The singer-songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins talks about touring Western Canada with Paula Cole (Vancouver, 29 October 2025, and Victoria, 30 October 2025), her new album Whaler: Re-Emerging, and writing music, with Joseph Planta.

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.  

Sophie B. Hawkins joins me now. The singer-songwriter is on tour through Western Canada with Paula Cole. They’re due into Vancouver Wednesday night, 29 October 2025 at the Playhouse, and Thursday, 30 October 2025 at Victoria’s McPherson Playhouse. Sophie joined me earlier this week from Brandon, Manitoba. I asked her about this tour, performing with Paula Cole, and her new album Whaler: Re-Emerging, which is a reimagined take on her iconic 1994 album. On the album she covers “As I Lay Me Down,” one of her bestselling records. I’ll ask her about writing that, and her other memorable music including the platinum-selling hit “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover.” Visit www.sophiebhawkins.com for more. And for tickets to Wednesday night’s show at the Playhouse, go to the Ticketmaster website. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Sophie B. Hawkins; Ms. Hawkins, good morning. 

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The former MLA, British Columbia’s first minister of mental health and addictions, and labour leader Judy Darcy discusses her memoir Leading from the Heart: The Battles of a Feminist, Union Leader and Politician (Douglas & McIntyre, 2025), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Leading from the Heart

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.  

Judy Darcy joins me now. Her memoir has just been published, Leading from the Heart: The Battles of a Feminist, Union Leader and Politician. It’s an engaging book about her life and careers. She was born in Denmark and immigrated to Canada as a young child. She recounts the stories of her parents, her mother and her father, who came to Canada with the traumas of their individual experiences during the Second World War. The hatred and violence they each encountered would go on to shape their children’s lives, and in Judy’s case, though she didn’t know all of it right away. As she unravels threads of her parents lives, we as readers see as the book unfolds, the characters of her parents are fully revealed. Though Judy’s mother took her own life nearly fifty years ago, the meaning of her life is something that Judy contends with and honours in the book. Even their family name was something that her father had changed. The book also chronicles Judy’s college life in the late 1960s, through her labour activism which culminated in her being president of Canada’s largest union, CUPE, the Canadian Union of Public Employees. When she moved to British Columbia later on, she led the Hospital Employees’ Union starting in 2003. She recounts in the book labour negotiations at the highest level, and reflects on the importance of labour unions today. The book also looks at moving into the world of politics. She was elected an NDP MLA in 2013, serving through to 2020 as British Columbia’s first minister of mental health and addictions. This new book is from Douglas & McIntyre. We spoke one week ago, with Judy joining me from New Westminster. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Judy Darcy; Ms. Darcy, good morning. 

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The author and journalist Rachel Phan discusses her memoir Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging (Douglas & McIntyre, 2025), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Restaurant Kid

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.  

One of the best books I’ve read this year is Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging by Rachel Phan. There’s a lot in the book. Rachel is born in Canada to Chinese-Vietnamese parents who had fled China during the Japanese occupation, and Vietnam during the American war, to come to Canada and open a restaurant in small town Ontario. Rachel has two older siblings, a sister and a brother, who have long, complicated relationships with the restaurant. Too many weekends spent at the restaurant that keep them away from their friends and extra circular activities. Rachel, as the baby is largely isolated from the hard work but nevertheless finds the restaurant taking up too much of her parent’s time that she finds that she doesn’t really know them. It’s hard work for her parents, and it provides for their family, but it’s also tenuous; the margins are thin, and the work is long and hard. In a way, Rachel raises herself from navigating what being a real Canadian might be, to sexuality. As the only Chinese girl at school, she alternates from being the sidekick, geek, or Asian fetish, depending on whose gaze was on her. Through the book, Ms. Phan, who joined me from Toronto two weeks ago, has to work through what she’s missing, what she wants, and what she’s needed from her family. She learns to appreciate the place the restaurant itself has in her upbringing. Rachel Phan is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Master of Journalism Program. Her work has appeared on the CBC, HuffPost, the National Post, and Maclean’s. You can find more at www.rachelphan.com. The book is published by Douglas & McIntyre. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Rachel Phan; Ms. Phan, good morning.

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The community historian and recent appointee to the Order of Canada Richard W. Hill Sr. discusses the new book he’s co-edited Behind the Bricks: The Life and Times of the Mohawk Institute, Canada’s Longest Running Residential School (University of Calgary Press, 2025), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Behind the Bricks

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

A new book provides insight into Canada’s oldest residential school, The Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario. One of the editors and contributors to the book, Richard W. Hill, Sr joins me now to talk about the history in the book, the often-harrowing accounts of students who were abused, and who witnessed abuse. The book is called Behind the Bricks: The Life and Times of the Mohawk Institute, Canada’s Longest Running Residential School. I’ll ask Mr. Hill about how the book came together, as it’s a big book, rich with insight about the history and context of the residential school system, the architecture itself, religion, the model there that was used in other residential schools across Canada, as well as the impact to the wider community, and the path towards truth and reconciliation. Rick Hill is a citizen of the Beaver Clan of the Tuscarora Nation of the Haudenosaunee, and is a community-based historian at Six Nations of Grand River. He was recently appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, who with Alison Norman, Thomas Reace, and Jennifer Pettit edited this book which is published by University of Calgary Press. The list of contributors to the book vary from Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, and from a variety of disciplines. We spoke in late September, with Mr. Hill joining me from Brantford. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Rick Hill; Mr. Hill, good morning.

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The author Brittany Penner discusses her bestselling memoir Children Like Us: A Metis Woman’s Memoir of Family, Identity and Walking Herself Home (Doubleday, 2025), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Children Like Us

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.  

One of the more compelling books of the year is the one from Brittany Penner, Children Like Us: A Métis Woman’s Memoir of Family, Identity and Walking Herself Home. I spoke to Dr. Penner two and a half weeks ago about the bestselling book. In the book, she talks about growing up in a Mennoite family, and the feelings she contended with growing up. By the time she was seven, she has loved and lost twenty-one foster siblings, who like her were all Indigenous. There’s a loneliness that she feels at a young age, that she works through the book identifying and dealing with. It’s a lot for a child to contend with, especially later, when she’s born in 1989, near the end of the Sixties Scoop, and she seeks her birth parents. The book is a marvelous exploration of family, identity and belonging. As the author seeks home, in all its forms, the reader is enveloped in a generosity and hope that might belie the tough subjects in the book. I’ll ask Brittany about racism, and not just in reaction to her writing, but through her life. Brittany Penner is an author and practicing physician. She is also a lecturer with the University of Manitoba Max Rady College of Medicine. She is currently completing a Master’s of Liberal Arts at Harvard. The book is published by Doubleday. She joined me from Winnipeg. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Brittany Penner; Dr. Penner, good morning.

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The author and psychologist Bill Koch discusses his debut novel Hired Gun: Uncovering Buried Secrets (FriesenPress, 2025), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Hired Gun

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca. 

Bill Koch joins me now. He’s recently published a novel, his first, Hired Gun: Uncovering Buried Secrets. The central character in the book David Lipman is a psychologist, who practices in Vancouver and lives part-time on Gabriola Island. Setting it close to home, makes it compelling reading as Bill sets the mood so well with descriptions of Downtown locales so evocatively, especially when he describes the weather. We taped this interview last month, in mid-September coming off several weeks, if not months where it was relatively dry. Starting the book as I did then, made me nostalgic for the grey, wet weather for which Vancouver is celebrated and derided. David is also contending with the recent death of his wife Katherine. This grief lives with him, as do some of the patients that he sees in his practice. Two patients in his care die, and in succession making the circumstances of their deaths even more intriguing. Part of David’s work is appearing in court as an expert witness. This all comes together as he’s pondering the ethical issues surrounding seeking the killer of his patients, as well as revealing something about his work. I’ll ask Bill to tell us as much as he’d like about this character of David, and the surrounding events in his life that make Hired Gun such a compelling read. I’m nearly halfway through the book, and it’s tough to put down. Bill Koch is a clinical professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine. In his career as a psychologist, he conducted research in anxiety disorders and trauma, and was a highly credentialed cognitive-behaviour therapist. In his career, he also investigated and adjudicated ethical violations for the College of Psychologists of British Columbia. All this naturally, informs the writing of this novel, and possibly other works that I’ll ask Bill about. The book is published by FriesenPress. Visit www.billkochwrites.com for more information. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Bill Koch; Dr. Koch, good morning. 

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The writer Russell Smith discusses his new novel Self Care (Biblioasis, 2025), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Self Care

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.  

Russell Smith’s new novel Self Care is described as an examination of women and men, self-loathing and twenty-first century loneliness. I spoke to Mr. Smith recently about the new book, and its characters. There’s Gloria, a writer for an online publication that might belie her education in creative writing or journalism. It’s a reflection of the current state of media, news consumption, and literacy perhaps. She’s navigating the dating scene making questionable choices like seeing married or random men on apps. She’s fascinated by a stranger, somebody younger than her named Daryn, who is a protesting immigration, and as she soon discovers, somebody part of the incel movement. This leads to inviting him back to her apartment and dominating him sexually. This is all heading into dangerous territory, and Gloria knows this, but proceeds. This tension is what drives the book, just as it reflects life in a big city, you know, it’s full of people, yet isolating for a lot of them. Russell Smith is the author of twelve previous books of fiction, nonfiction, and translation. His fiction has been nominated for every major Canadian award, including the Giller Prize, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Amazon First Novel Award. He is a journalist and cultural commentator, whose writing has appeared in the New York Review of Books, The Walrus, and elsewhere. He was a columnist in the Globe and Mail for many years. He is also an acquiring editor at Dundurn Press. Self Care is published by Biblioasis. He joined me from Toronto, three and a half weeks ago. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Russell Smith; Mr. Smith, good morning.

