February 18, 2004 News e the other press © Canada’s Great Literary Awards: Finalists Announced Lisa Terepocki OP Contributor With prizes totaling a whopping $133,000, the Writer's Trust of Canada hosts its third annual Great Literary Awards in Toronto on March 3. The finalists for eight awards in Canadian fiction, non-fiction, and biography were announced earlier this month. One of Canada’s most celebrated literary events, writers, publishers, and supporters of the Writers’ Trust of Canada will gather together at Toronto's Arts and Letters Club to honor the top literary talent. This year’s finalists are from every corner of Canada, with notable repre- sentation from BC, Ontario, and Quebec. Besides the finalists’ range in geography, the extent in subjects cov- ered by authors is also impressive. Canada’s writers have been exploring everything from the lives of Mordecai Richler to a journey through lan- guages verging on extinction to a newborn's battle to survive a congen- ital heart defect. THE ROGERS WRITERS’ TRUST FICTION PRIZE ($15,000) Each runner-up receives $2,000. * Jacqueline Baker (Edmonton) for A Hard Witching & Other Stories, pub- lished by HarperFlamingo Canada/A Phyllis Bruce Book ¢ Gil Courtemanche (Montreal) for A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali, translat- ed by Patricia Claxton and published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada ¢ Barbara Gowdy (Toronto) for The Romantic, published by HarperFlamingo Canada ¢ Judith McCormack (Toronto) for The Rule of Last Clear Chance, pub- lished by the Porcupine’s Quill * Kevin Patterson (Salt Spring Island, BC) for Country of Cold, published by Vintage Canada THE PEARSON WRITERS’ TRUST NON-FICTION PRIZE ($15,000) Each runner-up receives $2,000. * Mark ‘Abley (Montreal) for Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages, published by Random House Canada ¢ J. Edward Chamberlin (Toronto) for If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground, published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada ¢ Brian Fawcett (Toronto) for Virtual Clearcut: Or, the Way Things Are in My Hometown, published by Thomas Allen Publishers ¢ Taras Grescoe (Montreal) for The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists, published by Macfarlane Walter & Ross/McClelland & Stewart ¢ Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle (Lunenburg, Nova Scotia) for Sahara: A Natural History, published by McClelland & Stewart THE DRAINIE-TAYLOR BIOG- RAPHY PRIZE ($10,000) ¢ Paul Adams (Tel Aviv, Israel) for Summer of the Heart: Saving Alexandre, published by Macfarlane Walter & Ross/McClelland & Stewart ¢ Kevin Bazzana (Brentwood Bay, British Columbia) for Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould, published by McClelland & Stewart ¢ Geoffrey Stevens (Cambridge, Ontario) for The Player: The Life and Times of Dalton Camp, published by Key Porter Books ¢ Joel Yanofsky (Montreal) for Mordecai & Me: An Appreciation of a Kind, published by Red Deer Press Other literary awards being pre- sented on March 3 include the Timothy Findley Award, going to a male writer in mid-career, and the Vicky Metcalf Award, which goes to a writer of children’s _ literature. Altogether at the ceremony, eight awards will be presented. The Writers’ Trust of Canada was created in 2001 by a group of anony- mous donors. The trust provides sup- port to writers in Canada, and is committed to enriching and strength- ening our literary heritage. Black History Month: A Time to Expand Your Horizons Ted Morrison OP Contributor Doubtless you've heard of the Victoria Cross—the _ highest honour of the British Commonwealth. The award goes to soldiers “For most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre- eminent act of valour or self-sacri- fice or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy.” It is most commonly awarded posthu- mously. But did you know that the first Canadian to win it was black? If you didn’t, no need to feel embarrassed. It’s just one of many unknown facts about the role black people have had in shaping Canada from a colony into a mod- ern world presence. William Hall (photo) was awarded the Victoria Cross during the siege of Lucknow in 1857, for manning a gun beneath the forti- fied city walls when all but one of his mates on the gun-crew had been killed. Each time the gun was fired, it rolled with the recoil into the deadly ground covered by riflemen