Join us for The Age of Persecution

Octopus Books presents three perspectives on torture in our time, hosted by CBC’s Adrian Harewood on Saturday, January 31^st at 7:00 p.m. in Room A of Library and Archives Canada (395 Wellington).

Hope and Despair is the inspiring story of Monia Mazigh’s courageous fight to free her husband, Maher Arar, from a Syrian jail.

This is a remarkable story of personal courage, and of an extraordinary woman who lets us into her life so that other Canadians can understand the denial of rights and the discarding of human rights her family suffered.

Kerry Pither has worked as a human rights and civil liberties advocate for almost twenty years on a wide range of local, regional, national and international issues. She is the author of Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror, which chronicles the shocking story of how four Canadian men experienced similarly devastating ordeals. One of these men, Ahmad El Maati, says that despite everything that’s happened, “I always remember that we are the lucky ones. Since 9/11 so many others have just disappeared, or are still in secret prisons, with no right to ask questions. At least we have the right to ask questions about why this happened. At least we might get answers.”

Alan Cumyn is the author of the novel Man of Bone and its sequel Burridge Unbound, which tell the story of the kidnapping of a Canadian diplomat abroad and his subsequent struggles after surviving the terrifying ordeal and returning home. Cumyn spent eight years writing on international human rights issues for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

Admission is free.

Please join us for an evening of discussion with these three local writers for the first event of many celebrating Octopus Books 40^th anniversary. We are proud of our history as a progressive independent bookstore and our commitment to providing books on social justice issues and supporting community initiatives since 1969.