If money talks, what does it say that Canada spends 12 times more on the Department of National Defence than it does on Environment Canada, and 120 times more on defence than it does on climate change mitigation?
Last year we spent $18.8 billion on defence, our largest single program expense, more than double what we spent on crown corporations, and three times what we spent on the departments of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries & Oceans combined. The defence budget is our fastest growing expense and will surpass $30 billion in 2027.
We’re following the lead of the US, which has long been the big spender at the officer’s club. According to the Centre for Research on Globalization, in 2007 “the US Navy had 285 combat and support ships and around 4,000 operational aircraft. The US Army had 28,000 armored vehicles, 140,000 High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, more than 4,000 combat helicopters, several hundred fixed-wing aircraft and 187,493 fleet vehicles.”
All those instruments of destruction run on oil and emit greenhouse gases. The US military is, in fact, the largest polluter in the world, and uses six percent of the world’s energy. If it were a country, it would be the 38th largest consumer of oil—sucking back 320,000 barrels of oil everyday—right behind The Philippines (population: 90 million).
The world’s militaries release nearly a 10th of all carbon emissions, yet are exempt from international climate change treaties. That exemption was a neat trick by the Bush administration, which lobbied for it in Kyoto and still didn’t sign the damn treaty.
Canada also chooses destruction over protection. Almost all the money we spend in Afghanistan is for fighting. A mere sliver goes to humanitarian aid.
The impact of these “investments” is beyond tragic. Putting aside the obvious direct human toll, consider the even more lasting remnants.
Since 1991 the US military has turned the world’s breadbasket, Eden itself, into a Woody Guthrie dustbowl ballad. Iraq is suffering a massive water shortage, and 90 percent desertification. Its floodplains are dry and its groundwater severely depleted, its marshes have been drained and the former food exporter now imports 80 percent of its sustenance.
Lucky Iraqis who don’t get blown up or starve to death might live long enough to die of depleted uranium induced cancer. A leaked UK Atomic Energy report revealed that the 50 tonnes of depleted uranium unleashed on Iraq during the first Oil War could “cause up to half a million additional cancer deaths over several decades.”
Back in ancient history, the military used Agent Orange to defoliate Vietnamese forests, expose enemy troops, destroy crops and starve peasants. Fourteen percent of South Vietnam’s forests were destroyed.
Vietnamese children born long after the war have dioxin levels 300 times higher than the acceptable level. They have suffered birth defects, skin and lung cancers and serious mental and psychological challenges.
The damage is not all in far away hotspots. John Hummel, a health researcher in British Columbia, identifies 12 Canadian federal sites contaminated with chemical or biological weapons. Those don’t include military oceanic contamination.
Right here in Halifax, a $42.7-billion company, Lockheed Martin, enjoys Canadian and Nova Scotian subsidies. Last year, the company won $1.8 million in payroll rebates from the province, after promising 100 new jobs. This was after it got $2 billion from the feds to upgrade and maintain Navy frigates in Halifax Harbour.
“For a billion dollars we could have 6,000 new jobs at Environment Canada,” notes Tamara Lorincz, director of the Nova Scotia Environment Network.
She adds that Nova Scotia is the only province to have a Minister of Military Relations and an Advisor of Military Affairs. According to the province’s website, “This reflects on the long and proud history of the relationship between the military and its host province of Nova Scotia.”
“Even my enviro friends have a heroic vision of the military,” Lorincz says. “But Canada ranks 55th in peacekeeping, our focus has shifted away from peace.”
This shift doesn’t reflect Canadian values as expressed in polls. Our top priorities are always health, education and environment. So why does government spend this way?
“Lockheed Martin has 21 paid lobbyists on Parliament Hill,” Lorincz says, “and none from environment, women or peace groups, which can’t afford it.”
Money talks.
This article appears in Mar 25-31, 2010.
Good article Chris. I’ve been doing some research too and can now prove that all of the chemical warfare weapons sprayed during the Vietnam War were first massively field-tested in Canadian Forces Base Gagetown. Between 1956 and 1964 hundreds of thousands of gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed on the base. In 1965 the US Air Force hired a Canadian helicopter company to field-test Agent White on the base. It says right on the document that this was in support of SEA (Southeast Asia). Agent White debuted in Vietnam the following year. In each case what was sprayed on Vietnam was first sprayed on CFB Gagetown, in exactly the same order. I even have a U.S. Army manual about defoliating Vietnam that mentions New Brunswick on page 42.
