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Alan Kurdi’s death on a Turkish beach has weighed heavily on the consciences of Canadians.
The discovery that an NDP MP personally appealed to Immigration and Citizenship minister Chris Alexander on behalf of the Kurdi family has sparked moral outrage and a call to action.
Ottawa must submit to the demands of human decency and immediately settle as many Syrian refugees as possible. What is missing so far from the public conversation, however, is a clear discussion of how the Harper government helped create the conditions for crisis in Syria through its environmental and foreign policy.
The current refugee crisis is an environmental crisis. Between 2006 and 2011, Syria experienced its worst drought on record. Francesco Femia and other analysts argue that the drought, which displaced as many as 1.5 million Syrians, was the true precipitating cause of the civil war. The Syrian civil war is the latest in a series of climate conflicts, from Darfur to Nigeria, in which desertification has forced the dispossessed to take up arms or flee across borders.
Canada’s climate crimes are infamous. Canada was the first nation to withdraw from the Kyoto protocol, and the only country to withdraw from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. At every turn, Canada’s ruling class has opposed the implementation of serious domestic and international policies to combat climate disaster. The world’s poorest and most vulnerable are on the front lines of climate conflict. While Canadian capitalists have benefited from the earth’s destruction, they are shielded from its impacts.
Ottawa owes the Syrian people justice because it is party to the conflict that drives them from their homes. Ottawa played cheerleader while the Americans armed and trained anti-Assad forces. Since November 2014, our air force has conducted more than 140 airstrikes against ISIS targets. The Syrian civil war is sustained by western interventions and made more devastating for civilians by relentless bombing in ISIS-controlled areas. Harper claims that we are fighting ISIS to protect civilians from the “international jihadist movement,” but the Pentagon recently reported that one such bombing killed up to 27 civilians on 21 January. If the goal is to exercise the right to protect, wouldn’t refugee sponsorship be a more effective way to save lives?
The sad truth is that our foreign policy is guided by political rather than humanitarian concerns; weapons contracts are traded for campaign donations, military jobs win votes and tough-on-terror posturing distracts the public. The Harper government sabotaged its own quota for Syrian refugees: 2,347 Syrians have been admitted, even though 11,300 places were promised in 2013. Alan Kurdi and his compatriots are victims of a refugee policy that requires them to go to near-impossible lengths to prove their innocence.
Of course, not all Canadians benefit equally from the violence of our environmental and foreign policies. These acts are committed for the benefit of the capitalist class against the wishes of the majority. We must throw open our borders and we must oppose the crimes committed in our names. To do both, we must engage in the long-term struggle for actual democracy. Only with the creation of a true peoples’ government will the creation of refugees through capitalist violence cease.
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This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2015.
Just when I think that cultural marxism can’t sound any stupider. You forgot to blame Israel. Shame on you. >; )
I love comments like Peachey’s. So steeped in thought and well articulated points. I now see how stupid this article sounds.
Well, Sport, it’s been my experience that the more exposition you add, the greater the likelihood of your comment being pulled. Happy to have pointed you in the proper direction though. Have fun with it.
I am actually interested in what the main critiques of marxism are. Or what yours are at least. I’ve pretty much only read the wikipedia page about it. I may dig a little deeper but your comments make it seem like you already have. Sure it’s a theory and doesn’t perfectly describe the causes and effects of certain actions. But it’s not completely out to lunch from what I’ve read.
Marxism is an economic theory. Largely innocuous unless you attempt to put it into practice and then, as history has amply proven things turn incredibly pear shaped. Doesn’t stop some from believing, well, at some point we’ve got to get it right.
Cultural marxism is the pernicious, self indulgent theory that everything about Western Civilization, particularly those things connected to white, heterosexual males is the root of all, and I do mean all, evil. It involves copious use of words like privilege, , imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, racism, misogyny and cis. Ironically, it is most prevalent amongst the educated , progressive Left who have traditionally been the largest benefactors of our current political, economic and social systems. Which is to say, the system that has provided the safety, leisure time, education, health care and increased life span to actually ponder such horse puckey. It is a more of religion than an actual matrix of political thought, replete with original sin, heresy, blasphemy, the need for scourging, abasement, sacrifice and eventual redemption. I have no time for it.
My “privilege” I guess. Lima Mike Foxtrot Alfa Oscar.
Well all I can say is that those who point to colonialism and western civilization shouldn’t be blaming it for all evil. There is no doubt that colonialism and imperialism has negatively effected some places in the world. And it did certainly help us towards our rather cushy life styles. Just because white males like myself are benefiting from such past and current activities doesn’t mean we shouldn’t criticize them.
Blaming these things on all the world’s problems is just as crazy as saying they have had no effect and ignoring them all together.