Canada's Long Fight Against Democracy

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 to Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti. As part of subverting democracy abroad, Ottawa has cut-off aid and imposed illegal sanctions as well as financed opposition civil society groups and allowed protesters to use its embassy as a staging point to topple a president. Canada has also organized a secret international gathering to discuss overthrowing a popular leader, decided a marginal opposition politician was the legitimate president, and employed its military to subvert democratically elected governments. While Canadian officials and media commentators often frame conflicts with geopolitical rivals 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. This is the first to challenge Canada.