Notice Board: Jane Harris (Harris-Zsovan) has a  forthcoming book and a new website: janeharrisbooks.wordpress.com. Her new book, Finding Home in the Promised Land, a personal history of homelessness and social exile in Canada is being published by J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing. It will  be out by Fall 2015.

SEPTEMBER RELEASE UPDATE: Finding Home in the Promised Land: A Personal History of Homelessness and Social Exile is the fruit of Jane Harris’s journey through the wilderness of social exile after a violent crime left her injured and tumbling down the social ladder toward homelessness –for the second time in her life—in 2013. Her Scottish great-great grandmother Barbara`s portrait opens the door into pre-Confederation Canada. Her own story lights our journey through 21st Century Canada.

She asks why Canadians fell into accepting diminished dreams, and ignoring the obvious—that trauma and poverty are inextricably linked, and it is social exiles who fall through the cracks. She asks why Canada, a nation of exiles driven to create their own Promised Land came to accept first poor houses; then soup kitchens, food banks, shelters, and silent suffering class of working poor? Why did charity, another word for love, become cold bureaucracy? She uncovers that sad truth, that the taxes and charitable gifts the prosperous among us pay as tolls to avoid looking at the poor, fix nothing. Instead, they fund a poverty industry that keeps the dispossessed in an exile thornier than any back bush squatter’s camp. But she also uncovers a path out of the bureaucratic wilderness that could eliminate social exile in Canada.

Jane Harris turns complex research into engaging scenes and easily understood messages.Finding Home in the Promised Land is her second book to be published by J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing. The first Eugenics and the Firewall: Canada’s Nasty Little Secret was published in 2010.
Jane has also contributed to two Canadian anthologies. Her articles about business, personal finance, history, faith, politics and social issues have appeared in more than a dozen publications including the Winnipeg Free Press, Canadian Capital, The National Post, Alberta Views, Alberta Venture, Lethbridge Herald, and The Anglican Planet.
She is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada and the Writers’ Guild of Alberta.

Eugenics and the Firewall available directly from J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing Website

J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing has an updated website. LOVE IT! This means you can now purchase Eugenics and the Firewall directly from the publisher.

Do you love your pet, but not her grocery bill? Here's help

Yes, you can feed your pet on a budget, without harming her health. In fact, she might even live longer. My Troy Media Cutting Corners column this week.

this week`s column – don`t let hard times wreck Christmas, Canada

Another week, another Troy Media column. Still on a Christmas theme: Don`t let hard times wreck Christmas – re-invent it. 

Cutting Corners online this Christmas

There are more reasons to shop online than just staying out of the cold, but don`t get burned. My column this week, “Be a Savvy Online Shopper.“ 

Southern Alberta Writers -- Registration is Open for Creative Writing I

Creative Writing I starts October 22nd at Lethbridge College. Writers of all genres, ages, and levels are welcome. Register online, in-person, or by telephone.

Make Online Spending Your Friend

Yes, it is  to overspend, but can turn online shopping into a cost cutting tool.  This week's Cutting Corners column:

My Upcoming History Talk with Alberta History Buffs

This and more at the Galt Museum in Lethbridge this fall:


DEC 07 Coal, Culture and Confederation with Jane Harris-Zsovan.
Three generations of Galt men –John, Sir Alexander and Elliott
– shared a poetic vision for a united and vibrant Canada.
Lethbridge, the only Canadian city co-founded by a
Father of Confederation,
is a living example of the Galts’ Canadian dream.

events and readings

I tweeted this earlier:

Author Encounter, Crossings Library, Tuesday night; Jane Harris-Zsovan, Blaine Greenwood, Richard Stevenson, and Ken Sears.

It’s all part of the only Word on the Street to take place in Alberta, 25 September.

Here is Lethbridge’s Word on the Street Blog. (I’m also participating in that event.)

Arts Days, including Art Walk and Arts Fest, are the following week. I’m also doing a reading there, but haven’t got all the details, yet.

Come one; come all to the only city in Canada, co-founded by Father of Confederation, who just happens to be the son of the Scottish poet who founded Guelph and wrote my favourite poem, "Canadian Reflections." We love talking books down here!

Ideology, Goose-stepping and Republicanism in Canada

Here's the Governor General's statement welcoming the the restoration of the historic names for the Canadian Armed Forces. As he points out, the names Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Canadian Navy, & Canadian Armyalways remained on the books but the Pearson government, and subsequent governments, in an undemocratic bout of social engineering, forbade names to be used. Defence Minister Mackay was right in correcting this error.

