IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Toronto waterfront shouldn’t serve as prop for F-35 and warplanes
On September 4 and 5 Lockheed Martin’s controversial F-35 Stealth Fighter will participate in the Canadian International Air Show.
“With the federal government set to select a new fighter jet Lockheed Martin is using the Canadian International Air Show to promote its controversial F-35 stealth fighter”, said Bianca Mugyenyi, Director of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute.
“The F-35 and other fighter jets dropped thousands of bombs on Afghanistan, engendering significant hostility to foreign forces”, noted Yves Engler, author of Stand on Guard For Whom? — A People’s History of the Canadian Military. “Rather than celebrate fighter jets, let’s use the Labour Day weekend to reflect on the destruction caused by air strikes in Afghanistan.”
“The F-35 is marketed as capable of dropping a B61 nuclear bomb”, added Mugyenyi. “Yet Toronto is a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone and a recent poll showed the overwhelming majority of Canadians want to eliminate nuclear weapons.”
“The F-35 stealth fighter shouldn’t be celebrated”, added Engler. “It should be put into a museum as a testament to humanity’s ability to waste precious resources and ingenuity on perfecting the art of killing.”
In July Canadian musicians Neil Young, Sarah Harmer, and Tegan and Sara, as well as authors Yann Martel, Gabor Maté, and Michael Ondaatje signed apublic letter calling on Trudeau to scrap a planned $19 billion ($77 billionover their full lifecycle) purchase of 88 fighter jet. The statement opposed to “spending tens of billions of dollars on unnecessary, dangerous, climate destroying fighter jets” was also signed by environmentalists David Suzuki and Naomi Klein, as well as three sitting MPs, four former MPs, a Senator and former diplomat Stephen Lewis. Prominent international figures including rock legend Roger Waters, actress Daryl Hannah and professor Noam Chomsky also endorsed the call.
For more information:
Bianca Mugyenyi
info@foreignpolicy.ca or 514-436-7629