National security expert Dennis Molinaro reveals the shocking details of Beijing’s five-decades-long effort to influence and interfere in Canadian political life. From cultivating future political leaders at the end of the Cultural Revolution to the foreign-interference scandals that have shaken present-day Ottawa, this definitive book addresses one of the most urgent global issues of our time.
Amidst heightened tensions between Western nations and China, Canadians have found themselves astonished by hostage crises, cyberattacks, harassment of members of our government, and theft of intellectual property worth untold billions of dollars. Guided by Molinaro’s experience as a historian and China specialist, Under Assault focuses on the actions of the People’s Republic of China’s government and its governing party, the Chinese Communist Party, against Canada during the past fifty years.
We are excited to announce the 2026 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize Longlist!
Our jurors have selected these titles as the top ten books published this year on Canada, Canadians, or Canada’s place in the world. Pick up any of these books to learn more about a fascinating aspect of the country we call home.
We will share more about each of these fantastic titles before naming our shortlist on September 28th and our winner on October 13th.
Jean Friesen is a Canadian historian, now retired from the University of Manitoba where she was also the Provost of University College. She has written on issues of Indigenous and Treaty relations in the Canadian West and currently serves as a member of the Speakers Bureau of Manitoba’s Treaty Relations Commission. She was a founding Board Member of the Forks Renewal Corporation, chair of the Heritage Council of Manitoba, founder and editor of Manitoba History magazine, and Chair of the Manitoba Water Council.
Jean was elected to the Manitoba Legislature in 1990 to represent the constituency of Wolseley and served 2 terms in Opposition and 1 term in government as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Deputy Premier.
Dale Barbour is returning as a juror for the JW Dafoe Book Prize.
Dr. Dale Barbour, a graduate of the University of Manitoba/University of Winnipeg Joint Master’s Program, received his PhD in history from the University of Toronto in 2018. Barbour’s scholarship pulls together gender, leisure, urban, and environmental history approaches to examine how people find and create recreation spaces.
What are you looking for from the winning book?
I’m looking for a book that tells a Canadian story. Ideally, it’s revealing part of the Canadian experience that I haven’t heard before or that I desperately need to learn more about. And with a nod to John Dafoe, who very much saw Canada as a collection of regions working together, I like a book that reveals some of the regional stories that contribute to a national whole.
One of the joys of the Dafoe book prize is that we don’t just pick a winner. We also pick a long list, which gives us a chance to highlight different books telling a different story about Canada and collectively, I think, they give you a good sense of what’s happening in our country.
Why did you want to be a part of the JW Dafoe Book Prize Jury?
Serving on the Dafoe Book prize jury is a great way to stay engaged with the research and writing that’s happening in Canada, not just in history, which is my home field, but in political studies, Indigenous studies, and a wide range of other fields.
Why do you think it’s important to read and write about Canada’s place in the world?
It feels like we live in a world of social media noise and artificial intelligence slop. I think digging in and understanding who we are as Canadians, where we’ve been, and where we’re going it more important that ever. Reading and writing is a chance to define who we are and who we want to be.
Greg Mason is returning as a juror for the JW Dafoe Book Prize.
Appointed Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Manitoba in 1974, after completing graduate work at UBC, his initial research focused on transportation, housing and land use planning. His academic interests took a sharp turn in 1981, when he became Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research, which had a primary goal of rehabilitating the data from the Manitoba Basic Income Experiment (Mincome).
What are you looking for in the winning book?
It must reveal an important aspect and preferably not a well-known part of Canadian life and society. It also should be both accessible and sophisticated in style and content. Finally, it should appeal to that rare fictional character – the intelligent layperson.
Why did you want to be a part of the JW Dafoe Book Prize Jury?
How else am I going to read 60+ books of Canadian authors in 2 months? It also forces me to read physical books, which is a major relief from constantly peering at my phone and computer.
Why do you think it’s important to read and write about Canada’s place in the world?
Canadian authors are an important voice in this increasingly mad world.
All are welcome to join J.W. Dafoe Foundation and the University of Manitoba Press on November 17, 6:00 pm, at the Dalnavert Museum and Visitors’ Centre for a conversation with Gerald Friesen, author of The Honourable John Norquay: Indigenous Premier, Canadian Statesman.
Recounted here by Canadian historian Gerald Friesen, John Norquay’s life story ignites contemporary conversations around the nature of empire and Canada’s own imperial past. This masterful biography of the Premier from Red River sheds welcome light on a neglected historical figure and a tumultuous time for Canada and Manitoba.
Gerald Friesen taught Canadian history at the University of Manitoba from 1970–2011. He has written several books, including The Canadian Prairies: A History and Citizens and Nation, and is co-author of Immigrants in Prairie Cities. Former president of the Canadian Historical Association, he was an advisor on CBC-Radio Canada’s television series Canada: A People’s History.
In addition to the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize, The Honourable John Norquay has won a CLIO History Prize, Manitoba Day Award, and Margaret McWilliams Award.
Duff Roblin Professor of Government, University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities, and Department of Political Studies Present: 2025 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize winner Gerald Friesen!
All are welcome to join us on November 17, 11:30 – 1:00 pm, 108 Cross Common Room, in St. John’s College for lunch and conversation on The Honourable John Norquay: Indigenous Premier, Canadian Statesman.
Recounted here by Canadian historian Gerald Friesen, John Norquay’s life story ignites contemporary conversations around the nature of empire and Canada’s own imperial past. This masterful biography of the Premier from Red River sheds welcome light on a neglected historical figure and a tumultuous time for Canada and Manitoba.
