A bold book of rage, hope, and challenge exposing how the political decisions of the 1980s continue to haunt us today.

In Dangerous Memory, renowned politician, author, and musician Charlie Angus undertakes a major rethink of the cultural and political shifts of the 1980s, an era that unleashed an unprecedented looting of the economy, the environment, and the common good that continues to haunt us today.

Expertly weaving his story within the larger narrative of the times, Angus elucidates such key events as the Chernobyl disaster, the Digital Revolution, the AIDS epidemic, the fight against South African apartheid, the rise of neoliberalism, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

But the 1980s was also a time of resistance, creativity, and hope. In a world that stood on the brink of global nuclear annihilation, millions of people stepped up to save the planet and fight for human rights. As an idealistic eighteen-year-old, Charlie Angus quit school to play in a punk band and work with the homeless. Planting the seeds of change, he now challenges us to take action to confront widespread injustice and systemic inequity to create a better world.

Finalist for the 2023 Trillium Book Award

The world is desperate for cobalt. It drives the proliferation of digital and clean technologies. But this demon metal has a horrific present and a troubled history.

The modern search for cobalt has brought investors back to a small town in Northern Canada, a place called Cobalt. Like the demon metal, this town has a dark and turbulent history.

The tale of the early-twentieth-century mining rush at Cobalt has been told as a settler's adventure, but Indigenous people had already been trading in metals from the region for two thousand years. And the events that happened here -- the theft of Indigenous lands, the exploitation of a multicultural workforce, and the destruction of the natural environment -- established a template for resource extraction that has been exported around the world.

Charlie Angus reframes the complex and intersectional history of Cobalt within a broader international frame -- from the conquistadores to the Western gold rush to the struggles in the Democratic Republic of Congo today. He demonstrates how Cobalt set Canada on its path to become the world's dominant mining superpower.

In this new edition of Charlie Angus's award-winning and bestselling book, he brings us up-to-date on the unrelenting epidemic of youth suicides in Indigenous communities, the Thunder Bay inquiry into the shocking deaths of young people there, the powerful impact of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report, and how the Trudeau government's commitment to Indigenous communities continues to be stymied by decades-old policy roadblocks.

On the heels of Idle No More and the TRC, Angus says that the push for equity in education, health, and infrastructure will continue to be led by a mobilized Indigenous grassroots that cannot be ignored.

For twenty-two years politicians and businessmen pushed for the Adams Mine landfill as a solution to Ontario?'s garbage disposal crisis. This plan to dump millions of tonnes of waste into the fractured pits of the Adams Mine prompted five separate civil resistance campaigns by a rural region of 35,000 in Northern Ontario. Unlikely Radicals traces the compelling history of the First Nations people and farmers, environmentalists and miners, retirees and volunteers, Anglophones and Francophones who stood side by side to defend their community with mass demonstrations, blockades, and non-violent resistance.

Children of the Broken Treaty exposes a system of apartheid in Canada that led to the largest youth-driven human rights movement in the country's history. The movement was inspired by Shannen Koostachin, a young Cree woman whom George Stroumboulopoulos named as one of five teenage girls who kicked ass in history.

All Shannen wanted was a decent education. She found an ally in Charlie Angus, who had no idea she was going to change his life and inspire others to change the country.

Based on extensive documentation assembled from Freedom of Information requests, Angus establishes a dark, unbroken line that extends from the policies of John A. Macdonald to the government of today. He provides chilling insight into how Canada--through breaches of treaties, broken promises, and callous neglect--deliberately denied First Nations children their basic human rights.

Headframes dominate the landscape of mining communities in Northeastern Ontario and Northwestern Quebec. Distinctive structures built to house the apparatus at the head of the mine shaft, headframes tower above their surroundings, reminding every resident that without the mine, there would be no reason for their settlement to exist.
For the past several years, photographer Louie Palu and writer Charlie Angus have been documenting historic mining sites in the north. Many of these have since been erased from the landscape.
Co-produced with Prise de parole.

Based on in-depth oral interviews with local residents, and rich archival sources, We Lived A Life and Then Some relates the common person's struggle to overcome harsh working conditions and government neglect. The unique culture of the hardrock mining town of Cobalt is exposed through the eyes of retired miners, young welfare mothers, and grade-school children. Angus and Griffin reveal why, in spite of great adversity, Cobalt remains a distinctive and cohesive working-class community.