The notion that you 'forbid' royal symbols, British Heritage, international ties, & history in order to create your own unhistorical Canadian culture was always undemocratic. The idea that you refuse to allow young Canadians knowledge of their constitutional heritage in order to convince them that your revolution has already taken place and indoctrinate them with the idea that the country is 'progressing' toward your own vision is nothing more than deceit. This is how much of the political and educational class in Canada have behaved over the last 50 years. They are now out of power because Canadians got sick of them.

Supression and manipulation are not democracy. Calling traditionalists and veterans fighting to have our history restored is the height of arrogance. Suggesting we cater to separatists and using ordinary Quebecois as an excuse for your own need to enforce your ideological vision on Canadians who disagree with you is divisive and reprehensible.

These activists are far more ideological than Prime Minister Harper or Preston Manning ever were. (Anyone who knows me, knows I didn't like the Alliance vision and I still have my doubts about about whether Alberta populism is really seeking democracy. But, I see the ideologues who got hold of and destroyed the Liberal Party of Canada as every bit as dogmatic as the dictatorial William Aberhart ever was.

The reaction of Pearsonian (don't blame Trudeau for this) activists suggests that they still believe they the only 'vision for Canada:' Those who feel left out of the goose-stepping ideological vision of the Pearsonians are called regressive or just plain stupid.

Tom Freda was actually right when he said that Canadians are used to having their royal symbols removed. Yes, Mr. Freda, they are.

They are used to governments obliterating their history to cater to a minority of social engineers who think they know better what Canada should be and who denounce traditionalists as stupid and colonial. Interesting Mr. Freda's own republican organization is the ultimate colonial relic, being a part of Common Cause a republican group headquartered just outside London,UK.

These activists, especially Professor Jack Granastein, know full well that the Canadian Crown is separate from the British Crown. They know that what sets the British definition of citizenship apart from many other national definitions, is that it goes beyond ethnicity to encompass a system of Parliamentary Democracy that seeks to treat (although we've had some failures here) all citizens equally before the law. (As opposed to insisting on uniformity of all citizens.)

Many of these activists actually think it is progressive to slam against 'British Canada' in a way that would never be acceptable if they attacked French, Aboriginal, Chinese, Black, or even Swedish or German Canada. And rightly so.

The Canadian Crown is not 'colonialist' at all. It has not been so since the 1931 Statute of Westminster and the

1982 Canada Act

reaffirms the independence of the Canadian Crown.

Canada's Crown helps protect the rights of all Canadians from social engineers who would recreate our nation in their own image. God Save The Queen! God Save Canada from the ideologues.

If you’re interested, here’s my newly posted Writers’ Union of Canada web page. Very proud to be a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, and the Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge.

Word on the Street Lethbridge

Here’s a heads up. It’s not on the WOTS website yet, but I will be one of the authors participating in Word on the Street in Lethbridge, Alberta 25 September 2011.

Word on the Street is a national celebration of reading and advocating literacy. It`s held in cities across Canada every September.Other Word on the Street Festivals will be held in Vancouver,B.C., Saskatoon,Sask., Kitchener, Ont., Toronto, Ont., and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Lethbridge is the only Word on the Street location in Alberta this year. Come on down!

Part III of my inteview: Don`t blame the Progressives. Everybody (except the disadvantaged loved eugenics!)

Part Three of my interview with Denyse O'Leary is up. The people who blame eugenics on a progressive ideas and social programs are going to hate what I say here:

"It`s not our progressive heritage that made the eugenics scandal possible. It`s the dark side of populism. The self-righteous pack mentality, that allows the grassroots to demand that the rights of the socially, morally or economically defective be violated by the government. Or that turns its back when it sees these rights violated.That mindset made the Sexual Sterilization Act a political necessity under the UFA and the Social Credit administrations. It allowed it to exist for forty years. It also made racial segregation and forced sterilization of defectives and `criminals`thrive in the United States for decades. And it turned a blind eye when Hitler disbanded the German Parliament and began his holocaust of innocents.``

Ahh, well, the anti-progressive types who want to remake Alberta into Texas north didn`t like me much, anyway, before I said this. So, I won`t feel much of a loss. Oh and they will absolutely hate this:

``But apparently, we still aren`t supposed mention the fact that most churches and respectable businessmen and women endorsed forced sterilization for reasons as varied as morality to the costs of housing the mentality ill. Worse yet, some national columnists keep insisting that it was only the CCF and the atheists who supported eugenics in Canada. Rubbish.``

Key Quotes from my latest media interview on eugenics

Denyse O'Leary took a big risk interviewing me for her blog. For one thing, many of her ID and faith based audiences won't like what I have to say about who supported eugenics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: "Eugenics was widely accepted by the business, academic, medical and political establishment. Preachers – in evangelical and mainline churches – even preached it from the pulpit." Nor will their opponents: "You can believe something, insist it’s scientific and proven, and be totally wrong. Atheists and religious people are equally vulnerable to this error."

