Canadian sf Clubs

BCsfA

The B.C. sf Association is an sf club over twenty years old in Vancouver, B.C., with a membership sometimes topping 100 fans. Activities have included movie preview outings, special events at recreation centres and IMAX theatres, sandcastle competitions, open houses, and annual conventions. Members of BCsfA founded two writers' workshops in Vancouver, including a recent winner of the Writers of the Future Contest, and writer featured by Pulphouse Press. Some BCsfAns and members of other clubs meet Friday nights at the Burrard Motor Inn. Other members meet at the same time at Raxx, a cafe and pool hall on Broadway. Write BCsfA c/o R. Graeme Cameron, 1855 West 2nd Ave. #110, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1J1 or BCsfAzine c/o editor John C.H. Wong, 2041 East 10th Ave., Vancouver, B.C. V5N 1X9 woolf@vcn.bc.ca.
In order to see an old WCsfA (BCsfA) home page, link to http://spellbinder.bc.ca/bcsfa/.

EsfCAS: The Edmonton Science Fiction and Comic Arts Society

Although now defunct, EsfCAS is included in this list because for nearly twenty years it was the largest and most active club in Canada, and one of the most influential anywhere. Its members founded NonCon (the Alberta regional sf convention) and ConText'89 (Canada's first literary convention, which also saw the initial launched sf Canada); published a variety of fanzines including Neology (the club newsletter), The Monthly Monthly; and New Canadian Fandom (and the early editions of the NCF Guide) to name just a few; EsfCAS alumni were instrumental in the founding of On Spec and Transversions magazines and sat on the Board of the Books Collective after it acquired the Tesseract Books imprint; and at least least a dozen of its members have gone on to become professional writers, editors, journalists or artists. At it's height, EsfCAS held weekly meetings which were so popular, fans from as far away as Winnipeg moved to Edmonton just to be able to attend. It folded in the mid-1990s, a typical victim of aging demographics, competition from the internet, and the general decline of fandom. (See The Lifecycle of the Science Fiction Club for a dicussion of the inevitable rise and fall of such voluntary organizations.)

Fantasy Field Trip Society

c/o Kevin Sauder, 5463 Kaye St., Halifax, N.S. B3K 1Y4. Tel. (902) 453-2449.

Friends of the Merril Collection

Lobby and support group for the Merrill Collection of Fantasy and Science Fiction (formerly the Spaced Out Library -- founded by Judith Merril in the late 1960s, it is one of the best sf research collections in the world (see below). The club newsletter, Sol Rising, features interviews & books printed in the last & upcoming year. Memberships should be sent to: The Friends of the Merril Collection, c/o The Merril Collection of Science Fiction, 239 College St., 3rd floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1R5, 416-393-7749. Memberships are $35.00

Metro sf Society

c/o Enquiry Desk, 6138 University Ave., Halifax, N.S. B3H 4J2. Tel. (902) 865-9643.

MonsfFA (The Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association)

can be contacted at P.O. Box 1186, Place du Parc, Montreal, Quebec H2W 2P4.

national science fiction and fantasy association

formed in 1994 as a national lobby group, it was forced to disband in 1999 when burnout claimed too many of its key members to sustain critical mass. even though the formal organization has been disbanded, the web site it started has continued on and remains a useful source of canadian sf news.

the orion consulate

holds alternative consuites at pacific northwest conventions, and can be contacted through bradley luoma, 2654 labieux road, nanaimo, b.c. v9t 3n4, tel. (250) 751-2106.

osfic: the ontario science fiction club

now defunct, it was for many year's toronto's primary sf club. although influential, osfic often suffered from the fragmentation of toronto fandom. (toronto being a sufficiently large center to give rise to a number of competing, specialist clubs, its organzational energies were often dissipated through feuds between competing factions, rather than allowing toronto to become the dominant force in canadian fandom that its numbers would seem to warrant.)

the ottawa sf society

has published a clubzine and held conventions in ottawa for a few decades now. their current fall convention is concinnity, and their clubzine is inforunner, formerly titled the ottawa sf statement. for more information write c/o a.g. wagner, 251 nepean street, ottawa, on k2p 0b7.

society for crative anachronism (sca)

the sca recreates the medieval age with period costume authentic banquets, medieval dancing, calligraphy, arts and crafts, archery, and most popular of all, medieval jousts and combat. the "anachronism" aspect is that in this version, everyone gets to be a member of court/knight class,rather than grubbing their life away as peasants. The SCA is a North American phenomenon, with several Canadian branches:

The Northern Society for Creative Anachronism. The Barony of Lionsgate (and the Shire of Seagirt, the Shire of Eisenmarche, and their friends) To find out about their regular annual events, write for The North Wind (c/o #5 - 7576 Humphries Court, Burnaby, B.C. V3N 3E9); this is the monthly newsletter of the Barony of Lions Gate (Northern Society for Creative Anachronism). The Papal Bull (c/o Toby Chernoff, 74 W. 20th Ave., Vancouver, B.C. V5Y 2C1) is a sort of SCA genzine, an occasional opinion/editorial magazine bound like historical papal bulls.

Ruantallon (an SCA group), David Swan, Box 322, Greenwood, N.S. B0P 1N0. Tel. (902) 847-3248.

Seashire, c/o Carlo Carrignan, 74 Brook St., Lower Sackville, N.S. B4E 1B9. Tel. (902) 865-3284.

The Speculative sf Society

Defunct. Regina's SsfS arose out of nothing and disappeared as quickly when founding President and chief mover, Dave Panchyk, moved (temporarily) to Edmonton.

Star Trek Related Clubs

The Klingon Diplomatic Corps, a group of Star Trek costuming fans in the Northwest, is dormant at present.

The U.S.S. Endeavour holds meetings once a month in a member's home, and year-round social events; they act as a community service volunteer organization for non-profit groups such as the Variety Club and the Chamber of Commerce. The 1997 president was Trevor Critchley (604-244-9209). Member Jon Foster tells me this is the first officially-registered non-profit Star Trek club in B.C. For more information, write to Box 5026, 349 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, B.C.

The U.S.S. S'harien is a social club, whose past events have included video projects, movie nights, mini-golf, bowling, picnics, and more. For further information telephone (604) 931-1241 (Don McGovern, past president) or 273-1901 (Tamara Glazer-Midttun, or see their graphics-rich Web page. Note: VCon 24 was largely the work of S'harien members. A bid for VCon in 2001 includes many of the same participants.

The U.S.S. Supernova is a social club for younger Star Trek fans. Club events include gaming, video nights, and monthly meetings at the Whalley Library on the first Saturday of every month. For information on this Surrey area club, write to #13 - 10766 13 3rd St., Surrey, B.C. V3T 5K1, or telephone 583-4624.

Starfleet Canada (which hosts -- hosted? -- ST Con) can be contacted at P.O. Box 22188, Banker's Hall, Calgary, AB T2P 4J5.

There was a Star Trek club in Nanaimo, formerly the U.S.S. Malaspina, which doubled as an amateur writers' society. They published a quarterly zine and organized social activities, and did community fundraising. Are they still at P.O. Box 4501, Stn. A, Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 5J9?

The Klingon Imperial Diplomatic Corps in Montreal has an interesting Web site; you can also e-mail founder Capucine Plourde at klingon@klingon.org.

The UBC Science Fiction Society

is, in one incarnation or another, the oldest extant sf club in Vancouver. UBCsfFEN was founded in the 60s by UBC students, and later formed the foundation of BCsfA. UBCsfS was best known as the publisher of Horizons sf, a biannual fiction magazine which emerged as a semiprofessional sf market in the late 80s/early 90s, winning an Aurora (Canadian sf and Fantasy Award) for its editor at the time, David New. UBCsfS no longer publishes Horizons sf but continues to hold bi-weekly movie nights (Sept to April), and maintains a 2500-book lending library for members' use. Write to UBC AMS Science Fiction Society, Box 75, Student Union Bldg., 6138 SUB Blvd., University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Y4. Daphne Hamilton-Nagorsen was president for the 2002-2003 term.

SF Vortex

Monteal SF Club
Address: 12830 RenŽ-LŽvesque, MontrŽal (QuŽbec) H1A 5E7
Info: Marc Nadeau (nadeaum@grics.qc.ca)

The Winnipeg sf Association (WinsfA)

holds KeyCon annually in Winnipeg in May; members mounted the 1994 Worldcon, ConAdian, and hosted the 1995 NonCon as a title added to that year's Keycon. (NonCon is now considered, not the Alberta, but the Western Canadian regional perambulating convention.) For more information write Box 3178, Winnipeg, MB R3C 4E6 or e-mail Con-TRACT, the Canadian convention listing zine, c/o John Mansfield, pgh@pangea.ca.

This page last updated: May 25, 2000

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