August 9 at 4:00pm: Picket at Guildford Town Centre, on 104th Avenue @ 152nd Street, Surrey, BC
As peace loving citizens and residents of Canada who want an end to war, we members of 50 groups collectively known as the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network, strongly oppose the Abbotsford Airshow. Events such as this serve to normalize and expand the arms trade, aggressive military policies, growing military budgets and aggressive military engagements.
It is especially troubling that the Abbotsford Airshow, which runs at the Abbotsford Airport from August 9 to 11, is taking place just after the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, and opening on that of Nagasaki, August 9. Public administrations and businesspeople should be organizing mass commemorations of the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear explosions and denouncing war and all weapons of mass destruction. Instead, Canadian and US military air forces are celebrating the technology of war including nuclear capable tech and military action at this show.
The Abbotsford Show is advertised as a family-friendly event or merely a benign display of aviation technology where young children are to admire the machinery of death by air. It is really a military event to promote war and war machinery. It teaches youth to overlook the destruction of life that is escalating around the world as tensions between the biggest powers grow and militarization is being ramped up in which yet again hundreds of thousands of civilians are being wounded and killed. There should be mass events to express the common yearning for world peace, demilitarization, cease-fires in Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan and all conflicts and negotiations to end them in a just way. Warfare is not entertainment!
In addition to the Canadian Snowbirds, the show is demonstrating the RCAF CF-18 Hornet jet fighter. There will be an RCAF drone demonstration on the Friday of the show. Both the drones and CF-18 are currently active. The US Airforce will be a major presence with a presentation of a training plane (USAF F-22 Raptor) and the USAF F-16 Fighting Falcon which are also being deployed around the world.
We are campaigning to stop the Canadian government’s plans to acquire of 88 fighter jets (F-35) for at least $70 billion. We underscore that such fuel-intensive craft contributes massively to climate disaster. We stand against the purchase of armed drones, too, as well as surveillance aircraft and IT.
Just as we staunchly protested the CANSEC arms trade fair, we adamantly protest the Abbotsford Airshow (and the national airshow in Toronto), as it is characteristically a military exhibition intended to promote Canada’s military materials and engagement. We oppose the arms trade and policies and actions of military aggression.
Signed: The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network (July 2024)