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National call to Trudeau government to de-escalate conflict between Russia and NATO over Ukraine
Canada must stop arming Ukraine, end Operation UNIFIER and Operation REASURRANCE, and withdraw all armed forces from Eastern Europe
January 2022 — We, the undersigned Canadian peace groups and civil society organizations, are very concerned about Canada’s role in fomenting the dangerous, escalating conflict in Ukraine between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Government of the Russian Federation.
Thousands of civilians in Ukraine have been injured, killed and displaced due to the intensifying conflict since 2014. The situation could get much worse as Russia and three NATO countries are nuclear-armed and five NATO countries station US nuclear weapons in their territory in Europe. We do not support NATO membership for Ukraine, but call for neutrality and sustainable peace.
We are releasing this open statement to call on the Government of Canada to take immediate steps to de-escalate and demilitarize the conflict, and to engage diplomatically in long-term peace and security with Russia, Ukraine and throughout Eastern Europe.
BACKGROUND: OUR CONCERNS
Between 1990 and 1991, the United States made repeated assurances to the former Soviet Union that NATO would not expand eastward, in exchange for the Soviet Union’s acceptance of German reunification. These assurances were described in government documents released by the National Security Archive.
In violation of these assurances, over the past thirty years, NATO has steadily expanded into Eastern Europe. In 2004, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, which all border Russia, joined the transatlantic military alliance. NATO has battle groups now in these Baltic countries. At the 2008 Bucharest Summit, NATO announced plans to extend membership to Ukraine and Georgia, despite Russia’s opposition.
In 2014, the U.S. collaborated with the Ukraine oligarchy and far-right nationalists to oust Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from office in the so-called Maidan uprising. Yanukovych was opposed to the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, a free trade arrangement. The ousting of Yanukovych paved the way for billionaire Petro Poroshenko to become President. The U.S.-backed Poroshenko supported the economic agreement with the EU and Ukraine’s membership in NATO, leading to civil unrest and a humanitarian crisis in the country.
Over the past seven years, Canada’s increased involvement in Ukraine has intensified tensions with Russia and has aggravated the civil war between forces loyal to Kyiv and the ethnically-Russian Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. More broadly, Canadian Forces in NATO operations throughout Eastern Europe have also exacerbated the conflict with Russia.
Since 2015, under Operation UNIFIER, Canada has been training and funding Ukrainian soldiers including Ukraine’s far-right, neo-Nazi Azov movement, according to a recent study by George Washington University and a report by Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade.
In 2017, the Trudeau government added Ukraine to the Automatic Firearms Country Control List to allow Canadian companies to export firearms, automatic guns, ammunition, and other military technology to Ukraine, as shown in the Report on Exports of Military Goods from Canada. On January 11, 2022, it was reported in the Ottawa Citizen that a new Canadian weapons company is planning to open in Ukraine and is being supported by the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a federal agency.
Since 2014, Canada has imposed coercive economic sanctions, not authorized by the United Nations Security Council, against Russian individuals and companies. These Canadian sanctions under the Special Economic Measures Act are illegitimate and a part of a hybrid war against Russia.
Canada has been leading a NATO Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group in Latvia across the border from Russia for the past seven years as part of Operation REASSURANCE, with over 500 Canadian soldiers on rotation. Canada recently set up a permanent military headquarters in Riga.
Canada is regularly deploying its CF-18 fighter jets from a NATO base in Romania to fly along Russia’s border and its frigates to the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea. These Canadian contributions to NATO’s operations and exercises are extremely provocative and antagonistic to Russia.
Canada’s military presence in Ukraine parallels its growing corporate interests in this country. Ukraine has vast natural resource wealth including mineral deposits of iron, titanium, phosphorus, hydrocarbons, rare earth elements and especially its largest lithium deposit in Europe. It must be emphasized that Russia has major oil and gas pipelines that transit Ukraine to supply Europe. The U.S., Canada and other NATO countries want to displace Russian energy supplies to Europe. These corporate interests led to the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA) in 2016 and were the prime focus of the third Ukraine Reform Conference that Canada hosted in Toronto in 2019.
