[the following is an abridged version of the main Political Report as amended and adopted by the CPCon Convention held October 28-29, 2023]

2023 Convention of the Canadian Peace Congress

Political Report from the Outgoing Executive

This convention of the Canadian Peace Congress meets at a most perilous moment in human history. According to the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, its “doomsday clock” is set at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been. In its January 2023 statement, the Bulletin stated that this is due “largely (though not exclusively) because of the mounting dangers of the war in Ukraine”. Numerous respected commentators and military analysts have recently said that if the “doomsday clock” were to be reset today, it would be significantly closer to midnight, owing in large part to sharply escalating tensions in the Middle East (West Asia).

The longstanding crisis in Gaza – under which the enclave and its 2.3 million residents have suffered under siege conditions since 2007 from an Israeli-imposed blockade, effectively turning the territory into an ‘open air prison’ – has once again sharply escalated. On October 7, Hamas and other Palestinian resistance fighters launched a series of armed attacks into southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of Israeli military personnel as well as a number of civilians; some others were captured and taken back into Gaza. In response, Israeli forces have lashed out with a massive and disproportionate bombing campaign of Gaza, killing at least 7,000 Gaza residents – mostly innocent civilians, including thousands of women and children – over the past three weeks. Thousands more have incurred serious injuries, but are unable to receive treatment in overcrowded hospitals and medical centres. Hundreds of thousands more have been forced to flee their homes and are now internally displaced.

If Israel follows through with a full-scale land invasion of Gaza, as the ultra-right Netanyahu government has promised to do, the level of civilian casualties among the Gazan population will skyrocket. Already, over one million Gazans (almost 50% of the entire population) have been directed by Israel to evacuate to the southern end of the narrow Gaza strip, and then these evacuation routes and catchment refugee centres have been ruthlessly bombed. Water, electrical power, food and medical supplies, and Internet & phone services have been almost completely shut off, and most emergency supplies have been blocked from entering Gaza at the Rafah border crossing. Hospitals, schools, mosques, UN-run refugee centres, residential high-rises and public shopping areas have been reduced to rubble.

The Israeli and Western media have variously described the rising civilian death toll as “unfortunate victims” and “collateral damage” of Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza. Given the high accuracy of modern-day precision missile targeting, it is clear these homes, schools and refugee centres have been purposely targeted. This constitutes a form of “collective punishment” of the civilian Palestinian population. This is a genocidal war crime for which the Israeli state must be held to account.

In the October 12th statement issued jointly by the Peace Congress, the Mouvement Québécois Pour la Paix (MQP) and the U.S. Peace Council, we noted the following: “The historically inevitable bloodshed that has started, and has already taken too many lives, is of the Israeli state’s own making. The Zionist state of Israel has no other party to blame for this human catastrophe. It would be beyond short-sighted to assume that the long-standing Israeli injustices and occupation wouldn’t provoke reactions from the Palestinian people, who hold the right to resist occupation, a principle firmly established in international law.”

Over the recent period, public protests have mushroomed across Canada and internationally to condemn Israel’s inhumane and disproportionate bombing of Gaza and to demand an immediate ceasefire and the provision of emergency humanitarian aid. Our Congress and local Peace Councils have supported these mobilizations, connecting the call for an immediate ceasefire with the demand for the end of the occupation of all Palestinian lands by Israel, and the establishment of a genuinely independent and sovereign State of Palestine within the borders existing prior to June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. We demand the release of all Palestinian political prisoners from Israeli jails and the right to return of all the Palestinian refugees according to the UN resolution 194.

The Congress and our members must continue to express our solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian people for national liberation and self-determination, and re-double efforts to mobilize popular support to end the carnage and misery currently being inflicted on civilian populations.

The crisis in Gaza could ignite a much wider regional conflict in the Middle East. Already, hundreds more Palestinian protesters have been killed in the West Bank of the Occupied Territories, Israeli air strikes on Lebanon and Syria are taking place, and skirmishes along the Israeli-Lebanese border between Israeli and Hezbollah forces could escalate rapidly. The two U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups in the region will soon be joined by a third UK carrier group, These are grave developments, and make the international demand for an immediate ceasefire all the more urgent.

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At the same time, the war in Ukraine continues to grind on. This dangerous conflict has now entered its 20th month, with no end in sight. As we have stated previously, the conflict has devolved into a war of attrition. U.S. imperialism and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union (EU) allies remain intent on using Ukraine as a ‘proxy’, pouring in hundreds of billions in financial support for Kiev, along with ever more sophisticated weaponry (tanks, cluster bombs, depleted uranium shells, longer-range missile systems, etc.), in an attempt to weaken and destabilize the Russian Federation. For its part, Russia is also escalating the conflict in an effort to achieve decisive victory. As a result, neither side seems prepared to enter into any meaningful set of negotiations to reach a peaceful, political settlement.

