REMEMBRANCE AS RESISTANCE

Canadian Writers on War, Story, and the Choices That Shape Us

Remembrance as Resistance is a one-night literary event that brings Canada’s Second World War stories to life through the voices of writers who know how to captivate an audience. It is an evening of gripping storytelling about courage, fear, moral choices, and the consequences that echo across generations.

Anchored by the Toronto launch of The Resistance Daughter by acclaimed debut novelist Joanne Kormylo, the evening is rooted in her father’s experience as a Canadian bomber pilot shot down over the North Sea and held for almost three years as a prisoner of war. Kormylo’s novel blends meticulous research with deeply human narrative—an approach shaped in part through mentorship with bestselling novelist Robert Rotenberg, author of What We Buried and the Ari Greene legal-thriller series, known for fast-paced, character-driven fiction grounded in real-world detail.

They are joined by Maureen Jennings, beloved creator of the Murdoch Mysteries, and Bomb Girls, whose work has shown generations of Canadians that serious history can be explored with wit, warmth, and narrative drive, and Ellin Bessner, journalist and historian, whose book Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military and World War II, uncovers the powerful and often overlooked stories of Jewish Canadians who fought Nazism overseas while facing discrimination at home.

Together, these writers explore how well-told stories—grounded in archives, testimony, and lived experience—preserve memory and make history feel urgent rather than distant. In an age of misinformation, historical distortion, and the deliberate rewriting of the past, Remembrance as Resistance makes a vital case: when facts are eroded and complexity is flattened, storytelling rooted in evidence becomes a form of civic protection. Remembering is not passive. It is an act of discernment, empathy, and responsibility.

Rather than offering easy answers, the evening invites audiences into the human realities of the war: ordinary Canadians in extraordinary circumstances, difficult choices made under pressure, and the moral clarity—and contradictions—that continue to shape democratic societies today. And why we must not succumb to the historical amnesia facing us today.

The program includes a moderated panel, audience Q&A, and book sales and signings.

March 25, 2026 | Leah Posluns Theatre, Prosserman JCC | Toronto

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