I went to buy some furniture off a retired guy named Bob Thomson. We got to talking and I couldn't believe his story. He told me that he worked at CIDA in the 70s until he got fired. In 1973 he saw the Cdn ambassador to Chile's cables and was horrified by what he read. 1/

In them ambassador Andrew Ross said that while the violence of Pinochet's coup was lamentable the ppl being rounded up in stadiums were just riff raff & nothing to be concerned about. He advised Canada to quickly recognize the military junta & deny ayslum status to Chileans 2/

Ross described the mass killings as “abhorrent but understandable" and said that the "military have assumed [a] probably thankless task of sobering up [the country]. Once painful withdrawal symptoms have been overcome, they will probably be delighted to arrange elections"

Thanks to Ross, Canada recognized Pinochet. In the weeks following, over 250,000 people were rounded up in the national stadium. More than 3,000 were killed or disappeared.
Bob, outraged, decided to leak the cables to the NDP and the media. 4/

The leaked cables created a frenzy in the media & sparked a resistance movement with hundreds of church groups, NGOs, students, and trade unions. Together, they forced the govt to asylum to 7,000 Chileans and changed Canada's immigrations laws to create a path for refugees 5/

Bob was fired and the minister of external affairs tried for years to criminally prosecute him. He was unsuccessful but Bob was never able to work in govt again.

In 2013, 40 years later, CJFE honoured Bob with an award for integrity 6/6 https://www.cjfe.org/2013_integrity_award_winner_bob_thomson

Bob later returned to Chile in 1987, under Pinochet's reign, and helped connect families of political prisoners to Canadian NGOs -- and was almost killed for it. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/bob-thomson-blowing-the-whistle-on-chiles-1973-brutality

More information on Canada's role in overthrowing the democratically elected Allende and supporting Pinochet's reign of terror: https://twitter.com/compartycanada/status/1171696075310272512?s=19