Activist Arrested, Gets To Talk About It

GPM # 90 It’s every stuffy conservative Canadian politician or Zionist cheerleader’s most disagreeable moment – getting accosted by Yves Engler. Yves Engler is a prolific political commentator and writer, the author of thirteen books and countless articles about Canadian foreign policy and international affairs, through an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist lens. He’s also a master of guerilla-style political disruption, with an uncanny ability to find out which Canadian political figures are speaking where, penetrating that crowded room, camera rolling, then berating the politician – politely, in English or French, as the case may be; addressing them as ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ — or pursuing his unfortunate target down a hallway or a crowded street, peppering them with questions they rarely answer. Late last month, Engler spent five days and four nights in Montreal’s notorious Bordeaux prison, charged with “harassing” a pro-Israel ‘influencer’ by the name of Dahlia Kurtz on chainsaw-wielding political arsonist Elon Musk’s X platform (calling Kurtz a “fascist” and “genocide” supporter), and with refusing the police demand that he not talk about the incident. Engler’s refusal to shut up is what landed him in the hoosegow. Now released, Yves is talking about the incident, to everyone who will listen, including the GPM. Yves Engler is a Montreal-based writer and human rights activist. Among his thirteen published works: Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy (together with Owen Schalk); Stand on Guard for Whom?: A People’s History of the Canadian Military; House of Mirrors — Justin Trudeau’s Foreign Policy; Left, Right — Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada, and, A Propaganda System — How Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War and Exploitation. Listen to our conversation with Yves Engler in today’s podcast, click on the play button above, or go here. Watch our conversation too. Donate with a $15/monthly subscription Imagine a squadron of US F-35 jets roaring over a football stadium in Calgary or Winnipeg or Toronto, packed with maple leaf-waving fans at Canada’s fall classic, the annual championship game of the Canadian Football League, the Grey Cup. Or over the funeral of a venerated Canadian politician, who had had the temerity to champion Canadian cultural and economic sovereignty in the face of US imperialism. In both, not so fanciful instances, Donald Trump’s message would be clear: Don’t boo our national anthem. Give us your oil, gas, and minerals; become our 51st state — or else. A couple of weekends ago, a handful of Israeli F-35 fighter bombers delivered a message of just this sort, flying low over a stadium in Beirut, Lebanon, packed with mourners at the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, charismatic Shia leader and Secretary General of the Party of God, Hezbollah, brutally murdered five months earlier in a rain of US bunker buster bombs. For an eyewitness account of the February 23 funeral of Hassan Nasrallah and Israel’s low-altitude flyovers (more than one), the GPM turned to Dimitri Lascaris. Lascaris is a Canadian lawyer, human rights advocate, and journalist. Listen to our conversation in today’s podcast. Click on the play button above, or go here. Watch our complete conversation here: Donate with a $15/monthly subscription