Tell Canada’s new defence minister David McGuinty to pause all international military deployments with their US counterparts. Prime Minister Carney keeps saying relations with the USA have changed but has done little to distance Canada from the US military’s global power projection.
During his speech announcing a new cabinet Mark Carney said his government had “a strong mandate to define a new … security relationship” with the United States. A good place to start would be by pausing international deployments with the US military.
According to the Department of National Defence, Canadian forces are deployed alongside US forces in numerous spots internationally. This includes Operation PROTEUS, which is the “CAF [Canadian Armed Forces] role in the Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator to build security capacity in the Palestinian Authority” to assist Israel’s occupation and Operation FOUNDATION, which is the “CAF role in United States Central Command Headquarters, United States Air Forces Central Headquarters, and Combined Maritime Forces Headquarters.” Canadian soldiers have also been part of Operation Prosperity Guardian assisting with US bombing of Yemen. While highly secretive, Canada’s JTF2 special forces work closely with their US counterparts internationally.
Canadian troops deployed to assist US power projection should be brought home. Additionally, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) must stop joint missions with its US counterpart.
The RCN has been assisting the US in the South China Sea, Caribbean, Mediterranean and elsewhere. US-Canadian naval patrols are often viewed as provocative by other nations.
Why assist the US military when its president is seeking to annex Canada? Halting joint naval patrols and international deployments is a morally sound way to send a message to Washington that Canadians are unhappy with Trump’s threats and trade war.
No military deployments with Trump’s USA.
