Canada's role to end apartheid

On this day of the emotional memorial for Nelson Mandela, we're starting with Canada in the fight against apartheid, an effort the then White-ruled South African government tried to counter with efforts from its Ambassador here, Glen Babb. It was a time when some in Brian Mulroney's own party and many business leaders didn't approve of sanctions or the push...

CBC Radio · Posted: Dec 10, 2013 12:00 AM EST | Last Updated: December 10, 2013

Canada's role in helping end apartheid is more complicated than we think

I felt when we came in that the support Canada had been giving to Mandela and the ANC and the fight against apartheid was both tepid and inconsistent with our values. And we were not raising the flag with the vigour that we ought to have been.Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney

Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney explained to Evan Solomon on The House this weekend that when he took office in 1984, he believed apartheid was unacceptable to most Canadians and that it was time to take a principled stand on the issue.

I made this a priority of the government and indicated to the cabinet that we would fight this at the United Nations, at the G7, at the Commonwealth and at the Summit la francophone. Because remember with the U.S. and U.K. out, Canada was the leading industrialized commonwealth player and G7 player who was in full support of Mandela, and so they needed a white industrialized country in support of the ANC's objectives and we were it.Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney

Our guest John Schram feels former
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was
viscerally committed to ending
apartheid. (CP / Adrian Wyld)

Canadian sanctions would stay in place until Nelson Mandela asked Canada to lift them in 1993. Mr. Mandela believed those sanctions helped free him. This morning, Prime Minister Stephen Harper -- along with former Prime Ministers Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien, Kim Campbell and Joe Clark -- are all in South Africa for Nelson Mandela's memorial. And both Brian Mulroney and Joe Clark are being singled out for their role in helping end apartheid.

John Schram worked closely with both men. He was minister-counsellor at the Canadian Embassy in South Africa from 1988-1992. He's now a distinguished senior fellow at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. John Schram was on Amherst Island, near Kingston Ontario.

For most Canadians, opposition to apartheid and white rule now seems obvious and Canada was on the right side of history. But at the time, it was all a lot less clear. Not everyone believed Nelson Mandela should go free, or that the ANC was trustworthy or that sanctions were desirable.

Linda Freeman teaches politics and African studies at Carleton University. She is the author of The Ambiguous Champion - Canada and South Africa in the Trudeau and Mulroney Years. We reached her in Ottawa.

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This segment was produced by The Current's Lara O'Brien and Debbie Pacheco.

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