Just Because It’S Canadian, Does That Make It Good?

It is well known that Canada participated militarily in the Boer War, First World War, Second World War, Korean War, first Gulf War, bombing of Serbia and the war in Afghanistan. What is less well known is that Canada did so without facing a serious threat of invasion and that none of these wars were morally justifiable. (WWII may have been justifiable after the fact, but Canadian motives for participating were not a high-minded struggle against anti-semitism or fascism. In a summer 1937 meeting with Hitler, Prime Minister McKenzie King lauded the Nazi’s support for the Fascists in Spain and during the war the Canadian government had a “none is too many” policy on immigration for fleeing European Jews.) Canada’s entry into the first three wars was more or less automatic because this country was part of the British Empire. We joined the last four conflicts because, quite frankly, Canada had become part of the U.S. Empire. Many of us cite peacekeeping as a great Canadian endeavor. Canada and the Early Cold War, a book financed by the Department of Foreign Affairs, lays the myth of benevolent peacekeeping to rest. “The more extreme version of this myth, which makes Lester Pearson [the founder of peacekeeping] into Herbert Evatt raging against Great Power dominance and transforms Canada’s peacekeeping into neutralism or even pacifism, receives no support in the DCER [documents on Canadian external relations].” Through peacekeeping, Canada was fighting the Western world’s Cold War “by other means.” Aid is probably the most benevolent aspect of Canadian foreign policy. Yet, an important principle of Canadian aid is that where the US kills, Canada provides aid. Canadian aid expanded drastically in South Vietnam during the American War. More recently, the three major recipients of Canadian aid are Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti. In Haiti, that aid was used to help overthrow an elected government and then legitimate the brutal 26-month coup regime. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/08/just-because-it%e2%80%99s-canadian-does-that-make-it-good/ [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on August 7, 2007]

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