How to challenge Harper’s pro-war lobby in 2015 . . . .

[Oscar]

How to challenge Harper’s pro-war lobby in 2015

[ http://www.ceasefire.ca/?p=20813 ]

April 6, 2015

Dear Ceasefire.ca supporter,

EXCERPT:

. . . . I was determined to use my speech at the exclusive, high-level military conference as my chance to speak a little “truth to power.”

You see, I knew they were out there in the audience . . . two of Harper’s key military cabinet ministers, sitting in that grand ballroom at the fancy Ottawa Château Laurier hotel. Defence Minister Jason Kenney and his fellow Conservative, Veterans’ Affairs Minister Erin O’Toole, wouldn’t miss this pro-war gathering of the brass, chumming around with the old pro-war generals and Harper’s CEO buddies who have made a fortune from his wars.

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So accepting the unusual invitation to that military conference I mentioned was my chance to shake up the Ottawa establishment a bit.

Harper’s new “minister for war” Jason Kenney took the stage first, and delivered an awful speech, repeating the words “terrorists” and “bombs” over and over again, to the absolute delight of the pro-war lobbyists and Harper-boosters in the crowd.

But Harper’s minister went much further – praising his government’s dangerous Bill C-51, the so-called anti-terrorism bill which actually creates Harper’s own secret ‘spy police’, and potentially puts every Canadian who disagrees with Harper on CSIS’s watch list.

I took the stage afterward, and slammed Harper’s war in Afghanistan as a complete “debacle and tragedy.”

I’ll admit it . . . I was angry at what I had heard from Jason Kenney . . . I could feel the temperature getting hotter in the room.

What Kenney had been preaching was clearly Harper’s re-election plan: fighting hopeless wars in places like Iraq and Syria, while stoking fears about terrorists and fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment here at home.

Then I challenged Harper’s pathetic record at the United Nations, “The demand for UN Blue Helmets has never been greater – but Canada currently contributes just 34 troops or military experts and 84 police.” Canada is freeloading on the UN, and it’s just shameful.

I went even further – telling the roomful of military brass that the military action in Iraq, like the NATO-led air strikes in Libya in 2011, was a recipe for regional destabilization and chaos, the very conditions in which violent extremists like Islamic State thrive and grow. “The only way out of these quagmires,” I said, “is through UN-facilitated, internationally backed peace negotiations.”

Wow, that struck a nerve! In the discussion period, someone from the audience shouted, “Nobody here gives a rat’s ass about the UN!” (a rude comment for which he later apologized to me).

Maybe that narrow attitude is true for Harper’s pro-war crowd, but that’s not what Canadians think. We support the United Nations, and know that these conflicts require comprehensive political solutions that are beyond the reach of the military’s warplanes and missiles.

While Ambassador for Disarmament, I spent many years working for peace as a Canadian diplomat at the United Nations. More recently I have traveled to Afghanistan to work with local and international civil society groups seeking an end to war.

So I get a little “undiplomatic” when confronting dangerous, small-minded thinking from Harper’s gang in Ottawa.

Let’s work together to make this next election about peace and hope – not war and terror!

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As the new President of the Rideau Institute and a member of the Ceasefire.ca community with you, I want to hear from you!

Let’s not let Harper’s pro-war lobby steal Canada away from us. Together, we can make Canada a peace leader, once again!

In peace,

Peggy Mason
Rideau Institute and Ceasefire.ca
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