated with slavery. As meditation on Black radical politics and state security surveillance and repression, Fear of a Black Nation combines theoretical and philosophical inquiry with literary, oral, and archival sources to reflect on Black political organizing. In reflecting on Black self-organization and historic events such as the Congress of Black Writers and the Sir George Williams Affair, the book ultimately poses the question: what can past freedom struggles teach us about the struggle for freedom today? Featuring two new interviews with the author and a new preface, this expanded second edition enriches the political and theoretical conversation on Black organising and movement building in Canada and internationally. As the Black Lives Matter and abolition movements today popularize calls to disarm and defund the police and to abolish prisons, Fear of a Black Nation provides an invaluable reflection on the policing of Black activism and a compelling political analysis of social movements and freedom struggles that is more relevant now than ever.
Beryl: The Making of a Disability Activist
by Dustin GalerBeryl Potter was a reserved working-class mother of three living a decent life, or so it seemed, when a harmless slip and fall marked the unravelling of everything that she had known about herself and the world around her. Over the course of six years, she endured unimaginable pain. As doctors raced to save her life, her limbs and eyesight were taken from her one by one. In the span of a few years, she lost nearly half her body, her financial security, her home, her husband, and any semblance of a recognizable future. A survivor of more than one hundred surgeries, a dangerous opioid addiction, and multiple suicide attempts, Beryl Potter devoted herself to bettering the lives of other people with disabilities and made a tremendous contribution to disability awareness from the 1970s to 1990s. In this unparalleled biography, Dustin Galer demonstrates how Beryl Potter seemed to crack the code of the social system that oppressed her. By wading into the weeds of her complicated life before and after her accident, Galer leaves readers with a complex portrait of a woman who defied and challenged gender and disability norms of her time, paving the way for disability justice.
Crisis and Contagion: Conversations on Capitalism and Covid-19
by Ian McKayCrisis and Contagion is a selection of fourteen interviews conducted by Ian McKay of the Wilson Institute at McMaster University. Interviews with Nancy Fraser, Mike Davis, Mack Penner, Andreas Malm, and Merrill Singer explore capitalism’s organic crisis and the ways it has made this and future pandemics inevitable. Nora Loreto, Tithi Bhattacharya, Chandrima Chakraborty, Merlin Chowkwanyun, and Sanjay Nepal discuss the experiences of ordinary people in the pandemic. J. Michael Ryan, Laura Spinney, Naomi Klein, and Noam Chomsky explore the long-term effects and likely historical legacy of a pandemic that has changed millions of lives–and, maybe, the trajectory of human civilization. These scholars propose that to understand the impact of Covid-19, we have to understand the conflictual history of capitalism–and to ward off future pandemics, we need to start building a post-capitalist alternative to the disease-generating and highly unequal global neoliberal order. As capitalist forces work to shove what we have learned from the Covid-19 pandemic down the memory hole, Crisis and Contagion offers a must-read for those wanting to seize this moment of change and revolution.
Ecology for the 99%: Twenty Capitalist Myths Debunked
by Frédéric Legault Arnaud Theurillat-Cloutier Alain SavardIf everyone—from Emmanuel Macron to Jeff Bezos, and even Coca Cola—is green, why is the environmental crisis growing at an alarmingly rapid rate? The world is already experiencing the impact of climate crisis, but we are not equally responsible for its violent effects. Some of those who claim to be helping the planet are actually making things worse. To avoid being duped by false allies and to create an ecology for the 99%, we must discuss a radical topic: the exit from capitalism. Ecology for the 99% provides inspiration for building grassroots environmental movements through a lively discussion of the most persistent capitalist myths. It presents compelling evidence for why carbon market policies will fail, why a capitalist economy cannot be based on renewable energy sources, and why we should be protesting against overproduction, not overconsumption. Ecology for the 99% is an antidote to apathy and a bulwark against false leads. Time is running out, we can’t afford to take any wrong turns.
Law at Work: The Coercion and Co-option of the Working Class
by Harry GlasbeekIn a series of illuminating essays, the renowned Harry Glasbeek unpacks how law has been used to ensure that workers' aspirations are kept in check. Law at Work uncovers how the legal system, through its structures and mechanisms, legitimizes and reinforces the exploitation of workers. Using historic and contemporary examples, Glasbeek illustrates how conscious manipulations of law are part and parcel of how law protects capitalists at the expense of workers. He proves how the very laws designed to safeguard rights and freedoms often act as invisible shackles, compelling readers to reflect on their own struggles as they navigate a world where the legal system fails to serve their interests. These manipulations are made to look innocent because the underlying structures and ideology which give rise to specific rules are not challenged or challengeable. This thought-provoking book is an indispensable resource for those seeking to understand the hidden dynamics of worker oppression, empowering readers to question prevailing narratives and envision a future where the law truly serves the interests of all.
