Presented by Julian Sher for the Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum on February 7, 2024.

Canadians take pride in being on the “good side” of the American Civil War, serving as a haven for 30,000 escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. But dwelling in history's shadow is the much darker role Canada played in supporting the enslaved South and in fomenting the many plots against Lincoln. Julian Sher’s new book weaves together the different strands of several Canadians and a handful of Confederate agents in Canada as they all made their separate, fateful journeys into history.

Meticulously researched and richly illustrated, The North Star is a sweeping tale that makes long-ago events leap off the page with a relevance to the present day.

JULIAN SHER is an award-winning journalist and the author of seven books, including “Until You Are Dead”: The Wrongful Conviction of Steven Truscott and White Hoods: Canada's Ku Klux Klan. He co-authored two books on biker gangs, The Road to Hell and Angels of Death, and wrote two books on crimes against children, One Child at a Time and Somebody's Daughter. As an investigative reporter, he worked for the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail and was a senior producer of CBC's The Fifth Estate. He is active in protecting media freedoms, as a Senior Fellow at Toronto Metropolitan University's Centre for Free Expression and working with Journalists for Human Rights.