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The Province and Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston discusses the new biography he’s co-authored (with Peter Leech) Gino: The Fighting Spirit of Gino Odjick (Greystone, 2025), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Gino

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.  

Patrick Johnston joins me now. He’s co-written a new biography, a highlight of the season, Gino: The Fighting Spirit of Gino Odjick, with Peter Leech, who was also on the program recently. It’s an engaging book on the life of the beloved Vancouver Canucks player Gino Odjick. The book chronicles his early life in Quebec, through to making it in the NHL becoming one of the league’s most feared players, and one of the few Indigenous players. The book also looks at the larger-than-life persona of Odjick, who led a fascinating and fun life on and off the ice. The book looks at the friendships he developed with players, like Pavel Bure, as well as the sort of memorable qualities he brought to the locker room, as well as the team itself within the community, especially with Indigenous youth. The book is also revealing and honest. We read about Odjick’s family life as a son and as a parent and partner. The authors also provide insight as to the various struggles Odjick contended with throughout his life, especially the physical and mental ailments in the last years of his life, which came to an end in 2023 at the age of 52. I’ll ask Patrick about writing the book with Peter, who was one of Odjick’s closest and loyal friends. As well, I’ll ask him about covering the Canucks today. He’s a fixture in The Province, and Postmedia with his reporting and analysis. This new book is published by Greystone Books. We spoke last Monday. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Patrick Johnston; Mr. Johnston, good morning.  

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The director and writer Brian Daniel Johnson discusses his debut feature A Welcome Distraction, a Vancouver-set film, having its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival, and more, with Joseph Planta.

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.  

Having its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival is A Welcome Distraction, the debut feature of director and writer Brian Daniel Johnson. We spoke two weeks ago about the film that’s set in Vancouver. The film stars Simon Farrell, Madison Isolina, Adriana Marchand, and Liam McCulley, among others. In the film, Ernest played by Farrell, is a wayward twenty-something living in Vancouver, having come here from elsewhere. Despite a family tragedy, he tries to avoid family. He goes hiking and is captivated by Mallory, played by Isolina, and soon falls into her friend group, which might be a cult. We see Ernest navigate the seasons in Vancouver, in beautifully shot scenes of Metro Vancouver covered in snow amidst the backdrop of the mountains, as well as in the warmth of those days when it doesn’t rain as much. I’ll ask Mr. Johnson about shooting in Vancouver, setting the story here, and the feelings the film evokes in visitors or transients or lifelong Vancouverites. Brian Johnson is an American writer and director, known for his music video work with Vancouver artist Haley Blais, as well as his short films After Dinner (2020) and Side Walks (2022), the latter of which received a nomination for the Best of BC award at the Chilliwack Independent Film Festival. He is also a film editor and short story writer. Visit www.briandanieljohnson.com for more information. And visit www.viff.org for tickets to the film which debuts Thursday night (06 October 2025) at The Cinematheque, with additional screenings Saturday and Sunday (11, 12 October 2025). Mr. Johnson joined me from California. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Brian Johnson; Mr. Johnson, good morning.  

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The consultant and facilitator, and former professional athlete Peter Leech discusses the new biography he’s co-written (with Patrick Johnston) Gino: The Fighting Spirit of Gino Odjick (Greystone, 2025) and the close personal friendship he had with Odjick, with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Gino

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.  

One of the highlights of the fall season is the new biography of beloved NHL player Gino Odjick. Written by Patrick Johnston and Peter Leech, it’s a frank, revelatory, and entertaining book about the late Vancouver Canucks player, who when he emerged in the early 1990s was one of the few Indigenous players at the time. As you read in Gino: The Fighting Spirit of Gino Odjick, he was a larger-than-life figure on and off the ice, who was one of the league’s most feared enforcers, who was also revered by teammates. The book chronicles the on-ice career of Odjick, these remarkable friendships he develops on the team, chiefly Pavel Bure, as well as the reverence he has for the game, and some of the coaching and team leadership like Pat Quinn. You get a sense of how Odjick makes it to the NHL, and the persona he cultivated. What the Messer’s. Johnston and Leech have also done is reveal the loving household he came from, as well as the struggles with alcohol abuse, and personal health challenges in later years. Joining me now is one of the authors of the book, Peter Leech. (Patrick will be on the program tomorrow.) Peter is himself a former professional athlete, and a former amateur boxing champion. He was close friends with Gino Odjick for more than twenty-five years, and for the last ten years of Odjick’s life, he and his wife Charlene were host to Odjick in their home. It’s a unique and close relationship, and I’ll ask Peter to give us some insight into what it was like navigating through the health issues that Odjick contended with, which led to his death at the age of 52 in 2013. A member of the T’it’q’et Community Village of the St’at’imc Tribal Nation, he has worked for many years with Indigenous Nation communities and organisations, including mentoring Indigenous youth, which he and Gino Odjick worked on for many years. This new book is published by Greystone Books. We taped this interview one week ago, with Peter joining me from his home in Burnaby. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Peter Leech; Mr. Leech, good morning.

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