The media’s close ties to the military have long undermined democracy. Mark Carney’s extreme militarization of the economy is exacerbating the problem.
Last week Canada’s ‘paper of record’ published a full-page ad headlined “THE GLOBE AND MAIL PRESENTS National Defence: Mapping Canada’s growth strategy.” The October 14 event includes Industry minister Mélanie Joly, Commander of the Army Lieutenant-General M.C. Wright and the heads of several arms firms including CAE and Davie. The ad noted, “Canada’s ambitious increase in defence spending is set to unlock significant opportunities for industrial growth across advanced manufacturing, aerospace, technology and services. This discussion will explore how we can make the most of the moment to strengthen domestic capabilities and what the industry needs to scale.”
In a similar vein, Quebec business paper Les Affaires is hosting “Marché de la défense: Comment se préparer à une industrie exigeante et y prospérer” (Defence Market: How to Prepare for and thrive in a demanding industry). According to its publicity, the October 1 conference included speeches from military officials, Investment Québec, Bombardier, Davie and other arms companies.
In another type of media integration with arms firms, the National Post recently published a Lockheed Martin sponsored column headlined “How the global F-35 program strengthens Canada’s defence industry” and a Chamber of Commerce piece titled “Where Canada’s defence debate goes next”.
While sponsored publicity is an obviously egregious example of arms makers sway within the media, quoting weapons industry funded experts is a more significant sign of influence and bias. According to a 2024 study by The Maple, the arms industry and Canadian Forces (CF) funded Canadian Global Affairs Institute is “the think-tank most often quoted by Canada’s largest newspapers on the issue of military spending.” Over a thirty-month period investigated, the Toronto Star, National Post and Globe and Mail quoted representatives of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute several dozen times. Most of the stories supported increasing military spending without offering any opposing view and on only one occasion did a paper (Globe) even mention their substantial arms industry funding.
With the largest PR machine in the country, the CF aggressively protects its image and promotes its worldview. As I detail in A Propaganda System: How Canada’s Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War and Exploitation, the military runs a slew of journalistic, academic and cultural initiatives. They have dozens of museums, a university and history department. They also fund academic departments, think tanks and lobby groups and operate many social media platforms, publications and websites.
The Department of National Defence/CF employs upwards of a thousand public relations professionals to influence perceptions of the military. Public affairs officers work to induce positive media coverage and deter critical reporting. In 2015 the head of CF called for the “weaponization of public affairs”, which was a plan to target journalists producing unflattering stories with phone calls to their boss, letters to the editor and other “flack” designed to undercut their credibility in the eyes of readers and their employers. Conversely, friendly journalists were to receive special access to the CF.
The military spends at least a billion dollars annually on public relations and various forms of ideological outreach. Arms companies spend tens of millions of dollars more.
Deferential to power, the dominant media is predisposed to disseminate the arms industry and Canadian Force’s outlook. As the Carney government ploughs tens of billions of dollars more into the war machine, the CF and arms firms’ propaganda will grow.
This makes it all the more imperative to push back on the normalization of militarism.
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