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#125 To the end of Ron Brown’s line

Rails Over the Mountains: Exploring the Railway Heritage of Canada’s Western Mountains by Ron Brown Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2016. $29.99  /  978145973359 Reviewed by Les Kozma First published April 26, 2017 * Over the past twenty years or so Brown has authored a plethora of books about railways and railroading in Canada. Rails Over the…
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Edward Sapir's photo of the "Delegation of Indian Chiefs from Western Canada sent to Ottawa, 1916" shows John Tetlenitsa four months before his fruit was seized in Merritt and, further, that three Indigenous leaders of the land-and-rights agitations in the first years of the previous century lived in, or in the vicinity of, the Nicola Valley. Tetllenitsa is standing second from left, James Teit to his left. John Chelahitsa, a Syilx leader from Douglas Lake country, is seated immediately below Tetlenitsa

#124 Banning Indigenous apples, 1916

ESSAY: Chief Tetlenitsa’s Apples: Commercializing Indigenous Horticulture in British Columbia, 1907-1916 by Michael Sasges First published April 25, 2017 * In 1916, orchardist Chief John Tetlenitsa of  Spences Bridge took a wagon of 40 boxes of apples into Merritt, the new town in the Nicola Valley, only to have the Chief Constable seize the apples…
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#122 River-as-machine vs ecosytem

A River Captured: The Columbia River Treaty and Catastrophic Change by Eileen Delehanty Pearkes Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2016 $20  /  9781771601788 Reviewed by John Gellard First published April 20, 2017 * Previously, in her Harnessing The Power: Voices from Two Rivers of the Peace and Columbia (Douglas & McIntyre, 2012), Meg Stanley assessed the…
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#121 A 100-mile crime novel

First published April 17, 2017 REVIEW: Speakeasy by Alisa Smith Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017. $22.95. 978-1-77162-066-6 Reviewed John Douglas Belshaw With her partner and co-writer James MacKinnon, Alisa Smith recounted their year-long attempt to eat only foods grown and produced within a 100-mile radius of their Vancouver apartment. Their collaboration, The 100-Mile Diet: A…
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#120 Looking up from Down Under

Munro vs. The Coyote by Darren Groth Victoria: Orca Books, 2017 $19.95 / 9781459814097 Reviewed by Carol Anne Shaw First published April 14, 2017 * Since the sudden death of his sister, sixteen-year old Munro Maddux has been angry, depressed, and confused. Even worse, he can’t get rid of a horrible voice in his head…
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St. James Anglican Church, 1936. Print by Mathieu Persan

#119 Bike ride & Art Deco

REVIEW: Lost Vancouver: an Unexpected Art Deco Tour An exhibit at Space Gallery at 552 Clark Drive, Vancouver Reviewed by Michael Kluckner * Between April 11 and April 23 2018, Space Gallery hosts an exhibit, Lost Vancouver: an Unexpected Art Deco Tour. Michael Kluckner, who visited the exhibit for The Ormsby Review, appraises the work of…
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#118 Grubstake angel

Gold Rush Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Nellie Cashman by Thora Kerr Illing Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2016 $18.95  /  9781771511599 Reviewed by Charlene Porsild First published April 11, 2017 * Thora Illing’s Gold Rush Queen retells the life and times of Nellie Cashman, a beautiful, Irish-American businesswoman, entrepreneur, philanthropist, champion dog musher and lifelong spinster…
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#116 Wakeland in the DES

Invisible Dead by Sam Wiebe Toronto: Penguin Random House 2016 $22 / 9780345816276 Reviewed by Maansi Pandya First published April 5, 2017 * Soon to be released in the United States, Sam Wiebe’s Invisible Dead is a gritty journey into Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside crime world of biker gangs, drugs and suspicious characters against a backdrop…
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#115 Alas, poor Comox

First Published April 5, 2017 During a speech in 2017, Richard Mackie lamented the loss of historical buildings on Vancouver Island for a NIC Elder College lecture entitled “Dead Dog or Land of Plenty? Creating and Effacing History in the Comox Valley.” by George Le Masurier | Apr 4, 2017 *** Fresh out of university…
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#114 From apartheid to resurgence

Medicine Unbundled: A Journey Through the Minefields of Indigenous Health Care by Gary Geddes Victoria: Heritage House, 2017 $22.95  /  9781772031645 Reviewed by Mary-Ellen Kelm First published April 4, 2017 * Harold Cardinal’s assessment of Canada’s Indigenous policy in 1969 as “a thinly disguised programme of extermination” in The Unjust Society is born out almost…
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#113 Why we need estuaries

Ecology of Salmonids in Estuaries Around the World: Adaptations, Habitats, and Conservation by Colin D. Levings Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016 $75.00  /  9780774831734 Reviewed by Bert Ionson First Published April 4, 2017 * Colin Levings’ encyclopedic treatment of how sea going salmon, trout and char make their transition from fresh to salt water (and the…
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#112 When good isn’t good enough

Exhibiting Nation: Multicultural Nationalism (And Its Limits) in Canada’s Museums by Caitlin Gordon-Walker Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016 $32.95  /  9780774831642 Reviewed by Mike Starr First published April 2, 2017 * In Exhibiting Nation, Caitlin Gordon-Walker explores the ways in which Canadian multicultural nationalism has influenced exhibits at three of the country’s major museums. Gordon-Walker suggests…
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#111 Leave religion at the Rockies

The Secular Northwest: Religion and Irreligion in Everyday Postwar Life by Tina Block Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017 $32.95  / 9780774831291 Reviewed by Chelsea Horton First Published March 31, 2017 * Tina Block has examined the nature of atheism in British Columbia and Washington State in the postwar period. “This was not a universally secular region,”…
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#110 Bill Reid’s legacy enhanced

Bill Reid Collected by Martine J. Reid Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2016, in collaboration with the Bill Reid Centre $19.95  /  9781771621151 Reviewed by Victoria Wyatt First Published March 28, 2017 * Much has been written about Bill Reid (1920-1998), the internationally known Haida artist whose monumental works appear in contexts such as the Canadian…
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#109 From exclusion to equality

Great Fortune Dream: The Struggles and Triumphs of Chinese Settlers in Canada, 1858-1966 by David Chuenyan Lai and Ding Guo Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2016 $26.95 /  9781987915037 Reviewed by Tzu-I Chung First published March 27, 2107 * In Great Fortune Dream, David Chuenyan Lai and Ding Guo tell of the struggles and triumphs of…
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#108 New Iceland in Canada

White Settler Reserve: New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West by Ryan Eyford Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016 $32.95 / 9780774831598 Reviewed by Emma Battell Lowman and Adam J. Barker First published March 24, 2017 * From B.C. pioneer Gilbert Sproat to k.d. lang, in White Settler Reserve historian Ryan Eyford traces the little-known…
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#107 Moodyville, mudflats & Maisie

Where Mountains Meet The Sea: an Illustrated History of the District of North Vancouver by Daniel Francis Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2016 $39.95. 9781550177510 Reviewed by Trevor Carolan First Published March 22, 2017 * Daniel Francis, editor of the Encyclopedia of British Columbia and another twenty-four titles, turns his capable hand to local history in…
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#106 Devastation beyond germs

Beyond Germs: Native Depopulation in North America Catherine M. Cameron, Paul Kelton, and Alan C. Swedlund (editors) Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2015 U.S. $29.95  /  9780816535545 Reviewed by Jody Decker First published March 18, 2017 * As a follow-up to Courtney Kirk’s review of Tom Swanky’s controversial The Smallpox War in Nuxalk Territory [See…
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