Yves Engler
Encyclopedia
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and political activist. In addition to three published books, many of Engler’s writings have appeared in the alternative press
Alternative media
Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government-owned...
, with articles also appearing in mainstream publications such as The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen and Ecologist. His The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy book was on a short list
Short list
A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates . The length of short lists varies according to the context.-U.S...
for the Quebec Writers' Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction along with two other books; however, the book ultimately lost to Eric Siblin's The Cello Suites.
Activism
Pierre Pettigrew
Pierre Stewart Pettigrew, PC is a Canadian politician.Born in Quebec City, Pettigrew has a BA in Philosophy from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and an M.Phil in International Relations from Oxford University...
. Engler walked up to the stage, emptying the contents of a bottle of cranberry juice onto Pettigrew's arms, saying, "Pettigrew lies, Haitians die." The act was meant to symbolize the blood on the hands of the Canadian state due to its involvement in the planning of the coup (see: The Ottawa Initiative on Haiti) which ousted Jean Bertrand Aristide, the democratically elected president of Haiti, from office and into exile. Engler also highlighted Canada's subsequent participation in the United Nations occupation of Haiti and the training of the Haitian national police by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
, which has resulted in an ongoing campaign of murder, imprisonment, and political repression targeted against supporters of the Lavalas
Lavalas
Lavalas, the Kréyòl word for "avalanche", may refer to:* The Lavalas Political Organization in Haiti, founded in 1991 by Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his supporters, later part of the Struggling People's Party...
party and opponents of the unelected interim government headed by Florida resident Gerard Latortue
Gérard Latortue
Gérard Latortue was the Prime Minister of Haïti from March 12, 2004 to June 9, 2006. He was an official in the United Nations for many years, and briefly served as foreign minister of Haïti during the short-lived 1988 administration of Leslie Manigat.In February 2004, the country suffered a coup...
.
Engler served as Vice President of the Concordia Student Union where he was removed from office. A student tribunal found Engler guilty of "vexatious conduct" in the aftermath of a riot on September 9, 2002, when Israeli politician Benjamin Netanyahu's speech was aborted by demonstrators. Engler later tried to overturn his suspension; however, he was denied by a student hearing panel and Board of Governors. The university's decision was upheld by a Quebec tribunal.
Yves Engler has signed, together with 500 artists, the call to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions refers to a campaign first initiated on 9 July 2005 by 171 Palestinian non-governmental organizations in support of the Palestinian cause ".....
against the state of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
for what the group of artists called Israeli Apartheid against Palestinians.
Published works
- Playing Left Wing: From Rink Rat to Student Radical (RED/Fernwood PublishingFernwood PublishingFernwood Publishing is an independent Canadian publisher that publishes non-fiction books dealing with social justice and issues of social, political and economic importance....
, 2005) - Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority with Anthony FentonAnthony FentonAnthony Fenton is an independent print and radio journalist and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His first book, Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority , which he co-wrote with Yves Engler, was published in August 2005. He is a regular contributor to - Bibliography :...
. Co-published by RED Publishing and Fernwood PublishingFernwood PublishingFernwood Publishing is an independent Canadian publisher that publishes non-fiction books dealing with social justice and issues of social, political and economic importance....
, August 2005. ISBN 1-55266-168-7 - The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy. Co-published by RED Publishing and Fernwood PublishingFernwood PublishingFernwood Publishing is an independent Canadian publisher that publishes non-fiction books dealing with social justice and issues of social, political and economic importance....
, April 2009. ISBN 978-1-55266-314-1 - Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid. Co-published by RED Publishing and Fernwood PublishingFernwood PublishingFernwood Publishing is an independent Canadian publisher that publishes non-fiction books dealing with social justice and issues of social, political and economic importance....
, February 2010. ISBN 978-1-55266-355-4 - Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay with Bianca Mugyenyi, Published April 2011; ISBN: 9781552663844
Engler’s writings have appeared in the alternative press
Alternative media
Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government-owned...
and mainstream publications such as The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen and Ecologist.
External links
Video Links
- Yves Engler - Canada vs Latin American Democracy a 6 part series - Part 1 of 6: "From Jacobins to Salvador Allende, Hugo Chavez and Jean Bertrand Aristide". Introduction by Globe & Mail columnist Rick SalutinRick SalutinRick Salutin is a Canadian novelist, playwright, journalist, and critic and has been writing for more than forty years....
.