For Shirley and Corporal Gil Bouchard, life on an army base in Kingston, Ontario is a constant struggle – a struggle to make ends meet, a struggle to raise children who are searching for their own identity and moral values, a struggle to cope with relatives who don’t all share a common language, or with neighbours who live by vastly different sensitivities. Sometimes, it seems, it is almost a struggle to survive. Told from the various points of view of the different protagonists, Riel Street is a realistic portrait of a military family: never sentimental, often comical and occasionally sad.

Beautifully written, Riel Street is utterly believable, a story of quiet courage, determination, grit and tenacity, a story of small everyday triumphs and occasional not-so-small tragedies – a story that could absolutely describe the lives of many Canadians during the pivotal epoch between Canada’s centennial celebrations and the murder of Pierre LaPorte during the October Crisis of 1970.