by Tamara Lorincz
I live in a country that has increased military spending when Indigenous people live without the most basic security in dilapidated homes with dirty water.
I live in a country that is spending $800 million more on NATO when more poor families are using food banks.
I live in a country that will not sign a treaty to ban the most dangerous weapon of mass destruction.
I live in a country that just spent $3 billion in an untendered contract for new tanks when 235,000 people are homeless.
I live in a country that is planning on spending $19 billion for new fighter jets when we are in a climate emergency.
I live in a country that is building warships for $77 billion instead of building affordable housing and public transit.
I live in a country that exports tanks to Saudi Arabia for its war against starving Yemen.
I live in a country that sells rifles and bombs to Israel to kill Palestinians.
I live in a country that has illegal sanctions against the suffering people of Venezuela, North Korea, Nicaragua and Syria.
I live in a country that refuses to be held accountable for war crimes committed against the people of Afghanistan.
I live in a country that has its guns and tanks pointed at the people of Russia.
I live in a country that feels no remorse for bombing the people of Serbia, Libya, Syria and Iraq.
I live in a rich country that had no shame overthrowing the government of the poorest country in the western hemisphere, Haiti.
I live in a country that is building pipelines for the extraction of the dirtiest oil that is killing the future and hope of its children.
Canada is my country.
[My first poem inspired by Nunavut MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq’s powerful farewell speech in Parliament and dedicated to my brother who understood oppression and injustice. Foreign policy starts at home. Please feel free to contact me: tlorincz@dal.ca]