Homes Not Bombs occupies Global Affairs and protests against CANSEC
weapons show
By Kevin Shimmin
It began with a welcome by Elder Evelyn Commanda, to the
unceded and unconquered territory of the Algonquin nation. Her powerful
statement reminded us why we were gathered: “We walk on our ancestors. And the
dust of my ancestors is being used for war.” Her protection gave us courage to
resist the purveyors of war: “I will be laying down tobacco for you today and
tomorrow to welcome you to our territory.”
On May 24 to 25, 2016, members of Homes Not Bombs – along
with the Ottawa Raging Grannies, Christian Peacemaker Teams, NoWar/Paix, and
Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade – utilized a variety of creative means to
protest against CANSEC, the annual war and weapons show in Ottawa. CANSEC has
been a blight on Mother Earth for 16 years running, bringing together the
world’s worst human rights violators with the producers of today’s deadliest
weaponry. The return of a Liberal government has in no way altered the wholehearted
support of the PMO for CANSEC. No less than six members of Justin Trudeau’s
cabinet enthusiastically participated in this year’s glorification of death and
destruction. Having recently signed the export permits on Canada’s $15 billion
arms deal with Saudi Arabia, Trudeau has signalled he is ready to do business
with some of the world’s most brutal regimes.
Indigenous elders teach us that the key to protecting our
peoples and our planet from war and annihilation is to wake up. To wake up to
the fact that the production of arms is what makes war possible. To wake up to
the fact that millions of people are displaced by wars that are fought with weapons
made in Canada. To wake up to the fact that the ongoing history of Canada is
one of colonialism, imperialism and militarism. From chemical warfare in
Vietnam to helicopter gunships in Sri Lanka to cruise missiles in Iraq, it is
weapons made in Canada that have continued to make death and destruction possible.
Elder Commanda asks us never to forget that it was uranium taken from
Algonquin, Dene, Navajo and Hopi lands that was used for the nuclear bombs that
killed hundreds of thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and left millions
permanently maimed by radiation.
Waking up to the fact that Canada is not a peace-keeping
nation, and never has been, can be a hard reality for many to face. To see
clearly that our nation was created out of violence and continues to spread
violence around the world, is indeed a bitter pill to swallow. The alternative,
however, is to continue walking around in a dangerous delusion that actively
condones war, torture, insecurity and destruction of the natural environment.
Healing is urgently needed. For healing to begin, the practice which continues
the trauma must be stopped.
On the second day of protests, eight members of the Homes
Not Bombs and Christian Peacemaker Teams crew entered the Office of Global
Affairs in Ottawa to demand an immediate end to Canada’s arms deal with Saudi
Arabia. We asked for a meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion, who
signed the export permits for Trudeau. Acknowledging that Dion was with Trudeau
in Japan for a G7 meeting that day, we felt it was imperative for him to board
the next flight back to Ottawa to address the life-threatening situation posed
by the arms deal.
Holding the banner inside Global Affairs created quite a stir
With weapons purchased from its Western partners, Saudi
Arabia commits some of the most heinous atrocities in the world today,
including torture, beheadings, murder of unarmed demonstrators, and bombings of
civilians. The United Nations has condemned the House of Saud for its ongoing
war in Yemen, where aerial bombings have targeted civilian neighbourhoods and
marketplaces, killing thousands of children, women and men. Video evidence and
testimony from dissidents in Saudi Arabia have confirmed that the regime uses
LAVs (light armoured vehicles) mounted with machine guns to kill demonstrators
– the same type of LAVs that have long been purchased from Canada and a new
generation of which is slated to roll off the assembly line in London, Ontario
by year’s end. Some of these Western partners, notably Sweden, have been so
sickened by Saudi Arabia’s flagrant disregard for human rights that they have
halted arms sales to the regime indefinitely.