Moreover, the Government of Canada and NATO are engaged in inflammatory rhetoric and thus exaggerating the Russian threat. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2020, Russia had a military budget of $61 billion USD in contrast to the U.S. military budget of $778 billion USD. As shown in NATO’s latest Defence Expenditures report, combined annual NATO military spending is $1.1 trillion USD (including $26.5 billion USD from Canada). It is not new that Russian troops are positioned on its own borders with Ukraine. The Canadian government and media are ignoring how the massing of NATO forces in Eastern Europe and how NATO’s provocative and confrontational exercises, such as Steadfast Defender and Steadfast Noon, are antagonizing Russia.
Russia has publicly stated that NATO’s militarization of Eastern Europe is a direct threat to its security and the membership of Ukraine in the military alliance is a ‘red line’ that cannot be crossed. Canada with its NATO allies are engaged in a dangerous and destabilizing hybrid war against Russia that risks nuclear weapons use. These concerns have led us to prepare these demands to the Trudeau government. (See Sources below).
OUR CALLS TO THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
To de-escalate the conflict between NATO and Russia and to ensure peace and security in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, we are calling on the Government of Canada to:
Stop the export of all lethal and non-lethal military goods from Canada to Ukraine. Prevent the opening of a Canadian weapons company in Ukraine and end all support for it by the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a federal agency.
End Operation UNIFIER, the training and funding of Ukrainian security forces, and withdraw all Canadian soldiers from Ukraine.
End Operation REASSURANCE, withdraw all Canadian soldiers from Latvia and close the Canadian military headquarters in Riga.
Withdraw all Canadian fighter jets from Romania, end the ‘air policing’ operations along Russia’s borders and withdraw all Canadian naval vessels from the region.
Cease all of Canada’s sanctions, coercive economic measures, against Russia and do not impose any new sanctions.
Be transparent about the corporate interests behind the conflict with Russia over Ukraine and in Eastern Europe including weapons sales, pipelines, energy security, access to Ukraine’s natural resources and rare earth minerals etc.
Work through the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations to de-escalate conflict with Russia over Ukraine by supporting the Minsk Agreements and a common security strategy.
Implement Canada’s commitments to the UN Women, Peace & Security agenda that requires a substantial, meaningful role for women’s participation in the negotiations and women’s leadership for conflict prevention. Ensure that women from all sides of the conflict are invited to mediate a diplomatic resolution to the conflict and an agreement for a lasting peace.
Oppose membership in the NATO military alliance for Ukraine and support Ukraine’s neutrality.
Reduce Canada’s military spending and reliance on armed force. As reported to NATO, Canada has increased military spending to $33 billion CAD for 2021. Canada must demilitarize and instead invest in diplomacy and nonviolent conflict mediation to help bring about a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
This current crisis between NATO and Russia over Ukraine is another important reminder about the urgency for Canada to withdraw from NATO, an anachronistic, nuclear-armed military alliance. NATO is fomenting the conflict in Ukraine as it has done in other countries such as Serbia, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan. Canada and Ukraine should be neutral countries with an independent foreign policy of non-aggression and non-interference based on the UN Charter.
GROUPS:
Artistes pour la Paix
The Association of United Ukrainian Canadians Winnipeg Council
Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
Des montrealais contre les avions de chasse
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice
Green Left Gauche Verte
Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War
International Manifesto Group
Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
Kingston Peace Council
Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO)
Ottawa Peace Council
Peace Alliance Winnipeg
Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Ottawa Quaker
People for Peace, London
Science for Peace
Socialist Action
Victoria Peace Coalition
Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF) Canada
WILPF Nanaimo chapter
World Beyond War Canada
INDIVIDUALS:
Lyn Adamson, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
Charlotte Akin, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
Anna Badillo, People for Peace, London
Dyane Brown, WILPF Nanaimo chapter
Candice Bodnaruk, Peace Alliance Winnipeg
William K. Carroll, Professor of Sociology, University of Victoria
Chandler Davis, Science for Peace
Radhika Desai, Geopolitical Economy Research Group
Judy Deutsch, Toronto
Yves Engler, author
Miguel Figueroa, Canadian Peace Congress
Patsy George, CM, OBC, M.SW, LLD, WILPF Canada
Mary Girard, No CANSEC Coalition
Cory Greenlees, Victoria Peace Coalition
Hannah Hadikin, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
David Heap, People for Peace, London
Pierre Jasmin, secrétaire-général des Artistes pour la Paix
Peter Jones, World Beyond War Canada
Ellen Judd, Winnipeg
Dimitri Lascaris, lawyer, journalist and activist
Ed Lehman, Regina Peace Council
Rory Lewis, Ottawa Peace Council
Tamara Lorincz, Fellow, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and WILPF Canada
Glenn Michalchuk, Peace Alliance Winnipeg
David Millar, Quaker
Bianca Mugyenyi, Executive Director, Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
Satoko Oka Norimatsu, Director, Peace Philosophy Centre
Bruna Nota, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom Canada
John Price, Professor emeritus, University of Victoria
Mary Rawson, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom Canada
Normand Raymond, Artistes pour la Paix
Karen Rodman, Just Peace Advocates
Joan Russow, Global Compliance Research project
Charlotte Sheasby-Coleman, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
Richard Sanders, founder, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade and Press for Conversion! magazine
Huguette Sansonet, WILPF Canada
Rachel Small, National Coordinator, World Beyond War Canada
Ken Stone, Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War
Colin Stuart, World Beyond War Canada
Koozma Tarasoff, Spirit Wrestlers
Rose Marie Whalley, Des montrealais contre les avions de chasse
Marguerite Warner, Peace Alliance Winnipeg
Kathrin Winkler, Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace
Ellen Woodsworth, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom Canada
Link to sources for statement.
