World Beyond War is leading a campaign endorsed by 32 other organizations including Mennonite Action Canada to oppose the Defense, Security and Resilience Bank.
Or use their template to send your own letter as I did (with tweaks)
I am calling for you – Mr Carney, M Champagne, Mr Long, Mr McGuinty – to reject the DSRB. (My MP I trust, is already opposing it.)
The proposed war bank would provide a steady flow of public and private funds to weapons manufacturers to facilitate a rapid expansion of military production. Making money off death! The institution’s mandate – to raise public-private funding towards increasing the manufacturing and procurement of weapons – is fundamentally at odds with hopes for a peaceful world. Moreover, the DSRB will mark an escalation in public spending on weapons and militarism, drawing money away from critical spending.
The DSRB would redirect public money away from urgent social and environmental needs to the bloated revenues of weapons companies and their shareholders. 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 these failures of peace-building, however, does not lie in increasing our investment in weapons of war.
Of special concern is DSRB’s deepening of ties between major financial bodies and the profits derived from industries of war. Who would want to make millions off destruction? 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. Any hope for a stable peace, governed by and for the world’s people, requires that we disconnect profit motives from military operations.
I urge you to take a stand. I reject Canada’s commitment to profiteering from perpetual war in the guise of economic development. I refuse to let arms dealers prosper in our country while people here and around the world suffer. I reject the DSRB war bank. Not in Toronto, not in Canada, not on this planet.
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