Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East Sponsor Provocative Tour by Expert on Harper’s International Policies

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Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East Sponsor Provocative Tour by Expert on Harper’s International Policies

Frances Everett, Victoria

Volume 26  Issue 10, 11 & 12 | Posted: December 22, 2012

  Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)  sponsored a series of lectures in several cities across Canada by activist and author Yves Engler. Mr. Engler’s latest book The Ugly Canadian: Stephen Harper’s Foreign Policy has just been released. The focus of the lectures was the Harper government’s uncritical defence of Israel’s flouting of international law, and his promotion of mining and oil projects with devastating environmental and social consequences.

  Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)  sponsored a series of lectures in several cities across Canada by activist and author Yves Engler. Mr. Engler’s latest book The Ugly Canadian: Stephen Harper’s Foreign Policy has just been released. The focus of the lectures was the Harper government’s uncritical defence of Israel’s flouting of international law, and his promotion of mining and oil projects with devastating environmental and social consequences.
   “Canadians are eager to be a force for peace and justice in the world, but, as Engler’s research powerfully documents, the Harper government is implementing policies with the opposite effect,” says CJPME President Thomas Woodley. CJPME notes that the Harper government pursues neither “balance” nor a principled emphasis on “human rights” in its foreign policy. Nowhere is that more apparent than in its approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one of the topics covered in Engler’s latest book. Engler vividly demonstrates this absence of balances and principles in other key areas of Harper’s foreign policy as well.
   Although scarcely off the press, The Ugly Canadian (Fernwood Publishing) has already garnered praise from figures as diverse as Council of Canadians Chairperson Maude Barlow, UBC Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law Michael Byers, and Esprit de Corps Magazine Editor Scott Taylor.
   Engler has written six other books, four of them examining various aspects of Canadian foreign policy. Engler’s books have been extolled by Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Rick Salutin and many other analysts. His Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy was shortlisted for the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction in the Quebec Writers’ Federation Literary Awards.
   Mr. Engler’s lectures on Vancouver Island were held in Victoria on November 13th at the University of Victoria (co-sponsored by the Social Justice Studies Program at the University of Victoria) and November 14th at Camosun College, Lansdowne Campus;s Building, Camosun College-Lansdowne Campus. Mr. Engler also gave lectures in Courtenay, Comox and Nanaimo.

   

Frances Everett, Victoria