I Am Ariel Sharon by Yara El-Ghadban is a timely novel that sheds light on the ongoing tragedy of the Palestinian people. Part 1 of this article describes how Canadian politics, institutions and media have responded to the Israel-Palestine conflict, providing context for my review of I Am Ariel … [Read more...]
About Rob Normey
Sorrowful Soliloquies: I Am Ariel Sharon (Part 2)
I Am Ariel Sharon by Yara El-Ghadban, is a timely novel that sheds light on the ongoing tragedy of the Palestinian people. Part 1 of this article described how Canadian politics, institutions and media have responded to the Israel-Palestine conflict, providing context for my review below of I Am … [Read more...]
Roger Casement: Hedgehog ahead of his time
Roger Casement, the subject of Jordan Goodman's The Devil and Mr. Casement, was a leader in the modern human rights movement. Roger Casement was a giant in the modern human rights movement that emerged in the twentieth century. Indeed, Casement courageously, and with great determination and skill, … [Read more...]
A Troubled Prosecutor on a Quest in Fujimori’s Peru
Santiago Roncagliolo's Red April offers a gripping and insightful look into the terrors in Peru in 2000, especially towards Indigenous peoples. Like Canada, Peru has a long and troubled colonial relationship with its Indigenous peoples. Today, Canada is making strides in the vital process of … [Read more...]
Just Who Are the Real Criminals of New York: Reflections on Bellow’s Mr. Sammler’s Planet
Mr. Sammler's Planet follows its one-eyed protagonist's travels around New York City and comments on American society circa 1969. Alice Munro is not the only Canadian-born writer who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. So too did Saul Bellow, born in 1915 in Lachine (then a town outside … [Read more...]
Stateless but Not Powerless
A novel of Kurdish resistance and the quandary of human rights in our time The most compelling new novel I read in 2020 is Daughters of Smoke and Fire from debut Kurdish-Canadian novelist Ava Homa. This dynamic advocacy piece for Kurds and women’s rights in the Middle East was also the inaugural … [Read more...]
Two Human Rights Heroes
The year 2020 has been a time of great rupture and adversity. Around the globe, we have seen the rise of a large number of authoritarian, hard-right rulers who have demonstrated contempt for democratic values. Their actions have seriously undermined the fundamental rights of their own citizens, and … [Read more...]
Richard Wright’s Native Son: Dread in Chicago’s desolate South Side
As I write, impassioned protests in Kenosha and elsewhere attest to the anguish experienced by many Americans at the racialized violence meted out to African Americans. The incomprehensible shooting in the back of Jacob Blake, father of three, by a white police officer is the latest in a string of … [Read more...]
The Rise of the Digital Robber Barons: Is government up to the task at hand?
Given Canada’s history, we can anticipate that any plans for the federal government to use its “super powers” could erode our civil liberties. We must vigilantly protect fundamental rights and look to the courts to affirm, and in some instances extend, the reach of our Charter protections should … [Read more...]
1919 by John Dos Passos: A requiem for the defeated and outcasts
I have always intended to work my way through all three volumes of Dos Passos’ U.S.A. trilogy, published between 1930 and 1936 and clocking in at 1,300 pages. During today’s strange pandemic times, I have taken advantage of the opportunity to do so. And I can tell you that, while at times it was a … [Read more...]
