After twenty-six years of publishing an environment news magazine, the Comox-based Watershed Sentinel has released its inaugural book, Beyond Banksters: Resisting the New Feudalism (WS Books 2016) by Joyce Nelson. WS Books is the fledgling book-publishing imprint of the non-profit Watershed Sentinel Education Society which began on Cortes Island. After fifteen years on Cortes, the magazine initiative was transferred to Comox.

Nelson has been writing investigative articles for the Watershed Sentinel since 2009 and writes regularly for Counterpunch, Economic Reform, and other publications. Beyond Banksters is her sixth book.

"The author wanted a fast turnaround and we're a really small operation," says WS editor Delores Broten, "so we can do things much faster than a larger company could.";

Two of the book's chapters appeared first as articles in the magazine; and one, "Bank of Canada Lawsuit,"; has been viewed at least 143,000 times online.

Many of Nelson's topics like the trade deal with the European Union - CETA - or the Canada Infrastructure Bank that Justin Trudeau is starting up, are time-sensitive subjects. "She wanted to get that information out there," says Broten, "how the trade deals, the banking institutions and the big financial investment companies all interact to remove the public interest from what government is doing with our property.";

There is an in-depth review of the book in the latest issue of the CCPA Monitor (policyalternatives.ca/monitor).

Broten says the new Watershed Sentinel Books will consider other manuscripts.