Gerald Friesen taught Canadian history at the University of Manitoba from 1970–2011. He has written several books, including The Canadian Prairies: A History and Citizens and Nation, and is co-author of Immigrants in Prairie Cities. Former president of the Canadian Historical Association, he was an advisor on CBC-Radio Canada’s television series Canada: A People’s History.
In addition to the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize, The Honourable John Norquay has won a CLIO History Prize, Manitoba Day Award, and Margaret McWilliams Award.
The jury members of the 2025 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize — Dr. Dale Barbour, Dr. Gregory Mason, and Patricia Bovey — selected The Honourable John Norquay by Gerald Friesen as this year’s winner, but wanted to commend the shortlisted titles.
Mark Bourrie,Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia
Jean de Brébeuf has long haunted Canadian history. He was a Jesuit missionary serving in Huronia when the Haudenosaunee overwhelmed the territory in 1649, dispersed the Huron, and martyred Brébeuf. Bourrie’s contribution to that story is to give us a wonderful context for the historical period, the Jesuit community, and Brébeuf himself. We’re left with a sense of the flaws and ambitions of the Jesuits and the understanding that Brébeuf was exactly where he thought he should be in 1649.
Crystal Gail Fraser, By Strength, We are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories
Fraser takes us into the messy reality of Inuvik’s residential schools in the 1970s and 1980s. It describes how parents asserted control and pushed back against the attempts by the residential school system to bend Inuit families to adopt an alien way of life. This well-written book is an essential addition to the literature on residential schools.
Ken McGoogan,Shadows of Tyranny
This is a great read. Using short stories of many who oppose tyranny and dictatorship. McGoogan uses his historiographical lens to illustrate politicians, poets and others who fought for democracy. He starts and ends with Trump, and without proselytizing, he creates a case for how to defend democracy.
Jody Wilson-Raybouldand Roshan Danesh, Reconciling History: A Story of Canada
Think of Reconciling History: A Story of Canada as telling the history of Canadian colonialism in its own words. Wilson-Raybould and Danesh pull together a narrative of voices and quotes that walk us through the collision of cultures over the centuries and in so doing they demonstrate how colonial figures talked past and around Indigenous people as they layered Canada over North America and how Indigenous figures consistently spoke back, creating a counter-narrative that has too long been ignored.
The J.W. Dafoe Foundation is proud to announce that Gerald Friesen has won the $12,000 John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize for The Honourable John Norquay, published by the University of Manitoba Press!
Our jury described the winning title as: “Friesen’s writing is incredible. He has the ability to weave narrative and context together without overwhelming the reader. He drops us into the hybrid Red River valley culture of the nineteenth century and takes us on a journey as John Norquay attempts to manage the region’s transformation into a Canadian province. This outstanding biography reveals a man of high intelligence and dogged determination who participated in the forming of confederation.”
“Friesen has forced future histories of Manitoba and Canada to include Norquay as one the genuine founders of our country.”
The J.W. Dafoe Foundation thanks this year’s dedicated jury members, Dale Barbour, Gregory Mason, and Patricia Bovey, for their service to the J.W. Dafoe Foundation and their selection of The Honourable John Norquay for the 2025 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize.
The J.W. Dafoe Book Prize, worth $12,000, will be formally awarded later this fall at the J.W. Dafoe Foundation’s Book Prize Event. Details to come soon.
The Prize is one of the richest book awards in Canada for excellence in non-fiction, with a focus on major subjects involving Canada, the West, and Canadians, as well as the Canadian nation in international affairs.
It memorializes John Wesley Dafoe, one of the most significant Canadian newspaper editors of the 20th century. During his tenure at the Manitoba Free Press, later renamed the Winnipeg Free Press, from 1901-1944, Dafoe was known for his advocacy of western development, free trade, national independence, and the British Commonwealth.
The Foundation’s activities also support a $10,000 fellowship for M.A. students pursuing studies in international relations, international conflict resolution, economics, history, law or politics at the University of Manitoba; a $1,000 writing award for Manitoba post-secondary students; the annual J.W. Dafoe Political Studies Students’ Conference (PSSC); a prize for student and community newspaper writers established in partnership with the Winnipeg Press Club; and a number of colloquia on Canada in international affairs.
The John Wesley Dafoe Foundation is once again pleased to receive submissions for its annual
Book Prize. The 2025 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize, valued at $12,000, will be awarded to a
publication with a 2024 imprint “. . . for distinguished writing by Canadians, or authors resident
in Canada, that contributes to the understanding of Canada, Canadians, and/or Canada’s place in
the world.” Co- or multiple authored books are eligible, but not edited books consisting of chapters
from many different authors.
A nominal submission fee of $50 per entry is required. To nominate a book(s), publishers and
individuals:
1) 2) Submit four copies of each book nominated;
Provide the appropriate submission fee ($50 per title) in cheque form payable to the J.W.
Dafoe Foundation;
3) Send books and fees to Dr. Andrea Rounce, Honorary Secretary, The J.W. Dafoe
Foundation, c/o 220 Dysart Road, Room 442 University College Building, University of
Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2M8;
4) Meet deadline of Monday December 16, 2024. Please note that late entries for books
published in the later months of 2024 will be accepted into early 2025, as long as we are
advised that they are being submitted; and
5) Send an email with the publisher’s contact information (name/email/phone number) and
the book title(s) being nominated to Dr. Andrea Rounce at andrea(dot)rounce(at)umanitoba(dot)ca
6) You will be notified when the title(s) submitted and payment have been received.
