Filled with original documents and vintage illustrations, this history chronicles the lives of the Hart family--a Jewish family who settled in predominantly Catholic Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, in 1761. Following Aaron Hart and his descendants for a century, this account not only bares the Jewish struggle for equality and freedom, but also delineates the contributions made by the various family members--including the passing of the Jewish Emancipation Act in 1832 and the creation of the Hart Memorial Trophy for the National Hockey League's Most Valuable Player. A fascinating and comprehensive read, this book breaks new ground in its examination of the Jewish experience in North America.

In the summer of 1760, ten months after the fall of Quebec City, British forces under the command of General Amherst were converging on Montreal, which would capitulate to the British by early September. Somehow Amherst had managed to break the complex network of French-Native alliances on which New France relied. In this study, historian Denis Vaugeois shows how a simple "safe-conduct" that allowed the Huron of Lorette to return to their village near Quebec was, 230 years later, given the force and significance of a treaty in the Supreme Court of Canada's 1990 Sioui decision. Vaugeois sets the context by reviewing the important events of the Seven Years War and then examines the train of events between the fall of Quebec and that of Montreal in detail. He looks at the same events from three different perspectives - as empirical facts, in their legal interpretation, and as the subject of debates by historians. The result is a detective story with unexpected twists and surprising revelations. It also sheds light on how, since the 1982 patriation of the constitution, Canadian courts have become a formidable tool for Natives in asserting their rights. It examines the extent to which this creates two categories of citizen and poses a threat to the foundations of Canadian society.