Christmas/New Years—Dec2024/Jan2025
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Sustainable Simcoe North

— by Madeleine Fournier of Green Orillia

Who pays the price of war? 

Canada has historically prided itself on its role as a global peacekeeper, an identity stemming largely from its contributions to United Nations peacekeeping missions and its promotion of international diplomacy and multilateralism. But is it, really? Instead, as World Beyond War puts it, “Canada is taking on a growing role as colonizer, warmonger, global arms dealer, and weapons manufacturer.” 

​​Canada is a country whose foundations and present are built on colonialism that has always served the purpose of removing Indigenous people from their land for resource extraction. We have seen just one of many examples in recent years, when Canada unleashed militarized state violence on Wet’suwet’en land defenders resisting the Coastal Gaslink pipeline on their territory. 

But Canada supports militarism abroad too. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Canada is the 17th largest exporter of military goods in the world and is the second biggest weapons supplier to the Middle East region.

The Canadian military plays a huge role in accelerating the climate crisis. Its outrageous carbon emissions are by far the largest source of all government emissions but are exempted from all of Canada’s national greenhouse gas reduction targets. Not to mention the devastating extraction of materials for war machines (from uranium to metals to rare earth elements) and toxic mine waste produced, the terrible destruction of ecological systems caused by the past few decades of Canada’s war initiatives, and the environmental impact of bases (source). 

It has been over one year of Israel’s assault on Gaza, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled is a plausible case of genocide. Mainstream media may have you believing that the events of October 7 justify the total and systemic extermination of the Palestinian people, but I would like to argue that nothing justifies genocide. 

Most reports are citing the death toll as sitting around 45,000, although a study published in The Lancet (one of the world’s top medical journals) estimated that the true number of deaths in Gaza could amount to over 186,000, taking indirect deaths into consideration, such as starvation and lack of health care. Over 90% of the population has been displaced, almost every hospital, school, university, and place of worship have been destroyed, hundreds of healthcare workers and journalists have been killed, and mass death from starvation is imminent. More women and children have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military over the past year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades, new Oxfam analysis has found. 

Canada approved $28.5M worth of military exports to Israel between October and December 2023. In comparison, Canadian companies exported $21.3M to Israel in military goods in 2022, and $27.8M in 2021. This means that Canada approved more exports of military goods to Israel in just the first three months of their genocidal war on Gaza than in any single year in the last 30 years (source). Weapons companies across Canada for years have been making a fortune off of the carnage in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine, but especially so in the past year. 

In March 2024, Canadian Parliament voted for a [watered down version] of a motion to end arms transfers to Israel. This is largely the result of sustained pressure from thousands of ordinary people taking to the streets and putting pressure on their politicians. Despite the wins the Arms Embargo Now campaign has had – and despite Ministers Joly and Trudeau’s frequent claims to have ended the export of Canadian weapons to Israel – the flow of arms has not stopped. The Canadian government has paused issuing any new permits for weapons exports to Israel. However, they have not stopped importing weapons from Israel, they have not suspended or cancelled 88% of the permits currently being used to ship arms to Israel, and they have not done anything to stop the vast majority of arms exports to Israel which don’t even need an export permit because they use a loophole that allows military goods to go to Israel via the US, unreported & unregulated (source). 

It’s also important to recognize that our local representatives in Simcoe North – MP Adam Chambers and MPP Jill Dunlop – have continued to support Israel and demonize support for Palestinians. See our blog post here for more information on this. 

Israel is blatantly committing war crimes and violating international humanitarian law. The International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ) have both put Israel on notice, but the violence has not stopped (mostly due to hegemony of the United States who has the power to block and veto United Nations resolutions). The only thing that will stop this is millions of people taking action and demanding an end to this genocide. “The best time to speak up was yesterday. The second best time is today.” 

For more resources and to take action, please check out and support these organizations in Canada (and locally) doing important work:

Green Orillia is a grassroots organization focused on climate action, social justice, advocacy, education, democracy, and community resilience in Orillia and area. We operate on Anishinaabeg Williams Treaty Territory. Follow Green Orillia on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, join the Facebook Discussion Group, sign up for the e-newsletter, or check out the website. Get in touch at greenorillia@gmail.com.