Accidental Opportunities

A Journey Through Many Doors, An Autobiography

Bridglal Pachai

Bridglal (Bridge) Pachai, a life long advocate of social justice, was born in a thatched roof cottage in Umbulwana, South Africa. His journey has taken him from South Africa to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Along the way he has taught history at universities in South Africa, Malawi, The Gambia and Halifax. He has also served as director of the Black Cultural Centre in Nova Scotia and as director of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. In the words of Tom McInnis, his senior when Bridge was director… (more information)

Beyond Token Change

Breaking the Cycle of Oppression in Institutions

Anne Bishop

Bishop offers a clear analysis of the real situation of institutional oppression, to which many people can relate. She addresses the need for people to look beyond the oppression of individuals so we can take action to address the larger factors that are so often missed or ignored. Readers of this book will appreciate her contributions and efforts to positively change our societies. —Michael Anthony Hart, University of Manitoba, Faculty of Social Work Bishop’s follow up to Becoming… (more information)

Butterbox Babies

Baby Sales, Baby Deaths o New Revelations 15 Years Later

Bette L. Cahill

A young woman in Nova Scotia gives birth to a child out of wedlock. A childless couple in New Jersey desperately searches for a baby to adopt. These people never meet but their lives become forever linked through a tiny baby girl. Natalie, that baby, spent the first two years of her life in the Ideal Maternity Home on Canada’s rocky East Coast. Louis and Mabel Goldman of Newark adopted her in August 1945. Natalie was one of the survivors. Many babies born at the home were not adopted. They… (more information)

Experiencing Difference

Carl E. James

Difference is a fundamental aspect of our human existence. This anthology emerges from the editor’s attempts to navigate the complex, variable and unpredictable materiality of difference. The contributors present the various ways in which difference is experienced, interpreted and articulated. They tell of when and how they are named and/or recognized as different by others, and of their own naming and recognition of themselves as different. The essays show that gender, social class, ethnicity… (more information)

Glass Houses

Saving Feminist Anti-Violence Agencies from Self-Destruction

Rebekkah Adams

The author first experienced a women’s shelter when she and her mother were two of the first residents in Toronto’s Interval House in 1974. Her research is drawn from that experience, her own years of working in shelters and sexual assault centres and the experiences of her fellow workers. Adams witnessed hierarchies that set apart clients and management, where an executive director and managers abused power in the same way she had experienced in the outside’ world of men. Perhaps… (more information)

In the Other Room

Entering the Culture of Motherhood

Fiona Nelson

Becoming a mother impacts every aspect of a woman’s life. Often, it is other mothers with whom a new mother is able to articulate, debate and negotiate dimensions of her mothering experiences, from the physical/social aspects of pregnancy, through the daily work of new mothering, to the competing cultural constructions of motherhood. A diverse group of first-time mothers discussed and examined their experiences with what many have called “the mommies’ club.” Through interactions… (more information)

Myth, Migration and the Making of Memory

Scotia and Nova Scotia, c.1700-1990

Edited by Marjory Harper, Michael E. Vance

The essays in this volume, which are drawn from a wide range of disciplines, challenge us to consider critically the commonly held assumption that Nova Scotia is essentially Scottish in character. They do so by exploring the origin of the mythic understanding of the link between Scotland and Nova Scotia, by expanding the examination of Scottish influences from the customary focus on Highland migrants to also include mercantile, philanthropic and professional transatlantic connections, and by studying… (more information)

Punched Drunk

Alcohol, Surveillance and the LCBO 1927–1975

Gary Genosko, Scott Thompson

In this critical study of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Scott Thompson and Gary Genosko expose the stakes and consequences of the enormous bureaucracy behind the administrative surveillance of alcohol consumption in Ontario. Since its inception in 1927, the LCBO subjected alcohol consumption to its disciplinary gaze and generated knowledge about the drinking population. This book details how the LCBO tracked all alcohol consumption and capitalized on technological advances in order to generate… (more information)

Social Inclusion

Canadian Perspectives

Edited by Ted Richmond, Anver Saloojee

How is the concept of social inclusion evolving in policy terms? Are we moving toward a common understanding or definition? What does social inclusion mean for issues like poverty and the growing racialization of poverty? What can we learn about social inclusion in theory and practice from the perspectives of the needs of children and their parents? What are the contributions of feminists and of the disability rights movement? What does social inclusion mean for Canada’s newcomers, for anti… (more information)

Someone To Talk To

Care and Control of the Homeless

Tom Allen

Someone To Talk To is an empassioned account of life on the mean streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Homeless and near-homeless persons recount in agonizing detail their experiences of living on the edge in a large Canadian city. They chronicle the grim spirals of poverty, marginalization and despair that propelled them out of their homes, onto the streets and into the ambit of shelters like Triage Emergency Services. Allen analyzes how state policies contribute more to the continuation… (more information)

Under the Gaze

Learning to be Black in White Society

Jennifer Kelly

This book deals with the perceptions and experiences of Black Canadian high school students growing up in a White-dominated society. Using student narratives, the book gives an insight and understanding of the process of racialization as it relates to popular culture, gender, and relationship with peers. Student voices reveal a complex identity formation drawing on various sources and multiple meanings as they learn to be Black in a White society. (more information)