Many more won't like what I tell Denyse her about the political culture in Alberta: "Well, I think it’s the mindset that Albertans have – that we’re pretty much on the side of right. And we have this terrible poverty mentality hanging on from the pre-oil industry days. The big cars, big houses, and rampant materialism are just symptoms of the fact that we “never want to be the poor men and women of Confederation again.”

Still more of the province's political and business hacks will gag on what I say about the the province's failed attempt to use the notwithstanding clause in the Canada Act to prevent the victims of the Alberta Eugenics board from getting compensation in the 1990's:"God help anyone who threatens to take any of it away in a lawsuit. We certainly don`t want to look at the dark side of populism—the pack mentality that overrides the opinions and rights of your political opponents and of the weak."

Part Three will be posted soon. Stay tuned.

Exploring the Vision of Canada through Alberta's Universities, Colleges & Technical Schools

My article, "Globalization Hits Home on Campuses Across Alberta", which includes this sidebar, "Long-Distance Dividends", is out in Alberta Venture's April 2011 Issue. Enjoy!

"New Light on Alberta's Dark Past" in Calgary Herald

Eugenics and the Firewall was profiled by Eric Volmers in “New Light on Alberta’s Dark Past” in the Calgary Herald yesterday. This article also appeared in the Regina Leader Post online and Canada.com network.

My column: Christian Herald Prison Minstry Insert

The March 2011 Christian Herald, distributed in Ontario’s GTA region, includes an insert which deals with solutions to Canadian prison issues, including restorative justice. My column “Transforming Canadian Prisons:Canadian Christian Heritage” highlights the work of three great Canadians who happened to be people of strong Christian faith –George Brown, John Diefenbaker, and Agnes McPhail –and puts the lie to the media and political myth that ‘the American style Christian Right’ or a tough on ‘crime agenda’ has anything to do with Evangelical (Protestant, Catholic or Anglican Canadian) doctrine in Canada. The visions of Father of Confederation, George Brown, Prime Minister Diefenbaker, and Canada’s first female Member of Parliament, Agnes McPhail, were anything but ‘tough on crime’ or ‘eye for an eye. ‘ Their goals were restoration and merciful justice.

In Honour of International Women's Day: Agnes McPhail

In honour of International Women's Day, I'm posting my column from the March 2011 Christian Herald, circulated throughout the GTA in Ontario. It's part of the prison ministries insert, which I will post a link to shortly.

Transforming Canadian Prisons:
Canadian Christian Heritage

By Jane Harris Zsovan

“Her life might have been much easier. But this was the path she chose—the craggy
course.”
Eulogy for Agnes Macphail, Canadian Prison Reformer

