Book Review: How Did We Get Into This Mess?

From the Catalyst, Summer 2017

How Did We Get Into This Mess?: Politics, Equality, Nature

By George Monbiot

Verso Press, 2016

Reviewed by Joe Gunn

George Monbiot is a maddening writer.

He baits the reader, starting off each of the 50 short essays in this book with a totally outrageous proposition. Then the long-time columnist for the Guardian newspaper describes some unthinkably brutish environmental injustice, military madness, political skullduggery, or economic corruption. And finally he stuffs right into our faces the shame at how we never guessed this could be happening today, under our unsuspecting noses.

Book Review: The Lightless Sky

From the Catalyst, Summer 2017

The Lightless Sky: A Twelve-Year-Old Refugee’s Harrowing Escape from Afghanistan and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half the World

By Gulwali Passarlay

HarperOne, 2016

Reviewed by Bolu Coker

The Lightless Sky is an inspiring personal account of a twelve-year old boy’s journey to safety from Afghanistan to Europe. Gulwali Passarlay tells a story that brings to life the precarity of refugees’ living conditions on their journeys to refuge.

Fearing the Taliban, Passarlay’s mother arranges for him and his brother to be smuggled out of the country. The brothers are separated early on, leaving Passarlay at the mercies of smugglers and other refugees he encounters along the way. Upon hearing of his brother’s arrival in England, Passarlay defies all odds— smugglers’ extortion, multiple imprisonments, and even a near-death experience— to be reunited with his brother.

Book Review: The Vimy Trap

Parliament of Canada

From the Catalyst, Summer 2017

The Vimy Trap, or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War

By Ian McKay and Jamie Swift

Between the Lines, 2016

Reviewed by Debbie Grisdale

April 9, 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge where 3,598 Canadians died and 7,000 were wounded, with an estimated 20,000 casualties on the German side.

In this timely book , MacKay and Swift focus on the evolution, over the past century, of the remembrance of WWI, and in particular the battle for Vimy. Canada has moved from seeing it as a battle in a horrific, pointless, and costly war to a romantic myth that Vimy in some way represented the “birth of our nation.”

A Half Welcome for Refugees

A Half Welcome for Refugees

By Rose Dekker on July 21, 2017

Imagine that you are a member of a church that was so moved by the refugee crisis in Syria that you decided to sponsor a Syrian family. Imagine further that the family you sponsored was not among the first 25,000 to come to Canada after the Liberal government won a majority mandate, and that family ended up waiting four or six months to arrive in Canada rather than the mere days or weeks of the earlier families.

It doesn’t take much imagination because this is what happened after February 2016. 

Energy Poverty Requires Creative Solutions

Energy Poverty Requires Creative Solutions

Energy poverty in Canada is not new. I can recall stories from my relatives about winters in their childhood, waking up to thick frost on the inside of their windows and heating bricks in wood stoves to keep their beds warm. That was a while ago, though not that long.

While sufficient and reliable energy use is more common in Canada now, not everyone can access or afford the energy that many of us take for granted.

Infographic: Not all oil is created equal

Infographic: Not all oil is created equal

The oil and gas sector produces more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than any other sector of the Canadian economy. Even without considering their end use for things like heating fuels or gasoline, the extraction, transportation, and refining of oil and gas contributes more than a quarter of Canada’s total emissions.

Beyond the volume of these emissions, we must also consider their carbon intensity – that is, the GHGs emitted for each unit of oil or gas produced.

On Canada’s 150th, What’s Next for Alberta’s Oil Sands?

On Canada’s 150th, What’s Next for Alberta’s Oil Sands?

By Kerry Oxford on July 4, 2017

As Canada marks 150 years since Confederation, I find myself reflecting on Alberta’s role in the Canadian economy as an engine. The past few years have been critical to our development and deepening understanding of who we are as Albertans. I am grateful for the opportunities afforded me living in a strong economy. And I am hopeful that our next 150 years will not only be economically strong, but more principled as well.