Tom gives book reviews a boost – Smithers Interior News

A few months ago in the spring, I received a notice from the Smithers Public Library that a book reading would be held on Tuesday. This is one of the advantages of moving to the city. You can attend many city functions by riding your bike rather than driving your truck around town more than once a day.

This particular event included two speakers, Roy Henry Vickers promoting his children’s book A as anemoneand Catherine Nolin talking about her book, Testimony.

What an interesting evening as Roy talked about his childhood in Hazelton, his family and many of his experiences good and bad as he became a famous artist with a very successful studio/gallery in Tofino.

Roy was very entertaining and a fine speaker treating his audience to several parables and quotes, a true storyteller. I liked the line from his mother who said something like “now you’ve made it; the next trip is to give back.

Next on the evening’s agenda was Catherine Nolin.

She is Professor of Geography and Chair of the Department of Geography of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George. Catherine is a longtime researcher and social justice advocate who has grappled with allegations of Guatemalan genocides from Canadian mining companies for 25 years. She co-authored her book with Grahame Russell, a lay lawyer and professor in the geography program at UNBC since 1995.

These two speakers, Catherine and Roy, could come from different parallel universes, but their stories have crossed.

Listening to Catherine I admit I was a little shocked and taken aback. She chronicled serious allegations from household-acceptable mining companies like Inco, Goldcorp and Hudbay Minerals. It seems that our reputable societies are deeply rooted in violence, corruption, human rights abuses and illegal land dispossession.

Curiously, the drivers of this damage are the international stock markets, investors and the Canadian government. Needless to say, I purchased his book and struggled to process the situations described throughout each chapter.

Legal proceedings are still pending in Toronto courts seeking to convict Hudbay Minerals of rape, human rights abuses and environmental damage.

This book, Testimony, was to be printed in 2020, but the publisher declined, citing third-party influence. Fortunately BTL, the editorial board of Between the Lines was able to publish.

This is definitive reading and will help you understand that even our Canada Pension Plan has made us complicit in investing in these companies.

Send me your book review and we can discuss the situation. Call 250-877-1806 or email tr.ranch@hotmail.com