Yves Engler’s latest book is Stand on Guard for Whom? — A People’s History of the Canadian Military.
The historical repression of antiwar voices in Canada, often twinned with red-baiting, is resurfacing amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. This resurgence marks a worrying return to stifling dissent and limiting freedom of expression.
Emmanuel Macron’s relatively measured stance on Taiwan should embarrass Canada’s New Democratic Party. Sinophobia in Canadian media has pushed the party to forgo objections to the threat of war and back Washington’s rhetoric in US-China tensions.
The Globe and Mail’s new revelations about socialist poet Pablo Neruda’s death after the 1973 coup in Chile carefully omitted any reference to Ottawa’s complicity in the repression. But in Chile and around the world, Canada has long helped undermine democracy.
As conditions worsen in Haiti, Ottawa remains steadfast in its provision of resources for the repressive Haitian National Police. This stalwart aid stands in stark contrast with Ottawa’s miserliness when the social democratic Fanmi Lavalas party was in power.
Canada’s social democratic New Democratic Party has a poor track record on the issue of Palestinian dispossession. As a result of grassroots organizing and a push from the party’s left, leader Jagmeet Singh is finally signaling support for Palestinian rights.
For decades, Canada has been a consistent bulwark against the success of popular forces in Haiti. As Haiti’s capital is engulfed in protests and violence, Canadian calls for international intervention to “help” sound ominous, not reassuring.
Canada’s pretense of being a champion of peace and mediation conceals the aim of its foreign military training operations. These operations are not instances of bighearted largesse — they are strategic, geopolitical power projections.
Although Ukraine is hobbled by the debt it owes its international creditors, Canada’s support for the country does not include any debt relief. It does, however, include guns and even more loans.
Justin Trudeau’s strategy in Latin America has been to attack the region’s progressive governments. He has failed miserably. Now, as left-wing governments mount successive wins across the region, Ottawa may find it played the wrong hand.
Rooted in Cold War anti-communism, the military alliance between the US and Canada is responsible for bloody conflicts around the globe. An antiwar movement in Canada would challenge the strategic pact between the two nations.
In the record of the disastrous war in Afghanistan, little attention has been paid to the horrific role of Canada’s private security firms.
Under the cover of charity, organizations in Canada are bilking unknowing Canadian taxpayers out of public money and directing it to Israel. These charities support settlements in the West Bank and the Israeli military — they do not deserve tax exemptions.
The Trudeau government likes to pose as a neutral player in its dealings with Israelis and Palestinians, concerned only with fostering peace. In reality, Canada gives unstinting support to Israel’s occupation and the brutal methods needed to uphold it.
Three-quarters of the world’s mining companies are headquartered in Canada. Canadian mining firms are mired in corruption and human rights abuses around the world, yet Justin Trudeau has reneged on pledges to regulate them and end the abuses.
Canada likes to see itself as a benign global actor, but its extensive history of military intervention tells a different story. A $70 billion upgrade of the Canadian navy now carried out by Justin Trudeau will strengthen its capacity for military action as a US sidekick in world affairs.