Canada's Long Fight Against Democracy

Canada’ s Long Fight Against Democracy is a sweeping overview of Canadian-backed coups since 1950. It documents Canada’ s contribution to the ouster of over 20 elected governments from Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran to Patrice Lumumba in Congo, Salvador Allende in Chile to Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti. As part of subverting democracy abroad, Ottawa has cut-off aid and imposed illegal sanctions as well as financed opposition civil society groups and allowed protesters to use its embassy as a staging point to topple a president. Canada has also organized a secret international gathering to discuss overthrowing a popular leader, decided a marginal opposition politician was the legitimate president, and employed its military to subvert democratically elected governments. While Canadian officials and media commentators often frame conflicts with geopolitical rivals as motivated by a belief in democracy, the authors debunk the notion that decision-makers in Ottawa are driven by promoting democracy abroad. Washington’ s role in subverting elected governments has been detailed in countless studies by scholars and observers from around the world. This is the first to challenge Canada.

Owen Schalk is a writer Petersfield, Manitoba. He is the author of Canada in Afghanistan: A Story of Military, Diplomatic, Political, and Media Failure, 2003-2023 (Lorimer Books, 2023). His articles have been published by Alborada, Monthly Review, and Protean Magazine, and he contributes a weekly column to Canadian Dimension magazine. He also writes fiction, and you can read his short stories in Quagmire Literary Magazine, Sobotka Literary Magazine, Vast Chasm Magazine, and more. Yves Engler is a political activist and author of twelve books. He has been dubbed as “ one of the most important voices on the Canadian Left.” The Globe and Mail has situated him in the mould of I.F. Stone, while Quill & Quire says Engler is “ part of that rare but growing group of social critics unafraid to confront Canada’ s self-satisfied myths.” Yves Engler lives in Montreal.

Introduction 1. Iran, 1953 2. Colombia, 1953 3. Guatemala, 1954 4. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1961 5. The Dominican Republic, 1963 6. Brazil, 1964 7. Indonesia, 1965 8. Ghana, 1966 9. Greece, 1967 10. Uganda, 1971 11. Chile, 1973 12. Peru, 1992 13. Russia, 1993 14. Haiti, 2004 15. Palestine, 2006 16. Honduras, 2009 17. Paraguay, 2012 18. Ukraine, 2014 19. Brazil, 2016 20. Bolivia, 2019 21. Peru 2022 22. Venezuela, 2017 to the present Conclusion NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY