Why didn’t Avi Lewis call to pause officer exchanges with a military led by a warmongering fanatic? Why hasn’t the NDP leader raised the hundreds of bilateral military accords Canada has with a country headed by an annexationist president? And how come activists assisting Lewis aren’t seeking to shape his call for a “modern military”?
In response to Donald Trump’s monstrous threat to destroy Iranian civilization, several prominent left politicians in NATO countries called on their government to block US military overflights, remove their bases or withdraw from NATO. By comparison, Lewis’ statement was remarkably timid. It failed to raise any concrete demand.
Lewis posted, “The President of the United States is openly threatening to commit genocide against 90 million people. Prime Minister Carney: if there was ever a moment to denounce this illegal war, withdraw your support, and call for accountability for war crimes—it’s now.”
There was no call to pause officer exchanges, joint naval deployments, training missions, US overflights or the US using Canadian bases, let alone pausing arms sales or reviewing the hundreds of accords Canada has with the US military. (Nor did Lewis call to restart diplomatic relations with Iran, end its ‘terrorist’ designations or repeal sanctions, as the Iranian Canadian Congress and other civil society organizations recently requested of Ottawa.) Little engaged in anti-war or international solidarity activities of recent, the Council of Canadians’ statement was far stronger. The nationalist group posted, “Canada should suspend arms shipments to—and military cooperation with—the US while threats to ‘wipe out a whole civilization’ are being made.” Since Trump began threatening to annex Canada last year the call to pause military cooperation with the US has been raised repeatedly by the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, Just Peace Advocates and others.
Avi Lewis’ failure to discuss how he would reduce the Canadian military’s support for the US war machine is made more glaring since he has repeatedly said he wants a “modern military”. In a CBC interview just after becoming NDP leader Lewis declared, “I’m not a kumbaya singing peacenik. I believe that Canada needs a military; a modern military which is well equipped.”
But isn’t it in poor taste to mock those working against war and problematic to call for the military to be “well equipped” since those arms have historically been used against people in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.? Amidst the militarist ethos in this country, it’s an error to throw any type of support to the warmongers.
More importantly, what does Lewis mean by a “modern military”? During a press scrum at the NDP convention CKUW journalist Marianne Cerilli asked him to explain. Lewis didn’t answer properly, focusing instead on criticizing efforts to boost arms exports.
The struggle within and around the NDP over what Lewis means by a “modern military” is among the most consequential for the party’s left flank. But there’s been little discussion about it except for PeaceQuest’s post “Can Avi Lewis defeat the ‘Defence’ Lobby?” In that article Steven Staples correctly points out that “past NDP leaders from Jack Layton to Jagmeet Singh have supported successive military budget boosts, massively overpriced warships, and have been generally absent on the F-35 boondoggle.” Staples suggests Lewis will be different.
It’s correct that during the leadership race he criticized military spending. After ignoring Canadian militarism early on, Lewis began raising the matter under pressure from my anti-militarist campaign and in response to the size of Carney’s spending increases.
But simply saying you oppose the largest boost in war spending sine the 1950s is far from sufficient from an anti-militarist or social services standpoint. It’s good Lewis has said he disagrees with Carney budgeting 2% of GDP on war, but that’s a third more than where Justin Trudeau left it a year ago and twice the percentage at the end of Stephen Harper’s government.
Does Lewis support spending a similar amount as North American trade partner Mexico, which spends 0.7% of GDP on its military? That country is more dependent on trade with the US and faces more immediate security threats from its northern neighbour.
Contrasting Canadian spending on warfare with other countries in the hemisphere should be part of any serious discussion of a “modern military”. Activists should press Lewis to flush out what he considers a “modern military”. How about bringing together a group of left/liberal military/disarmament experts like Rachel Small, Michael Byers, Tamara Lorincz, Walter Dorn, Kelsey Galagher, David Pugliese, Steven Staples and Scott Taylor to launch the discussion?
Without activist pressure to flush out what a “modern military” means, backroom NDP players, the media, Canadian Forces and arms lobbyists will end up effectively shaping Lewis’ military policy. That would be horrible.
It’s imperative that leftists who worked on Avi Lewis’ campaign push to shape his military policy.
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