For more than a century Canadians have gone abroad to do “good” in poorer parts of the world. Whether they spurred positive change or simply became foreign agents should be of interest to international non-governmental organizations. Last week the Globe and Mail reported on the Canadians Christians who set off to proselytize in China in... Continue Reading →
The plunder of Africa: A Canadian connection
As Black History Month draws to an end it is important to reflect on the European conquest of Africa. Is there a connection between colonial rule and the continent’s impoverishment today? Should the beneficiaries of European imperialism pay reparations or at least acknowledge the injustices committed? When thinking about these questions it’s important to look... Continue Reading →
Ottawa helped overthrow Africa’s most popular leader
A half-century and one year ago today Canada helped overthrow a leading pan Africanist president. Ghana’s Canadian-trained army overthrew Kwame Nkrumah, a leader dubbed “Man of the Millennium” in a 2000 poll by BBC listeners in Africa. Washington, together with London, backed the coup. Lester Pearson’s government also gave its blessing to Nkrumah’s ouster. In The... Continue Reading →
Toronto Star leaves readers ignorant of Canada’s real role in Africa
The media’s foreign affairs motto often seems to be ignorance is bliss. The Toronto Star, for instance, has devoted significant attention to the Trudeau government’s plan to dispatch 600 soldiers to Africa, but it has largely ignored the most relevant information. In a recent installment of its “Should Canada go to Africa?” series the Star quoted former Royal Military College board member... Continue Reading →
Canada opposed Cuba’s key role in ending apartheid
Did Canada lead the international charge against apartheid and white rule in South Africa or criticize a country that, in fact, did? Recent commentary about Canada’s policy towards southern Africa’s liberation struggles distorts history that should inform debate over Canada’s planned military deployment to the continent today. A Globe and Mail article last month described “Canada’s strong support... Continue Reading →
A day to remember
Remember. Remember that today marks the culmination of a militarist, nationalist ritual organized by a reactionary state-backed group. Every year the Royal Canadian Legion sells about 20 million red poppies in the lead-up to Remembrance Day. Remember that red poppies were inspired by the 1915 poem "In Flanders Fields" by Canadian army officer John McCrae.... Continue Reading →
Mainstream media finally reveals truth about Rwanda’s dictator
It was a tough week for Romeo Dallaire, Louise Arbour, Gerald Caplan and other liberal Canadian cheerleaders of Africa’s most bloodstained dictator. Last Tuesday’s Globe and Mail described two secret reports documenting Paul Kagame’s “direct involvement in the 1994 missile attack that killed former president Juvénal Habyarimana, leading to the genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people... Continue Reading →
Sordid tales of Canada-UN history in Africa
Canadian officials have long done as they pleased in Africa, loudly proclaimed this country’s altruism and only faced push back from hard rightists who bemoan sending troops to the “Dark Continent” or “dens of hell”. With many Canadians normally opposed to war supporting anything called “peacekeeping”, unless troops deployed with an African UN mission are... Continue Reading →
‘Repressive regime’ in Ethiopia no ‘sea of stability’
Last Tuesday members of the Ethiopian community in Winnipeg called on Canada to sanction the North East African country. The protesters are angry about the regime’s violent crackdown in the Oromiya and Amhara regions of northern Ethiopia. Hundreds of peaceful protesters have been killed and many more jailed since unrest began over a land dispute 10 months... Continue Reading →
Globe story ignores Bata’s (and Canada’s) colonialist past
An elitist, nationalist, bias dominates all areas of Canada’s paper of record. On the front of last weekend’s Style section the Globe and Mail profiled Sonja Bata on turning 90. Business partner and wife of the deceased Thomas Bata, the Globe lauded Sonja for the “many contributions she has made to Canada”, including the Bata Shoe Museum and... Continue Reading →
The Left in denial over Canadian imperialism
As hard as it is to admit for a former junior hockey player who spends many hours writing at the neighbourhood Tim Hortons, some things are better in the USA. For example, comparing Green Party leader Elizabeth May to her American counterpart Jill Stein on foreign-policy issues puts Canada to shame. While Stein has articulated... Continue Reading →
Canada’s ‘peacekeeping’ mission killed an African independence hero
Fifty-six years ago this month the United Nations launched a peacekeeping force that contributed to one of the worst post-independence imperial crimes in Africa. The Organisation des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC) delivered a major blow to Congolese aspirations by undermining elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. Canada played a significant role in ONUC and Lumumba's assassination,... Continue Reading →
Toronto mining firm gives Canada a bad name
The ‘Ugly Canadian’ strikes again. Toronto-based Kinross Gold recently suspended work at its Tasiast mine to protest an order from Mauritania’s government that unpermitted ‘expatriates’ stop working on the massive project. The lead foreign firm in the sparsely populated West African nation has been embroiled in a series of power struggles with its Mauritanian workforce.... Continue Reading →
Real ‘aid’ means ending exploitation of Africa
What is wrong here? While Canadian companies exploit African resources for their own benefit this country’s charities call on us to join Africa “hope” walks. Last week Toronto-based Lundin Mining hired the Bank of Montreal to help it decide what to do with its stake in the massive Tenke Fungurume copper-cobalt mine in Eastern Congo (Kinshasa). Unfortunately,... Continue Reading →
Exploitation of Africa often comes with a ‘humanitarian’ smile
What do you call people who try to make people believe what they say but ignore the results of what they do? How about spin-sploiters? After a few years of research I have come to realize that there is a long and ignoble history of Westerners exploiting Africans while touting humanitarian objectives. Unfortunately, this practice... Continue Reading →
A shameful episode from Canada’s history in Africa
Few Canadians are familiar with pre-colonial African cities, and even fewer know a Canadian military leader helped sack one of West Africa's great metropolises. In the fifth installment of its Story of Cities series, the Guardian recently focused on Benin City, the lost capital of an important precolonial state. At its height in the "Middle Ages," Benin... Continue Reading →
Laurentian the latest university to be mined by rich Canadians
He who pays the piper picks the tune. This bit of folk wisdom seems not understood or ignored by many institutions of “higher learning.” The neoliberals running Canadian public universities have signed a slew of deals with mining companies that are engaged in violently extracting resources from the Global South. In two of the more... Continue Reading →
Canadian companies’ ‘illegal exploitation’ of African resources
In violation of international law two major Canadian companies are buying the non-renewable resources of Africa's last remaining colony. Saskatoon's PotashCorp and Calgary's Agrium have partnered with Morocco's state owned OCP to export phosphate mined in Western Sahara, a sparsely populated territory in northwestern Africa that was ruled by Spain until 1975. When the Spanish... Continue Reading →
Manitoba Hydro helps privatize Nigeria utility
It's the black eye few Manitobans knew they had. "Senate Passes Motions on Unwholesome Practices by Manitoba Hydro Limited," read one recent Nigerian press headline while another blared: "Manitoba sued over transmission contract extension." Largely unbeknownst to its owners, Manitoba Hydro International (MHI) has stirred significant controversy in Africa's most populous nation. Over the past four years... Continue Reading →
Kagame: dictator or great leader?
The Globe and Mail’s recent coverage of Rwanda has been schizophrenic. While South African-based correspondent Geoffrey York has done important work detailing how Paul Kagame’s government has assassinated its opponents and contributed to violence in Eastern Congo, columnist Gerald Caplan has justified its repression and echoed Kigali’s position on regional conflicts. At the start of January York... Continue Reading →
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