The Canadian Peace Congress condemns and calls for an immediate halt to the Canadian government’s negotiations for military basing rights as part of the Operational Support Hubs Network, and abrogating and renouncing rights already negotiated with Germany and Jamaica. As Defence Minister Peter MacKay has already admitted, Canada’s “military tempo” is at the highest levels since the Korean War. Instead of opening the way for more bombings and destruction with basing rights spread throughout the world, Canada should reverse its military aggression, which is only in the interests of an imperialist minority and against the interests of the peace-loving majority. The basing agreements allow the Canadian military to enter other countries at any time, violating the sovereignty of the host country, in order to rain death and destruction on a third country.

Because US imperialism is getting exhausted from the resistance to its occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq as well as from the capitalist economic crisis, Canada has in MacKay’s words “become a go-to” country to meet the global demands of Canadian and US imperialism. In other words Canada’s military is no longer just a reserve or junior partner but a spearhead and pioneer of imperialism. In particular MacKay cited Haiti, where the Canadian military helped overthrow the elected government, as well as Libya, where NATO is intervening in a civil war and destroying the sovereignty of an African country and by its own admission killing civilians, perversely in the name of a “Responsibility to Protect” civilians.

The Canadian government will not tell us, its own citizens, the content of these agreements or exactly how many or which countries it is negotiating with. The only way the Canadian people learned of a recent secret military base, Camp Mirage in the United Arab Emirates, was when it was exposed as a consequence of the Canadian government excluding Arab airlines from Canadian destinations in favor of Canadian business. These secret and undemocratic basing arrangements go hand in hand with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s further subordination of Canada to Canadian corporate and US imperialism’s interests, which mean even more wars and deaths the Canadian people are overwhelmingly opposed to as in Afghanistan.

A broad peace movement mobilizing all Canadians who oppose the never-ending agenda of wars and violations of sovereignty can stop and reverse these basing agreements and Canada’s accelerating imperialism.

Canadian Peace Congress Executive Council

June 30, 2011