Yves Engler is a Montréal-based investigative journalist and author reporting for rabble.ca, Canada’s leading progressive news platform. With a career spanning student activism, academic research, and grassroots organizing, Engler’s work exposes systemic injustices in Canadian foreign policy and civil liberties.
Focus on underreported connections between policy decisions and human rights outcomes. Avoid electoral politics or domestic partisan issues. Strong pitches include:
Yves Engler is a Montréal-based writer, activist, and investigative journalist whose work interrogates Canada’s role in global conflicts, militarism, and human rights. With 12 books and decades of grassroots organizing, Engler has cemented his reputation as a critical voice challenging Canada’s “peacekeeper” mythology. His reporting blends historical analysis with contemporary advocacy, often spotlighting underreported connections between state policies and systemic injustice.
Engler’s career began in the early 2000s as a student activist at Concordia University, where his opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campus visit sparked national debates about free speech and anti-war protest. Expelled for his activism, he channeled his focus into writing, producing seminal works like The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy (2009), which exposed Canada’s historical support for authoritarian regimes. His later books, including Stand on Guard For Whom? A People’s History of the Canadian Military, dissect militarism’s socio-political roots.
Engler prioritizes stories connecting past military interventions to current policies. A pitch might explore how Cold War-era training programs for Latin American officers influenced modern refugee crises. His 2024 series on Canada’s role in the 2004 Haitian coup demonstrates his interest in archival research paired with survivor narratives.
With his ongoing court battles, Engler seeks case studies on how municipalities weaponize bylaws against activists. Proposals should include verifiable data on arrest disparities or corporate litigations against protestors. His coverage of the “Indigo 11” arrests shows his focus on strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs).
Pitches should highlight grassroots campaigns that pressured governments to change foreign policy. Engler’s reporting on the BDS movement’s impact on university divestment votes exemplifies this beat. Include interviews with union organizers or municipal leaders who shifted institutional positions.
Quebec Writers’ Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Nonfiction (Shortlist, 2009)
Engler’s The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy marked the first time a critique of Canada’s international record reached mainstream literary awards. The nomination sparked debates about historical accountability, with jurors praising its “relentless documentation of uncomfortable truths.”
“Engler’s work does what our education system refuses to: interrogate the myth of Canadian benevolence.” — Rick Salutin, The Globe and Mail
Canadian Foreign Policy Institute Fellowship (2022–Present)
As a co-founder of this research collective, Engler coordinates investigations into Canada’s arms trade and diplomatic interventions. The fellowship’s 2024 report on Canadian mining companies’ environmental violations in Namibia influenced EU regulatory changes.
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