In recent weeks it’s been truly disturbing to see elected members of government routinely violate their oath to uphold Canada’s laws by ignoring, or even supporting, Trump and Netanyahu’s grave violations of international treaties and human rights commitments to which Canada is signatory and legally bound.
We cannot stay silent about these horrors and mirror the cowardice of complacent elected officials. In real time, we’re seeing the US and Israel continue their illegal and senseless war in Iran, impacting countless civilians including over one hundred killed in an airstrike on a girls’ school by a US missile. Meanwhile, Trump has escalated the US’s illegal embargo on Cuba, replicating the genocidal blockade shown in Gaza and indicating he could be preparing for another illegal and senseless war against the Cuban people. This comes after Trump launched an unprovoked attack on Venezuela, unilaterally kidnapping President Maduro in violation of international law.
Beyond its ongoing attacks in Iran, the Israeli military has now killed over a thousand people in Lebanon, including at least 118 children and 40 health workers. At the same time, the IDF continues to kill Palestinians after its ‘ceasefire’ in Gaza and allows right-wing extremist settlers in the West Bank to terrorize and set fire to Palestinian villages.
In his speech at Davos, Carney called for a ‘principled and pragmatic’ foreign policy. But his silence on these flagrant human rights abuses is anything but principled or pragmatic. While ignoring the deaths and suffering of innocent civilians, his complacency undermines the UN Charter that protects Canada from foreign threats, including by the US.
These wars are not committed by one nation against another. They’re waged by the richest 1% in the West and their power-hungry allies in government, who think they’re insulated from the consequences of the global instability they’re creating.
We’ve already begun to see rising costs for basic goods caused by the war in Iran, which are going to hit working classes from around the world the hardest. And it’s these same working people who will be impacted first when governments including Canada’s cut fundamental public services to pay for the military buildup to fight these illegal wars.
When we look back in history, we often look for ways that devastating wars and genocides could have been prevented. But this is no longer a historical question, and the time to act is now. More than ever we need to mobilize our anti-war movement and demand an end to militarism and human rights abuses by governments around the world.