But not Canada. A few years back, to avoid the scrutiny of
congressional oversight in its home country, American weapons giant General
Dynamics began lobbying the Canadian government for a lucrative deal with Saudi
Arabia. Former war-mongers Stephen Harper and John Baird gleefully obliged.
Then, having rid itself of the Harper-Baird brigade in 2015, Canada simply
replaced old Conservative war-mongers with new Liberal ones. While the deal was
sealed by the previous government, it was the Trudeau-Dion administration that
gave the green light to start delivering the next round of LAVs to Saudi
Arabia.
A few months back, Dion had a choice. With pen in hand, he stared
ominously at three little boxes on the export permits – Yes, No, or Call for
Review. Since everyone and their mother seem to know about the human rights
situation in Saudi Arabia, one would assume Dion would check the No box, or, perhaps
having a temporary lapse of reason, at least call for a review. Yet, defying
all assumptions, defying all of the Liberals’ “sunny ways” proclamations about
feminism and gender-parity, the foreign minister checked the yes box for an
arms deal with one of the most misogynist regimes in the world. All in a day’s
work for Canada’s new leading spokesmen for the arms industry.
So now on this sunny day in May, we were more than willing
to wait it out until Dion arrived back in his office, and get this arms deal
canceled once and for all. In doing so, Dion could perhaps salvage his own
reputation, as he now found himself in the company of war criminals. The
opening line of our letter to him offered this olive branch: “we request to
meet with you immediately to bring about an end to your complicity in war
crimes”. While waiting for Dion, we proceeded to hand out copies of the letter
to the hundreds of office workers streaming through the enormous lobby of
Global Affairs. Many took the letter with a smile, saying “I know why you’re
here” in an unmistakable tone of agreement that the arms deal was an
abomination.
General Chaos welcoming his friends from the arms industry, as survivors of war zones try to transform his way of thinking
So, selling arms to countries which purportedly abide by
human rights law was a non-starter for us. Our demand for an end to the arms
deal with Saudi Arabia represented a beginning, not an end. The cancellation
would be an important step towards transforming Canada from a militarized
economy to a green and sustainable one. It is a vision of society which most
people undoubtedly want for themselves and future generations. As the RCMP and
Ottawa police descended on the three of us who were holding our banner of peace
and handing out letters, even the guy from Dion’s office appeared to be
experiencing a bit of a moral dilemma. While calling on the police for our
immediate removal, he quietly whispered to us something quite revealing: “I
understand why you are here. It’s a horrible deal. What can I do though? I have
to do my job”.
No – you don’t have to do your job. You don’t have to
condone and actively participate in the blood-soaked arms industry. You don’t
have to repeat the lies of your government. It is not about jobs. It is not
about foreign relations. It’s about merchants of death and our active
complicity in allowing them to profit from the murder of people at home and
around the world. The weapons industry can indeed be stopped – by the act of non-cooperation.
It took only three people being arrested and five people supporting us to shut
down the Department of Global Affairs and jam the system on May 25. A small
committed group of people posed a threat so serious to the government that the
lobby was sealed shut after only 45 minutes of us conversing with the
department’s workers.
As this goes to press, we are learning that Boeing has met
with Global Affairs no less than 10 times this year, in an effort to help the
government buy new fighter jets to the tune of $75 million apiece. This,
despite the fact that such a purchase is entirely unnecessary for the next
decade, according to even the staunchest military analysts. This, despite the
fact that new fighter jets would be used for one solitary purpose, as anyone in
Syria, Libya, Iraq or Afghanistan can attest to – murdering people from above.
By ejecting peace activists, yet welcoming weapons manufacturers with open arms
(and behind closed doors), it is clear where the government stands: the demand
for peace is simply unbearable to the Trudeau arms brigade. And it demonstrates
what can lead to a world that is ultimately free from the clutches of the
merchants of death – consistent and spirited nonviolent civil disobedience!
Kevin Shimmin is a union organizer and a founding member of
Homes not Bombs.
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