The Harper government has spent millions of our tax dollars trying to keep this covered up.
Kelly Porter Franklin
kelly_franklin@telus.net
it is good to have a large budget for the military.it allows such views as you have to exist.generally only western countries have such views.why? because of security.if nato did not have a big stick our enemies would and they would use that big stick much more liberally then we unfortunatly do.if nato did not have such power to protect the west, your silly ideas would not even come to your mind.i believe other priorities would, such as survival.
it is good to have a large military budget.it provides security, so silly views like you have can flourish.
Peace through superior firepower – The last time some fuck wit tried to deny this WWII broke out.
The minute Tamara Lorincz was trotted out as a credible person, I stopped reading.
I don’t understand how the “peace through superior firepower” argument can have any traction in light of this article, which enumerates various ways in which superior firepower has been abused to cause grave disturbances to the peace. The WWII reference doesn’t make much sense either — the Germans had superior firepower throughout most of the war but it certainly didn’t achieve anything peaceful. Maybe if the guy with the big stick was a really nice guy it would work out, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
All those nasty American naval ships, helicopters, heavy lift aircraft, vehicles and staff helping Haitians and Indonesians after devastating earthquakes.
Yessir, the Americans should just mothball all their military assets and let the world rely on China for disaster relief.
Glad you included this gem “Lockheed Martin has 21 paid lobbyists on Parliament Hill,” Lorincz says, “and none from environment, women or peace groups, which can’t afford it.”
Now that was funny.
Bo Gus, I agree. But I have something else for you, similar to what you said: The minute the Centre for Research on Globalization was trotted out as a credible source, I stopped reading. It rarely–no, make that NEVER–has anything good to say about the Western world.
Thanks for a good, honest and important reality check as to the actual advanced state of the putrefaction that is this country right now. Time to stop living in denial and begin speaking to one another about the kinds of powers that are really running things here and whether that is an acceptable state of affairs. I think it is high time to begin to think in terms of our collective self-interests as grass roots, working class people and seriously talk of how we might organize things better and differently. The situation is critical and the time may be short.
jebodiah the germans did not have superior firepower.they knew how to use their army for maximum efficiency.world war 2 became the major conflict it did because of the idea of ‘peace at all cost’ and ‘we can negotiate with our enemies’ attitude.peace in our time neville states.then sept 30 1939 germany invades poland.if that peace attitude did not exist we would have most likley been more aggressive towards hitler at the begining, the war never would have turned out as it did.wonder why peace movements never see the actual deaths and suffering they create.they must be living in some alternative reality where everybody is a nice guy, and we will someday hold hands around the world and whistle the same song.
War is a Racket – look up this book
war is a natural human process as it is with all animals on this earth.we are simply more intelligent then other species therefore we are more devastating.all you peace lovers go on about the natural way.well, war is a natural process.everything you have is because of war. if you honestly think that there can be a world peace,simply look at the violence in your communities,if the citizens are violent,so will there country. that book you suggest is bullshit.it itself is a racket.the wars your ancestors fought has made everything that is today,your freedoms,your democratic country,and your right to shit on that history that gave you everything you have.the weak perish.as it is with humans the culturally weak.all specis follow this rule.human are animals,programed by nature, to follow these rules.the saying is true better them then us.
This is a deliberately misleading article that plays on readers’ emotions and biases. If I can decipher this mess accurately, the piece is about excessive Canadian military spending in the face of apparent environmental poverty.
Honestly. Does anybody actually believe that the military is completely useless and serves no purpose other than to make some industrial high-rollers a lot of money? People complain about spending on the Navy, and nobody appreciates the economic benefit of NOT having our fish vacuumed into Europe by fishing trawlers. Why do you think they stay away? Treaties? International goodwill? The Coast Guard? Get real. And yes, this is done in cooperation with fisheries and oceans, so to say that military spending is somehow supplanting funds that would normally go to them is ridiculous. Fisheries patrols are a major part of what the Navy does out here.
Also your math is specious. 1.8 million for 100 jobs is a bargain, as I see it. That’s 18,000 per job, for jobs that start at, I dunno 50 000 (probably a lot more), and this is over several years, not just one. And then in the very next parragraph you say something about how many environmental jobs could be bought for 1 billion dollars? How in the world did you equate 1.8 million (which, let’s face it, is not a large amount in the grand scheme of things) to 1 billion dollars? If the government ever spent 1 billion dollars to hire 6000 useless pencil pushers, there would be friggin’ riot! Perhaps you mean the 2 billion for the ships? Well I would much rather have 12 modernized and capable pirate chasing, fishery patrolling, sailboat rescuing frigates than 1 billion dollars worth of ineffectual studies that are probably fudged and, in the end accomplish nothing. Yes, the environment needs money, but if I have any qualms about giving money to the military, I have even greater qualms about giving it to a bunch of Ottawa bureaucrats.
