Twenty years is a long time. Alas, not long enough for the government in China to have progressed to the point where it would allow its citizens to at least acknowledge and honour the friends and family members that were killed on that fateful day in Beijing. According to the Toronto Star, uniformed and plainclothes police officers outnumber tourists in Tiananmen Square today. Known dissidents have been prevented by police from leaving  their homes, and anyone wearing all white (the Chinese colour of death) is being taken into police custody for questioning. Foreign journalists are being harassed in the square, and popular monuments and tourists attractions have been shut down “due to maintenance” for the days surrounding the anniversary.

How can one not feel blessed and lucky to be living in Canada when hearing of these atrocities? Imagine a mother literally not being allowed to grieve for her deceased child.

Recently, Toronto has been the setting for many dramatic protests by those urging the Canadian government to help the persecution of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. In order to bring attention to their cause, these protesters have resorted to dramatic measures- most notably, their forced closure of the Gardiner Expressway, on Mother’s Day.  There has been considerable backlash from Toronto’s population regarding these protests, as they have at worst endangered people, and at least irritated and inconvenienced them. My own mother, who nervously drove downtown to have lunch with my sister, was forced to sleepover in the city because of the Gardiner closing. She didn’t do much sleeping, mind you, as sounds from the street filtered through the windows of my sister’s King and Spadina condo: “Stephen Harper, help us!!! OBAMA, PLEEEEAAAAASEE!”.

I will admit that in spite of having a great deal of respect and admiration for the Tamil protestors’ tenacity, I, too, have been annoyed by the protests. My apartment is around the corner from the Sri Lankan consulate, and thus I have bore witness to many of the Tamils’ efforts. However, even when at the end of my rope with the noise and inconvenience that come of these protests, I always reflect on what an awesome thing it is to live in a country where it is your RIGHT to stand up for your beliefs and concerns. Here in Toronto, if one wanted to parade around in front of Queen’s Park wearing a sandwich board declaring that one is a Communist  Wiccan robot who disagrees with school segregation, that would be okay! An extreme example, of course, but you get my drift. How grateful I am to be born when I was, where I was.  Everyone reading this, please take a moment to reflect on how fortunate we really are to be living in Canada, a country defined by freedom.

There are so many titles and so many authors that are a part of Dundurn, it’s easy to miss out on some great reviews and interviews that take place.  Sometimes we just happen to stumble across them.  I happened to come across one that took place in June between author JoAnn Dionne (Little Emperors) and host Sarah Passmore of RTHK, a radio station based in Hong Kong.

It’s a great interview that reveals JoAnn’s experience teaching children in China back in 1996.  She offers her thoughts on how these children might impact China’s future.  Considering all the talk about the current state of China during the recent olympics in Beijing, this is actually quite timely!

Listen to the interview here!

Photograph of Beijing Olympic Stadium by poeloq

Across Frozen Seas and Ghosts of James Bay are novels set around incidents in the exploration of Canada’s north. Across Frozen Seas follows the adventures of a cabin boy on Sir John Franklin’s doomed expedition to the Northwest Passage in 1845 and Ghosts of James Bay recreates what might have happened to Henry Hudson and his son after the mutiny in Hudson Bay in 1611. Both these books, and all my other fourteen novels for Young Adults, deal with how people react to extreme circumstances. Although fiction, the research is extensive and the history in the books is as accurate as I can make it.

Norman Bethune: A Life of Passionate Conviction and John Franklin: Traveller on Undiscovered Seas are biographies written at an adult level and aimed at a grade 11 market. Both these men appealed to me because they struggled against extraordinary adversity, in Bethune’s case because of his personal conviction and Franklin’s because of circumstances. Traveller on Undiscovered Seas was called “the best life of Franklin yet produced.” (Russell A. Potter)

My background is in Geology although I moved into freelance writing in 1989. This led to story writing and these tales developed into novels, the first of which is a time travel fantasy about dinosaurs called Weet (1995). In every one of my novels, the main character is always someone who becomes caught up in events he cannot understand (geological catastrophe, exploration, war), and learns during the course of the book that life and the world are much more complex than first believed.

My most recent title, The Alchemist’s Dream was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award in 2007 and returns to the story of Henry Hudson’s fateful voyage of 1610/11. My next title releasing in May is Desperate Glory: The Story of WWI, a non-fiction book for grades 5 to 8. I am currently preparing a novel set in A.D. 9 around a Roman military disaster (Germania), and due for publication this fall.