Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy

[Oscar]

Book: Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy

http://blackbook.foreignpolicy.ca/ by Yves Engler

Description:

This book could change how you see Canada. Numerous studies have found that Canadians' self-appraisal of their country's foreign policy is more positive than any other country. Most believe Canada's primary role has been as peacekeeper or honest broker in difficult-to-solve disputes. But, contrary to the mythology of Canada as a force for good in the world, The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy sheds light on many dark corners of Canadian foreign policy: From troops that joined the British in Sudan in 1885 to gunboat diplomacy in the Caribbean and aspirations of Central American empire, to participation in the UN mission that killed Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, to important support for apartheid South Africa, Zionism and the US war in Vietnam, to helping overthrow Salvador Allende and supporting the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, to Haiti, Iraq and Afghanistan today.

The Top 10 things you don’t know about Canadian foreign policy:

10. On dozens of occasions since 1915 Canadian gunboats have been deployed to the Caribbean and Central America.
9. Canada has been the fifth or sixth-largest contributor to the U.S. war in Iraq.
8. Ottawa asked London for its Caribbean colonies after World War I.
7. Days after the elected President Salvador Allende was overthrown Canada's ambassador to Chile called victims of dictator Augusto Pinochet’s repression the “riffraff of the Latin American Left.”
6. In a number of countries Canadian “aid” has been used to rewrite mining codes to the benefit of Canadian mining companies.
5. Canada had between 250 and 450 nuclear-armed fighter jets based in Europe in the 1960s.
4. Washington did not press Ottawa to break relations with post-revolution Cuba because it wanted Canada to spy on the island.
3. Throughout Pierre Trudeau’s time in office and before, Canadian companies were heavily invested in apartheid South Africa.
2. Canada helped depose Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, one of Africa’s first independence leaders, who was then killed.
1. Many commentators, including the world’s leading intellectual, Noam Chomsky, consider Lester Pearson a war criminal.

Praise for Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy:

We bear responsibility for what governments do in the world, primarily our own, but secondarily those we can influence, our allies in particular. Yves Engler's penetrating inquiry yields a rich trove of valuable evidence about Canada's role in the world, and poses a challenge for citizens who are willing to take their fundamental responsibilities seriously. --Noam Chomsky

Engler has done for Canadian foreign policy what I tried to do for United States foreign policy in my book "Killing Hope" -- cover each region of the world, showing how "peaceful, benevolent, altruistic Canada" has, on numerous occasions, served as an integral part of Western imperialism, particularly the American version, helping to keep the Third World down and in its place. From Vietnam to Haiti, Canada has served the political and economic demands of US foreign policy and the multinational corporations. The picture that emerges is not the image of Canada the world has long admired. --William Blum

Media Coverage:

A review of Yves Engler's "Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy" By Joe Emersberger

Z Magazine Review: Canadian Foreign Policy
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21362 - May 03, 2009
In 2005, Yves Engler gave talks all over Canada to promote a book (co-authored with Anthony Fenton) that exposed Canada's criminal role in Haiti. Engler was never completely satisfied with his answer to a question that constantly came up during those talks:
"Why did Canada help overthrow Haiti's elected government in 2004?...Most people had difficulty understanding why their country - and the U.S. to some extent - would intervene in a country so poor, so seemingly marginal to world affairs. Why would they bother?"
He felt compelled to thoroughly research Canada's track record around the world. I've struggled with this question about Haiti myself, but half way through Engler's new book, "The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy", I felt silly for struggling. Canada has always behaved reprehensibly - even when it has had little direct incentive to do so.
Engler's book is written in a concise, straightforward style that mostly lets the meticulously referenced facts speak for themselves.
What follows does not even mention what Engler reveals about Canada's role in Venezuela, Nicaragua, East Timor and other countries. It is a mere sampling of what he uncovered.
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Can con - Yves Engler's Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy

Hour Magazine (Montreal) Review
http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=17186
Stefan Christoff April 30th, 2009
Yves Engler reveals the sordid and underreported details of Canadian foreign policy
Backpackers who proudly sport the Canadian flag when travelling may want to think twice about the patriotic posturing.
While one of the few pillars of Canadian national identity is our perceived role as both a peacekeeper and peacemaker around the world, it's Canada's darker side local author and activist Yves Engler scrutinizes in The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, a thick account of the country's foreign policy record - one that seriously challenges the perception of Canada as a force for good in the world.
"Canadians often seem more interested in what the U.S. is doing internationally rather than our own government," explains Yves Engler. "This book is an honest analysis of what our government is doing around the world and unpacks the mythology that Canadian businesses and politicians act benevolently outside of Canada."
In fact, Engler's book is a reality check about Canada's role on the world stage and a shockingly dirty laundry list of our colonial ambitions and corporate marauding.
MORE: http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=17186

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LISTEN: Canadian Mining" – The Current – CBC Radio – May 6, 2009
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2009/200905/20090506.html
Part 2: Canadian Mining
It has been two weeks since Robert Fowler and Louis Guay were set free after being held hostage in western Africa for four months. The two career Canadian diplomats working for the UN were kidnapped on December 14th of last year in Niger. They were released on April 22nd in neighbouring Mali. Many questions continue to hang over their release ... among them, whether it was part of an exchange for Al Qaeda prisoners and whether a ransom was paid.
But according to Yves Engler, there are some equally important questions about a visit they paid to a Canadian-owned gold mine in Niger just hours before they were abducted. Yves Engler is the author of The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy. And he says that visit contains some important lessons about the intersection of Canadian foreign policy and Canadian business interests around the world. Yves Engler was in Montreal.
And before Mr. Engler, we heard from Benoit La Salle, the President and CEO of SEMAFO, the Quebec-based company that owns and operates the mine in Niger that Robert Fowler and Louis Guay visited just before they were abducted.
Listen to Part Two: http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2009/200905/20090506.html