A root cause of terrorism in far-away countries, North Americans are told, is poor, desperate young people who turn their frustrations and anger on their "rich oppressors." Uprising brings this scenario home.
When impoverished, disheartened, poorly educated, but well-armed aboriginal young people find a modern revolutionary leader, they rally with a battle cry "Take Back the Land!" Theirs is a fight to right the wrongs inflicted on them by "the white settlers."
They know their minority force cannot take on the entire country. They don't need to. Over a few tension-filled days as the battles rages over abundant energy resources, the frantic prime minister can only watch as the insurrection paralyzes the country. But when energy-dependent Americans discover the southward flow of Canadian hydroelectricity, oil, and natural gas is halted, they do not remain passive.
Although none of the country's leaders saw it coming, the shattering consequences unfold with the same plausible harmony by which quiet aboriginal protests decades ago became the eerie premonitions of today's stand-offs and "days of action."
Industry Reviews
... the fictional conditions underlying the uprising in the book so mirror the reality of modern Canada. -- National Post A riveting read, the book posits a series of loosely co-ordinated, but crippling, panic-inducing strikes by native guerrillas on Canada's most vulnerable energy and transportation installations. -- National Post Senator ROMEO DALLAIRE: "We have heard about the Aboriginal Day of Action. Is the internal security risk rising as the youth see themselves more and more disenfranchised? In fact, if they ever coalesced. Could they not bring this country to a standstill?" The Right Honourable PAUL MARTIN: "My answer, and the only one we all have, is we would hope not. -- Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, Ottawa, Tuesday, April 8, 2008 Hard-hitting and regrettably all too believable. -- Jack Granatstein, award-winning military historian, author of Who Killed Canada's Military? Combat-arms' veteran, counter-insurgency expert, counsellor to governments, and leading military scholar-now, Colonel Bland emerges in Uprising as a master thriller-writer who wrenches Canadians from a stale-dated dream world, and answers the inescapable question: what happens in dangerous times when a passive population, narcissistic politicos and uncertain bureaucrats determine the nation's fate? A scintillating read, and devastating warning. -- David Harris, Director, International and Terrorist Intelligence Program, INSIGNIS Strategic Research Inc.; former Chief of Strategic Planning, Canadian Security Intelligence Service We have a right to be frustrated, concerned, angry anger that's building and building. -- Phil Fontaine, Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations
