When it became clear that Donald Trump would become the new US president on election night in 2016, the website for Citizenship and Immigration Canada crashed. It was overwhelmed by Americans afraid that the United States would once again enter a period of intolerance and military aggression. In American Refugees, Rita Shelton Deverell shows that from the Revolutionary War to the Underground Railroad through to McCarthyism and Vietnam, Americans have fled to Canada in times of crisis. Many still flee. All have sought better lives, while helping to shape Canada into the country it is today.

Rita Shelton Deverell, C.M., Ed.D. is a theatre artist, broadcaster, university professor, and television producer/director/writer. Deverell has received numerous awards, including two Geminis, the Black Womenâ??s Civic Engagement Network Leadership Award, and was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2005 for her pioneering work in broadcasting, notably the founding of Vision TV and mentoring her Aboriginal successor at APTN National News. She has served on several boards of directors, among them Obsidian Theatre Company, Creative Womenâ??s Workshops Association, and OCAD University.

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