defending the town, and had to be retrieved. Hall and his messmate, a young lieutenant, were among the few people who have ever received the Victoria Cross while standing upright to do so. Stories like Hall’s receive scant attention, even in actively multi- cultural Canada. Black History Week was first declared in the 1970's, and expanded to Black History Month in 1976. Yet, it was 1995 before Parliament gave the month official recognition. “Black History Month is an occasion to tell stories about our- selves, our communities, and our heritage,” said Minister of State for Multiculturalism and the Status of Women, the Honourable Jean Augustine. “These stories draw us closer together and help us understand each other better.” Another fact that Canadians don’t know—or choose to ignore—is that as part of the British and French — empires, Upper Canada had slaves (both black and white) until 1793. At that time, a new law came into many force stating that any slave enter- ing Canada of their own volition was free. However, this law did not free slaves already living in Canada: Due to this strange exemption, it was possible for a slave to enter Canada and become free, but find that their children were slaves until the age of 25! Not until the British Empire out- lawed slavery in 1833 would all slaves in Canada be free. The presence and absence of slavery as a Canadian institution played a pivotal role in Canada’s involvement in the US Civil War, and similarly, black citizens of Canada played their part in the emergence of the nation. Yet, the average Canadian knows little of this part of our common heritage. For example, do you know the name Mathieu Da Costa? He is believed to have arrived in 1604 with Samuel De Champlain’s party. Da Costa was a free man, and worked as an interpreter for the French, who were forging the path to the New World. How about this: Uncle Tom’s Cabin—Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famous cry against slavery (later bastardized as the saccharine Disney flick Song of the South), is a Canadian place. Reverand Josiah Henson, a fugitive slave who came up the Underground Railroad, built a home in Dresden, Ontario, and was declared a “Canadian of National Historic Significance.” Beecher Stowe’s novel was based on Henson's life experiences, and the book is considered to be influen- tial in turning the minds of North Americans against slavery. But the stories of black Canadians are not solely stories of slavery. They also include: *James Mink, a successful Toronto businessman, who ran stagecoach- es on the route to Kingston. * Harry Jerome, who ran a world- record teh-second 100-metre sprint and took home a bronze in the 1946 Olympics, as well as a gold medal at the 1966 Commonwealth games. * Portia White, legendary contral- http://www.otherpress.ca to singer from Truro, Nova Scotia. ¢ Mary Ann Shadd was the first female publisher in Canada, who published her paper, the Freeman, in 1853. ¢ BC Governor James Douglas who invited 800 black citizens, tired of San Francisco, to a new life on Vancouver Island in 1858. And what about the organizing influence of the Canadian Railway Porters? Their fight, which began in the late 1800's was a significant step not only for civil rights, but toward fair labour legislation for all Canadians. And black people, like Labour Hall-of-Famer Stanley G., Grizzle, powered it all. As we move into the Third Millennium, black Canadians continue to make their mark: Michael Lee-Chin presides over 12 billon dollars worth of assets as chairman of AIC Ltd, Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré is Quebec’s first Black judge, and Julius Alexander Isaac is the first black Canadian Chief Justice in the country. Canadians claim to be proud of their heritage, yet the formative influence of black citizens remains unknown, and the very presence of black people (nearly 700,000 of them) is still an issue for some. Only last year, the Ethnic Diversity Survey found that 49 percent of black Canadians said that they had experienced hostili- ty or some form of unfair treat- ment within the past five years. Many black Canadian citizens of merit are entirely unknown to the population at large. Clearly, we still have a way to go. Why not spend ten minutes expanding your knowledge of your history at: , the official site for Black History Month; , a site on ten prominent — black Canadians; and , Stanley Grizzle’s Bio. Page 5