Peace Alliance Winnipeg held an information picket at the intersection of Osborne Street and River Avenue in Winnipeg on October 22, 2022 to call on Canada to play a constructive role in finding a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine, and to demand that Canada withdraw from NATO. The action was part of a cross-Canada week of activities by the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network (CWPJN) to insist that Canada #FundPeaceNotWar.
The action was well attended and response from people on the street was mostly positive. We distributed the following statement, based largely on the statement of the CWPJN).
No to imperialist wars
Photo: Paul S. Graham
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.
Photo: Paul S. Graham
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.
NO to imperialist wars, occupations, economic sanctions, and military interventions. YES to self-determination!
Stop arming Saudi Arabia
Photo: Paul S. Graham
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.
Canada Stop Arming Saudi Arabia!
Fund human needs, not destruction
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).
We need billions for housing, health care, jobs and climate, NOT for war profiteering!
Canada out of NATO
Photo: Paul S. Graham
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.
Canada must adopt an independent foreign policy free of all military alliances, including NATO.
Stop Provoking China
Photo: Paul S. Graham
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.
Washington and Ottawa, stop provoking war with Russia and China
MP Judy Sgro must cancel her planned trip to Taiwan.
Canada, US and UN Hands off Haiti!
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.
No military intervention in Haiti
End Canada’s complicity against the people of Haiti
Canada, US and UN out of Haiti
No to New Occupation of Haiti
Photo: Paul S. Graham
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