| Sumario: | The writer discusses how the violence inflicted on Somalis by Canadian soldiers sent to Somalia as peacekeepers in late 1992 disappeared from Canadian national and legal consciousness. The disappearance of the atrocities into the national mythology relied on the construction of Somalia as a place that was the opposite of Canada in all respects. The encounter between Canadian troops and the Somali population possessed many of the characteristics of a colonial encounter. The Somali population was constituted as a force that threatened to engulf the innocent peacekeeping troops from Canada—a threat that it was only possible to alleviate through violence. The writer discusses the sense that was made of the violence in Somalia in an official Canadian inquiry, applying Anthony Farley's idea that for white people, race is a type of pleasure in one's body that is achieved by humiliating the Other and then, by denying the entire process. She asserts that understanding what happened in Somalia within the confines of colonial frames enabled Canada and those directly involved in the Somali affair to deny accountability for the violence.
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