Archives for February 2011

Friends of the East Gwillimbury Library

The Friends of the East Gwillimbury Library present an Author Night with Nino Ricci. Thursday, February 17th, 2011 at 7:30 PM in the Town Council Chambers in Sharon, located a few minutes from the north end of Highway 404 near Newmarket (about an hour from downtown Toronto). Organized in co-operation with the East Gwillimbury Public Library and the Town of East Gwillimbury. Proceeds go to the library.

Past author events have featured Helen Humphreys, Wayson Choy, Peter Robinson, John Bemrose, Judy Fong Bates, Andrew Pyper, Paul Quarrington, Catherine Bush, George Elliott Clarke, Giles Blunt, Wayne Johnston, Alissa York, Joseph Boyden, David Bergen, Maureen Jennings, Catherine Gildiner, M. G. Vassanji, and Anne Michaels.

The program will include a reading and talk by Nino Ricci followed by a question and answer session and a reception and book signing.

For more information contact Marie Coulter, Chair Events Committee, Friends of the East Gwillimbury Library, at 905-478-2407 or k.coulter@sympatico.ca.

Canadian Writers Speak Out on Copyright

The Writers’ Union of Canada, under the leadership of its Chair Alan Cumyn, has put together a video about the perils of Bill C-32, Canada’s controversial new copyright bill. Check it out right here, or on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qrcNksj5DE

Then help spread the word about it by whatever social networking means you are most comfortable with. Blog about it. Include the link in your emails. Send out a tweet. Alert your Facebook friends. Pick up the telephone. Or just knock on your neighbour’s door and have a chat.

For more information on C-32, check out the Canadian cultural industries’ Joint Statement on Bill C-32, supported by nearly 90 organizations representing more than 600,000 creators and copyright owners. Then let your elected representatives in Ottawa know your own feelings about C-32, including the members of the Special Legislative Committee on C-32 that is currently holding hearings regarding amendments to the existing bill. You can find email addresses for all MPs at www.parl.gc.ca, but here are a few to get you started.

Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)

Rachel Curran: rachel.curran@pmo-cpm.gc.ca
Sean Speer: sean.speer@pmo-cpm.gc.ca

Department of Canadian Heritage

James Moore, Minister: moore.j@parl.gc.ca (CONS Port Moody – Westwood – Port Coquitlam BC)
Brendan Marshall, Executive Assistant to the Minister: brendan.marshall@pch.gc.ca

Department of Industry

Tony Clement, Minister: clement.t@parl.gc.ca (CONS Parry Sound – Muskoka, ONT)

Special Legislative Committee on C-32:

Gordon Brown, Chair: brown.g@parl.gc.ca (CONS Leeds – Grenville)
Charlie Angus: angus.c@parl.gc.ca (NDP Timmins – James Bay ONT – NDP Critic for Heritage and for Digital Issues)
Pablo Rodriguez: rodrigues.p@parl.gc.ca (LIB Honoré – Mercier QUE)
Mike Lake: lake.m@parl.gc.ca (CONS Edmonton – Mill Woods – Beaumont ALTA – Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister)
Dan McTeague: mcteague.d@parl.gc.ca (LIB Scarborough – Guildwood ONT)
Serge Cardin: cardin.s@parl.gc.ca (BQ Sherbrooke)
Ed Fast: fast.e@parl.gc.ca (CONS Prince Edward – Hastings)
Sylvie Boucher: boucher.s@parl.gc.ca (CONS Beauport – Limoilou)
Dean Del Mastro: delmastro.d@parl.gc.ca (CONS Peterborough ONT)
Peter Braid: braid.p@parl.gc.ca (CONS Kitchener – Waterloo)
Carole Lavallée: lavallee.c@parl.gc.ca (BQ Saint-Bruno – Saint-Hubert QUE)
Marc Garneau: garneau.m@parl.gc.ca (LIB Westmount – Ville-Marie QUE – LIB Critic for Industry, Science and Technology)

Reading for the love of it

Nino Ricci joins Wayson Choy, Lawrence Hill, Jian Gomeshi, and many others at Reading for the love of it 2011, the 35th Annual Language Arts Conference.

Thursday & Friday, February 10th & 11th, 2011, at Toronto’s Sheraton Centre, 123 Queen Street West, Toronto

Don’t Be Afraid

Look for Steven Hayward’s new novel Don’t Be Afraid, published this month by Knopf Canada to rave reviews.

Born and raised in Toronto, Hayward currently teaches creative writing at Colorado College in Colorado Springs and is s frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail and the Literary Review of Canada. His first novel, The Secret Mitzvah of Lucio Burke, won Italy’s prestigious Premio Grinzane Cavour prize.

Read the Globe and Mail review of Don’t Be Afraid.
Read the National Post review of Don’t Be Afraid.

My Life as an Entrepreneur

Catch the audiocast of Nino Ricci’s true life tale of intrigue, illicit narcotics, and capitalist tendencies, “My Life as an Entrepreneur,” part of CBC Books’ stranger than fiction series.

Just don’t tell Nino’s parents.

First heard on CBC’s The Sunday Edition.