Academic conferences don't usually muster public attention, but in 2009 the organizers of the blandly titled Israel/Palestine: Mapping Models of Statehood and Paths to Peace found themselves at the center of a media shit storm fuelled by the hysterical rhetoric of pro-Israel community groups and their supporters in the media. This reaction culminated in an unprecedented move by Conservative Minister of State Gary Goodyear to threaten the funding of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) -- an arms-length agency created by an act of parliament -- if it did not commit itself to a review of the funding it had already awarded by an independent peer-review process.

Kathleen is about to be 'deported' after spending the six-month allotted time for foreigners in the United Kingdom. But she doesn't want to leave, and worse, doesn't know where to go or what to do. She certainly can't go back to the unsatisfactory existence she left behind in Canada.

In this excerpt from Lost and Found in London Kathleen's chance encounter with a stranger brings about unexpected change and self-reflection at a time of crisis.

It was one of those life-changing encounters that could so easily have been missed. All it took was the lift doors not doing what they were supposed to do -- stay closed.

Call me an anarchist, but I think everyone should get an equal voice. And that's one of the first things that endeared me to Whose Streets?

I love that editors Tom Malleson and David Washsmuth made the democratic and risky decision to include a broad spectrum of opinions in their book, to the point where two different authors and opinions on the subject have tiny battles of wit between the pages.

Necessary -- though not necessarily pretty -- topics and opinions (for example, the spectre of Diversity of Tactics and the role of unions) are raised in Whose Streets?, but without the hot anger they elicited during the G20 Summit itself.

Trans bodies should come with an owner's manual.

That thought was likely the inspiration for Freeing Ourselves: A Guide to Health and Self Love for Brown Bois, an introspective health-focused guidebook by The Brown Boi Project, a collective of contributors committed to compiling that manual capably and in an engaging way. The Brown Boi Project describe themselves as a community of masculine of center womyn, men, two-spirit people, transmen and allies "who are committed to transforming our privilege of masculinity, gender and race into tools for achieving Racial and Gender Justice."

Fearmonger: Stephen Harper's Tough On Crime Agenda
by Paula Mallea (Lorimer 2011; $24.95)

It's a rare event in the Canadian publishing world when non-fiction books line up in sync with current events, but these two titles are perfectly timed as Canadians consider the serious consequences of the Harper government's dramatic omnibus crime bill, one that will radically alter an already deteriorating judicial system.

The strength of Community Organizing: A Holistic Approach comes from Joan Kuyek's perspective, informed by over 40 years of organizing. Initially intended as an update of Fighting For Hope: Organizing to Realize Our Dreams, which Kuyek wrote in 1990, it has instead become a book that reflects both the changes in the world and Kuyek's learning over the last two decades.