Promote peace at home and abroad
61% percent of Canadians say the cost of Canada's military mission in Afghanistan in terms of lives lost and expense has been too high and unacceptable.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has told our troops in Afghanistan that they are fighting to “defend our national interests, protect Canada and the world from terror, and help the people of Afghanistan rebuild their country.” In reality, none of this is true.
Canada is defending the United States’ interests, not our national interests. As reported by the CBC, former Liberal Defence Minister Bill Graham increased Canada’s military presence in Afghanistan from 500 to 2,000 troops in 2003 in order to appease President Bush for not joining his war in Iraq. Canada’s participation in the “war on terror” has soaked up 68 per cent of Canada’s spending on international missions, and left us with only 56 military personnel for traditional UN peacekeeping missions. And what’s worse is that life in Afghanistan is not getting better.
At home, the Conservative government has ignored the long-standing Canadian history of being a country that offers refuge to war resisters. The government has also ignored the will of Parliament, which cast a majority vote in June 2008 in favour of letting U.S. resisters to the Iraq war stay in Canada.
This federal election, tell candidates to bring the troops home now and let war resisters stay |