Play
by Jess TaylorYou will talk about 2016. You will talk about The Lighted City. You will be brave and truthful. You will get to the bottom of what happened.Paul (Paulina) Hayes loves her cousin Adrian. Inseparable from a young age, they play The Lighted City, an imaginary world where they pretend to live together and can escape a childhood that seems both too sad and too grown-up. But The Lighted City isn' t without danger.Years later, Paul is struggling with PTSD after a season of turmoil— one in which Adrian is dead, and radio and television are filled with reports of missing children. Just as stability is settling into her life and relationships, Paul is dragged back into the fate that Adrian seems to have scripted for them. And so she finds herself journeying across the country, down into a ravine, and back to The Lighted City, where so much of her childhood played out. Only by doing so can she begin to come to terms with “ the day everything happened” — and what has unfolded since then.With a unique blend of contemporary storytelling and psychological fiction, Play is a haunting, riveting novel that reminds us of both the beauty and danger of imagination.
These Songs I Know By Heart
by Erin BrubacherMarried and divorced in her 20s, looking for friendship in her 30s, and contemplating pregnancy at 40, our narrator wonders if she's going through life out of order. But Alice, The Turtle, The Kid, and other beloveds show her that motherhood is more than giving birth, art is never finished, and love is not linear. Through a three-day canoe trip, chance encounters, fierce female friendship, step-parenting, IVF, pandemic isolation, and quiet moments between humans, These Songs I Know By Heart weaves vignettes of everyday mythology into an absorbing and honest meditation on the connections in our lives. With razor-sharp reflection, humour, and most of all love, we are reminded that there's no formula to life and that instead, we must celebrate what makes the small moments of our lives extraordinary.
Monsters, Martyrs, and Marionettes: Essays on Motherhood (Essais Series #16)
by Adrienne GruberMonsters, Martyrs, and Marionettes is a revelatory collection of personal essays that subverts the stereotypes and transcends the platitudes of family life to examine motherhood with blistering insight.Documenting the birth and early life of her three daughters, Adrienne Gruber shares what it really means to use one’s body to bring another life into the world and the lasting ramifications of that act on both parent and child. Each piece peers into the seemingly mundane to show us the mortal and emotional consequences of maternal bonds, placing experiences of “being a mom” within broader contexts—historical, literary, biological, and psychological—to speak to the ugly realities of parenthood often omitted from mainstream conversations.Ultimately, this deeply moving, graceful collection forces us to consider how close we are to death, even in the most average of moments, and how beauty is a necessary celebration amidst the chaos of being alive.
Leilani (The Quest For Reason Series #3)
by LM DeWalt"An exciting vampire adventure that will make you fall in love with paranormal genre all over again." — Page Turners (Lily) Lily, once a solitary and lonely vampire, has finally found the love she longed for in Christian, her husband and newly turned vampire. Once settled in Peru, life is finally taking on a semblance of normalcy—despite the bodyguards protecting them from a cadre of evil vampires desperate for revenge. Lily, Christian, and their friends are on a quest to find their newly adopted son&’s long-lost sister, a child with an uncontrollable power, when their son becomes gravely ill and is then taken from his hospital ward. When Christian also inexplicably disappears, and long buried secrets come to light, Lily&’s world is turned upside down, forcing her to question her desire to remain a part of the undead world in which she&’s lived for almost a century. Read all 3 books in The Quest For Reason series: Lily Datura Leilani
Longing
by Chelsea DorsetteAfter losing touch for years, former schoolmates, Doug and Tracy, find themselves reconnected through the Internet. Living in neighbouring states, a heat that they never knew existed before catches fire and they quickly realize that they must reconnect in person to develop what is really going on between them.Despite the geographical distance, Tracy and Doug try things they've never experienced before and fall deeper in love, and lust, with every passing day. But when an old flame and life-changing news bring their plans to a screeching halt, it threatens to rip the two lovers apart forever.
Second Chances (A Shore Leave Cafe Romance #2)
by Abbie Williams"Abbie Williams is an author who excels at the romance genre. Her Shore Leave Cafe Romance series is a showcase for her ability to weave a contemporary tapestry, complete with rich characters, vivid settings and seductive moods."—Dean Mayes, Author of: The Hambledown Dream, Gifts of the Peramangk, The Recipient, The Artisan HeartThe past summer has been a wild ride for Joelle Gordon, in more ways than one. After discovering her husband, Jackson, cheating, she fled Chicago for her small-town childhood home in Landon, Minnesota. There, her family's lakeside diner, the Shore Leave Cafe, remains unchanged.Yet nothing else in Landon is the same, including her family of women, her three teenaged daughters, and the intense, passionate love she has found with Blythe Tilson. Now Blythe is in trouble and Jackson is back in Landon, rethinking their divorce. Can Joelle face one of the most difficult and important decisions of her life - or will the Davis family curse ruin any chances of finding and keeping love?A story about heartbreak, blame, family, destiny, and the difficulties of returning home, Second Chances is the second book in A Shore Leave Cafe Romance series.A Shore Leave Cafe Romance series:1. Summer at the Shore Leave Cafe2. Second Chances3. A Notion of Love4. Winter at the White Oaks Lodge5. Wild Flower6. The First Law of Love7. Until Tomorrow8. The Way Back9. Return to YesterdayThe story continues in her most recent novel, A Place to Belong.Also from Abbie Williams, The Dove Saga1. Heart of a Dove2. Soul of a Crow3. Grace of a Hawk
25 Love Poems for the NSA
by Iain S. ThomasWarning. Every poem in this book has one or more words in it that have been taken from the NSA&’s watch list. A full list of the words appears at the back of this book. By transmitting this book via email or other means, you are liable to be tracked by the NSA as a potential terrorist threat. This book is dedicated to how ridiculous that is.
