The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network will be organizing a weekend of action to “Stop the War, Stop NATO” from February 23-26, 2023 in solidarity with other pro-peace, anti-war actions occurring around the world at the same time. Visit this page for more information on virtual and in-person actions.
Across Canada, many Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network members action to reject Canada’s imperialist wars, occupations, sanctions and military interventions.
Interview with Ken Stone (Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War) on Canada-wide protests.
Peace Alliance Winnipeg statement calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and video of local action
Across Canada, the U.S. and around the world, peace activists are taking action January 13 – 22 to demand an end to imperialist wars, occupations, sanctions and military interventions. This call to action was initiated by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) in the U.S., marking Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and remembering his words from April 4, 1967 which still ring true today, “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world: My own Government, I can not be Silent.” This week of action is supported by the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network, a network of 45 peace groups across Canada.
An urgent demand for antiwar activists in Canada is No New Fighter Jets! On January 9, 2023 Canada’s Defense Minister Anita Anand announced that Canada will buy 88 F-35 fighter jets costing Canadian taxpayers $19 billion, with $7 billion approved for the first 16. Even these exorbitant prices are not the full story – the lifecycle cost of the 88 fighter jets is estimated to be at least $76.8 billion over 30 years, according to the No Fighter Jets coalition 2020 report, From Acquisition to Disposal: Uncovering the true cost of 88 new fighter jets. This fighter jets purchase is part of a massively expanding military budget. Military spending increased by 70% since 2014, and in 2022 Minister Anand announced that military spending will increase again by 70% in the next five years. Just in 2021, the government of Canada spent $33 billion on the military. This is money that is desperately needed for affordable healthcare, education, jobs and climate solutions. Furthermore, these fighter jets are fossil fuel intensive, using 1,340 gallons of fuel per hour, more than twice the average of what a standard car uses in one year!
This deadly, expensive and environmentally harmful fighter jet is designed for offensive strike first attacks and to carry B61-12 tactical nuclear weapons. This highlights the fact that the government of Canada has refused to sign the United Nations Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) despite demands from antiwar and peace activists. The TPNW requires that signatories “never under any circumstances… develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.”
The fighter jets purchase is being protested across Canada, during the January 13-22 week of action and also recently with the No Fighter Jets Coalition weekend of action from January 6-8 which had 13 actions across Canada demanding “No New Fighter Jets” and “Drop the F35 Deal!” The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network also encourages people in Canada to sign the parliamentary petition against the fighter jets purchase at https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-4217
Besides buying weapons of war, Canada is also producing and selling them. Today, the United Nations deems Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, after almost eight years of Saudi-led, U.S. backed and Canadian-armed war. This war has killed over a quarter of a million people, and has displaced an additional four million people. The Saudi-led coalition has bombed Yemeni markets, hospitals, and civilians, and yet Canada has exported over $8 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia since 2015, the year the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen began. The Trudeau Government continues to profit from its controversial $15 billion arms deal for armoured vehicles–killing machines which have been used against people in Yemen and in Saudi Arabia.
The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network calls for an end to the Saudi-led war on Yemen and demands that Canada Stop Arming Saudi Arabia!
Canada’s military exports have also reached Haiti. In October 2022 Canadian and U.S. warplanes delivered armoured vehicles and weapons to Haiti, in the midst of widespread protests for access to food, fuel, and basic necessities and against the country’s imperialist backed government. More recently on January 11, 2023 Canada made a second delivery of armoured vehicles to Haiti’s police. While the government of Canada is arming the illegitimate and unelected Prime Minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry, they are also keeping the option to occupy Haiti on the table. In October 2022 the U.S. drafted a United Nations Security Council resolution for the “deployment of a rapid action force to Haiti immediately”. This is a very dangerous move by Canada, the U.S., and their allies and will have devastating results for the people of Haiti.
The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network stands against Canada sending weapons to Haiti and demands No New Occupation of Haiti!
