The monsters who’ve armed Israel throughout its genocide in Gaza are giving themselves greater capacity to intimidate and kill internationally. As forest fires burn out of control across the country and ever more Canadians sleep on the streets, our government is devoting unprecedented sums of public resources to a militarist conception of ‘security’.
Thursday Mark Carney announced $2 billion for more Light Armoured Vehicles. The General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada contract will increase Canada’s LAV force from 360 to 550.
On Tuesday Defence Minister David McGuinty announced $30 million over two years to create a new research facility to develop drone capabilities. Overseen by Canadian Joint Forces Command, the innovation centre will be dedicated to developing unmanned military systems.
Wednesday, the Liberals said they were joining the UK/Italy/Japan Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) to develop a sixth-generation stealth fighter jet. Canada will initially be an “observer” in the GCAP, which will spend tens, maybe hundreds, of billions of dollars on developing a more advanced warplane over the next decade. Canada’s role in GCAP is on top of ever-expanding fighter jet procurement, which has grown from a planned 65 jets under Stephen Harper to as many as 140 under Carney.
Last week the government announced a $800 million purchase of cruise missiles for Canada’s F-35 fighter jets. The Joint Missile Strike produced by US-based Raytheon and Norway’s Kongsberg may also be employed on Canada’s new submarines, according to the Canadian Defence Review article headlined “Canada’s Joint Strike Missile Acquisition Could Establish a New Era of Multi-Domain Precision Strike Capability.” Expected to cost $100 billion over their life cycle, the TKMS/Kongsberg Type 212CD submarines Canada recently selected will likely be capable of launching cruise missiles some 300 kilometres.
Alongside a slew of other ongoing procurements, the recently announced arms will boost the military’s capacity to kill internationally. As I detail in Stand on Guard for Whom: A People’s History of the Canadian Military, Canadian soldiers have participated in belligerent wars in Sudan (1884), South Africa (1899), World War 1 (1914), Korea (1950), Iraq (1990), Yugoslavia (1999), Afghanistan (2001) and Libya (2011). (While more complicated then officially described, World War II was ultimately morally justifiable.)
Despite the history of Canadian warfare and Ottawa’s continued complicity in horrific crimes in Gaza, there’s been little push back against expanding Canada’s war fighting capacity. Rather than engage in a debate about militarism, with all sides represented, the Carney government is manufacturing consent for war through a propaganda system mostly paid for by tax dollars that would be better spend on desperately needed social services.
They claim we need to spend on military might to defend our ‘democracy’ but the people who are profiting from all this don’t even believe in real democracy. They believe in one dollar one vote capitalism. And the military machine that Canada is building will invariably be used to wage war alongside the US Empire. Who voted for that?
Please email the leaders of the NDP and Greens – with a cc to the Prime Minister – to ask them to oppose Carney’s costly submarine purchase.