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CBC
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Former First Lady of Iceland Eliza Reid shares her life in books
Social Sharing Eliza Reid's journey began on a hobby farm in the Ottawa Valley, then after she fell in love, moved to Iceland where she started a family. But when her husband was voted president there, she suddenly became the First Lady of Iceland. This spring, she began yet another adventure with her debut murder mystery called Death on the Island. "I came from a journalism background and so writing nonfiction for my first full length book sort of was kind of a logical next step," she said. "And then I thought, I wonder if it's harder or easier to make the story and the people up. As it turns out, it's harder in my opinion. But I did want another challenge and I've always loved murder mysteries, sort of Golden Age style murder mysteries, and I thought I would just give it a shot." The novel is set in Vestmannaeyjar (the Westman Islands) during a diplomatic dinner party. When the deputy ambassador of Canada dies suddenly, her boss, the Canadian ambassador, is quickly thrown under suspicion, and his wife must figure out everyone's secrets to clear his name and save her crumbling marriage. Eliza came from a reading family — her father was an English professor and her brother is award-winning author Iain Reid — so books have always been a part of her life. She joined The Next Chapter host Antonio Michael Downing to talk about some of the books that have shaped and guided her. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie Reid's first pick is a literary classic by an author whose style she says had a huge impact on her as a reader and on her latest book. The book is a murder mystery set on a train where someone is stabbed overnight. Reid says:"It's an old classic murder mystery and I'm sure that it's the book that I've read the most. I've probably read it 50 times. And I think I first read it when I was 8 years old. Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl Her second pick is a memoir by celebrated chef and former New York Times food writer Ruth Reichl. The book chronicles her time spent as a New York Times food critic. "I like the memoir genre and I read a lot of different memoirs and memoirs of people — not necessarily famous people, but people who have had something interesting happen to them or have led an interesting life in some way," she said. Reid says:"I love that there's recipes in it, and it's actually probably one of the books that I give away as a gift most often. It's just fun, it's smart, it's a bit of escapism. I like it for lots of different reasons." Bloodhoof by Gerður Kristný Reid's next pick is one from her adopted Icelandic home. It's a minimalist retelling of an ancient Icelandic story of gods and giants taken from the Poetic Edda. "I've made Iceland my home for the past more than two decades. And Iceland has this long and rich literary heritage. Iceland's, the land of the sagas — it's a really literary focused society." Reid says:"I chose this one because I don't read a lot of poetry, to be honest. But I see the value in it, but I like the sort of feminist underpinnings of this and the way that it represents a different perspective on telling an older story." Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga In Seven Fallen Feathers, investigative journalist Tanya Talaga travels to Thunder Bay, Ont., to investigate the deaths of seven Indigenous teenagers: Jordan Wabasse, Kyle Morrisseau, Curran Strang, Robyn Harper, Paul Panacheese, Reggie Bushie and Jethro Anderson. Talaga looks at how their lives and untimely deaths can teach us about the injustice faced by Indigenous communities on a daily basis. Seven Fallen Feathers won the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize for nonfiction. Reid says:"I think when you narrow these huge problems down to these sort of specific stories, it really it lingers with you — both the prejudice that people had to tackle, the institutional issues that exist and really just the fact that this is something that we need to continue to talk about and, and face head on in Canada." Patriot: A Memoir by Alexei Navalny Patriot is the memoir by Alexei Navalny, the Russian dissident who had been barred from running for president and died in prison just over a year ago. Much of it was written while Navalny was imprisoned and he was able to smuggle the documents out to his collaborators. Reid says: "I put this on my list for two reasons. One, I think to illustrate that I think it's important for us to stay up to date on global current affairs, to stay up to date on what is happening. But secondly, because I listened to the audio version of this memoir and the first adjective I can think of to describe it, surprisingly, perhaps, was uplifting. As he writes, there are such wonderful moments where he never seems to doubt why he's doing this."
CBC
30-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Israel's provocative settlement response may force Canada to back up its words
The Israeli government's response to last week's unprecedented joint statement by Canada, France and the U.K. could hardly be clearer, says former Canadian ambassador to Israel Jon Allen, now a senior fellow at the University of Toronto's Munk School. "It's basically telling the world that we don't really care about what you think at this point in time," he told CBC News. "They really are thumbing their noses at the international community." Settlement expansion has accelerated ever since the arrival of the current government, Netanyahu's sixth, at the end of 2022. But Allen says the announcement of 22 new settlements — both through new construction and the formalization of existing settler outposts built outside the law — is a major escalation in a number of ways. "First of all, it's big in terms of the numbers. Secondly, it is legalizing what were deemed illegal settlements even in Israel by its Supreme Court," he said. "But more importantly, you're getting statements out of ministers which are basically saying the purpose of this is to prevent a two-state solution, while at the same time you've got activity in Gaza, which looks like Israel may be trying to occupy large parts of the Gaza Strip as well." The dramatic action, he said, is driven by a sense within the Israeli right that this is a now-or-never moment. "These ministers realize that their polling numbers are very bad and this is their last chance to try and significantly change things on the ground in Israel," he said. "And so they're really trying a last-ditch effort to kill the two-state solution." From jail cell to cabinet table While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given his full endorsement to the settlement plan, many Israelis believe that the strongest impetus for it comes from the country's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds key posts giving him control over the West Bank. Smotrich's role illustrates just how much mainstream politics in Israel has changed in the past two decades. In 2005, Smotrich was one of four radical settlers arrested by Israel's Shin Bet security service on suspicion of plotting violent attacks to prevent the evacuation of Israeli settlements in Gaza and the northern West Bank. He appeared in security court in handcuffs and a prison jumpsuit. Today, he is the number-two figure in the government and in a position to order the official re-establishment of settlements whose evacuation he once so radically opposed. Smotrich on May 19 boasted that "we are disassembling Gaza, and leaving it as piles of rubble with total destruction [that has] no precedent globally. And the world isn't stopping us." He said his own preference would be to cut off water as well as food, but that might lead other countries to intervene. He openly stated that the goal was to leave no Palestinians in Gaza. On May 25, he returned to the same theme. "We are being blessed with the opportunity, thank God, of seeing an expansion of the borders of the land of Israel, on all fronts," he said. "We are being blessed with the opportunity to blot out the seed of Amalek, a process which is intensifying." 