PRESS RELEASE:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
National coalition releases statement and petition calling on Trudeau government to stop arming Ukraine, end Operation UNIFIER and demilitarize Ukraine crisis
January 18, 2022
(Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal) – As Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly is in Europe this week to speak to her European counterparts about the crisis between NATO and Russia over Ukraine, a Canadian coalition has released an open statement calling on the Minister to demilitarize and peacefully resolve the crisis.
The coalition is comprised of several peace and justice organizations, cultural groups, activists and academics across the country. It includes the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians Winnipeg Council, Artistes pour la Paix, Just Peace Advocates and Science for Peace among many others. They are concerned about Canada’s role in fomenting the dangerous, escalating conflict in Ukraine. Their statement urges the Trudeau government to reduce tensions by ending arms sales and military training in Ukraine, opposing Ukraine’s membership in NATO and signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
“Our public statement calls on the Trudeau government to take immediate measures to diplomatically and non-violently resolve the crisis,” explained Bianca Mugyenyi, the Director of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, “We don’t want war with Russia.”
The coalition wants the Canadian government to stop permitting weapons sales to Ukraine. In 2017, the Trudeau government added Ukraine to the Automatic Firearms Country Control List that has allowed Canadian companies to export rifles, guns, ammunition, and other lethal military technology to the country.
“Over the past seven years, thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been injured, killed and displaced. Canada must stop militarizing the conflict and making it worse,” said Glenn Michalchuk, a Ukrainian-Canadian activist with Peace Alliance Winnipeg.
The coalition also wants Operation UNIFIER to end and not to be renewed. Since 2014, the Canadian Armed Forces have been training and funding Ukrainian soldiers including Ukraine’s far-right, neo-Nazi Azov movement, which has been engaged in violence in the country. Canada’s military operation is set to end in March.
Tamara Lorincz, member of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, argued, “It’s NATO expansion that has undermined peace and security in Europe. NATO has placed battle groups in the Baltic countries, put soldiers and weapons into Ukraine, and conducted provocative nuclear weapons exercises on Russia’s border.”
The coalition asserts that Ukraine should remain a neutral country and the Canada should withdraw from the military alliance. They want Canada to work through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations to negotiate a resolution and a lasting peace between Europe and Russia.
In conjunction with the statement, World Beyond War Canada has also launched a petition that can be signed and sent directly to Minister Joly and Prime Minister Trudeau. The statement and petition can be found here: https://www.foreignpolicy.ca/ukraine
For more information or for interviews, please contact:
Bianca Mugyenyi, Director, Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, info@foreignpolicy.ca Phone: 514-436-7629
Tamara Lorincz, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, Email: tlorincz@dal.ca / Phone: 226-505-9469
Glenn Michalchuk, Peace Alliance Winnipeg, Email: glennmichalchuk@gmail.com / Phone: 204-479-7026
Pour les entrevues en français: Pierre Jasmin, secrétaire-général des Artistes pour la Paix, jasmin.pierre@uqam.ca / Phone: 819-847-1332 (Magog - Estrie, Québec)