Warmaking is Canada’s feminist foreign policy

 

To mark International Women’s Day, the Trudeau government hosted Ursula von der Leyen, the first female President of the European Commission, with a martial welcome to Canada. The EU President’s visit was a public relations exercise that strategically deployed women and feminist tropes to bolster public and political support for Canada’s continued weapons shipments to Ukraine and the Canada/US/NATO war against Russia.

President von der Leyen who was previously German’s Defence Minister began her trip by inspecting the troops at the Canadian Forces Base in Kingston. With tanks as props in the background, von der Leyen and Prime Minister Trudeau held a joint press conference on the base. The EU President pressed Canada to scale up ammunition production and send more weapons to Ukraine until it “prevails.” Trudeau replied by confirming his “unwavering” support.

The Prime Minister also announced an extension to Canada’s Operation UNIFIER, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF)’s mission that has provided combat training to over 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers since 2015, which von der Leyen lauded. The leaders did not mention that these Canadian-trained and armed Ukrainian soldiers have injured and killed thousands of Russian-speaking minorities in the eastern Donbas region over the past eight years according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

During the press conference at the military base, Prime Minister Trudeau pointed out that he was accompanied by his “strong female leaders”: Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Defence Minister Anita Anand and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly who sat together in the front row. These three high-profile women have become the charm offensive promoting Canada’s war effort in Ukraine.

Back in Ottawa, President von der Leyen gave a speech to a packed House of Commons. She praised the women fighting in the Ukrainian military and the women serving in the Canadian military as Chief of Defence Staff Wayne Eyre approvingly looked down from the gallery. The EU President ended by calling on parliamentarians to ensure “steadfast military and economic support” for Ukraine.

Members of Parliament and senators gave Europe’s top female militarist a standing ovation and applauded her speech on social media. On Twitter, the Minister of Women and Gender Equality, Liberal MP Marci Ien, called von der Leyen a “trailblazing figure”. Green Party leader Elizabeth May described the EU President’s speech as “amazing” and NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Heather McPherson called it excellent for highlighting “respect for human rights and women’s rights.” Yet, Ien, May and McPherson overlooked von der Leyen’s duplicity and persistent demand for more weapons to the disastrous war in Ukraine.

In the evening, the Prime Minister held a wine and cheese reception for the EU President with parliamentarians and dignitaries at the War Museum. On a stage with a fighter jet mounted overhead, Trudeau and von der Leyen talked about their shared values and support of Ukraine. She asserted without irony that the world cannot be based on “the right of might” though she has been urging Canada and other allies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to increase ammunition production and is leading the remilitarization of the EU.

Over the past year, Canada together with transatlantic allies have provided over $113 billion in military and financial aid to Ukraine to fight Russia. Yet, not once on her two-day visit to Canada did von der Leyen or Prime Minister Trudeau mention the need for a ceasefire, a diplomatic resolution or a peace plan to end the war raging in Europe. Instead, for International Women’s Day, the Trudeau government purposefully marshalled the EU’s top female leader to promote more weapons and prolong a war.  (more...)

Warmaking is Canada’s feminist foreign policy