Remembrance As Resistance: Why Canada’s WWII Stories Matter Now

An evening of powerful storytelling in defence of historical truth

At a moment when misinformation distorts the past and public memory is under pressure, Remembrance as Resistance brings Canada’s Second World War stories vividly to life through powerful writers who transform archival fact into unforgettable narrative.

Anchored by the Toronto launch of The Resistance Daughter, Joanne Kormylo’s fact-based historical fiction debut, the novel follows a young Polish resistance fighter who rescues Jewish children, aids a downed Canadian airman, and survives imprisonment in Ravensbrück—a narrative inspired by the experiences of Kormylo’s father, a Canadian bomber pilot shot down over the North Sea and held as a prisoner of war for nearly three years.

Joining Kormylo are bestselling novelist Robert Rotenberg, Murdoch Mysteries creator Maureen Jennings, and journalist-historian Ellin Bessner, whose work recovers the overlooked stories of Jewish Canadians who fought Nazism abroad while facing discrimination at home.

Together, they make a compelling case: when facts are flattened and history is simplified, evidence-based storytelling becomes a form of civic protection.