And yet with every passing day, and every fresh round of escalation, the danger of a direct military confrontation between the Russian Federation and US/NATO seems more plausible and perhaps even likely, bringing the entire world ever closer to the nuclear abyss.

This is entirely irresponsible and unacceptable. While we understand the historical and geopolitical circumstances which have laid the underlying foundations for the current conflict – connected primarily with NATO’s relentless Eastern expansion and Washington’s stubborn refusal to address Russia’s security concerns – and while we therefore reject the central argument of the dominant Western narrative that Russia’s intervention was “unprovoked”, etc., our Congress categorically refuses to “take sides” in this war. Instead, we demand that the adversaries undertake immediate steps to de-escalate the conflict, agree to a ceasefire, and enter into serious negotiations to find a political solution. The prolongation of this war will produce no winners, only losers. The CPCon must continue and expand its efforts, together with other peace forces across Canada and around the world, to achieve these objectives. End the war in Ukraine NOW!

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While the world’s attention is fixated on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza as the primary threats to regional and world peace, our Congress must not lose sight of the growing tensions in the Asia Pacific region, the military encirclement of the People’s Republic of China (in which Canada is playing an increasingly dangerous role), the multi-sided “cold war” directed at the PRC, and Washington’s use of the so-called ‘Taiwan question’ to stoke instability in the region. We welcome the recent diplomatic openings and exchanges between China and the U.S., but we must not overlook or downplay U.S. imperialism’s medium- and long-term strategic objectives to weaken and undermine China’s growing economy and political/diplomatic influence internationally.

Our Congress and the broader peace movement must also address other looming (but perhaps less visible or apparent) challenges to world peace – the militarization of the Arctic region, outer space and cyberspace, etc.

We must also oppose the step-by-step gutting of the role of the United Nations and adherence to the principles of international law, the systematic dismantling of longstanding bilateral agreements on arms control (including the cancellation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile and Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaties, the Treaty on Open Skies, the postponement of START II negotiations, among others). We must also continue to press for the implementation of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and for Canada’s ratification of this important treaty. In this regard, we also reject arguments advanced in certain quarters that the United Nations, international covenants and disarmament treaties have now been rendered meaningless and toothless, that the UN and other international institutions are now captives, providing cover for imperialist interests, and even that disarmament agreements are somehow ‘reformist’ in character, and so on. While we would be naïve in the extreme not to recognize the weak state of the UN process and its flawed structures, if we permit these institutions to be completely undermined the world and its peoples will be left with Washington’s “rules-based inter-national order”, which is essentially the ‘law of the jungle’ under the unfettered control of finance capital and imperialist military power.

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While this is not the occasion to delve in detail into the root causes of rising militarization and aggression around the world today, we think it is important for our Congress to examine this matter more closely. The incoming Executive should be encouraged to undertake more research and sponsor educational discussions and panels on this topic. Suffice it to note here that in our view, the dramatic deterioration of international relations and cooperation and peaceful development between countries and peoples is rooted in a number of interconnected factors, not least of which are the following:

• the decline of U.S. Imperialism and the weakening of its hegemonic reach and capacity to impose its interests on a global scale, and its desperate attempts to stem and reverse that decline;
•  the growing economic strength and influence of China and other countries;
• the emergence of new regional and international structures and alliances such as the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the G-77, CERLAC in Latin America, etc, and that even though many of these new formations are influenced by U.S. imperialist interests to a greater or lesser extent, they are not under its direct domination and control;
• the weakening of role of the U.N. and the covenants of international law;
• the growing volatility of the global capitalist system, which faces increasing contradictions of both cyclical and structural character;
• the spread of social decay, poverty, and food insecurity, not only in developing countries in the Global South, but also within the leading imperialist powers; and
• the rise of racism, nationalism and fascist ideology, political parties and movements.

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Our Congress also needs to pay much greater attention to the gathering climate catastrophe and the struggle for climate and environmental justice to safeguard the living conditions and quality of life of the world’s peoples today and for future generations to come. The deleterious effects of global climate change and associated aspects of environmental degradation (resource depletion, soil erosion and desertification, the quality of our air and water supplies, habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, pollution, etc.) are now a fact of life for the vast majority of the world’s peoples, and conditions only stand to get worse and worse with each passing year. According to many climatologists and other environ-mental experts and researchers, our planet may already be near or even beyond the ‘tipping point’, regardless of our best efforts to avoid catastrophe and ecological collapse

Without exaggeration, the world and its peoples face two existential threats to our survival: (1) nuclear annihilation; and (2) climate catastrophe. For this reason alone, we need to make climate change and environmental degradation an urgent focus of our present and future activity.

It is the interpenetration of these two threats which must be of particular importance to our work. We understand that the stampede to militarization is one of the most important factors driving the climate crisis. Tanks, fighter jets, missiles and other military hardware leave a massive ‘carbon footprint’ in terms of hydrocarbon emissions, while siphoning off trillions of dollars of wealth to feed the profit interests of the arms industry. If those resources were re-directed instead to environmental protection and the development of clean, renewable energy technologies, this would make an incredible contribution to combating climate change.

But this dynamic also moves in the reverse direction. As climate change worsens, so too does the combination of rising sea levels and food insecurity resulting from soil erosion and desertification increase, forcing whole populations to migrate in search of reliable food supplies and living spaces. This, in turn, will only exacerbate tensions between communities, nations and states and lead to even greater levels of racism and xenophobia, fears and hostilities, and even wars between states to protect – or conversely, grab – supplies of food, potable water, and even living space.

For these reasons, our Congress should make the interconnection between these twin existential threats a critical aspect of its educational work and public agitation.

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Needless to say, the policies of the Canadian government and the actions of the Canadian state must remain a central focus of our public activity. As we are painfully aware, there has been a seismic shift in Canadian foreign and defence policy over the past 5-6 years in an even more reactionary, pro-war, pro-NATO direction. This has all taken place under the supposedly ‘Liberal’ government of Justin Trudeau. It would be mistaken however to blame this dramatic rightward policy re-orientation solely on the Trudeau Liberals, although as governing party, the Trudeau Liberals must accept a good share of responsibility for Canada’s deplorable shift in foreign policy.

Clearly, the Conservatives are the most hawkish, pro-U.S. imperialist party in Parliament, insisting on Canada’s slavish subservience to Washington dictates. But the other ‘opposition’ parties – the New Democrats, Greens and the Bloc Québécois – have also realigned their foreign policies to the right. This has created an unbecoming and false consensus in the Commons (e.g., over Ukraine, Palestine, relations with China, military spending, Canada’s NATO commitments, etc.) which in no way reflects the views of millions of voters across the country

When individual MPs raise even tepid criticisms or dissenting views, they are immediately silenced and punished by their respective caucuses. This imposed ‘consensus’ is reflected at the provincial and local levels of the state apparatus as well. Recently, Sarah Jama, the elected NDP member representing Hamilton Centre in the Ontario legislature was expelled from her caucus for expressing dissenting views on the current crisis in Gaza. There have been countless similar examples in other chambers over the past few years.

In our view this is taking place because, in the service of their self-serving economic interests, the ruling monopoly circles within Canadian finance capital have decided that our country must be completely tied to Washington’s wagon – to ‘Fortress America’ – and that no deviation from this course can be tolerated.

At Washington’s prodding, Canada’s so-called “defence” budget continues to spiral upward at a frenetic pace and is now scheduled to increase to $45 billion dollars over the next four years. With respect to Ukraine alone, Parliament has already ponied up over $9 billion. And procurements for new military hardware – F-35 stealth fighters, navy frigates, tanks and armoured vehicles, and attack drones – will drain hundreds of billions more from the federal budget.

This is great news for the arms industry, which has seen profits and share values spike astronomically, but it is having disastrous consequences for the peoples of Canada as a whole. When our country faces a massive housing crisis, when inflation is ripping the real wages and living standards of working people to shreds, when public infrastructure, healthcare, education and other vital public services are crumbling, and when extreme weather (the consequence of climate change) is scorching our forests and flooding our plains and valleys, and when our domestic economy stands on the verge of a full-blown recession/depression – when all this is happening, to divert such vast sums to militarization, aggression and war is absolutely unconscionable and must be repudiated and condemned.

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To be clear, the Canadian state is neither a colony nor semi-colony; it is an imperialist power in its own right, albeit a second-tier one. But Canada has tied itself hand-and-foot to the U.S./NATO war machine. Although in decline, U.S. imperialism remains the most powerful and dangerous centre of the global imperialist system, and as such constitutes the main enemy of – and danger to – world peace. But we should not lose sight of the fact that in order to avoid nuclear catastrophe and win a new world marked by peace, cooperation, full equality and people-centred development for the benefit of nations and peoples on this rock, we must struggle not only against U.S. imperialism, but also against the global imperialist system as a whole.