You say that Canadians never place military spending as one of their top priorities, but that’s to be expected in a safe and secure society. If you asked people whether they believed that policing should be a priority, their answer would be much different than if you asked them if they would support the purchase of 1,000 guns. But it’s the same difference. You just don’t want to see it.
Fully one third of your piece doesn’t even talk about Canada, and meanders into scare tactics about Agent Orange and other environmental favourites. Why does every environmental piece have to mention either Agent Orange, DDT, or Dioxins? God, do you even realize how tiresome you sound? I doubt it.
It’s sad that we here in the Western world are so sheltered that we have no idea the kind of death, and destruction that is happening in the world, even when it does make headlines. Afghanistan is not the kind of place where you can go without guns. If you want to build a hospital or a school, you need guns there while you do it or it wont happen, and even when it does happen, you need guns there to protect the people who go. And frankly, a gun is more expensive than a hammer, a syringe, or a couple of chalkboards.
Hey Kelly, hate to break it to you but the gov’t has come clean (ha ha) on Agent Orange and is dealing with it. My Dad got his cheque 2 years go….
Streetkids in Nicaragua know more than Canadians who have either never experienced true poverty, marginalization or, in their case, the chaos war brings.
When the US went into Iraq, the youth council of the street kids association in Nicaragua (yes, the children and youth themselves) released a statement that they opposed the illegal invasion not to support any ideology or regime but simply because they themselves are testament to the effects of war: displacement, family disruption and trauma that leads to violence, addiction and longterm suffering.
The human and environmental costs of all of our so-called noble efforts to protect our waters, bring freedom, squelch despots and dictators we deem unacceptable and inferior are just too great to bear.
“You say that Canadians never place military spending as one of their top priorities, but that’s to be expected in a safe and secure society.” How then do you justify those countries and those peoples who have endured unimaginable insecurity and yet don’t support military expenditures? Why aren’t the refugees in Canada all rising up and telling the government to spend more on the military? Why isn’t my mother, a refugee herself, not rising up for more so-called security? Because they all know that militaries are the cause of their problems, not the solutions. And that any security wrought by a military an illusion.
“It’s sad that we here in the Western world are so sheltered that we have no idea the kind of death, and destruction that is happening in the world, even when it does make headlines.” Precisely.
Canadian expenditures on the military are insupportable period. That they divert funds and resources from environmental initiatives as well as anything that contributes to the social good is an outrage that Canadians have simply not yet come to comprehend.
Once again, a discussion about the Canadian military uses comparisons to an American mission as some kind of proof. May I remind you that you are citing a mission that Canadians, despite enormous pressure from the Americans (our closest ally, primary trade partner, and undisputed world superpower), did NOT participate in. Why? Because it was completely unjustified. Everybody in Canada already knows that. Stop preaching to the choir. Any time somebody mentions the Americans in Iraq, it is demonstrating an instance of how different we are, not how similar. So can we just drop that little tactic?
It is amazing that two people can see how terrible things are elsewhere in the world and draw opposite conclusions. I don’t know where your mother is from, but playing the odds alone, it’s probably not somewhere as nice as here, nor is it someplace that hasn’t seen real war in 200 years. History and geography have made North America a freakshow in terms our security. Here, the military is seen on the news, or during a parade. In many other places in the world, the military is seen firsthand on the streets, shooting at people. Ask someone from Sudan, or Honduras what they think about the military, and then ask someone from Lethbridge, or Rimouski. They are not talking about the same thing at all.
I hate being a military apologist, and I guess I’m mostly playing devil’s advocate here, but when people start acting like we should get rid of the military altogether, they are just living in fantasy land. A luxury much of the world does not enjoy.
It’s a bit of a myth that Canada wasn’t involved in Iraq, as is well described in the article at http://this.org/magazine/2009/09/01/canada… which states that “a handful of Canadian military personnel have served with the U.S. and U.K. military as part of ongoing troop exchanges…it originally emerged in November 2003 that Canadian General Walt Natynczyk was going to be serving in Iraq.”