The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network opposes the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a U.S.- led military alliance of 30 countries, which undermines global peace and human security and is responsible for the deadly and destructive interventions in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya. For years, NATO has been provoking conflict with Russia. NATO’s expansion to Russia’s border and its training and arming of Ukrainian security forces have contributed to growing tensions and war in the region. NATO’s demand that allies buy new interoperable weapons is leading to a costly arms race. Carbon-intensive weapons systems like fighter jets, tanks, drones, and warships are exacerbating the climate crisis. Canada is complicit in U.S. wars and is pursuing an imperialist agenda.
The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network demands that Canada adopt an independent foreign policy free of all military alliances, including NATO.
For over 30 years, we have witnessed the acceleration of brutal imperial wars by the U.S. and their allies, including Canada, against the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Haiti, and other countries. These wars have killed millions, turned tens of millions into refugees, laid waste to infrastructure, impoverished citizens through sanctions, and overthrown governments. With the full support of the governments of the U.S. and Canada, the Zionist Israeli regime has continued to occupy Palestine, brutally kill and imprison Palestinian people, including children and journalists, demolish Palestinian homes and routinely bomb Gaza. When fleeing homelands that have become war zones, refugees are subjected to harrowing and dangerous journeys and met with racism and discrimination in the very countries responsible for the destruction of the refugees’ original homes.
The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network says NO to imperialist wars, occupations, economic sanctions, and military interventions, and YES to self-determination!
The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network supports the United National Antiwar Coalition’s week of action, and encourages peace loving people across Canada to join demonstrations and activities for the Week of Action January 13 – 22.
To view actions in the U.S. and around the world visit https://unac.notowar.net/martin-luther-king-jr-week-of-actions/
Together, let’s end imperialist wars and build a loving and peaceful world!
Human Rights, Canadian Imperialism and Haiti’s Fight for Self-Determination
Haitians are currently protesting on a massive scale and Canada is leading the international push for foreign military intervention. Why is Canada interested in military intervention? How are human rights concerns being leveraged to justify military expansion? How did we get here in the first place? This International Human Rights Day, join World BEYOND War Canada and the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network on December 10th at 5pm ET to hear from critical thinkers on the issues at hand.
Featuring:
>> Jean Saint-Vil – author and member of Solidarity Quebec Haiti. He is the co-founder of AKASAN (Ayisyen ki ap soutni Ayisyen nètalkole) and Jaku Konbit. Jean is an artist-activist immersed in Global Peace and Social Justice movements. (Jafrikayiti.com)
>> Dimitri Lascaris – lawyer, human rights activist and former candidate for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada. He is based in Montréal. Follow Dimitri on Twitter @dimitrilascaris
+ Poetry by Laura Doyle Péan – Laura Doyle Péan (they/them) is a queer Haitian-Quebecois poet and multidisciplinary artist committed to social justice and fascinated by the relationship between art and movement work. Born in Nionwentsïo (Quebec city), where they first got involved in intersectional feminist, LGBTQIA2S+, migrant justice and racial justice organizing, they moved to Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang (Montreal) in 2019, to attend university, and joined the fossil fuel divestment movement. They are also one of the founding members of Collective 1629, a Black-led Quebec-city-based collective fighting against racial profiling and other forms of anti-Black state violence in Nionwentsïo.
+ Special Intervention by Barbara Waldern – connecting human rights struggles in Haiti, the Philippines and beyond. Barbara represents Just Peace Committee, a member group of Canada-Wide Peace & Justice Network and the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS)
Moderated by Janine Solanki – Vancouver-based activist and organizer with Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO) a member group of Canada-Wide Peace & Justice Network
The recent death of a Canadian mercenary in Ukraine has prompted national news coverage and a defiant statement of condolences from Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe.
Joseph Hildebrand, who was killed near Bakhmut, Ukraine, was a farmer and a Canadian soldier who served two tours of duty during Canada’s thirteen-year role in the illegal US-led war and occupation of Afghanistan, which cost Canadian taxpayers at least $18 billion and resulted in 153 soldiers and Canadian officials losing their lives. During this year’s Remembrance Day observance in Regina, Premier Scott Moe called Joseph Hildebrand “a true Saskatchewan hero” and expressed condolences to his widow and daughter. (We also express our condolences.) Then, true to the militaristic culture of our times, Moe went on to call for the defeat of the Russian Federation.
