This message is directed at all the CCs: Mr Carney, Mr Champagne, Mr Long, Mr McGuinty. My MP is surely already well aware and fully concerned about the steps the Canadian government is currently taking to play a leadership role and potentially host the new Defence, Security and Resilience Bank.
I am calling for you to reject the DSRB.
The steady flow of public and private funds to weapons manufacturers the war bank would facilitate for a rapid expansion of military production will only harm Canadians.
Public-private funding is usually just a shady way of ensuring private enterprise is subsidized by public money so it can maximize its profits. To do so with the goal of increasing the manufacturing and procurement of weapons is fundamentally at odds with hopes for not only a peaceful world but a liveable one.
Moreover, the DSRB will mark an escalation in public spending on weapons and militarism, drawing money away from critical spending on social needs and the climate emergency. Mr Carney has already showed his eagerness to do this and it is abhorrent.
The DSRB would redirect public money away from urgent social and environmental needs to the bloated revenues of weapons companies and their shareholders. Talk about welfare and undeserving recipients!
By funnelling *public money* to war instead of funding *public services* and our social safety net, this bank would prioritize short-term profits of corporations over the needs of our communities.
This isn’t the agenda that Prime Minister Carney ran on. This isn't what Canadians voted for.
It’s undeniable that the world is becoming a less stable place and that major powers – including the US under President Trump – are showing new levels of disregard for diplomacy and international law.
The solution to failures of half-hearted diplomacy and spineless, weak-kneed "commitments" to rule of law, however, does not lie in investing in violence and destruction.
Of special concern is DSRB’s deepening of ties between major financial bodies and the profits derived from industries of war.
The past few years have seen the world’s ultra-wealthy seize political power, throw their backing to authoritarian governments, and directly influence countries’ foreign policy while the gap between the wealthiest and everyone else grows into a chasm. Any hope for a stable peace requires that we disconnect profit motives from military operations; requires that wealth is distributed more equitably.
I urge you white men with your unearned privilege a festering love of power to put a halt to Canada’s profiteering from perpetual war in the guise of economic development.
I refuse to accept arms dealers should prosper in our country while people around the world -- and here! -- suffer.
I reject the DSRB war bank.
Not in Toronto, not in Canada, not on this planet.
I look forward to your response, Mr Carney and friends.
Sincerely,
Thanks to World Beyond War for the letter template
Comments