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, and Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti.

As part of subverting democracy abroad, Ottawa has cut off aid and imposed illegal sanctions in the hopes of turning the population against the targeted government. Canada has also financed opposition civil society groups and allowed protesters to use its embassy as a staging point to topple a president. They?ve even organized a secret international gathering to discuss overthrowing a popularelected leader, decided a marginal opposition politician was the legitimate president, and dispatched the Canadian military to subvert democracy.

While government officials and the media regularly frame conflicts with geopolitical competitors 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. The literature on Canada's role in anti-democratic meddling is comparatively limited. In fact, this is the first book to focus on Canada's role in subverting democracy around the globe.

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OWEN SCHALK is an independent researcher and writer whose work focuses on domestic and foreign policy. His articles have been published by Alborada, Monthly Review and Protean magazine, and he contributes a monthly column to Canadian Dimension. He lives in Petersfield, Manitoba

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"Canadian authors Yves Engler and Owen Schalk have chronicled Canada's role in undermining 22 democratically-elected governments overseas, starting with the government of Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran in 1953. (. . .) Engler and Schalk jostle the reader to confront their mental image of Canada as a force for peace in the world--and the jarring reality of our foreign policy belligerence. It's getting worse. Four of the cases cited in the book took place under the current prime minister." Bhagwant Sandhu, THE HILL TIMES