The news that Canadians are dying in combat in Ukraine should come as no surprise. Earlier this year, a millionaire entrepreneur named Chris Ecklund in Hamilton, Ontario, created an online recruitment portal to enlist Canadians in the International Legion of Defence of Ukraine. This site apparently enabled close to 500 Canadians to risk their lives in a foreign land, for a foreign government about which they know little. Ecklund has not been prosecuted nor has his site been shut down. In addition, at least two ministers of the Trudeau government have likewise encouraged Canadians to “fight for Ukraine” and the government itself has reportedly dispatched Canadian special forces to fight on the ground.
However, few are speaking to the fact that Joseph Hildebrand and other Canadian “volunteers” are fighting illegally in Ukraine as mercenary combatants. Canada’s Foreign Enlistment Act makes it illegal for anyone to try to recruit Canadians to fight in foreign wars. The “volunteers” are also in violation of United Nations’ convention #44/34 banning the use of mercenaries. These Canadians run the risk of being arrested and charged by the Russian authorities under the UN convention. The punishment in Russia for such behaviour includes the death penalty.
There is an extensive history of post-cold war conflict in Ukraine, and of Canada’s involvement in it. The Canadian government spent one billion dollars from 1991 to 2014 to help the U.S. orchestrate both the Orange Revolution of 2004 and the Maidan Coup of 2014, which overthrew the democratically-elected government of President Yanukovych and replaced it with a Nazi-riddled junta that precipitated a war with the mainly Russian-speaking population of the Donbas. From 2014 to 2022, successive Canadian federal governments supported the coup government with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, sent it stockpiles of weapons, and trained some 33,000 Ukrainian soldiers under Operation Unifier, with full knowledge that some were members of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, and recognizing that the Ukrainian government deliberately undermined the Minsk Agreements which were negotiated to end the conflict. The Harper and Trudeau governments sought to turn Ukraine into a de facto NATO state with a de facto NATO army, as part of NATO’s expansion towards the frontiers of Russia, despite post-cold war pledges to then-Soviet President Gorbachev that NATO wouldn’t expand “one inch eastward” of a reunited Germany. About 14,000 people were killed in the conflict in the Donbas prior to Feb 24, 2022, and over one million were forced to flee to Russia as refugees.
The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network is aghast that our government, as a NATO member, orchestrated the conditions that led to the current war in Ukraine and the death of Joseph Hildebrand, and that incited about 500 Canadian mercenaries to travel to fight there illegally. One purpose in issuing the statement, then, is to avoid any further Canadian casualties.
We demand that the Trudeau government cease and desist from fueling this war with more arms, huge cash infusions (including $500 million announced on Nov. 14th), and mercenaries. The Canadian government has diplomats that should serve as more than extras for cocktail parties—please get them to bring the warring parties to the table to negotiate a solution.
The war in Ukraine could easily expand overnight into a wider European war and even into a global nuclear confrontation: Witness the war fever created over a single missile that landed in Poland, causing two casualties, on November 15th—in what turned out to be a “friendly fire” incident.
It’s urgent that Canada step up, seek to de-escalate the current conflict and repatriate all the Canadian troops and mercenaries currently in Ukraine. Instead of fighting battles for the U.S. empire, Canada should be fighting the battles that really matter, the ones that save human lives rather than extinguishing them. We ask Justin Trudeau and all our MPs to get to work fighting climate change, the pandemic, species extinctions, pollution, homelessness, and poverty here in Canada. The death of Joseph Hillebrand is one more reason for Canada to develop an independent foreign policy and withdraw from NATO, the military alliance that drew Canada into the conflict in Ukraine.
Cliquez ici pour lire la déclaration en français
Across Canada, the U.S. and around the world, peace activists will be on the streets from October 15th to 23rd, demanding an end to imperialist wars, occupations, sanctions and military interventions. This call to action was initiated by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) in the U.S. and has been taken up by the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network, a coalition of 45 peace groups across Canada.
For over 30 years, we have witnessed the acceleration of brutal imperial wars by the U.S. and their allies, including Canada, against the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Haiti, and other countries. These wars have killed millions, turned tens of millions into refugees, laid waste to infrastructure, impoverished citizens through sanctions, and overthrown governments. With the full support of the governments of the U.S. and Canada, the Zionist Israeli regime has continued to occupy Palestine, brutally kill and imprison Palestinian people, including children and journalists, demolish Palestinian homes and routinely bomb Gaza.
