In the season 11 premiere of the Courage My Friends podcast series, we are pleased to welcome environmentalist, feminist, peace activist and Senior Researcher with Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, Tamara Lorincz and climate policy researcher and advocate with Greenpeace Canada, Keith Stewart. As we head into the Global Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice, we discuss Canada’s accelerating shift toward a militarized economy, what this looks like and how this is not only failing to address our true security needs, but is coming at considerable cost to our sovereignty, people and planet
On claims that militarization is about protecting our sovereignty, Lorincz says:
“Since Canada became a member of NATO in 1949, our military has become deeply integrated into the US military. We actually have no sovereignty over our military policy because .. it’s dominated and influenced by Washington. And we also really have no sovereignty over our budget because of this demand that we reach a 5% target… already 70% of our military procurement dollars are buying American weapons systems. So Americans control our weapons. Americans really control our military. Canadians should really see ourselves as basically a troop of the US military… It’s really Washington, DC that is influencing this massive militarization, increase of military spending in Canada. ..And so this is what our women’s groups have been calling for.. for Canada to withdraw from NATO and to instead really work with the UN community on the greatest security challenges that we’re facing: poverty, inequality, and the climate crisis.”
According to Stewart:
“One of the new things that’s surprising to me, was the way in which the tech military alliance is really worsening this problem. ..Amazon Web Services ..work very closely with companies like Palantir and Anduril, which are heavily involved in military tech and surveillance technologies. .. Amazon itself is also very involved in autonomous weapons systems, which is basically allowing AI to sort of pick targets without human input… So Amazon lobbied the federal government 65 times in the last year on military spending. ..They met with the head of the Canadian Armed Forces… with the Minister of Defense, the Minister of AI, the Minister of Finance. This isn’t business as normal. You don’t get these types of meetings at this high level, this many of them, unless the government is interested in what you’re selling and it costs a hell of a lot ..[And] it’s all happening behind closed doors without anybody noticing.”
About today’s guests:
Tamara Lorincz is recently graduated with her PhD in Global Governance at the Balsillie School for International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has a Masters in International Politics & Security Studies from the University of Bradford and a Law degree and MBA specializing in environmental law and management from Dalhousie University. She’s a senior researcher with the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom-Canada. Her research focuses on the climate and environmental impacts of the military. She’s a long-time environmentalist, feminist and peace activist and a mother with two teenage boys.
Keith Stewart has been a climate policy researcher and advocate for over 30 years, including the last 16 years with Greenpeace Canada. He has a Ph.D. from York University and teaches a course on energy and environmental policy at the University of Toronto.
Also check out:
CVOW – 1000 Women+ Call for Care Not Warfare
Global Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice
Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute or here.
Image: Tamara Lorincz, Keith Stewart / Used with permission.
Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.
Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)
Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.
Produced by: Resh Budhu, The Tommy Douglas Institute of Labour and Social Justice and Nick Seebruch, rabble.ca.
Host: Resh Budhu.
