Mark Carney’s subservience to the US is stunning. In the latest examples, his government has formally joined Washington’s latest effort to militarize space and looks set to recommit to the F-35.
On Thursday the Ottawa Citizen reported, “the Liberal government has removed restrictions on missile defence activities, paving the way for Canada to join U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ system or any other similar initiatives.” During a July 15 visit to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) headquarters in Colorado Defence Minister David McGuinty reportedly “removed all restrictions on air and missile defence of Canada”.
It’s likely to cost tens of billions of dollars to participate in the Golden Dome, which will weaponize space and spur an arms race. Assisting Washington’s effort to further subordinate the world militarily makes a mockery of the prime minister’s claim to be distancing Canada from Donald Trump’s USA. Carney doesn’t appear to have even received any tariff relief in exchange for participating in Trump’s missile “defence” system.
Also Thursday Reuters reported that the review announced by Carney to look at the planned purchase of 88 F-35s has concluded it is best to move forward with the controversial fighter jet. After facing economic threats from the US, Spain and India have recently rejected the Lockheed Martin aircraft. Swiss politicians are also questioning their country’s F-35 purchase.
The US controls the source code and upgrades for the F-35, giving it an effective “kill switch” over the warplanes. Given Trump’s threats, it is shocking (perhaps even treasonous) that this country would pay huge sums to a US arms giant for a warplane that would be effectively controlled by the only country that could plausibly invade Canada.
The fighter jets are being purchased to enhance the Canadian military’s capacity to kill alongside maybe the most violent nation the world has ever seen. Since the early 1990s the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) has conducted 1600 offensive bombing missions in US-led wars. As I detail in Stand on Guard for Whom? A People’s History of the Canadian Military this country’s armed forces are largely oriented to assist the US empire.
The F-35 review and Golden Dome decision highlights Carney’s unwillingness to lessen Canada’s military subservience to its US counterpart. Despite appeals by ordinary Canadians to lessen ties amidst US trade and annexation threats, this country’s armed forces have maintained a slew of aggressive international deployments alongside the US. Joint naval patrols in far flung oceans, officer exchanges and US arms testing in Canada all seem to be continuing as normal. And as the F-35 review suggests, Canada’s US focused arms procurement largely continues.It’s unclear if a single one of the hundreds of treaty-level agreements, memoranda of understanding and bilateral forums on defence Canada has with the US military has been paused or canceled.
Under Carney, Canada continues to bolster the military of a country whose president has repeatedly mused about annexing Canada. The prime minister’s “elbows up” rhetoric in his election campaign turned out to be just words he thought Canadians wanted to hear. In reality, Carney has been too chicken to even skate into the corners to battle for the puck.
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