Michael Petrou

Less than a year before 9/11, Michael Petrou trekked through al Qaeda's backyard in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan. He was back in Central Asia within weeks of the attacks -- this time as a reporter, slipping into Afghanistan as rockets and tracer bullets lit up the night sky, carrying notebooks, stolen blankets, and a satellite phone.

In the decade t …

Between 1936 and 1939, almost 1,700 Canadians defied their governmentand volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War. They left behindpunishing lives in Canadian relief camps, mines, and urban flophousesto confront fascism in a country few knew much about. Michael Petrouhas drawn on recently declassified archival material, interviewedsurviving Ca …