Stand on Guard for Whom?: A People's History of the Canadian Military

by Yves Engler

We Stand on Guard for Whom? is the first book to present a history of the Canadian military from the perspective of its victims. In his eleventh book, Yves Engler, the prolific author and critic of Canadian politics, exposes the reality of Canadian wars, repression, and military culture despite the mythologies of Canada as an agent for international peacekeeping and humanitarianism.
 
Originating as a British force that brutally dispossessed First Nations, the Canadian Forces regularly quelled labor unrest in the decades after Confederation. It would go on to participate in military occupations or invasions in Sudan, South Africa, Europe, Korea, Iraq, Serbia, Afghanistan, and Libya, as well as Canadian gunboat diplomacy and UN deployments that have ousted elected governments. As the federal government department with by far the greatest budget, staff, PR machine, and intelligence-gathering capacities, this book shows how the Canadian military is a key developer of military technology, including chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. It also has an immense ecological footprint and a toxic patriarchal, racist, and anti-democratic culture.
 
However, as this book shows, Canadian militarism has always been contested, as early as opposition to conscription during World War I and as especially during peace activism against the US war in Indochina. More recently, city councils have declared themselves nuclear weapons free zones and prevented hosting of weapons bazaars and, in 2003, antiwar activists stopped Prime Minister Jean Chrétien from leading Canada into the US-led invasion of Iraq. This book reveals the hidden militarism in Canadian life and reminds us that the first step to contest it is to recognize its pervasiveness and power.

Genres: Canada, Nonfiction, History

400 pages, Hardcover

Published August 1, 2021

Reviews

[Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yves Engler has written an exhaustive and well-researched history of the Canadian Forces (CF), which should convince all but the most militaristically-minded Canadian citizens of the criminal nature of its activities from Canada's foundation onwards. Little needs saying today about the savage treatment of First Nations peoples by the settler-colonists of Canada, Australia, the US, the UK and elsewhere. Yet a fantasy about the true nature of the CF persists, and Mr. Engler goes to great pains to explain why. From the immense profits to be extracted from its activities by corporations, to the enormous and well-funded public relations industry that portrays those activities in the warm glow of military glory, sacrifice and good deeds, the CF is today a monster of obese proportions that must be countered if tomorrow's world is ever to see a moment of peace. Together with the destructive behaviour of the Pentagon, which the embedded CF fully supports, there is at present (early 2022) a definite possibility of Canada contributing to either a nuclear war or an absolutely unmissable target of plus 2.5 degrees of warming or more, via a completely idiotic policy based on "defence" against an invisible and non-existent enemy.

The truth is, the enemy is the CF and Canadians need to wake up and understand that it has no interest in preserving their lives and quality of life, but rather ensuring the survival of the unsustainable capitalist system that underpins all its activities. Yves Engler has done a great disservice to the CF by doing a very great service to Canadians and all peoples on this fragile planet.

[Anne Lévesque · Rating 3 out of 5]

A must-read for all Canadians.
So well-researched it's a bit too detailed.