National organizations across sectors condemn Carney’s efforts to make Canada’s economy dependant on weapons finance, while Canadians bear the cost of global instability

PRESS CONFERENCE FRIDAY MORNING: World BEYOND War, the Council of Canadians, the Canadian Federation of Students and fellow signatories to the open letter rejecting the DSRB will hold a press conference in Toronto at the corner of King and Bay St. on Friday, May 1st at 10:00 AM.

MEDIA CONTACT: Rachel Small, World BEYOND War, rachel@worldbeyondwar.org, 647-769-2472

TORONTO, ON –  Canada will be at the center of a new multinational institution dedicated to financing weapons and war, at a time when Canadians face skyrocketing costs and gutted public services. Hosting the new war bank continues Canada’s dangerous trajectory towards an economy dependent on war and militarism.

A multi-organizational open letter forcefully opposes Canada’s participation in the military financial scheme. Signatories of the letter include a broad array of pro-democracy, labour, legal, environmental and social justice organizations – from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Council of Canadians, to the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) and Canadian Federation of Students Ontario, to Greenpeace, Just Peace Advocates and World BEYOND War. 

The Bank is being touted as a means to channel public and private money to facilitate rapid expansion of military production. Critics contend that the bank will serve as a means to funnel public money into private hands, and that should the scheme fail, everyday Canadians will be on the hook for billions of dollars in collateral commitments. 

“The last thing Canada needs is to host a new military financial institution that is explicitly designed to fund and accelerate a global arms race and funnel public money directly to weapons manufacturers. It is depraved, it is grotesque, and ordinary people will be the ones forced to pay for it,” said Rachel Small, Canada lead for World BEYOND War. “Civil society organizations across sectors are coming together to reject Canada’s commitment to profiteering from perpetual war in the guise of economic development. We reject the DSRB war bank. Not in Toronto, not in Canada, not on this planet. And we are prepared to take a variety of actions to halt it before it can get off the ground.”

At the end of March, Canada hosted the first of a set of negotiations to launch the bank, with 18 countries in attendance. According to two sources, the final of three rounds of negotiations concluded in Montreal on Wednesday, reaching decisions faster than anticipated. Carney lobbied G7 countries to join the bank, with Germany and the UK rejecting participation thus far.

Civil society groups warned that the DSRB will take needed public funds away from the services and supports that communities rely on, and redirect those resources to the war industry. 

“In advancing the DSRB, Carney is making a clear bet on a war-fueled future and laying the groundwork to embed war production at the centre of our economy,” explained Sheila Sampath, Head of Nature and Biodiversity at Greenpeace Canada.

“Students reject the Global War Bank and the government’s ongoing investment in weapons, militarization, and the fossil fuel industry that fuels the imperial war machine,” said Omar Mousa, National Executive Representative for the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. “While billions are poured into war and corporate profit, our public education system and public services are being defunded, privatized, and pushed to the brink. We refuse to accept this. Students demand that our colleges and universities oppose the Global War Bank and any partnership with the war and military industrial complex. There is no place for war profiteering, weapons and arms production, or militarization in public education—our institutions must serve people, not profit.” 

The new Bank is fundamentally anti-democratic, as opponents contend that the DSRB sidesteps the regulations put in place after the 2008 financial crisis – regulations specifically limiting the lending rules that led to the economic disaster.  Once founding countries pool their public money into the Bank, reckless levels of leverage will be utilized to fund weapons investment, lending to weapons companies – and even back to the founding countries themselves. Debt can be amortized for a generation. Further, the Bank can deftly bypass public pressure and divestment campaigns, nullifying attempts at democratic oversight. 

DSRB leadership has pitched the Bank as a solution to what it calls the “challenge” of the Canadian public preferring government spending on healthcare, education and public infrastructure over military spending. While the financial sector might see public interests as a challenge to bypass, politicians are elected to represent the interests of their constituents and serve the public good.

“Once you start handing public funds to arms dealers, they turn around and use part of it to advocate for wars and military escalation,” says Dru Oja Jay, Executive Director of the Council of Canadians. “It’s one of the fastest ways to override the will of the people and hand the keys to profit-hungry billionaires—and that’s before we even talk about the devastation that wars cause.” Weapons are built to be used. 

“According to the multinational corporations and banks behind the DSRB, such as JP Morgan, governments like Canada spend too much on healthcare and education, and the DSRB will work to avoid this by subverting the parliamentary budget process. They are telling us plainly: democracy is an obstacle to their profits,” notes Manden Murphy of the Toronto Association for Peace and Solidarity. “Under the cover of phony Canadian sovereignty and lies about job creation, this War Bank will result in a wealth transfer of billions of dollars from working people to multinational arms corporations and banks, while locking Canada into escalating violence and permanent war footing.”

Toronto looks increasingly likely to be the city selected to host the bank, as Premier Doug Ford, Mayor Olivia Chow, and several local Liberal MPs have championed headquartering the bank there, citing its purported benefits to the local economy. Local activists and community groups have raised concerns about tying Toronto’s economy to military finance, the role global headquarters frequently play in inflating local cost of living, and increasing surveillance and repression in the city. -30-