By Brady Tighe We’re now officially in the aftermath phase of the northern Alberta wildfire crisis. The fire is long gone, and everyone with a home to return to is back in its cozy confines....
http://backofthebook.ca/2016/07/08/fort-mcmurray-shopping-time/13001/
From ‘The Red Tree’ by Shaun Tan Have you ever played Hearts? It’s a card game. For our purposes, the important part is this: every card in the heart suit is worth points, and (just like g...
http://backofthebook.ca/2016/06/29/from-our-rape-blog-shooting-the-moon/12970/
The most interesting and innovative idea to come out of the first meeting of the all-party Special Committee on Electoral Reform, or ERRE, was Nathan Cullen's suggestion, seconded by Elizabeth...
http://backofthebook.ca/2016/06/24/electoral-reform-hashtag-fresh-thinking/12955/
By Nicholas Heather One time, me and the kids had a fish hotel. It was my idea. My original idea. For some reason we’d acquired a 20-gallon fish tank. Of course, the kids wanted to get fish. �...
For years I have been warning that hatred kills. Like it did in Orlando last Sunday. Or like it did in Britain last Thursday. When the gentle, decent Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to deat...
http://backofthebook.ca/2016/06/20/rachel-notley-and-the-hatred-that-kills/12915/
From Creekside: The B.C. provincial government is trying to green light the construction of a massive LNG terminal on Lelu Island in the Skeena Estuary — Pacific Northwest LNG, backed by Malays...
http://backofthebook.ca/2016/06/19/the-video-lelu-island-they-will-come/12911/
By Frank Moher On this dreadful day, I don’t want to write about the shootings in Orlando. I want to write about my friend, Rick. Rick lives just outside of Nanaimo, a city of about 80,000, a...
By Brady Tighe It is a powerful thing to see the destroyed homes of the Beacon Hill neighborhood in Fort McMurray — husks of buildings that once contained a family, their possessions, their mem...
http://backofthebook.ca/2016/06/12/our-selective-sympathy/12848/
By Allan Eastman The photographs of water bombers fighting the horrendous Ft. McMurray conflagration of 2016 invoked a sudden wash of memories having to do with two of the great Canadian cultural...
By Rod Mickleburgh At long last, a formal apology has been delivered in the House of Commons for Canada’s racist behaviour in its shameful treatment of Sikh passengers aboard the Komagata Maru...
http://backofthebook.ca/2016/05/19/komagata-maru-the-story-behind-the-apology/12809/