The article also details how Canadian firms have profited off the American military’s invasion of that country, as has also been reported in Canadian Business. Maclean’s has also reported that Canadian fighter pilots have been involved in bombings, and even a few foot soldiers have been involved. Our navy also supplies ammunition used in Iraq to offshore aircraft carriers.
i far as i know ,no two western democracies have gone to war against each other.if this is so,and history is our teacher,does it not make sense that the removal of brutal warlords,dictators,and other such maniacal regimes and installmenting western democracies not seem the only means of creating more peace and security in the world.
also i fully support the iraq invasion.it would also not have needed to be done if you peace lobbyist kept your nose out of the first gulf war.the liberation of kuwait.we had his republican guard completely isolated in kuwait where we were handing out their complete destruction.yet thanks to you idiot protesters and peace activist they were allowed to retreat back into iraq.where he later used these hardcore units to quell a uprising of the shiitte’s.(whhich could have led to saddams removal) also he used these units to also stop the kurds in the north.remember morons he used a chemical bomb on a kurdish city.never seen micheal moore holding any kurdish babies killed by this bomb.
to the argument of no wmd.i say bullshit.he had them,he used them.
there are 3 categories of wmd.nuclear,biological,and chemical.nuclear and biological are difficult to asemble and disassemble they also leave traces.however chemical warheads can be made in all our kitchens with simple cleaners.now if you have access to these simple cleaners how hard do you think it is for a distator to get his hands on it.plus these bombs can be assembled and disassembled in a few days leaving no trace amounts.do the math,the war was justified and was the right thing to do.just as going into iran next is the right thing to do for the security of our western nations.let the soldiers do their jobs and don’t tell them how to do it either,more lives will be spared in the long run
I think this article is misplaced, surely the intended use was as a paper for some political science course at MSVU.
There seems to be a ‘big picture’ perspective here that’s getting missed entirely… all but Johnny Canuck, who seems to understand it perfectly.
Isn’t it time for us, not as Canadians or Americans, Afghanies, Russians, Iranians, Iraqies, etc, etc., but as people of a global community [because like it or not, we do share the same world and resources], to really begin to re-think our entire social, political, environmental, religious, financial structures and belief systems?
Really… war protects us does it, money keeps us secure, religion provides us salvation, politicians have our best interests in mind, our health is top priority to the pharmaceutical companies.. I could go on… however, my point being, we are all in this together and we’re being manipulated en’ masse. All of us, each and every one of us, together… as bitter or as sweet as you all may deem that statement as being, it is a fact.
The elite 1% of this world owns 95% of the worlds wealth. What does that tell you?
That tells me that we are ALL slaves to a heirarchtical system of such maniacal and draconian corruption that if we don’t wake up to see how the ‘system’ is playing us against each other, then we’re done for; because the ultimate aim for that 1% is not a world that lives in harmony with one another, is not breathable air and fishable oceans, is not to solve homelessness, starvation or disease, is not to provide ‘clean’ food or water… it is about power. Make no mistake about that. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and we are all being pitted against each other and played for fools.
The ‘real’ power is on the ground, the true, sustaining power exists within each and every one of us and only us, not the tiers above, look within, then act… and if you have an adverse reaction to this post, then that simply tells me that you are quite happy living within the confines of the construct that has been created for you and served up with the enslavement of your soul in mind.
In-Vision Ground Control…Power to the People!
I thought Marx was dead.
The country needs a military about as much as municipalities need police, fire and ambulance services (or in the case of Toronto, snow removal). Get rid of it all and we’ll save a bundle!
redpumpkin to think that you could also say that there is 0.5% that control 97% of the world resources so what.it is called a pyramid.yet those 1% how many people do you think they employ.how many jobs do you think they create idiot.look at the oil industry.how many weekly checks do they give out.i never ever got paid by an unambitious poor person.nor have they ever paid for a roof on my head,fed me ,clothe me,etc.you enjoy all the comforts this system provides for you yet shit all over it.i just got back from working the oil fields cleared over 2000 a week,under this system.what you propose i would be lucky to clear 100 a week.so take your bullshit communist ideas and mover to cuba.
canada is rich and you can succeed here as in all western countries if you want to.
redpumpkin continue to enjoy all that the west offers you hypocrite
“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.” Martin Luther King Jr.
Sixxes, it appears that you’ve missed the point entirely. There should not be poverty as there is enough in this world to go around. You speak of the poor with such distain, I hope you never have to experience the kind of hate and intollerance that you just spewed… enjoy your paycheque and your illusions.
