Mark Carney is assisting Israeli/US belligerence in a slew of ways. From Lebanon to the Gulf, Ottawa is enabling dastardly crimes that could push the region into chaos.
On Sunday Carney spoke with the prime minister of Lebanon, Nawaf Salam. The read out noted, “the Prime Minister expressed support for the clarity of the decision taken by the Government of Lebanon to outlaw Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Prime Minister Carney reiterated Canada’s position that Hezbollah must immediately cease its attacks on Israel and called for all parties to de-escalate and respect Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Carney didn’t criticize the Israeli invasion, which has killed 500 Lebanese and displaced 15% of the country. Israel is seeking to permanently depopulate a large swath of southern Lebanon. Before Hezbollah launched some rockets in response to the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Israel violated the ceasefire 10,000 times, killing 300, according to the UN mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Instead of pushing others to follow our odious path, Hezbollah should be removed from Canada’s terror list as it’s nobly resisting Israeli expansionism and violence.
In a follow up from Carney’s speech Global Affairs put out a series of posts about Lebanon on Tuesday that failed to mention, wrote Dave Gray-Donald, “which country bombed the UNIFIL facility, bombed Beirut, has killed hundreds of Lebanese people and gave evacuation orders to displace nearly a million.” In contrast Spain’s foreign minister José Manuel Albares has denounced Israel’s “invasion” of Lebanon as a “tremendous mistake”.
Canada’s statements are part of Ottawa’s effort to further subordinate Lebanon to US and Israeli dictates, as I detailed a year ago in “Helping Lebanon or working for the US and Israel?” As part of this effort the Canadian Training and Assistance Team-Lebanon has bolstered the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) as a counterweight to Hezbollah. LAF receives about half its budget from the US and has received tens of millions of dollars in Canadian support.
On Sunday foreign affairs minister Anita Anand spoke with her Israeli counterpart. There’s no indication she criticized the genocidal apartheid state’s violence in Lebanon or Iran. Similarly, Carney spoke with Donald Trump about Iran. Did Carney offer the lunatic US president assistance?
With US special forces operating in Iraqi Kurdistan and reports of new deployments it’s important to recognize the close ties between Canada’s elite JTF2 and their US counterparts. Canada’s special forces have been covertly dispatched with US fighters during major wars in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan (as well as lesser conflicts in Haiti, Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Congo, Peru and Colombia, etc.). JTF2 also have longstanding ties to Kurdish forces in Iraq so Canadian special forces may already be there (After substantial questioning the government admitted there are 200 Canadian troops in the region).
The Communications Security Establishment is another part of Canada’s US-aligned foreign policy apparatus likely playing a part in this war. With a $1 billion budget and 4,000 employees, CSE is Canada’s main contribution to the US/UK/Australia/New Zealand Five Eyes intelligence sharing arrangement. It’s almost certainly assisted in gathering information on Iran, Hezbollah and others targeted by the US and Israel.
As part of justifying belligerence against it, ‘Canada’s NSA’ has been hyping the Iranian threat to Canada. A week ago the CSE’s Canadian Centre for Cyber Security claimed “pro-Iran hacktivists will likely view Canada as a target … due to Canada’s public support of the U.S./Israel military activity.” That could give CSE license to engage in offensive cyber operations against Iran as it has a mandate “to degrade, disrupt, influence, respond to or interfere with the capabilities, intentions or activities” of foreign actors.
Last week Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff Jennie Carignan discussed assisting Gulf monarchies who’ve come under Iranian attack for stationing US troops on their territories. It’s unclear what exactly they are considering but former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy suggests the government is preparing the terrain for some type of military support. Axworthy explained:
“Words matter in government — especially when they shift military commitments. Canada has quietly upgraded the Gulf states from ‘strategic partners’ to ‘allies’ in official communications this week. It sounds like a small semantic change. It isn’t.
“A partner is a trade relationship. An ally carries the weight of mutual defence — the kind of commitment enshrined in NATO’s Article 5. Canada has no such treaty with Qatar, the UAE, or Saudi Arabia. Yet as tensions with Iran escalate, PM Carney and Gen. Carignan are deploying the word ‘ally’ — and alongside it, talk of ‘defensive platforms,’ anti-drone systems, and military liaison officers deployed to the Gulf.”
Considering Canada’s role in isolating Iran diplomatically and economically, as well as its soldiers on exchange in the region, contribution to NORAD, arms sales, etc. it’s disingenuous to suggest Canada “will not be participating in this war” as defence minister David McGuinty stated Monday. The question is the extent. And for anti-imperialists how can we ensure no more Canadian participation in the horrendous violence.
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