This is how we define our organization as advancing an anti-imperialist perspective within the broader peace movement – both in our words and actions. This implies the need to shape our political perspective and practical work along two tracks simultaneously – to help build the broad peace movement, while at the same time to work to strengthen the anti-imperialist current or component within it. This also means that we must studiously avoid any tendency to counterpoise these two goals, one to the other. We should neither tail behind the broad peace forces, nor adopt a narrow sectarian approach in our relations with other genuine fighters for peace, even if they do not identify themselves – or can be objectively characterized – as anti-imperialist.

Main Priorities for our Peace Congress at this Critical Moment

The primary task of our incoming Executive needs to centre on consolidating and strengthening the political and organizational role and capacities of the CPCon itself. This involves being more visible and engaged as an anti-imperialist organization within the broader peace and solidarity movement as a whole across the country.

First and foremost, we must continue to grow our organization at the grassroots level, strengthening and regularizing the activity of our local Peace Councils, and helping to organize new Councils at the local level wherever possible.

Over the recent period our close friends in Québec, organized through the Mouvement Québécois pour la Paix (MQP), have become much more organized and active publicly. We wholeheartedly welcome this development, as well as their decision to affiliate to the World Peace Council. There was unanimous support for their application at the recent WPC Hemispheric Meeting held in Mexico this September… As our sister WPC affiliate in Québec, we should now work to consolidate our working relations with the MQP, conferring on a regular basis and undertaking joint campaigns demanding ‘Canada Out of NATO’, cutting military spending and other initiatives.

Another important priority should be stepping up our support for, and practical assistance to, the work of the World Peace Council itself. As a full member with a seat on the WPC Executive, we should consider additional ways that we help, such as offering to assist with translation, hosting regional meetings and conferences, etc.

We also need to improve the level of our participation within the fledgling Canada-Wide Peace & Justice Network (CWPJN), of which we are a founding member. The broad peace movement as a whole remains very weak – too small and too weak in fact, compared to the combined power of the enemies of peace and progress, both in Canada and around the world. As a result, voices and movements for peace have been systematically marginalized and silenced within mainstream discourse. We are called upon to do whatever we can to help change that dynamic.

It is not too soon for the incoming Executive to begin planning our political intervention prior to and during the next federal election campaign. An election call could come as early as 2024, and most certainly by 2025, at the latest. It is vital that the Congress and the broader peace movement do everything possible to raise the issue of Canada’s shameful pro-war foreign and defence policies, and hold the main political parties and their candidates to account for their obsequious pandering to Washington’s aggressive, pro-war policies and actions. As usual, both the government and ‘opposition’ parties, with the connivance of the mainstream corporate media, will do their level best to avoid any serious examination of Canada’s bloated military budget, unquestioning support for the NATO war machine, aid to the fascist regime in Kiev, the cover-up of Israel’s war crimes, involvement in the new Cold War on China, regime change operations in Venezuela and elsewhere, etc. Despite this however, we must do everything possible to expose and condemn Ottawa’s reckless foreign policy, and agitate for a genuinely independent foreign and defence policy based on peace and disarmament, respect for international law, and for the proposals outlined in our “Peace Alternative for Canada”.

Another decisive task must include developing stronger links with the labour movement across Canada. At the CLC convention in Montreal this past May, the CPCon in collaboration with the MQP set up a joint table and distributed a mass leaflet to delegates. We need to follow up on this excellent initiative by reaching out to provincial Federations, Labour Councils and union locals wherever possible to develop closer cooperation and joint action around the issue of peace and disarmament. We also need to undertake more concerted outreach to other mass democratic movements and organizations across the country – youth and student groups, women’s and LGBTQ+ organizations, indigenous peoples, the environmental movement – in line with the longstanding slogan of the Canadian Peace Congress (coined by the founding President of the World Peace Council, Frederic Joliot-Curie, “Peace is everybody’s business”.

Finally, we must pay increasing attention to our solidarity work – with Cuba and the struggle against the illegal and immoral U.S. blockade, with the just struggle of Palestinian people against brutal occupation by Zionist Israel and for genuine national self-determination, and with the peoples of Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti, Western Sahara, Sudan and other countries and peoples suffering under the yoke of imperialist domination, plunder and war. We also need to redouble our efforts to oppose the all-sided imperialist Cold War targeting the People’s Republic of China.

This is a daunting set of priorities and tasks for our Congress over the coming period. At this point, the Peace Congress remains a small organization with precious few resources. And we should not delude ourselves that we can accomplish more than modest progress on the ambitious goals outlined here, especially given the powerful adversaries we face. But these are also exceptionally dangerous times, and we are therefore called upon to do exceptional things, for the benefit of the peoples of Canada and for the sake of humanity as a whole.