On Thursday July 14th the new Canadian Chief of Defense Staff, General Rick Hillier fired off the opening guns of the new Canadian war drive. His announcement that 2,000 more Canadian troops will be sent to Afghanistan by February of next year to "be able to kill people" was not the beginning of the shift to the right of Canadian imperialist policy but it was significant in exposing the unanimity of the government of Canada's brazen racist war mongering. Hillier's words signalled a clear shift from the typical strategy of the government of Canada, which has managed, until now, to cleverly cloak its imperialist actions in the language of "peacekeeping".

Really, Hillier has done us in the anti-war / anti-occupation movement in Canada a favor with his clarity of words. He explained better than most anti-war groups in Canada have managed to that "We're not the public service of Canada, we're not just another department. We are the Canadian Forces and our job is to be able to kill people." And not just to kill anybody… Hillier further explained just what the approach of the Canadian Forces has been in Afghanistan, even before he took command of the NATO forces occupying the country. He was quoted in the Globe and Mail as saying, "These are detestable murderers and scumbags, I'll tell you that right up front. They detest our freedoms, they detest our society, they detest our liberties." And "We're not going to let those radical murderers and killers rob from others and certainly we're not going to let them rob from Canada."

The entirety of Canada's imperialist strategy is contained in Hillier's words. The anti-war movement and all poor, working and oppressed people in Canada must hear them as a grim prophesy of the dark days to come. What exactly are the "radical murderers and killers" in Afghanistan - now (thanks to the occupation forces) the poorest country in Asia - able to "rob from Canada"? The only position Canada has that is threatened by the struggling Afghan people is the position of the Canadian military occupying their country. It should be clear to us in the anti-war movement that the "detestable murderers" in Afghanistan are there courtesy of the NATO occupation. These are the forces that have lowered the Afghan life expectancy by four and a half years from 2003 to 2004.

For people in Canada, the "risky business" is not whether or not further troop deployment to Afghanistan might spur terrorist attacks within Canadian borders, it is that the shift to the right in regards to Canadian imperialist policy and action is being taken by ALL major political parties in Canada across the board. Hillier's comments should have elicited outrage from at least some major politicians on the grounds that his statements were racist, war mongering promises of death and destruction in the name of Canadian imperialist interests. Instead, his statements were defended by the leaders of all major political parties:

Conservative Party: "Conservative MP Gordon O'Connor said Gen. Hillier 'speaks like a soldier, not a diplomat. He's starting to give the public an idea that the troops are about to go in a dangerous area and he's trying to explain why they're going there in the pursuit of terrorists,' " - Globe and Mail, July 16 2005

Liberal Party: "General Hillier is not only a top soldier, he is a soldier who has served in Afghanistan," Paul Martin said Friday in Nova Scotia. "The point he is simply making is we are at war with terrorism and we're not going to let them win." - Canadian Press, July 16 2005

New Democratic Party: "Controlled anger, given what's happened, is an appropriate response," NDP Leader Jack Layton said. "We have a very committed, level-headed head of our armed forces, who isn't afraid to express the passion that underlies the mission that front-line personnel are going to be taking on. A bit of strong language in the circumstances, I don't find that to be wrong." - Globe and Mail, July 16 2005

CANADIAN IMPERIALISM MUST BE CONFRONTED NOW!

All people in Canada must realize that it is not only political blindness to ignore the wars and occupations that Canada is carrying out; to ignore the imperialist policies and actions of the government of Canada would mean unforgivably irresponsible complicity with the Canadian imperialist war drive. We are now living in a Canada that has dropped away its mask of "peace" in order to continue a hard shift to the right, unfettered by the government's public relations illusions. This shift has been a long time in coming.

When the US began its war drive in Iraq, the government of Canada began its shift into gear of the era of war and occupation by quietly sending almost 2,000 troops to Afghanistan for a "humanitarian peace keeping mission." When Hillier took command of the NATO mission in Afghanistan it was billed as a transference of "Canadian values" to the reconstruction efforts. The government and media did not mention that practically all aid monies had been withdrawn and all reconstruction promises called off. They did not comment on the collapse of all infrastructure in Afghanistan, the almost absolute lack of employment, the climbing death rates of Afghan people, the lack of potable water, the complete suppression of women's rights or the shaky deals drawn up between the imperialist phoney-puppet government of Hamid Karzai in Kabul and the warlords that run the majority of the country. However, they lost no time in exploiting the deaths of two Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan to double the Canadian military budget.

Canada's imperialist strategy unfolded further to view through February 2004's invasion of Haiti. Following a plan drafted in Canada the year before, Canada, the US and France overthrew Jean Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president in history, and replaced him with the puppet government of Gerard Latorture. Flexing Canadian imperialist interests over the rights and interests of the Haitian people, the occupying forces quickly killed Aristide's labour and literacy laws and airlifted in Canadian sweatshops. The opening of the Latin American front in the era of war and occupation has since been reinforced with a colonial police force / deathsquad trained by the colonial experts - the RCMP.

Of course, none of this is really new. The foundation of Canada is the theft of Indigenous land and resources that make up all of the territory of Canada. This land has been stolen through the same methods that Canada is now using in Haiti and Afghanistan; through the genocide of entire Indigenous nations, the murder of millions of Indigenous people and the criminalization of Indigenous cultures and communities. This colonial theft continues alongside the imperialist actions in Haiti and Afghanistan in Skwelkwek'welt, Cheam, Grassy Narrows, Burnt Church and Indigenous territory all throughout Canada.

We can thank Hillier for laying the Canadian imperialist agenda on the table for us all to read plainly, but we must take his words and throw them back in the faces of the entire government of Canada and its ruling class. While his words illuminate the long standing policies, politics and strategy of the Canadian government, they are the promise of the murder and plunder of oppressed nations and they mark the beginning of a terrible era of war and occupation that knows no bounds in the fight to maintain Canada's powerful country position in the face of an international economy in crisis.

The implications of Hillier's proclamations are huge. They call for an immediate escalation of war in Afghanistan and, additionally, for the deployment of 100 armoured vehicles to the Sudan. These "missions" require not only a deep investment in military budget and Canadian Forces recruitment, but a political campaign of the entire government of Canada to shift the consciousness of people in Canada to accept that "our job is to kill people" to accomplish Canada's imperialist agenda. This means an escalation of the racist propaganda that Hillier threw out unopposed by any major politician that the opponents of Canadian imperialism are "terrorists", "scumbags" and "murderers".

Hillier's statement must be a call to action for the anti-war movement and all progressive people in Canada. We must identify and organize against the occupation of Afghanistan as Canada's Iraq. We must meet the racist and warmongering propaganda blow for blow and take up a campaign against Canadian war and occupation seriously, dedicated and without hesitation. We must struggle and organize against the coming Canadian war machine as though the lives of millions of people and the future of the world hang in the balance - because they do.

Join Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO) for a picket against the Canadian war drive: