The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.2005, Qupperneq 42

168
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 59 #4
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Just a Matter of Time
A grassroots look at Canada’s cattle
industry in the aftermath of BSE
By Karen Emilson
Reviewed by Sharron Arksey
Nordheim Books
ISBN0968124224
Soft cover, 384 pages, photos $24.99
Author Karen Emilson says that the
research and writing of her new book Just
a Matter of Time was a “challenging, emo-
tionally draining project.” I can well imag-
ine.
The book takes a wide-ranging look at
the effects of the recent BSE crisis on indi-
viduals and families from British Columbia
to Ontario, with brief mention of one
Montana family as well.
The geography alone is challenging.
This project required a great deal of leg-
work.
The ‘emotionally draining’ component
no doubt comes from the fact that Emilson,
while writing about the American border
closing that affected so many in the
Canadian cattle industry, was living the
experience at the same time. As a farm wife
and partner, she was both a character and a
commentator in her own book.
The book’s title comes from a com-
ment made several years ago by Roy
McNabb, assistant manager of the
Canadian Cattleman’s Association.
McNabb told those present at a semi-annu-
al meeting in B.C. that someday Canada
would need to trace back to the herd of ori-
gin. It was, he said, “just a matter of time”.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Emilson’s first two best-selling books
Where Children Run and When Memories
Remain chronicled the lives of child-abuse
victims David and Dennis Pischke.
Although non-fiction, each of these books
reads like a novel with a chronological
story line.
This third book reads much different-
ly. In many ways it is a diary of Emilson’s
travels through five provinces and into one
American state. The families we meet are
seen through her eyes.
Along the way she inserts brief com-
mentaries on farm life and cattle ranching
and spliced throughout are excerpts from
her own personal life.
The most powerful section of the book
- for me, at least - was a detailed descrip-
tion of Emilson’s successful attempts to
break the amniotic sac and rub life back
into the limbs of a newborn calf early one
winter morning.
While outwardly this may have little to
do with BSE and the closure of the
American border to Canadian beef, the
story graphically underscores the life-giv-
ing link between the rancher and his/her
cattle.
That, I think, is at the heart of the
book, which undertakes to confront the
emotional and psychological damage creat-
ed by BSE as well as its more obvious eco-
nomic and political implications.
Emilson has done an excellent job of
researching and her drive and passion for
the project cannot be faulted. She has inter-