Abbotsford, BC

Book Launch: "Canada in Africa: 300 Years of Aid and Exploitation" by Yves Engler

7:00pm
- 9:00pm
Thursday October 8 2015

Yves Engler continues his groundbreaking analyses of past and present Canadian foreign policy with Canada in Africa — 300 years of Aid and Exploitation. This work documents Canadian involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, “scramble for Africa”, missionary movement and European colonialism. The book also reveals Ottawa’s opposition to anticolonial struggles, support for apartheid South Africa and Idi Amin’s coup as well as this country’s role in ousting independence leaders Patrice Lumumba and Kwame Nkrumah.

Based on an exhaustive look at the public record as well as on-the-ground research, Canada in Africa shows how the federal government pressed African countries to follow neoliberal economic prescriptions, which have benefited numerous Canadian corporations, including mining companies that have bought up much of the continent’s mineral resources, but are often bitterly resisted by local communities. The book also sheds light on Canada’s role in the violence that has engulfed Somalia, Rwanda and the Congo and Canada’s creeping military footprint on the continent. Finally, it points out that this country’s near total indifference to the impact of global warming is tantamount to a death sentence for ever-growing numbers of Africans.

If you’ve ever wondered why 45% of Africans still live on less than one dollar a day you should read this book: https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/canada-in-africa.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Former Vice President of the Concordia Student Union, Yves Engler has been dubbed “one of the most important voices on the Canadian Left today” (Briarpatch), “in the mould of I.F. Stone” (Globe and Mail), “ever-insightful” (rabble.ca) and a “Leftist gadfly” (Ottawa Citizen). His six books have been praised by Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, William Blum, Rick Salutin and many others. “Yves became a foreign-policy expert by working as a night doorman in Montreal…He’s in the mould of I. F. Stone, who wasted no time with politicians, who all have an agenda, but went instead straight to the public record.” - Rick Salutin, Globe and Mail

More about Yves Engler and his work: http://yvesengler.com/.