From Washington’s perspective, death and destruction “over there” is a price worth paying for weakening a geopolitical rival. As Yves Engler argues, when a “left-wing” political party falls into the trap of supporting the US empire, propaganda will be believed, lies told, history repeated, war profiteers supported, and human misery ignored.

Coups, colonialism, and various forms of political subterfuge are important elements in explaining the unequal terms of global exchange. Reducing global inequities requires economic interventions irrespective of “free-market” ideology or WTO rules. It is unsurprising that Canadian capital is hostile to measures that chip away at inequities they benefit from.

A secretive alliance Canadians never voted to join that requires this country to defend faraway lands and funnel ever greater resources to warfare is typically presented by the media and politicians as a tool of democracy. Yet, very often, pro-NATO propagandists frequently ignore the alliance’s ties to undemocratic regimes and its efforts to silence its critics.

Lula’s position on Ukraine and his opposition to military aid is not some aberration motivated by narrow personal or national interests. Left parties and movements across the Global South have articulated similar perspectives. The Canadian left ought to echo Lula’s principled stance. It is time to end the horrors in Ukraine and push for peace.

Rather than putting the brakes on America’s bid to contain China’s rise, writes Yves Engler, the NDP has repeatedly pushed the Liberal government to take a more belligerent stance, jumping into bed with the neoconservatives in Washington whose main concern is US primacy in global affairs—even if it means full-scale war. Is this the NDP’s endgame as well?

Ottawa has plowed significant resources and diplomatic energy into advancing Canadian mining interests in Peru. Since the early 2000s Ottawa has worked to provide the industry with a profitable investment climate and channeled tens of millions of dollars into Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines and mining related initiatives.

Canada’s Ambassador to the UN Bob Rae wants Canada to help re-establish a Haitian military with a brutal history. According to Yves Engler, Rae should either educate himself about Haiti’s history or keep his remarks in check, as his excessive pride about Canada as a force for good in the world will likely keep him pontificating on a subject he knows far too little about.

In a story based upon the ‘research’ of a Canadian military-funded academic and published in the November 28 edition of Québec’s most widely circulated newspaper, Le Journal de Montréal, Jean-Christophe Boucher smeared prominent Canadian anti-war activist and author Yves Engler, connecting his disruption of politicians on a host of issues to “Russian propaganda.”

When it comes to foreign policy, no matter what party is in power, it’s more of the same. The Liberals came to office promising to back away from the Conservative’s low-level war against Iran. With the prime minister joining a chorus calling for the removal of the Iranian regime, Canada has again ramped up tensions with the Western Asian nation.

If Ottawa convinces CARICOM members to join its imperial endeavor it would highlight Canada’s leverage among the political and economic union of mostly small 15 member states, writes CD columnist Yves Engler. Ottawa’s influence in the region dates to when the Canada First Movement sought “a closer political connection” with the British West Indies in the 1870s.