I guess Martin Luther King was just a blind, idealistic fool as well…. Peace out.
yes he was and so are you.yes there is a reason there are poor,unhoused and hungry people.its called lack of motivation,not taking any self responsibility for their predicament.while expecting the strong,motivated and determined to feed them.i do not want the money i earn to feed those who have no desire to feed themselves.go hungry let evolution take its course,it can only benefit us all.
i am very well grounded.it is you as it is with all lefties who live in some nonsense world that has no basis in reality.believing you have some sense of entitlement ,you don’t, you get what you earn.stop blaming the system it works well if you wish to succeed.it also works very well for those who do not at the expense of the strong
As a former street face-to-face dialogue fundraiser for Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and the Canadian Red Cross, I can say quite definitely that Haligonians are largely callous and systemically conditioned to believe that they are entitled to consume anything, work anywhere, and subsidize any corporation that is aligned with local short term economic development; in other words, they have a very strong “look out for yourself” mentality. Thankfully, there is a strong coalition of those who see through the inherent failure of western culture/economics/neo-liberalism/eco-suicide etc, and The Coast is doing well by allowing Chris Benjamin his weekly column.
What people like sixxes don’t realize is that the problem is not a lack of motivation among the “poor,unhoused and hungry people”, it is more accurately described as an unwillingness to participate in a patriarchal system which is headed towards total failure. Hopefully sixxes grandchildren never read his/her posted comments on this page, otherwise he/she will be hard pressed to explain themselves and why they will be getting cancer before they turn 40 or why they have asthma, or why they are being conscripted into the next wave of a century-long “war on terror”
bullshit oh-what-force.our great system allows for quick adaptations, research.where great ideas flourish.total failure right.what system do you recommend that is better then what we have that follows closest to the rules of nature.we all die and it is always from something.hey at least we are living longer every year.about the war.you only exist with your unrealistic beliefs because we are fighting wars.it is better to fight wars in other countries then in your own.they brought this war on and we could win it if dreamers such as yourself did not constantly undermine it.your are the same breed of person that was against the american civil war.which inevitably freed the slaves.you were onboard with nevil chamberlin making peace with hitler.then after the war started spoke against it.you also most likely spoke against somalia, which led to the withdrawl and later no military desire to help the rwandans and later in darfor.it is you and your ideas that need to explain your nonsensical beliefs that have no place in surviving.your ideas go extinct such as many cultures that are now unknown with that delusion of we all love each other.you only have these conveneint and comfortable views because you live in the west.figure out why you are so protected here.why such pasifism in your mind even exist.its funny how you uneducated lefties,bullshit phoney do-gooders,greenies, are constantly undermine and bringing down the only things that keep your pathetic,weak,dependent,views alive.your kind can only flourish when protected.you only really exist in the west.
maybe halogonians prefer to help our own citizens before trying to be a ‘hero’ for another country.
I don’t really know where to start with all of that, there is just so much work to do in de-programming people like yourself, sixxes. Unfortunately, it seems that thanks to corporate media, there are as many of “you” as there are of “us”.
It is people like yourself who can only exist in western culture, not the rest of us. I strongly suggest you try to develop a more global world view, and perhaps start questioning more thoughtfully the assertion that we are fighting wars to protect ourselves. The days of Canada being a peacekeeping nation are over, and it is crystal clear that we are now engaged in wars that are designed only to further our own international interests and neo-liberal economic imperialism.
actually canada military history is more along the lines of fighting wars then peace keeping.you need deprogramming,read a history book look and see how the world truly operates.get your head out of your wishy washy dreamland that can only bring destruction to our civilisation.there will always be some country or culture on top of the food chain.i do not mind sharing resources but i want to do the sharing,not dependent on others genorosity for my existence,as your types generally are and the groups you worked for.begging for money.
for instance.you preach against capitalism.the resume shows you only exists on generosity(begging).people donate money because they can spare some.now what economic system gives people more spending money to donate to beggers such as yourself.capitalism.so without capitalism,less spending money,less spending money less donations,less or no donations your groups no longer exist.
and all the problems that you believe capitalism creates will still be there.however your charity groups with your bullshit causes will not.probably be a good thing.
people who actually work for their money deserve their money.people who beg for money, then criticise those who do not give it to their cause are very selfish,spoiled people.brought up getting what they want by whining loud enough.go earn your wage by actually doing some worth while work instead talking nonsense.your views are flawed on every level.it is not self sufficient.
stop listening to that crap on ckdu and start thinking for yourself.communism cannot work.it is impossible.