'Loss of credibility' if Canada fails to act "We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank," wrote Prime Minister Mark Carney, Britain's Keir Starmer and France's Emmanuel Macron in their joint statement last week. "Israel must halt settlements, which are illegal, and undermine the viability of a Palestinian state and the security of both Israelis and Palestinians. We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions." Thomas Juneau, a former Canadian defence official who now teaches about the Middle East at the University of Ottawa's graduate school of public and international affairs, told CBC News that Israel's announcement leaves Canada with little choice but to back up its words. WATCH | WHO warns of famine in Gaza: Gaza's population faces starvation and famine, WHO warns 17 days ago Duration 2:01 The risk of famine and mass starvation is rising in Gaza, the World Health Organization warns. Palestinian health officials say dozens of children have died of malnutrition since March, the month Israel blocked all aid shipments. "It does put pressure on the Canadian government, but also on the French, British, German and other European governments in the sense that there was a clear position that was taken last week of threatening actions against Israel," Juneau said. "So if Canada and European players now do not do anything about 22 new settlements in the West Bank, there is a loss of credibility that would follow." Former ambassador Allen said Canada can't lay down a marker like the joint statement it signed onto last week, and then let such a provocative response pass without taking action. "I frankly don't think they will ignore this. I think those three governments were serious about what they were saying, and I expect sanctions to follow," he told CBC News. Sanctions should target ministers: Former ambassador Canada has already sanctioned a handful of extremist settlers, albeit reluctantly and only following actions taken by European allies. But those sanctions have had little practical effect. The sanctioned individuals have suffered few real inconveniences, treating the sanctions in some cases as a badge of honour. Although condemned many times by Western governments, the most extreme ministers in Netanyahu's cabinet have thus far avoided sanctions. Britain's David Cameron told the BBC he had been preparing sanctions for Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir prior to his government's election defeat. Ben Gvir is a rabble-rousing extremist who was also once a target for Shin Bet surveillance, but is now Israel's minister of national security. Allen says there would be little point in simply repeating ineffectual sanctions on individual settlers, when the settlement policy is clearly being driven from the top. "I thought that [the joint statement] was the strongest, most comprehensive announcement that I've ever seen out of the Canadian government. But if they were not to follow up, having issued a specific threat vis-a-vis settlements, then I think it would be a paper statement." Allen identified Smotrich, Ben Gvir and Defence Minister Israel Katz as the three cabinet members driving the most radical policies. "If I were advising them, I would advise them to sanction the ministers in question, all three of them," he told CBC News. "But we have to recognize that Prime Minister Netanyahu is the prime minister and he is allowing all of this to happen," he said. Netanyahu counting on Trump Juneau says that Netanyahu, at times like these, tends to rely on Israel's relationship with Washington. The Trump administration is the only government in the world that does not always regard Israel's West Bank settlements as inherently illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids a victorious party in war from transferring its own population into conquered territory, or forcing the civilian population that lives there to leave. "As much as there is a growing trend of European powers and Canada being irritated with Israel, that only matters at most in a secondary way in the calculus of the current Israeli government," Juneau said. U.S. President Donald Trump, who suggested expelling Gaza's population to turn the territory into a kind of international tourist riviera, is unlikely to react strongly to the settlement announcement, said Juneau. "But there are a lot of indications that the Trump administration is growing somewhat irritated with Israel." Signs include the fact that both Trump and Vice-President JD Vance have visited the Middle East without stopping in Israel, that Trump has clearly ignored Israeli wishes and objections in negotiations with both Iran and the Houthis of Yemen and persistent rumours that Trump is secretly negotiating some kind of grand bargain with Saudi Arabia without Israeli input. "All of that put together is causing anxiety in Israel," said Juneau. Canada will likely co-ordinate with allies Canada will likely want to co-ordinate its response with the British and French governments that co-signed last week's joint statement, say the two experts. "Where Canada can have a limited but real impact is when it acts with its allies, especially in Europe, but others, too: Australia, Japan, South Korea and a few others," said Juneau. "If there is a co-ordinated campaign, not only of sticks towards Israel, but also support to the Palestinian Authority and to the peace camp in Israel, then there can be an impact." This week, European countries that didn't sign the joint statement separately warned Israel that their patience was at an end. Italy's foreign minister said Israel's war in Gaza had taken on "absolutely dramatic and unacceptable forms" and "must stop immediately." Germany's conservative chancellor Friedrich Merz, long an unconditional supporter of Israel, said that "what the Israeli army is doing in the Gaza Strip, I no longer understand the goal, to harm the civilian population in such a way." For the first time, Germany threatened "consequences" if Israel did not change direction, and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Germany's days of "obligatory solidarity" with Israel were over. Juneau says that Canada has no choice but to demand respect for the two-state formula, and for international law. "If peace remains the objective, if security remains the objective, then there is no other alternative than coexistence between the Palestinian side and the Israeli side," he said.
