Halifax

Paved with Good Intentions? Canada's development NGOs from Idealism to Imperialism

Book launch

12:00pm
- 1:30pm
Thursday March 21 2013

Paved with Good Intentions? Canada's development NGOs from Idealism to Imperialism

Book Launch with Author and Activist Dru Oja Jay

Thursday, March 21

12:00-1:30 p.m.

Room 204, Weldon Law Building, 6061 University Avenue, Dalhousie University, Halifax

Author and Journalist Dru Oja Jay will speak about his new book "Paved with Good Intentions: Canada's development NGOs from Idealism to Imperialism (Fernwood Publishing, 2012)." In 1988 a Parliamentary report declared, "NGOs are as Canadian as hockey". Few institutions embody the image of Canada's international benevolence like non-governmental organizations devoted to development abroad. But do the actions of Canadian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) genuinely match this perception? Ranging from poverty in Africa to turmoil in Haiti, from Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to the Afghanistan war, the "Paved with Good Intentions" uncovers the darker side of the role played by NGOs.

Dru Oja Jay will also discuss the impacts of the Harper government's recent funding cuts to progressive NGOs which is just the latest in a long history of disciplining NGOs that criticize the government's destructive extraction, profiteering & neoliberalism agenda. Jay will critically examine the integration between the Canadian military and aid workers overseas and the new trend of public-private partnerships for aid projects that support Canadian mining activities abroad.

BIO: Dru Oja Jay is a Montreal-based writer and organizer. He is co-founder of the Media Co-op, a founding editor of the Dominion, and a long-time solidarity activist. Dru is a co-author of "Offsetting Resistance", a report about the effects of foundation funding on environmental NGOs. His latest book is "Paved with Good Intentions: Canada's development NGOs from Idealism to Imperialism."

Free public event. Books will be available for sale.

Hosted by the Halifax Peace Coalition the Halifax Media Coop, and the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group. Co-sponsored by Dalhousie University's International Development Studies and the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies.

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/439051219504533/

For more information, please visit: www.halifaxpeacecoalition.ca AND http://www.pavedwithgoodintentions.ca/

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