French Canada

Apart from The Last of the Mohicans, most Americans know little of the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years' War, and yet it remains one of the most fascinating periods in our history. In January 2006, PBS will air The War That Made America, a four-part documentary about this epic conflict. Fred Anderson, the award-winning and critically acclaimed historian, has written the official tie-in to this exciting television event.

Quebec’s political struggle for autonomy, independence, and the protection of its language, culture, and heritage is shrouded in ambiguity. Let us shed some light on the subject for you.

In 1755, New England troops embarked on a "great and noble scheme" to expel 18,000 French-speaking Acadians from Nova Scotia, killing thousands, separating innumerable families, and driving many into forests where they waged a desperate guerrilla resistance. The right of neutrality - to live in peace from the imperial wars waged between France and England - had been one of the founding values of Acadia. John Mack Faragher draws on original research to weave 150 years of history into a gripping narrative of both the civilization of Acadia and the British plot to destroy it.

This is the fascinating story of the French regime in Canada. Few periods in the history of North America can equal it for romance and color, drama and suspense, great human courage and far-seeing aspiration. Costain, who writes history in the terms of the people who lived it, wrote of this book: "Almost from the first I found myself caught in the spell of these courageous, colorful, cruel days..."

When Will returns to Medicine River, he thinks he is simply attending his mother’s funeral. He doesn’t count on Harlen Bigbear and his unique brand of community planning. Harlen tries to sell Will on the idea of returning to Medicine River to open shop as the town’s only Native photographer. Somehow, that’s exactly what happens. Through Will’s gentle and humorous narrative, we come to know Medicine River, a small Albertan town bordering a Blackfoot reserve. And we meet its people: the basketball team; Louise Heavyman and her daughter, South Wing, and many more.

Canada is a land renowned for its stunning beauty and abundant natural resources but is rarely considered to have a particularly captivating history. Its people, stereotyped as polite and friendly, are seldom viewed as they are: the products of an intricate and complex struggle. Yet in truth, Canada and its people are the results of centuries of cultural collisions, compromises, and collaborations.

What happened to Amanda Holmes? Twenty years ago, she was found bludgeoned in a rowboat at the MacAllister family’s Camp Macaw. No one was ever charged with the crime. Now, after their parents’ sudden deaths, the MacAllister siblings return to camp to read the will and decide what to do with the prime real estate the camp occupies.

Walter of Gurnie, bastard son of an English peer, is forced to flee from Oxford for his part in the university riots of 1273. Inspired by Friar Bacon, he determines to travel to China. With his friend Tristam, he fights his way to the heart of the fabulous Mongol Empire and returns famous, to find that he must choose between the first love he thought lost and the exotic flower that he found in the East.

Deep within the bayous and swamps of Louisiana resides a population descended from an exodus. These people, called Cajuns or Acadians, were expelled from their homelands. Persecuted and homeless, they traveled hundreds of miles south in search of a new home and ultimately settled in the Pelican State, where they made new lives for themselves free from their British conquerors. Though not always warmly welcomed, they were accepted, allowing them to practice their different culture amid their new neighbors.

The French and Indian War was the world's first truly global conflict. When the French lost to the British in 1763, they lost their North American empire along with most of their colonies in the Caribbean, India, and West Africa. In The French and Indian War and the Conquest of New France, the only comprehensive account from the French perspective, William R. Nester explains how and why the French were defeated.

Canada is not one nation, but three: English Canada, Quebec, and First Nations. Yet as a country Canada is very successful, in part because it maintains national diversity through bilingualism, multiculturalism, and federalism. Alongside this contemporary openness Canada also has its own history to contend with; with a legacy of broken treaties and residential schools for its Indigenous peoples, making reconciliation between Canada and First Nations an ongoing journey, not a destination.

Ce n'est pas d'hier que Gilles Proulx sonne l'alarme : les Québécois sont de plus en plus ignorants de leur histoire, oublieux de leurs ancêtres et inconscients du travail colossal que ceux-ci ont accompli pour poser les fondations du Québec d'aujourd'hui.

Comedy superstar Mike Myers writes from the (true patriot) heart about his 53-year relationship with his beloved Canada. Mike Myers is a world-renowned actor, director and writer and the man behind some of the most memorable comic characters of our time. But, as he says, "No description of me is truly complete without saying I'm a Canadian". He has often winked and nodded to Canada in his outrageously accomplished body of work, but now he turns the spotlight full-beam on his homeland.

When 15-year-old Dell Parsons' parents rob a bank, his sense of normal life is forever altered. In an instant, this private cataclysm drives his life into before and after, a threshold that can never be uncrossed. His parents' arrest and imprisonment mean a threatening and uncertain future for Dell and his twin sister, Berner. Willful and burning with resentment, Berner flees their home in Montana, abandoning her brother and her life. But Dell is not completely alone. A family friend intervenes, spiriting him across the Canadian border.

Des contes qui ont traversé les continents. Les mémoires. Des contes qui sont devenus les nôtres. Ces récits de notre littérature orale qui reposaient aphones, Jani Pascal les fait revivre grâce à ses recherches minutieuses effectuées à même les fonds d'archives du Canada français. Elle redonne la parole à nos contes. Notre héritage culturel.

Qu’est-ce qui fait que le Québec est tel qu’on le connaît ? Nous pourrions dire que c’est grâce à sa culture, entre autres choses. Mais de quelle culture parle-t-on, exactement ? Il y a notre langue avec ses sacres, ses accents, ses expressions. Il y a aussi notre gastronomie avec sa poutine, son sirop d’érable et son fameux pâté chinois, qui, on s’en doute, ne vient pas de Chine. Ensuite, il y a le sport. Par exemple, le hockey, aves ses grandes rivalités et les émotions fortes qu’il suscite chez les Québécois. Nous n’avons qu’à penser à la fameuse Bataille du Vendredi saint en 1984!

Dans ce premier tome d'une série de cinq, Jacques Lacoursière raconte avec force détails l'arrivée des Français, leur cohabitation avec les autochtones, leur épopée à travers le continent, leur adaptation, les guerres anglo-françaises, la défaite ultime, les débuts d'une étonnante survivance et un cadeau piégé: le pouvoir parlementaire. Cet ouvrage se termine en effet avec la séparation du Haut-Canada (l'Ontario) et la mise en place audacieuse, en 1791, d'une nouvelle constitution.

Four chronically homeless people - Amelia One Sky, Timber, Double Dick and Digger - seek refuge in a warm movie theater when a severe Arctic front descends on the city. During what is supposed to be a one-time event, this temporary refuge transfixes them. They fall in love with this new world and, once the weather clears, continue their trips to the cinema. On one of these outings they meet Granite, a jaded and lonely journalist who has turned his back on writing “the same story over and over again” in favor of the escapist qualities of film, and an unlikely friendship is struck.

The acclaimed author of haunting crime novels of the Pacific Northwest reaches new heights of suspense. Four times in his 10-year search for the perfect woman, Gordon Murphy has been wrong. Now, he's set his sights on Cassandra Mitchell—despite the fact that she's living happily with Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg of the RCMP. Murphy is educated, attractive, wealthy—and a killer.

It's midsummer in British Columbia, and it's hot. Murderously hot, as RCMP Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg finds when his day at the beach with his ex is cut short by the discovery of a fresh corpse. And back in Sechelt, a nuisance call from an eccentric redneck swiftly leads Alberg into a psychological Gordian knot and a second crime a decade old.