Canada-Chile Solidarity, 1973-1990

The stories and documents presented here relate key facets of the history of Canadian civil society solidarity with Chile after the September 1973 military coup d’etat. It is a history that speaks to the importance of well-organized and coordinated civic action in the formulation of public policy, especially with regard to refugees and dealing with dictatorships; it also speaks to the significance of refugee and exile community contributions to Canadian society. In addition to retrospective interpretations by activists, through the documents that are reproduced here, we hear the voices of the churches, unions, civic organizations, government officials, corporate leaders, and others as events were unfolding, as they tried to convince each other about the directions that Canadian policy toward Chile and Latin America should take.