By Mary Groh

Resolution: Be it resolved that Canada would be more secure if funding were re-allocated from the military to development at home and abroad.

Speaker for the Resolution: Professor Constance Candida
Speaker against the Resolution: Retired General Warren Shuter

For: All Canadians want to live in peace, and without fear of having our homes and families destroyed by hostile forces. That goes without saying. So our government naturally feels justified in allocating huge amounts of tax money, in the name of security, to the National Defence and other programs. For this year, 2011-12, Canada is planning to spend more than $34 billion on its national security establishment. I say that this is not only extravagant and wasteful, but counter-productive. Even if we left the public safety programs like Correctional Services, RCMP, Border Security, CSIS etc. out of the reckoning, we are still left with $21 billion plus in tax funding for National Defence. But Canadians could be more secure without this huge military structure than we are with it, were those 21 billion dollars spent on making our people and country stronger and proactive against real threats, and were we engaged in activities abroad that would create friends rather than enemies.

Against: The government of any democratic nation is committed to the well-being of its citizens and that includes doing its utmost to defend its home territory and its foreign interests. It is unthinkable that we would be able to do that without a strong military. Look around you, Professor, at the world the rest of us live in, and see that military preparedness is an accepted fact of life. Our armed forces must not only be strong, but must be seen to be strong. If we were to fall behind the capabilities of our allies we would lose the respect of our friends and go down in the world’s opinion as a people who rely on others to look after us in the event of war. Predators and terrorists are out there looking for weak spots which will allow them in with their dirty tricks. And we have our vast coastlines to protect.

A strong military is an absolute necessity and it doesn’t come cheap. In fact, Canada’s has been under-funded for years. If we had had more helicopters in Afghanistan we would not have lost so many brave men to IED’s on the roads.

For: We need not have lost any soldiers in Afghanistan, in my opinion, General. Was Afghanistan a threat to our security? And as for a country needing a military to be successful, just take a look back at Japan. In the first half of the 20th century the Japanese subscribed to your ideology of military strength, and look where that got them, and the rest of us too. And when after World War II they abandoned their military ambitions, foreswore an army, and put their energy into productive uses, they became a super industrial power and a great modern democracy. And they are completely surrounded by coastline, and next door to a not very friendly giant. If our government would call a halt to war preparedness and make a true assessment of Canada’s risks, it could come up with a list of immediate close-to-home weaknesses which the Defence Department’s billions could begin to address.

More brave Canadians have been lost and injured in the past 10 years due to poorly maintained buildings and roads and bridges and ferries, and leaking oil pipelines, and polluted water supplies and homelessness and poor housing and under-funded health care and…the list goes on…more lives than ever would have been saved from improvised explosive devices by helicopters in Afghanistan.

And if the government really cared about Canada being respected by the rest of the world it would clean up the living conditions of the First Nations in northern settlements, and the exploitative practices of our many mining and fossil fuel companies on our own and foreign soil and our refusal to support international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Declaration of the Rights of Aboriginal People. Not only the global community is losing its admiration of Canada, but some of our own are losing their ready patriotism which you people so much depend upon.

Against: And we have it, too. It is plainly to be seen at every Remembrance Day ceremony at every cenotaph across the country, and in the first of July events in Ottawa and nation-wide. People’s hearts swell with pride and many eyes fill with tears when they see the vets marching by and the Air Force flying over in formation. The SnowBirds are admired worldwide. And the newcomers to our country can hardly wait to become citizens of Canada. Those delegated from the Defence Department to swearing-in ceremonies see the pride and joy in the faces of people from all parts of the world. They are not dwelling on our country’s shortcomings, as you love to do, Professor. They are thinking of the great future they and their children will have, and the guarantee of that future is the military establishment. True patriotism is being ready to make sacrifices for one’s country. Are you ranking roads and bridges ahead of peace and freedom? A strong military keeps war from our homes and airspace so that we can continue to enjoy the way of life our heroes in the past have fought and died to preserve.

We have a lot to fear from bad actors who hate the West and our values. We have to get rid of these threats. That’s what the Department of Defence is for. And you don’t want to support it!

For: The statement that we face threats from under-developed countries is certainly debatable. They have their own problems of bad government and corruption and civil unrest and poverty to focus on. How long are we Canadians going to allow ourselves to be held hostage by the Al Qaeda attacks on New York City? As for the terrorists they may harbour, the military might get the ringleaders, or not; but you can be sure that bringing overpowering military might down on a country, with all the terror and destruction that ensues, will create and grow the hostility of the population, and produce more bad actors and threats.

If Canada would spend even a small portion of its “security” tax money on going into these trouble spots and getting involved in making peace and security for them, instead of making war on them, the picture would change. I’m talking about funding grassroots development, and sending civilians to partner with them in building up their country economically and improving their justice and governance systems, their education and health care systems. If this scenario were to be played out, General, your club would soon fill up with new retirees and even younger officers out of a job.

While due domestic diligence is in order, and smart vigilance, our government should lay off its consuming obsession with Islamic terrorists and face squarely the certain threat which is advancing inexorably upon us. I am speaking of climate change. The extreme weather-related disasters which the world has suffered recently were predicted by science, and Canada has had a foretaste also of extreme flooding, drought, wind storms, forest fires; but like an ostrich we keep our heads buried in our tar sands. The polar ice melting so fast should convince us to take global warming seriously. When our prairie bread basket turns into a dust bin, will our new F-35 jets be good for fighting hunger? When the climate-change refugees from the world’s tropical coast lands head for our shores, are we going to use our nuclear subs to turn them back, or blow them up? How can we respect a government which makes security such a large part of our tax burden but encourages the very industries which spoil our land, our water and our air? Instead of being asked to help fund renewable energy enterprises, we Canadians are being asked to throw our money away into the mega military-fossil- fuel-industrial corporations. They produce products which are useless to our security, and deliver insecurity, destruction and death to the “enemies” which this profiteering juggernaut fabricates to keep themselves in business. I totally reject paying for this folly with my taxes!

Against: Your red face does not become you, Professor. Also, you are shortsighted. If Canada would shut down the industries you happen to object to, think of the thousands of Canadian jobs that would be lost. Not only do the tar sands and the oil pipeline projects provide huge amounts of wealth for our country, but they also produce the fuel we and our American friends rely on. Lockheed Martin and other corporations which make state-of-the art military hardware also contribute greatly to our GDP. Without them Canada in the foreseeable future would be a poorer country, less powerful, more vulnerable. It is a simple fact, and I don’t know anybody who does not agree with me, that Canada must have the latest military vehicles on land, sea and in the air. And, furthermore, we must have the fuel it takes to operate them. When you and your fellow citizens pay your taxes you are keeping our brave men and women in uniform equipped in a way that will show to the world we are ready to play our part in the defence of democracy and human rights around the globe. Taxpayers can be proud Canadians.

 

Readers who side with the professor are encouraged to find out how to re-direct their military taxes at www.consciencecanada.ca. A Peace Tax Return there will assist you to, A make a declaration of conscience to the government or, B as a self-employed person, withhold the 7.9% of your federal income taxes which would go to the military, and put that amount into a Peace Tax Trust Fund.