Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy by Yves Engler

Author:Yves Engler [Engler, Yves]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: History, Americas, Canada, Politics & Social Sciences, Politics & Government, International & World Politics, Canadian, Specific Topics, Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, Globalization, Social Sciences, Human Geography, Relations
ISBN: 9781552664209
Amazon: B00492CN46
Publisher: RED Publishing/Fernwood Publishing
Published: 2010-10-24T04:00:00+00:00

Africa

The extent to which ordinary Canadians are lied to and excluded from meaningful control of our country’s foreign policy is revealed by comparing the reality of Canada’s involvement in Africa with the myth. There is a stark difference between what Africans have experienced at the hands of our diplomats and corporations and what most Canadians believe this country stands for. According to the mainstream media, Canada’s relations to Africa include feeding starving people, heroic, if not often successful, peacekeeping and valiant attempts to speak out against genocide. But is that the essence of our foreign policy, as experienced by ordinary Africans?

On balance, we have certainly not been a force for good. Rather, another question must be asked: Has Canada helped to underdevelop Africa? That is the most important question of this section.

South Africa

The late 1800s were a time of growing imperialism both in Britain and Canada. Canada’s 1898 Christmas stamp showed a world map with a vast British Empire boldly coloured in red and the statement: “We hold a vaster empire than has been.”1 Also in 1898, descendants of Dutch settlers, the Boers, found themselves at odds with British imperial interests in the southern tip of Africa. About 2,700 Canadians headed to Africa to defend the empire. At least 270 Canadian soldiers were killed or died of disease during the four-year war.2 “Bold headlines, sensational and often fabricated news stories, incendiary editorials, carefully selected letters to the editor, poems and cartoons were all used to portray the [British] Uitlanders as suffering servants of empire besieged by cruel and crafty people, determined to destroy the last vestige of British power in South Africa.”3 Imperial minded businesses also encouraged enlistment. Soldiers who enlisted to fight “were showered in gifts from private donors and commercial corporations.”4

The war was devastating for the Boers. As part of a scorched-earth campaign the British-led forces burned their crops and homesteads and poisoned their wells.5 Tens of thousands of Boers were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Twenty-eight thousand (mostly children) died of disease, starvation and exposure in these camps.6

“Canadian troops became intimately involved in the nastier aspects of the South African war.”7 Whole columns of Canadian troops participated in search, expel and burn missions.8 “Organized columns of troops descended upon areas still offering resistance and destroyed farms in those vicinities on the slightest pretext.”9 Canadian forces killed thousands of Boer cattle and looting was commonplace.10 One Canadian soldier wrote home, “as fast as we come up the country … we loot the farms.” Another wrote, “I tell you there is some fun in it. We ride up to a house and commandeer anything you set your eyes on. We are living pretty well now.”11 There are also numerous documented instances of Canadian troops raping and killing innocent civilians.12

Similar to World War One, militaristic-minded Canadians claimed the battles in South Africa were a sign of nationhood, a declaration “to the world that a new power had arisen in the West.”13 And, also similar to World War One, few commentators discuss what motivated the war.

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