According to the media and a lot of right wing activists; good Christians,
especially evangelicals, should want tougher sentences and harsher treatment
of ‘criminals.’ But history just doesn’t bearup with that perception.
Canadian prison reformers - including Father of Confederation George Brown,
Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and Canada’s first female Member of Parliament,
Agnes Macphail -- have often been motivated by their Christian faith.
John George Diefenbaker’s interest in the rights of prisoners and the accused
began when he was a defence lawyer. Convinced that innocent men were executed
and that the Crown won too many of its cases, the Evangelical Christian lawyer
became a staunch defender of presumption of innocence and protecting the
rights of the accused. His commitment to equity under the law led to the creation of
the Canadian Bill of Rights, and spurred his participation in the crusade to end of
capital punishment in Canada.
Diefenbaker followed the trail of 19th Century prison reformers including
Father of Confederation, George Brown. In 1848, Brown, a staunch Presbyterian,
was appointed Secretary to a Legislative Commission of Enquiry into prison conditions
at the Provincial Penitentiary at Kingston. His investigation found ample
evidence of cruelty and bad management and led to the firing of the prison warden.
Brown’s 1949 report condemned the “most frightful oppression – revolting inhumanity”
in the Kingston Penitentiary. His recommendations sound positively 21st
century: separating hardened criminals, first offenders, and juveniles; envisioning
rehabilitation and aftercare programs; and appointing of permanent, salaried prison
inspectors.
Nearly a century later, Agnes Macphail took up Brown’s crusade, turning his
recommendations into law. Elected Canada’s first female Member of Parliament in 1921, Macphail was a woman of faith. At 18, drawn to her Aunt’s and Uncle’s social conscience while she attended teacher’s college; she joined the joined their church, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. But she didn’t spend much time reading the Book of Mormon. Instead she spent hours reading and underlining passages in Old and the New Testaments. She was particularly fond of prophecies in the Book of Isaiah. Macphail eventually rejoined mainstream Christianity, attending
and teaching Sunday School at Don Mills United Church. She often prayed silently for guidance before votes in Parliament.
Macphail considered her political crusades for women’s rights, peace, religious
tolerance, farmer’s rights, social reform, and prisoner rights, to be a holy
mission against the corrupt and powerful interests she believed controlled mainstream
politics.
In 1929, she was appointed as Canada’s first woman delegate to the League
of Nations in Geneva. In 1932, became one of the founders of the Co-operative
Commonwealth Federation (CCF) by bringing the United Farmers of Ontario
into the party.
But it was her work – building on some of the recommendations George
Brown made nearly a century earlier – to end the suffering of prisoners and their
families that left the biggest mark on Canadian society. Like Brown she wanted
young offenders separated from hardened adult prisoners. She was horrified by
the fact that many prisoners were repeat offenders. She grieved at the plight of the
wives and children of inmates -- most of whom were left destitute while men were
imprisoned again and again. Just as Brown’s lobbying had led to the
1848 Commission of Enquiry, Macphail’s lobbying led the 1938 Royal Commission
that formed the basis of post World War II prison reform..
After losing her parliamentary seat in 1940, a family crisis prompted her to take
charge of raising her nieces and nephews.
She supported her new household by taking in boarders. During this period of
domestic responsibility, she remained on the executive of the Canadian Civil Liberties Union and the Canadian Association for Adult Education.
It was a short break from politics.
Representing the CCF, she became the first female Member of the Ontario Legislature
in 1943. Her riding was elected for York East. As an MPP, she fought to
improve provincial jails for women. Her work led to the founding of the Elizabeth
Fry Society of Toronto.
Fighting several illnesses during her later years, she retired in 1951. She died at
age 63, in 1954.

Lethbridge Signing News Release

MEDIA RELEASE:

Harris-Zsovan to Sign Copies of Eugenics and the Firewall at Chapters Lethbridge 12 March 2011

Release: 07 March 2011

LETHBRIDGE -- Lethbridge author Jane Harris-Zsovan, will sign copies of Eugenics and the Firewall: Canada's Nasty Little Secret at Chapters,701 Ist Avenue South, Lethbridge, Alberta, Saturday, March 12, 11:00am-5:30pm. The book is published J. Gordon Shillingford and Distributed by University of Toronto Press. J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing is primarily a literary publisher that publishes theatre, poetry, Canadian social history, politics, religion, true crime, and biography. Website: jgshillingford.com.

Jane Harris-Zsovan is a Canadian author and journalist based in Lethbridge, Alberta. She writes for national and regional periodicals about business, faith, politics, history and contemporary issues. Her books include Eugenics and the Firewall: Canada’s Nasty Little Secret and Stars Appearing: The Galts’ Vision of Canada.

It's a dirty little secret the heirs to Alberta’s populist legacy don’t want Canadians to talk about. In 1928, the non-partisan United Farmers of Alberta passed the first Sexual Sterilization Act. The UFA’s successor, the Social Credit Party, led by radio evangelist William Aberhart, and later by his protégé Ernest Manning, removed the need to obtain consent to sterilize “mental defectives” or Huntington’s Chorea patients with dementia.

Between 1928 and 1972 nearly three thousand citizens were sterilized, lied to, experimented on, and subjected to daily abuse at hands of provincial staff in Alberta.

Most Albertans have forgotten the victims whose names made headlines in the 1990s, and politicians and pundits have shown little empathy for the victims. Eugenics and the Firewall: Canada`s Nasty Little Secret sets the record straight.

“It`s a valuable addition to modern Canadian historical studies. I hope it comes to the attention of professors, so that it can be included in reading lists. One of the most important aspects, as you can tell from the review, is your inclusion of the modern debate on eugenic practices.” Ian Stewart, Writer, Book Reviewer for the Winnipeg Free Press.

``Difficult Subjects`` discusses Eugenics and the Firewall

Here is the link to "Difficult Subjects", written by Samantha Power, of VUE Weekly in Edmonton, Alberta Canada.

Eugenics and the Firewall is featured in this article: The difficult subject is Alberta's Eugenics Scandal. We're good Canadians here.

We don`t think it`s 'good manners' to talk about the skeletons in our closets. But we need to, sometimes, in order not to repeat our mistakes. That's why I wrote Eugenics and the Firewall: Canada's Nasty Little Secret. Samantha Power does a good job with this article, and a good job of explaining why I wrote Eugenics and the Firewall.