By fast-tracking critical minerals, Canada is not simply building a green economy. It is being further integrated into the U.S. war industry
Even as Prime Minister Mark Carney touts his plans to protect Canada’s economic sovereignty, the country’s critical minerals are making their way into U.S. weapons.
According to legal experts, the U.S. is taking “possibly unprecedented” measures to secure ownership over Canadian mines, turning Canada—and the First Nations from whose lands the minerals are sourced—into a U.S. mining territory. All the while, the Canadian government is helping fund and fast-track these projects.
From the provincial to the federal levels, Canada has been on a tear of expediting the extraction of critical minerals from its far north. These minerals were branded as “urgently necessary”—first for the transition to clean energy, and then, amid U.S. annexation threats, for Canada’s national security.
Nickel, copper, graphite, cobalt, tungsten, chromium, and rare earth elements are not just inputs for batteries and wind turbines. They are also needed to build fighter jets, drones, missiles, radar systems, submarines, armour, and ammunition.
As I explain in a policy paper for the Transition Security Project, Canada has long been a reliable supplier of inputs for the United States’ wars. From Canada’s underbelly came the uranium for the U.S.’s nuclear bombs, nickel for armoured plates on its battleships, and aluminium for its warplanes.
But when Canadian minerals are being earmarked for foreign military manufacturing, is that really in Canada’s national interest? (more...)
Elbows up? Canada is letting Pentagon take ‘unprecedented’ stakes in Canadian mines
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