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No Military Intervention in Libya

The Government of Canada has sent HMCS Charlottetown to Libya to join the US aircraft carrier fleet led by the USS enterprise. This is part of a much larger NATO led buildup in the area. The UN Security Council resolution which authorizes "all necessary measures" to protect civilians from attack is dangerously vague and opens the door to a much larger western military intervention in the country. Stephen Harper has already announced that Canadian CF-18s will be deployed and will take part in the UN mission.

The Canadian Peace Alliance is opposed to any military intervention in Libya or in the region as a whole.

If the western governments were genuine in their desire to help the people of Libya – or Egypt or Tunisia for that matter – they would not have supported the dictators and their regimes. That support for the dictators is a chief reason why the situation is so violent for the people rising up. Western military deployment to Libya is a bit like asking the arsonist to put out their own fire. Far from being a shining light in a humanitarian crisis, western intervention is designed to maintain the status quo and will, in fact make matters worse for the people there.

Western intervention only serves to install compliant and corrupt dictatorial regimes. The people of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and other countries throughout the region are showing that genuine democracy can only come from popular uprising and movements. Iraq and Afghanistan show that western military interventions bring only killing, displacement and chaos -- and a total lack of democracy. The west needs to learn the lessons from those failed invasions and not compound the crisis in Libya.

US and Canadian interests lie in keeping North Africa a compliant bulwark in their plans for control over the entire region. Canadian and US corporations have been quietly making billions while supporting the Qaddafi regime. For example, Calgary based Suncor energy pumps more than $5 million each day from Libyan oilfields and SNC-Lavalin has been working on everything from construction of a new airport in Benghazi to building prisons for the Libyan government. All told, SNC -Lavalin has $1 billion in contracts for construction in North Africa.

The best way to help the people of Libya is to show our solidarity with their struggle. There are demonstrations planned this weekend. The people united will never be defeated!

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The Canadian Peace Alliance congratulates people of Egypt, condemns Canadian government

The Canadian Peace Alliance, the country's largest network of peace and anti-war groups, congratulates the people of Egypt for their determined struggle against the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak.

Earlier today, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon declined to comment on Mubarak's resignation. Last week, Cannon went so far as to endorse Mubarak's so-called "transition plan" which would have seen the dictator stay in power until September. With scenes of millions celebrating in the streets of Egypt, it's telling that the Harper government keeps silent on this inspiring step towards democracy in Egypt.

For years, the Canadian government, backed the Mubarak dictatorship and supported its policy of enforcing the siege against the people of Gaza. Harper's government has worried aloud about what this move towards democracy in Egypt will mean for the Israeli government and its occupation and siege.

Egypt, and before that Tunisia, has shown that people power can overcome dictators backed by foreign powers. And they have shown that democracy and liberation come from struggle from below, never from US-led wars and occupations. This quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln captures well the dilemma that the revolution in Egypt presents for Harper and Cannon today, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt".

Stephen Harper has shown himself to be an opponent of democracy in Canada and abroad. His ongoing support for the corrupt regime in Afghanistan, against the wishes of the people there, proves he is on the wrong side of history. The Canadian Peace Alliance will continue to call for an end to Harper's support for dictatorships around the world.

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