FINALIST FOR TORONTO BOOK AWARDS

The inside story of the grassroots fight to have a suicide barrier erected on Toronto’s “bridge of death.”

Most Torontonians have no idea their city once hosted the second most popular suicide magnet in North America, behind the Golden Gate Bridge. Since its completion in 1918, more than four hundred people jumped to their death from the Bloor Viaduct, which spans the cavernous Don Valley.

That number might still be rising if not for the tireless efforts of a group of volunteers, led by two citizens, who fought City Hall for years to get a suicide barrier erected. Not only did they win, they saved numerous lives and brought to light valuable research on how barriers actually lower suicide numbers overall. The resulting barrier — The Luminous Veil — has been praised for its ingenious and inspiring design.

The Suicide Magnet tells how the battle was won, and explores the ongoing efforts to help those suffering from mental health challenges.

Although many adults believe they have had encounters with strange creatures from alien spaceships, not everyone has actually reported their experiences to official investigators. But if you're a young person it's even less likely that people will believe you and more likely that your story will never be officially recorded. After all, who would believe a kid?

I Saw It Too! is the first collection of stories told by children, documenting what they saw and when they saw it. These accounts are real cases of UFOs they've seen or alien creatures they've encountered that were reported to government or military officials, UFO investigators, and journalists.

Inside you will find eighteen of these strange, fascinating, and believable tales recounted by young people from around the world with story illustrations by Stacey Archer with Lonigan Gilbert. The truth is really out there, and renowned ufologist Chris Rutkowski has tracked it down!

A debut novel reflecting the anxiety and dynamism of the gay community as it was on the point of extinction.

Beginning with a one-night stand in Paris in 1985, an unnamed narrator embarks on a physical and spiritual sojourn over four decades, from Montreal to Maussane, from Himachal Pradesh to Holland, and from the train stations of a divided Europe to Istanbul and the deserts of Iran with a cast of exiles, fugitives, and rebels. At once an epic journey through time and a love story to his chosen family, this haunting, lyrical novel in five parts explores questions of grief, statelessness, and memory, and is a meditation on survival in the age of AIDS.

A RARE MACHINES BOOK

A devoted and powerful champion of Canadian arts and culture, David Silcox’s life story dazzles with tales beyond the easel and canvas.

Son of a Prairie Dust Bowl preacher, David Silcox rose through the ranks of the Canadian cultural establishment to support and promote Canadian artists around the world.

From his early days as the first Arts Officer of the Canada Council in the mid-1960s, to his position as Deputy Minister of Culture for the province of Ontario in the late 1980s, to his command of Sotheby’s Canada in the last decade of the century, David Silcox created and supported the successes of visual artists such as Tom Thomson, Christopher Pratt, Harold Town, and David Milne.

With the eye of a practiced treasure-seeker, he was responsible for returning a number of Canadian art treasures by artists such as Paul Kane and Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven back to native soil and celebrating the work of Canadian artists internationally.

This first-ever biography of David Silcox showcases a champion of Canadian art through his life and efforts to elevate artists from home around the world.

Do you relish the thought of serving in public life, but don’t know where to start? With the honesty of experience, distinguished politician Sergio Marchi clearly spells out all the practical steps that you need to follow.

Our politics are currently suffering formidable challenges. Our national discourse has become more polarized, increasingly divisive, and notably nastier. Consequently, many people are keeping their distance from public life, rejecting a political system that they deem broken and unrepairable. Public opinion surveys consistently reveal that public cynicism is at a record high, coupled by declining voter turnout. Many people are disengaged from public life.

The Honourable Sergio Marchi — city councillor, member of Parliament, cabinet minister, and ambassador — relates his experiences over his thirty-year political career. He shares the adventures, policy decisions, and lessons learned in an effort to shed light on the inner workings of a public life, from nomination meetings, to campaigning, to governing, to make it easier for those interested in making a difference to take the plunge into an exciting, meaningful, and purposeful profession.

In an example of truth and reconciliation put into practice, Craig Macdonald spent decades creating a unique map of Temagami, developed through trust and experience, in partnership with the Teme-Augama Anishinaabe.

The story of the Historical Map of Temagami is a truly remarkable one. Starting in the mid-1960s, Craig Macdonald began to learn from Indigenous trappers and travellers, with a special emphasis on the traditional lands and winter ways of the Teme-Augama Anishinaabe. He became familiar with Anishinaabemowin, and built a lasting bond with the traditional knowledge holders. Returning year after year to map the land, Macdonald painstakingly built cartographic and research skills compiling a historical map of traditional winter and summer travel routes, original shorelines, and trails.

The map stands as an example of truth and reconciliation in practice. It protects the traditional knowledge of the people and, for his efforts, Craig Macdonald was given a new name: Echo Maker.

Echo Maker documents Macdonald’s life and his work on the map; his expeditions and production of the bible of winter travel technologies and techniques, Traditional Sledding in North America; and his testimony during the 1980s in support of the Teme-Augama First Nation’s land claim. Details of the incredible map are reproduced throughout this book.