Lecture by Professor Robert Williams: Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights and the Not-So-Special Case of Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group v. Canada before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission

Throughout the centuries, conquest, war, and unspeakable acts of racist violence and colonial dispossession have all been justified by citing Western civilization’s opposition to the differences represented by indigenous tribal peoples. Professor Robert Williams explores the history of the denial of indigenous peoples’ rights to lands and resources in the West from the time of ancient Greeks and Romans up through Canada’s 21st century treaty negotiations in BC.

Robert Williams, Jr., Professor of Law at the University of Arizona and member of the Lumbee Indian Tribe, is an internationally acclaimed expert on First Nations rights.  

Free admission. Seating is limited.
Co-sponsored by Lawyer's Rights Watch Canada.

For more information on Library events, visit http://www.vpl.ca/cgi-bin/Calendar/calendar.cgi

Join us for an evening with three award-winning authors. Colin McAdam reads from A Beautiful Truth, paulo de costa reads from The Green and Purple Skin of the World and Shyam Selvadurai reads from his latest, The Hungry Ghosts.

Told simultaneously from the perspectives of humans and chimpanzees, Colin McAdam’s A Beautiful Truth reveals the lure of belonging and the capacity for survival. This is a heartfelt story about parenthood and friendship, about the things we hold sacred as humans and the facts that link us to nature.

Colin McAdam’s novel Some Great Thing won the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award. His second novel, Fall, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and awarded the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennon Prize.

Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts is a beautifully written, dazzling story of family, wealth and the long reach of the past. It shows how racial, political and sexual differences can tear apart both a country and the human heart—not just once, but many times, until the ghosts are fed and freed.

Funny Boy, Selvadurai’s first novel, was a national bestseller, and won the W. H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award, The Lambda Literary Award, and was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association.

paulo da costa’s The Green and Purple Skin of the World gets under your skin, bruises your consciousness with it’s exploration of the forces that hold us together, not always benignly, and those that pull us apart. de costa’s stories dazzle and beguile: with their craft, their often dark humour, their grasp of people living the extremity that is daily life.

A writer, editor, and translator living on the West Coast, paolo’s first book of fiction, The Scent of a Lie, received the 2003 Commonwealth First Book Prize for the Canada-Caribbean region and the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize.

Free admission. Seating is limited.
Co-sponsored by Vancouver Writers Fest, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca

For more information about Library events, visit http://www.vpl.ca

Please join theoretical physicist Lee Smolin as he discusses his latest book, Time Reborn, a radical new approach to cosmology that embraces the reality of time and opens up a whole new universe of possibilities. There are a few ideas that, like our notion of time, shape our thinking about literally everything, with major implications for physics and beyond – from climate change to the economic crisis. Smolin explains in lively and lucid prose how the true nature of time impacts our world.

Lee Smolin is a leading pioneer in the field of quantum gravity and cosmology. He is the author of more than 100 scientific papers and three popular books, Life of the Cosmos, Three Roads to Quantum Gravity and The Trouble with Physics.

Free admission. Seating is limited.
Co-sponsored by Vancouver Writers Fest, http://www.writersfest.bc.ca

For more information about Library events, visit http://www.vpl.ca

Come Volunteer with Us! The following volunteer opportunities are available:

Weekly Calling Volunteer – Friendly callers to  our membership to see how they are, and to see if they need anything and to tell them of upcoming events and programs. Time Commitment: 3-4 hours per week, 4 volunteers needed

Travel Host & Walking Club Volunteers – Working on a team of 4 volunteers to attend a 1 hour program meeting once a month to plan local trips to theatre, museums, art galleries, etc. and once a week walking club. Time Commitment: 4 hours a month, 6 volunteers needed

Reception Volunteer – Friendly, good on the phone and in greeting walk-in visitors, good intermediate computer skills: Word, Excel, Internet. Time Commitment: 4 hours a week

Support Group Facilitator – LGBT Seniors Gay & Straight Alliance - A multi-faceted role comprised of facilitating a Seniors Gay Straight Alliance group along with another facilitator, meeting with potential/existing group members, and preparing in advance for a one to three months social events calendar. Maintaining an active role in a cohesive, safe and fun social environment that allows individual group members to freely explore matters relating to their sexuality and to live their lives in confidence. To provide a social outlet for LGBT men and women.

For more information contact: Alexandra Haines, ahaines@411seniors.bc.ca

Thank you!

Maillardville’s francophone choir Les Échos du Pacifique perform : Elles s’appelaient Marie (« Their name was Marie »), a 16-movement suite by France Levasseur-Ouimet, première performance in BC. Conductor: Luke Mayba. Guest soloist: Marie-Josée Ouimet.

Elles s’appelaient Marie is more than a musical suite. It also includes a narrative recounting the life of a woman who marries a "Voyageur" and leaves Quebec at age 16 to live on an Albertan homestead at the turn of the 20th century. The suite was written to acknowledge and honour the often ignored contributions of those women whose day-to-day faith and perseverance built Western Canada's francophone communities. The suite's 16 movements are diverse and their style ranges from "gigue" to lullaby, from gossipers' quarrel to Midnight Mass. The production of this masterpiece will be a significant tribute to Maillardville and, for this occasion, the soloist Marie-Josée Ouimet will join us from Edmonton to interpret the role of "Marie".

Maillardville’s francophone choir Les Échos du Pacifique perform : Elles s’appelaient Marie (« Their name was Marie »), a 16-movement suite by France Levasseur-Ouimet, première performance in BC. Conductor: Luke Mayba. Guest soloist: Marie-Josée Ouimet.

Elles s’appelaient Marie is more than a musical suite. It also includes a narrative recounting the life of a woman who marries a "Voyageur" and leaves Quebec at age 16 to live on an Albertan homestead at the turn of the 20th century. The suite was written to acknowledge and honour the often ignored contributions of those women whose day-to-day faith and perseverance built Western Canada's francophone communities. The suite's 16 movements are diverse and their style ranges from "gigue" to lullaby, from gossipers' quarrel to Midnight Mass. The production of this masterpiece will be a significant tribute to Maillardville and, for this occasion, the soloist Marie-Josée Ouimet will join us from Edmonton to interpret the role of "Marie".