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Yves Engler

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Yves Engler
black-and-white image of Yves Engler wearing a light shirt, looking right of camera and appearing to speak
Engler in 2005
Born1979
Vancouver, Canada
OccupationWriter
LanguageEnglish
GenreNonfiction
Subject
  • Politics
  • activism
Website
yvesengler.com

Yves Engler (born 1979) is a Canadian Montreal-based writer and political activist. In addition to twelve published books, Engler's writings have appeared in alternative press and in mainstream publications such as The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, and Ecologist.

His 2009 book, The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, was short-listed for the Quebec Writers' Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Nonfiction.[1][2]

Concordia University

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Engler moved to Montreal to study at Concordia University in the early 2000s, where he was elected vice president of communications with the Concordia Student Union.[3] He was suspended from the university due to his involvement in the Concordia University Netanyahu riot, which erupted in response to a visit to the campus by the then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The riot involved the breaking of windows at a number of university buildings, and there were reports of assaults on Holocaust survivors.[4][5]

A student tribunal found Engler guilty of assault and vandalism for his part in the event. Engler contends he never assaulted anyone or committed any vandalism during the riot.[4] His attempt to appeal the suspension was rejected by the Supreme Court of Canada.[6] Engler's suspension was later made permanent when he violated a ban on political activity imposed by the university in the aftermath of the riot.[5]

Haiti

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Engler presenting Pierre Pettigrew with a copy of the "Griffin Report on Human Rights Abuses in Haiti"

Engler was critical of Canada's role in the 2004 Haitian coup d'état. He co-authored a report entitled Canada in Haiti: Waging War Against the Poor Majority and helped establish a group called the Canada-Haiti Action Network.[citation needed]

In June 2005, Engler interrupted a press conference being held by then-Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pierre Pettigrew. Engler poured a bottle of cranberry juice onto Pettigrew and said, "Pettigrew lies, Haitians die."[7] The juice was meant to represent the blood Engler said was on the hands of the Canadian government due to its alleged involvement in the 2004 coup and subsequent United Nations peacekeeping mission.[8][9]

Israel

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A vocal critic of Israel, in 2010, Engler wrote the book Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid on the history of Canada's ties with Israel.[10] He is a longtime supporter of the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.[11]

In 2016, Engler wrote an essay for the Huffington Post, titled "'Anti Semitism': The Most Abused Word in Canada".[12] A week later, Canadian Jewish News editor Yoni Goldstein criticized the text in an opinion piece. He concluded that Engler "has seriously misjudged the state of anti-Semitism in Canada today".[13] Engler offered an explanation of the controversy on his webpage: he maintains that the charge of antisemitism is wrongly used to shut down criticism of Israel, but the rise of neo-Nazism shows that it was wrong for him to downplay the threat of antisemitism.[14] Engler strongly condemns antisemitism on his webpage.[14]

Published works

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  • Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority with Anthony Fenton. Co-published by RED Publishing and Fernwood Publishing, August 2005. ISBN 1-55266-168-7[15]
  • Playing Left Wing: From Rink Rat to Student Radical (RED/Fernwood Publishing, 2005)[16]
  • The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy. Co-published by RED Publishing and Fernwood Publishing, April 2009. ISBN 978-1-55266-314-1[17]
  • Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid. Co-published by RED Publishing and Fernwood Publishing, February 2010. ISBN 978-1-55266-355-4[18]
  • Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay with Bianca Mugyenyi, Published April 2011; ISBN 978-1-55266-384-4
  • Lester Pearson's Peacekeeping The Truth May Hurt. ISBN 978-1-55266-510-7 Fernwood Publishing (September 1, 2012)
  • The Ugly Canadian: Stephen Harper's Foreign Policy. Co-published with: Red Publishing ISBN 978-1-55266-530-5 (Published: 2012)
  • Canada in Africa: 300 years of aid and exploitation. Co-published by RED Publishing and Fernwood Publishing, August 2015. ISBN 978-1-55266-762-0
  • A Propaganda System — How Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War and Exploitation, Fall 2016.
  • Left, Right: Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada. Black Rose Books, 2019. ISBN 978-1-55164-663-3
  • House of Mirrors: Justin Trudeau's Foreign Policy. RED Publishing/Black Rose Books, 2020
  • Stand on Guard for Whom? — A People's History of the Canadian Military, October 2021

References

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  1. ^ "The QWF Literary Awards". Retrieved February 17, 2010.
  2. ^ "Shortlist for 2009 QWF awards" (PDF). Retrieved February 17, 2010.
  3. ^ "Yves Engler". fernwoodpublishing.can. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Spivak, Rhonda (n.d.). "Yves Engler at U of M explains his suspension from Concordia University after Netanyahu's aborted speech in 2002". Winnipeg Jewish Review. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Concordia Activist Faces Expulsion". October 9, 2008.
  6. ^ Blackwell, Richard (October 7, 2005). "Activist loses fight to re-enter Concordia". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
  7. ^ "Canada acting badly in Haiti, protester claims". CBC News. June 18, 2005. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
  8. ^ "Pettigrew's Painter speaks about Haitian Blood on the hands of the Canadian Government". June 17, 2005. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
  9. ^ Thomas M. Griffin, ESQ. (November 11–21, 2004). "Griffin Report - Haiti Human Rights Investigation" (PDF). Center for the Study of Human Rights, University of Miami School of Law - (Professor Irwin P. Stotzky, Director). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 20, 2009.
  10. ^ "Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid". fernwoodpublishing.ca. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  11. ^ "Tadamon!: 500 Artists Against Israeli Apartheid".
  12. ^ ""Anti Semitism": The Most Abused Word in Canada | Dissident Voice". April 16, 2016.
  13. ^ Goldstein, Yoni (April 27, 2016). "Getting the facts wrong about anti-Semitism in Canada". Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
  14. ^ a b "Controversies – Yves Engler". September 12, 2020.
  15. ^ "Canada in Haiti". Fernwood Publishing. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
  16. ^ "Playing Left Wing". Fernwood Publishing. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
  17. ^ "The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy". Fernwood Publishing. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
  18. ^ "Canada and Israel". Fernwood Publishing. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
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