Best Canadian Essays: 1990

Elizabeth St. Jacques is a writer and poet living in Sault Ste. Marie,
Ontario.

Poet and writer Fetherling presents a second collection of “newspaper-
and magazine-writing that goes beyond mere news and the simple relaying
of information”—all written by well-known and lesser-known Canadian
authors, and selected from various publications. Because the subjects
range from very serious to lightly humorous, and the span from a few to
29 pages, something here is bound to interest, give cause for
reflection, or amuse. For example, Toronto journalist Erna Paris’s
“The Boat People: The Toronto Voyage” addresses the refugees’
difficulties—offering special insight into individual adjustments (or
lack thereof)—and allows for better understanding all around. Other
writers deal with the Free Trade debate, the prediction of the West
Coast earthquake days before it happened in October 1989, the Canadian
Security Intelligence Service, aids, and Alzheimer’s, to name a few.