Remembrance Day highlights the immense power of militarism and imperialism in Canada. Almost every significant political force promotes militarist nationalist mythology, including the primary victims of the Canadian state.
To mark Remembrance Day CTV published an article on “A generation apart, these Palestinian Canadians found purpose through the military”. The article quotes George Al-Koura, who became a signals intelligence officer, saying “we have inconveniences, but Canada allows us to be ourselves and gives us the freedom to live without essentially warfare in the background of our lives.”
But Al-Koura deployed to the Middle East and the Canadian military bombed Iraq, Syria and Libya as well as occupied Afghanistan. Additionally, since Royal Military College of Canada graduate Charles Macpherson Dobell commanded Britain’s 1917 Second Battle of Gaza and hundreds of Canadians fought with General Allenby in the subsequent successful conquest of Palestine this country has supported violence against Palestinians. Hundreds of Canadians, mostly World War II veterans, fought to ethnically cleanse Palestine in 1948.
On Wednesday The Maple reported on briefing documents “showing that a Canadian defence official travelled to Israel for a “strategic dialogue’ at the height of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and weeks after Israel killed a Canadian army veteran. The meeting reflected the fact that ‘Israel remains a priority defence engagement country for Canada due to its reliability and mutual commitment to regional security in the Middle East,’ according to the documents.”
While it’s absurd for a media outlet to put a Palestinian gloss on a Canadian military celebration, it doesn’t compare to the relatively widespread phenomenon of indigenous leaders promoting militarist nationalism.
Rooted in a British force that conquered today’s Nova Scotia by putting the heads of Mi’kmaq soldiers on spikes and suppressed First Nations in British Columbia through ‘gunboat diplomacy’, thousands of Canadian troops were deployed to counter Mohawk opposition to the expansion of a golf course and housing on an Indigenous burial ground in 1990. The Canadian Forces (CF) have played a smaller role in recent conflicts with Indigenous communities at Gustafsen Lake, Ipperwash and Elsipogtog as well as in monitoring Indigenous groups. Canadian military intelligence spied on Idle No More and a draft version of the military’s 2007 counter-insurgency manual highlighted “radical Native American Organizations, such as the Mohawk Warrior Society” as potential military targets.
On Wednesday the head of the Assembly of First Nations formally participated in the official Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa. After a multiyear battle, the AFN won the right in 1995 to lay a wreath at the National War Memorial as part of a ritual organized by the reactionary, militarist Royal Canadian Legion.
For three decades November 8 has been National Aboriginal Veterans Day. At a previous National Aboriginal Veterans Day ceremony, Grand Chief of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs Stewart Phillip said Indigenous soldiers were “fighting for the common good” and were “on the right side of history.” But Canadian soldiers have only fought in one war that could be considered morally justifiable: World War II. Ignored in the Remembrance Day style commemoration are the Afghans or Libyans killed by Canadians in recent years, the Serbians and Iraqis killed two decades ago, and the Koreans killed in the 1950s and the Russians, South Africans, Sudanese and others killed before that.
With large numbers of Indigenous people having fought in Sudan, South Africa, World War I, World War II and Korea, cenotaphs in many Indigenous communities commemorate those who fought in Canadian/British wars. The Millbrook band council placed 27 Millbrook Remembers banners to “honour and remember our veterans who served in the First World War, Second World War, Korean War, Vietnam War, NATO conflicts; Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and also those who served during peacetime operations.”
A growing number of landmarks bear the names of Indigenous soldiers and most of the books and articles detailing First Nations’ contribution to Canadian/British wars echo the military’s perspective of those conflicts. So, ironically, while First Nations have more reason than most to reject the Canadian state’s use of force to enforce a neo-colonial world order, ties to the military have shaped the outlook of many of their organizations.
A slew of unions and left politicians also reinforced militarist mythology on Wednesday. In an embarrassing example, former NDP MP Peter Julian posted, “Today at 11:00 AM, Canadians across our nation pause to honour Remembrance Day, and pay tribute to the millions of soldiers throughout Canadian history who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country and in defence of the rights and freedoms we enjoy today.”
Is Julian referring to the 2011 destruction of Libya, which he voted for? Or the occupation of Afghanistan, which the NDP backed for several years?
Even internally, Canada’s military has undercut Canadians “rights and freedoms”. They have been used to clamp down on social movements with military intelligence in recent years caught spying on Black Lives Matter, Occupy and peace activists. Between 1867 and 1933 the military was involved in suppressing dozens of labour strikes and was later used against Québecois nationalism. They killed at least four anti-conscription protesters in Québec City in March 1918 and thousands of troops were deployed to the streets of Montreal under the repressive War Measures Act in 1970.
Among Canadian politicians with some power, BC Green party leader and MLA Emily Lowan released the best (least bad) statement I saw. But leftist French leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is polling second in that country’s presidential race, puts them all to shame. On Wednesday Mélenchon travelled to a memorial inscribed with “Maudite soit la guerre” (Cursed be war) and depicting an orphan raising his fist towards the names of soldiers killed in combat. Mélenchon stated, “Down with war! We will not wage it, we will not organise it, we will not prepare it!”
If we work at it maybe at a Remembrance Day ceremony next year a major Canadian politician could say the same.
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