When fleeing homelands that have become war zones, refugees are subjected to harrowing and dangerous journeys and met with racism and discrimination in the very countries responsible for the destruction of the refugees’ original
homes.
From October 15th-23rd, activists will be saying NO to imperialist wars, occupations, economic sanctions, and military interventions, and YES to self-determination!
Today, the United Nations deems Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, after seven years of Saudi-led, U.S.-backed and Canadian-armed war. This war has killed over a quarter of a million people, and has displaced an additional four million people. The Saudi-led coalition has bombed Yemeni markets, hospitals, and civilians, and yet Canada has exported over $8 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia since 2015, the year the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen began. The Trudeau Government continues to profit from its controversial $15 billion arms deal for armoured vehicles–killing machines which have been used against people in Yemen and in Saudi Arabia.
From October 15 to 23rd, activists will be calling for an end to the Saudi-led war on Yemen and demanding that Canada Stop Arming Saudi Arabia!
While Canada is gaining ill-repute as an arms dealer to the world’s most despicable war-mongering governments, the Trudeau Government is also bolstering its own arsenal. Since 2014, Canadian military spending has increased by 70%. Last year, the Canadian government spent $33 billion on the military, which is 15 times more than it spent on environment and climate change. Defence Minister Anand announced military spending will increase by another 70% over the next five years on big-ticket items such as F-35 fighter jets, (lifetime cost: $77 billion), warships (lifetime cost: $350 billion), and armed drones (lifetime cost: $5 billion).
From October 15 to 23rd, activists will be demanding NO new fighter jets, warships, or drones! We need billions for housing, health care, jobs and climate, NOT for war profiteering!
The Canada-wide Peace and Justice Network opposes the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a U.S.- led military alliance of 30 countries, which undermines global peace and human security and is responsible for the deadly and destructive interventions in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya. For years, NATO has
been provoking conflict with Russia. NATO’s expansion to Russia’s border and its training and arming of Ukrainian security forces have contributed to growing tensions in the region. NATO’s demand that allies buy new interoperable weapons is leading to a costly arms race. Carbon-intensive weapons systems like fighter jets, tanks, drones, and warships are exacerbating the climate crisis. Canada is complicit in U.S. wars and is pursuing an imperialist agenda.
From October 15 to 23rd, activists will be demanding that Canada adopt an independent foreign policy free of all military alliances, including NATO.
NATO’s provocative war exercises and extension into the Asia-Pacific region are raising tensions with China and destabilizing the region. As if that weren’t bad enough, the governments of the U.S. and Canada are further inflaming diplomatic relations with China. For example, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, recently visited Taiwan, soon to be followed by a Canadian delegation led by MP Judy Sgro. These belligerent moves contradict the U.S. and Canada’s previous respectful and neutral stance regarding the Chinese position that Taiwan is an integral part of China.
Read & share the Network’s statement about MP Judy Sgro’s visit to Taiwan.
From October 15 to 23rd, activists will be demanding that Washington and Ottawa stop provoking war with Russia and China, and asking that MP Judy Sgro cancel her planned trip to Taiwan!
Canadian and U.S. warplanes have landed in Haiti in the midst of widespread protests for access to food, fuel, and basic necessities and against the country’s imperialist-backed government. Imperialists are planning to occupy Haiti under the auspice of the United Nations. The U.S. has drafted a United Nations Security Council resolution for the “deployment of a rapid action force to Haiti immediately”. This is a very dangerous move by Canada, the U.S., and their allies and will have devastating results for the people of Haiti. As anti-war and peace activists in Canada, we must strongly stand against military intervention in Haiti.
As we take the streets across the country this week for our #FundPeaceNotWar actions, we must stand up against military intervention in Haiti and Canada’s complicity against the people of Haiti. Canada, US and UN out of Haiti! No to New Occupation of Haiti!
The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network encourages peace-loving people across Canada to join demonstrations and activities across Canada for the Week of Action from October 15-23 or to organize your own actions.
