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Yves Engler to stir the pot in Whistler

Montreal-based activist and writer to speak on Israeli-Canadian relations

Yves Engler expects controversy to follow him when he lectures on his perspective of the Harper government's stance on Israel.

The Montreal-based writer and activist is currently on tour to discuss his most recent book, Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid .

In Whistler, he will be voicing various criticisms of government nepotism and outlining how Canada is breaking international law.

"The Canadian government supports charities that support settlements - that is something that from what I can tell, hasn't been discussed in the mainstream media at all, and that's something that I think the...  majority of Canadians would think is unacceptable," he said in a phone interview.

"I'm going to go into a whole series of ways that Harper has supported an extreme right wing Israeli government diplomatically, despite that government launching a brutal campaign against Gaza two years ago."

To give his topic context, Engler will provide a history of the Canadian government's relations with Israel, and debunk what he calls the "mythology of Canada as a peace-broker."

According to his research he will identify how dependent the Harper government is on evangelical Christian support, Zionistic support, and how it complies with the vision of an overall pro-USA empire.

"We're going to discuss Operation Prentice, Canada's military training operation in the West Bank, which is really designed to create a Palestinian security force to combat the rise of Hamas and oversee Israel's occupation," he continued. "Obviously there is some acknowledgement within the Canadian media that the Harper government has quite an extreme pro-Israel position but the extent or what that really means for Palestinians I think has not been properly discussed."

Engler is the author of three books and writes regularly for both the mainstream and alternative press. He will speak on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. at the Whistler Public Library.