Ziya Tong

Ziya Tong wonCanada Reads2019 defendingBy Chance Alone by Max Eisen.

• Get to know the Canada Reads 2019 contenders

Ziya Tong is the vice chair of WWF Canada and is best known as the longtime co-host of the Discovery Channel's Daily Planet, which she anchored for a decade from 2008-2018. Before Daily Planet, Ziya hosted ZeD on CBC, earning a Gemini Award for viewer's choice for lifestyle host. In 2007 she hosted and produced Wired Science on PBS and The Leading Edge on The Knowledge Network. She also served as a correspondent on Nova ScienceNOW alongside Neil deGrasse Tyson. An avid traveller, Tonghas visited more than 70 countries. Her book The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World is forthcoming in May 2019.

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Why Ziya Tong chose By Chance Alone for Canada Reads

"Before 2016 I don't remember seeing swastikas,but these days I see them often inthe news and on social media. But here's something even more shocking: onein five Canadian young people have not even heard of the Holocaust. They don't know what it is.

It is a powerful reminder of what happens when we see the signs around us but choose to look away.- Ziya Tong

"There has never been a more important time to readMaxEisen's Holocaust memoirBy ChanceAlone. It is a powerful reminder of what happens when we see the signs around us but choose to look away. This book not only moved me, I believe it has the power to move the nation."

Read more in Ziya Tong's interview with CBC Books.

ZiyaTong talks about Canada Reads

CBC Books5:54Ziya Tong speaks about becoming a Canada Reads 2019 panellist

Canada Reads 2019 panellist Ziya Tong talks to CBC Radio's Here and Now about her pick for the One Book To Move You.

Books by Ziya Tong

The Canada Reads 2019 contenders

• Chuck Comeau, defending Homes by Abu Bakral Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung
• Lisa Ray, defending Brother by DavidChariandy
• Ziya Tong, defending By Chance Alone by Max Eisen
• Yanic Truesdale, defending Suzanneby Anas Barbeau-Lavalette, translated by Rhonda Mullins
• Joe Zee, defendingThe Woo-Woo by Lindsay Wong