Over the past two weeks there have been dozens of stories about Canada’s F-35 purchase. But the most salient point has been almost entirely ignored. Canada shouldn’t “spend tens of billions of dollars on unnecessary, dangerous, climate destroying fighter jets.”
That’s from the No New Fighter Jets for Canada statement, which was signed by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Teagan and Sarah and Sarah Harmer as well as authors Michael Ondaatje Yann Martel, Gabor Maté, David Suzuki and Naomi Klein as well as Stephen Lewis and Elizabeth May. Prominent international figures such as Daryl Hannah, Roger Waters and Noam Chomsky also backed a public letter highlighting the fighter jets violent nature.
“Canada’s current fleet of fighter jets has bombed Libya, Iraq, Serbia and Syria”, notes the 2021 Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and Voices of Women for Peace letter. “Many innocent people were killed directly or as a result of the destruction of civilian infrastructure and those operations prolonged conflicts and/or contributed to refugee crises.”
Four-years old the 500-word statement remains pertinent, highlighting the economic, environmental and social downsides of Canada’s second biggest ever planned procurement. At a minimum the No New Fighter Jets for Canada position deserves some media attention. But amidst dozens of stories on warplanes in recent days Andrew Mitrovica seems to be the only mainstream voice that’s mentioned the possibility of using the F-35 resources in a more socially and ecologically sustainable manner. The Aljazeera columnist wrote, “I would forgo acquiring warplanes that, in a generation or so, will become obsolete, and spend the mountain of money improving young Canadians’ fast-fading prospects of buying a home on the not-so-distant horizon and burnishing the paltry pension that seniors receive every month.” (more...)
Let’s drop the fighter jet and build housing