To view actions in the U.S. and around the world visit www.unacpeace.org.
Together, let’s end imperialist wars and build a loving and peaceful world!
Thank you to everyone who came out to an action on from October 15-23 in 9 cities across Canada to demand that Canada #FundPeaceNotWar. From October 15th to 23rd, at least 11 actions took place in 9 cities including Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Waterloo, Ottawa, Hamilton, South Georgian Bay, Winnipeg, and Montreal. More photos, videos, and news coverage HERE.
Wednesday, October 19th, 5PM Enercare Centre, Toronto
(Updated date as of October 11th)
100 Princes’ Blvd Unit 1, Toronto, ON M6K 3C3, Canada
The Canadian Armed Forces are holding a recruiting event through the Ontario College Information Fair 2022. Socialist Action is committed to non-violent direct action. We plan to disrupt military recruitment by exposing the reality of war. We will protest the event by standing outside the entrance with various signs that inform students of the coercive actions behind the Canadian military’s recruitment. We welcome any anti-war and peace movement organizations to join us in this event.
Our demands are:
Please get in touch with us if you are interested in collaborating.
Event information is linked here
Sunday, October 23rd, 1PM at Parkette on the Southeast corner of Spadina Road and Bloor Street, Toronto
The Toronto Association for Peace and Solidarity and the Canadian Peace Congress are planning to hold a demonstration on Sunday, October 23rd, starting at 1:00 p.m. The venue will be the parkette on the Southeast corner of Spadina Road and Bloor Street in Toronto.
Sunday, October 16th, 4:30PM Place du 6e décembre, Chemin Queen Mary, Côte-des-Neiges, Ville de Montréal
THE PEOPLE SAY, “NO TO US WAR!”
Demonstrate for just peace against US-led aggression
Join International Women’s Alliance (IWA) in Canada and friends at the at 16:30, Sunday, October 16th at Chemin Queen Mary in Côte-des-Neiges.
For more information, follow IWA here.
Thursday, October 20th, 9AM, Parc Saint-Simon-Apôtre, 200 Rue Legendre O, Ville de Montréal
Canada must sign the nuclear ban treaty (TPNW)!
World BEYOND War Montreal and partners will gather to march to the office of Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs. The march is about 10 minutes long on city sidewalks. We will have flyers, banners, and a letter demanding that Canada sign the sign the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear weapons.
Organizational and individual signers welcome! To sign the letter, click here.
Saturday, October 22nd, 2-3:30PM Westminster Quay, 8th and Colombia, New Westminster, BC
Vancouver area network groups and their friends will again demonstrate for just peace: Mobilization against Wars and Occupation, Fire this Time Social Justice Movement, Just Peace Committee and other affiliates of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles, World Beyond War, Global Peace Alliance-BC Society.
While the U.S. pours more weapons into the proxy war in Ukraine–holding open the possibility of direct confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia, the war fanatics in Washington seem determined to start even more fires around the world. Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan; hints that the U.S. may be moving towards confrontation with China as well as strikes against Iran; and reports that new U.S./south Korea war games will practice a “decapitation” strike against the north (DPRK): all show the urgent need to speak out.
Today working people face escalating costs of food and energy, recession, growing insecurity and attacks on efforts to unionize. Sanctions on developing nations hurt impoverished workers there, while U.S. sanctions on Russia and China are at least partially responsible for rising energy prices and the current wave of inflation in many European and N. American countries.
Check out the Facebook event here.
Saturday, October 22nd, 10AM – 3:30PM Arnold Centre 135 Fennell Avenue West Hamilton, ON L9C 7V7
Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War
Register HERE: From Hegemony to Global Democracy: A Teach-In on Geopolitical Conflict
We are very pleased to present a special Teach-In event this month!
On Saturday, October 22, join us for a full two-session Teach-In about the weighty global conflicts that demand the world’s attention.
Our talented panelists will address NATO’s present conflicts with Russia and China, the changes that are happening in the world, and what Canada’s role should be.
Check out the event facebook page here.
