“Vocal but not particularly strong”? Air Canada’s ill-fated vacation package to Rhodesia and South Africa and the anti-apartheid movement in Canada

Abstract

In mid-1971, an advertisement from Air Canada (then a Canadian Crown corporation) and South African Airways appeared in the pages of the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. It offered prospective vacationers the chance of a lifetime: the opportunity to tour the game parks of South Africa and Rhodesia, including the famous Kruger National Park, with stays afterward in various African cities.

News of Air Canada’s “opportunity” was met with a great deal of controversy. Linda Freeman has described anti-apartheid forces in the 1970s as “vocal, but not particularly strong” and other scholars argue that Canadian policy toward South Africa did not change substantially between 1961 and 1984. Still, this case study demonstrates that despite the fact that no major Canadian economic, strategic, or political interest was involved in South Africa and that while Canadian trade with South Africa during the period in question was relatively marginal, the Canadian government gave the concerns of those appalled at Air Canada’s intransigence some attention. More importantly, so did Air Canada. Where government failed to act, public pressure forced a major Canadian corporation to rethink its business practices to adhere to international human rights norms.