CWPJN Statement Against Canadian Involvement in the War in West Asia

Our Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network clearly speaks for the majority of Canadians when we demand that the Carney government take no part in the flagrantly illegal US/Israeli aggression on Iran. Canadians have made their voices heard. According to a recent Angus Reid poll, 75% of Canadians oppose Canadian involvement in the US/Israeli war on Iran.

Mark Carney’s decision to join a “coalition of the willing” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, closed by the Islamic Republic of Iran to shipping by western interests, and to come alongside NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) to the aid of Arab monarchies in the Persian Gulf clearly disregards this majority Canadian sentiment.

The prime minister’s unpopular moves come at a time when the US/Israeli war drive has reached new levels of brutality, now indiscriminately bombing Palestinian, Lebanese and Iranian children, families, hospitals, schools, civilian infrastructure, historical sites, and Iran’s oil and gas facilities. In Iran, more than 2,000 people have been killed since the unprovoked US/Israeli bombings began on February 28, 2026. This death toll includes 168 children at a girls elementary school in Minab, in the south of Iran.

NOT CANADA’S WAR!

The US/Israeli military intervention vs. Iran is not Canada’s war. Rather, it is a reckless and illegal war of choice by the US empire (and its Israeli proxy) to try to reduce Iran to a failed state, as the US and NATO did to Libya, Somalia, and Syria, with tremendously dire consequences for the peoples of those countries. The US would like to remove Iran as a political/military force in West Asia because sovereign and independent governments, such as Iran’s, stand in the way of complete US domination of the petroleum-rich region and, in fact, the entire world.

Canadians stand to gain nothing from the US military adventure against Iran but rather will experience a worsening affordability crisis, more homelessness, and fewer supplies of the necessities of life. Furthermore, Canadian military families might suffer the loss of loved ones returning in body bags from West Asia. Finally, Canadians will suffer a heightened environmental crisis due to a prolonged war which is already escalating towards a nuclear confrontation.

The USA, under Trump, has repeatedly threatened to annex Canada and has launched economic warfare against us Canadians. It is hypocritical, and dangerous, then, for the prime minister, who railed against US tariffs and annexation threats, to advocate now for supporting the USA and its vassals in West Asia.

We note with satisfaction that, earlier this week, Mark Carney condemned Israel’s invasion of Lebanon as “illegal” and called for a ceasefire there. We call upon the Carney government to go further:

1) condemn the US/Israeli military attack on Iran as a flagrant violation of international law;

2) listen to the voices of Canadians in the recent Angus Reid poll and bring home all Canadian troops from bases in West Asia and from US and NATO command centres in West Asia;

3) respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran by re-establishing diplomatic relations with Tehran, cut by PM Harper in 2012; by restoring to Iran its embassy and cultural properties in Canada seized by the Trudeau government in 2019; by terminating all of Canada’s coercive economic measures against Iran, its armed forces, and citizens; and by removing Iran’s armed forces from Canada’s current list of “terrorist entities”;

4) completely stop the shipment of Canadian arms to Israel and remove the charitable status of those Canadian organizations that issue tax receipts for contributions to Israel’s genocide in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank;

5) develop an independent foreign policy by quitting the nuclear-armed NATO, signing the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and observing the UN rules-based order which prohibits meddling in the internal affairs of, and threats of violence against, UN member states.