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NATO does not, and never did, ‘defend’ democracy
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.
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If Lula can call for peace in Ukraine, why not Canada’s left?
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.
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Does the NDP want conflict with China?
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?
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Trudeau government’s support for Peruvian coup regime all about Canadian mining companies
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.
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Liberal hubris keeps Bob Rae blind to Haitian history
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.
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Bad journalism, military funded academic produces hit job
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.”
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Ottawa has never been a benevolent force in Iran
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.
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Canada pushes for Caribbean troops to occupy Haiti
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.
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It’s not progressive to label pacifists ‘Putin stooges’
Resistance is essential, but at the moment the anti-war movement is not in a position to bring large numbers into the street to protest NATO expansion and Canada’s role in prolonging the conflict in Ukraine. But we should at least be challenging politicians where we can and chipping away at progressives supporting the continuation of this horrible war.
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Ottawa has given Haitians many good reasons not to like us
Haitians’ are right to be angry at Canada. In the last two decades alone Canada helped destabilize Haiti’s elected government, planned a coup, and participated in an invasion to topple a president. Ottawa also trained and financed a highly repressive police force, enabling a litany of politically motivated arrests and killings.