A Different Look At Canada Vis-à-vis South Africa

By Neil Armstrong
Pride Contributing Writer

Former governor general, Adrienne Clarkson, was on a CBC Radio program last week speaking from South Africa about the absence of former prime minister, Brian Mulroney, from the list of world leaders who spoke at the memorial held for Nelson Mandela at the FNB Stadium in Soweto.

She said that given the role that Canada and Mulroney, in particular, played in the fight against apartheid, he should have been among the speakers.

Some reports point to the popularity of former prime minister, Joe Clark, among South Africans for his role in Canada’s anti-apartheid stance globally. In recent weeks while some heap praises on Canada’s role, others indicate that there is another side to the story.

Stephen Lewis, former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, 2001-2006, said whenever he visited the former South African president and his wife, Graca Machel, Mandela would always ask about Mulroney whom he considered a great friend for the stance he took against apartheid after he became prime minister in September 1984.

Mulroney said when he became prime minister, he felt that the case of Nelson Mandela and apartheid had received tepid support from the government of Canada and so he decided to give it the highest priority of the government in foreign affairs, he said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. He developed a strong bond of friendship with Mandela over the years.

Clarkson told the CBC Radio program host that she also remembered the boycott of wine from South Africa here in Canada.

Bromley Armstrong, veteran human rights advocate, writes in his memoir, Bromley: Tireless Champion for Just Causes, co-written with Sheldon Taylor, a story related to this protest of South African wine at the first event held in Toronto to celebrate Jamaica’s Independence on August 6, 1962 at the King Edward Hotel.

Armstrong had asked the late David Lewis [father of Stephen Lewis], who was a newly elected Member of Parliament for York South and who later became leader of the national New Democratic Party, to be the guest speaker. He gained the support of the United Steelworkers of America and the United Automobile Workers of America, Local 439 to print the invitations and flyers.

“The evening seemed to have gone as planned until approached David Lewis at the head table to congratulate him for his sincere message, only to be rebuked. I noticed that the tablecloth was soaked through with red wine. Apparently, the King Edward Hotel had served our head table guests South African wine, and they were not amused. Some of them spilled the wine in protest, and I was admonished for not paying closer attention to the catering details,” Armstrong wrote.

Yves Engler, in his article entitled “Canada’s duplicitous economic policies supported apartheid South Africa” on the website, rabble.ca, Engler notes that, “It’s true that in 1961 John Diefenbaker’s Conservative government called for South Africa to be expelled from the British Commonwealth. But this position was not a moral rebuke of apartheid.”

Engler, an author and activist, writes: “After decades of protest by Canadian unions, churches, students and others, Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government finally implemented economic sanctions on South Africa in 1986. The Conservatives only moved after numerous other countries had already done so.”

Referencing The Ambiguous Champion: Canada and South Africa in the Trudeau and the Mulroney Years written by Linda Freeman and published by the University of Toronto Press (1997), Engler quotes from the book in his article, “South African officials regularly came to Canada to examine reserves set aside for First Nations, following colleagues who had studied residential schools in earlier parts of the century.”

An excerpt from the Aboriginal Policy of the Green Party of Canada acknowledges this fact too.

“Canadians like to forget that white South Africa based apartheid on the Canadian Aboriginal policy. Many non-natives are unaware of the fundamental human rights violations occurring within our midst. Canadian Aboriginal peoples, First Nation, Métis and Inuit, know that the fundamental assumption of colonial powers since the first Europeans arrived in what is now Canada has been a policy of assimilation,” the Green Party policy states.

Engler concludes his article by noting that, “Ottawa’s policy towards apartheid South Africa was controversial among Canadians. There was an active solidarity movement that opposed Canadian support for the racist regime and to the extent that Canadian politicians played a role in challenging South African apartheid it was largely due to their efforts.”