Saturday, October 22nd 5:30-PM, Chilean community association, 519 4774 Westwind Drive NE Calgary
Join us for “Peace Potluck and Fun”
Friday, October 21st, 2PM outside the Federal Building on Hurontario Street, Collingwood
South Georgian Bay chapter of WBW (Pivot2Peace)
will hold an action on Friday, October 21 outside the
Federal Building on Hurontario Street, Collingwood, at 2:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 22nd, 12-1PM – River and Osborne, Winnipeg MB, R3L 0C9
Sunday, October 16 1-2PM, Waterloo Public Square, 75 Erb St. Waterloo
Ceasefire Now: Stop the War & the Weapons
Our peace rally at the Waterloo Public Square this Sunday is in solidarity with the #FundPeaceNotWar Week of Action.
From October 15th to 23rd, join Canadians across the country in demanding NO new fighter jets, warships, or drones! We need billions for housing, health care, jobs and climate, NOT for war profiteering!
We are also calling for a ceasefire and an end to the war in Ukraine. Shamefully, Canada continues to export weapons and military aid instead of supporting negotiations. We are risking dangerous nuclear escalation. We are also derailing global cooperation for climate action and worsening poverty. Canada is also exporting weapons to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt and many other countries that foment violence. All wars must stop including in Yemen, Palestine etc. We need peace for people and the planet! Local event organized by the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW).
Afterward, we will go to Cafe 22 for coffee. Come & join us!
Waterloo rally on Facebook: https://fb.me/e/2VfeG3FjV
Sunday, October 16 2PM, US Embassy (meet on the long stairway) 490 Sussex Dr, Ottawa, ON K1N 1G8, Canada
Just Voices choir will sing three peace songs. We will bring signs calling for negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine and defuse nuclear war.
Letter Writing
CEASEFIRES AND NEGOTIATIONS NOW!
DISARM NOW! BAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
On United Nations International Peace Day, 9.21.2022, the need for de-escalations, negotiations, disarmament and understanding could not be more urgent. Nuclear war is looming, especially as Russia may be motivated to retaliate against the US, Europe and Canada. Devastating military conflicts are dragging on and increasing in number while the arms trade and militarism are on the rise. We are faced with mass deaths, starvation and displacement and obliteration of biological and social ecologies. Economic sanctions are today being a great cause for deprivation and insecurity; we oppose such tools of war, too, just as we oppose war profiteering.
The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network, an association of numerous organizations from coast to coast in Canada working for peace, calls for all peace-loving and concerned people to stand up and speak up for genuine and lasting peace on September 21. It will take a united, worldwide effort to attain peaceful resolutions and set humanity on the path toward peaceful coexistence. Let us work toward saving life and the wise use of the planet. Peace will allow the people of the world to find solutions to problems such as economic instability, global warming, food insecurity, lack of housing and so on.
The military gobbles up huge quantities of natural resources, destroying life and cultures. It is highly polluting. The US military, the world’s largest consumer of crude oil, is estimated to have a carbon footprint bigger than other countries. Extraction and force often go hand in hand, violating land and human rights.
The Peace and Justice Network holds the Canadian government and many big corporations responsible for their part in aggression. We object to the subordination of Canadian foreign policy to US foreign policy. We call for Canada to get out of NATO and distance itself from US / NATO policy. We want Canada to work towards ending wars in and military projects such as the Ukraine, Yemen and Syria, and terminating military exercises such as RIMPAC and those by the Korean Peninsula. Canada should condemn Israel’s illegal and wanton occupation of Palestine. We also demand that Canada’s military budget be decreased so as to release more funds for much needed social protection and development. Furthermore, we insist that Canada sign the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The Network is against the proposed purchase of 88 F-35 fighter jets, whose purchase will cost Canadians around $39 billion. We stand against the purchase of armed drones, as well. What’s more, we oppose the sale of light armoured vehicles or other supplies for Saudi Arabia that would be implemented for further attacks on Yemen or others. The Saudi Arabia-led coalition against Yemen has caused an extreme humanitarian disaster and must be stopped.
Join the demonstrations and other activities to support the campaigns for ceasefires, disarmament and negotiations. Demand that Canada get out of NATO and disentangle itself from US foreign affairs. Let us work to replace the war economy with a new human project for genuine and lasting peace in a caring world.