A Notion of Love (A Shore Leave Cafe Romance #3)
by Abbie Williams"Abbie Williams is an author who excels at the romance genre. Her Shore Leave Cafe Romance series is a showcase for her ability to weave a contemporary tapestry, complete with rich characters, vivid settings and seductive moods."—Dean Mayes, Author of: The Hambledown Dream, Gifts of the Peramangk, The Recipient, The Artisan HeartTwelve years ago, Jillian Henriksen cut off all her hair and placed it in her young husband's hands as he was buried. After his tragic accident, she clung to the only remaining stability she had - her youngson Clint, her family of women, and her job at their lakeside diner, the Shore Leave Cafe.Now it is summer again, and change is in the hot and humid air. Jillian's sister, Joelle, and her teenaged nieces, Camille, Tish, and Ruthann, have come home to Landon, bringing a welcome distraction.And then there is Justin Miller, longtime family friend, brooding and sexy, but damaged after a terrible accident five years earlier. Will Jilly and Justin risk their broken hearts - and the Davis family curse - to take a chance on lasting love?A story about heartbreak, blame, family, destiny, and the difficulties of returning home, A Notion of Love is the third book in A Shore Leave Cafe Romance series.A Shore Leave Cafe Romance series:1. Summer at the Shore Leave Cafe2. Second Chances3. A Notion of Love4. Winter at the White Oaks Lodge5. Wild Flower6. The First Law of Love7. Until Tomorrow8. The Way Back9. Return to YesterdayThe story continues in her most recent novel, A Place to Belong.Also from Abbie Williams, The Dove Saga1. Heart of a Dove2. Soul of a Crow3. Grace of a Hawk
Match Point
by Chelsea DorsetteAfter losing her mother to cancer, Kelly musters up the courage to leave her lucrative real estate career behind and move to South Carolina to pursue her dream of becoming a mystery writer. In those wildest dreams did she ever imagine she would meet - let alone fall in love with - Patrick, her sexy tennis instructor. What starts as innocent flirting quickly becomes the most erotic sexual relationship she has ever had.When things start heating up, two jealous tennis club employees hatch a plot to break them apart. When Patrick thinks there&’s no hope of ever getting Kelly back, an unexpected conversation gives him the information he needs to exact revenge. But will it be enough to get Kelly back into his life and his bed again?
Winter at the White Oaks Lodge (A Shore Leave Cafe Romance #4)
by Abbie Williams"Abbie Williams is an author who excels at the romance genre. Her Shore Leave Cafe Romance series is a showcase for her ability to weave a contemporary tapestry, complete with rich characters, vivid settings and seductive moods."—Dean Mayes, Author of: The Hambledown Dream, Gifts of the Peramangk, The Recipient, The Artisan HeartA gorgeous stranger in an old photograph. A desperate search from another century. And a mystery Camille Gordon cannot resist.It has been two years since Camille discovered that she was going to be a teenage mother. Abandoned by her child's father, Camille is determined that she and her daughter will make it on their own.When she discovers an old picture hidden in a trunk in her grandmother's attic, Camille is at once drawn to the man in the image, standing near his horse in the light of a long-ago sunset. The haunting photo leads her to the Carters, who run the nearby inn, White Oaks Lodge. Each clue brings her closer to her own destiny - a true love so intense not even time can wither it.A story about heartbreak, blame, family, destiny, and the difficulties of returning home, Winter at the White Oaks Lodge is the fourth book in A Shore Leave Cafe Romance series.A Shore Leave Cafe Romance series:1. Summer at the Shore Leave Cafe2. Second Chances3. A Notion of Love4. Winter at the White Oaks Lodge5. Wild Flower6. The First Law of Love7. Until Tomorrow8. The Way Back9. Return to YesterdayThe story continues in her most recent novel, A Place to Belong.Also from Abbie Williams, The Dove Saga1. Heart of a Dove2. Soul of a Crow3. Grace of a Hawk